WORLD OF MUSIC ; PORTABLE KEYBOARD - Latest Portable Music Keyboards, Synthesizers and Music News

Ahead of the 2026 NAMM Show, Korg has unveiled Liano Live! the All-in-One portable piano.

We live in the era of multi-disciplined creators – many musicians are now equally adept at producing video content, for example – and, naturally, this is having an impact on the kind of products that are being designed and released. Korg’s new Liano Live! digital piano, for example, an evolution of its original Liano, which was released in 2022.

Built for pianists who want to livestream and/or record their performances, this promises to give you everything you need to make it happen. It ships with a mic and stand and has a built-in mixer, so you can set the volume and reverb levels of your vocals and the piano right from the instrument itself. It can be connected to your phone, tablet or computer with a single USB-C cable.

As if to reinforce the fact that this is a keyboard built for livestreaming, there’s an on-air button that triggers instant global muting. There are also 10 built-in rhythms and 76 one-touch sound effects, six of which can be assigned to dedicated buttons.

But what of the actual piano bit of the Liano Live!? Although the 88 keys don’t have a hammer action, they are full size and velocity-sensitive, and there’s 120-, 60-, or 40-note polyphony depending on which sound you have selected. There are eight of these (acoustic and electric pianos, organ, guitar, strings, bass/piano and drums/SFX), and they can be dialled-in from a clearly labelled knob.

Obviously, you’ll want to play the Liano Live! at home as well as to the online world, so a pair of front-facing speakers is onboard. It’s also properly portable, running on six AA batteries for up to six hours when you’re away from a main power source. It’s compact and light, too – a mere slip of a thing at 7cm thin and a weight of 5.9kg.

Connectivity includes USB MIDI and audio, headphone, damper pedal, line in and line out (you can adjust the USB/line input level with a dedicated slider). As well as the mic and stand, you also get an AC adapter, pedal switch, cables and a music stand in the box.

There’s also some software – Korg’s Module and Gadget 2 Le apps – and a 3-month subscription to Skoove, the online piano lesson platform.

The Liano Live! is available now priced at $599.99/£549. Find out more on the Korg website.

Ahead of the 2026 NAMM Show, Yamaha has introduced SEQTRAK 2.0, a major firmware update for their all-in-one music production workstation.

SEQTRAK 2.0 introduces new Track Types, expanded global controls, improved app backup functionality and more.

Here’s what’s new in  2.0:

• New Track Types: Convert Drum Tracks into AWM2 Synth Tracks or combine multiple Drum Tracks into a single Drumkit Track.
• Expanded BARLENGTH control: Now available on Drum Tracks for consistent phrase editing across your project.
• Enhanced ALL knob functions: Make quick global adjustments to Volume, BPM, Swing, Scale, and more.
• SEQTRAK APP v2.0: Improved backup and sound management for safer, more portable workflows.

SEQTRAK OS v2.0 is available now as a free download.

Meet the next-gen RMX-IGNITE effector, made to show DJs’ individuality and spark creativity. Remix tracks freely and deliver a live experience that fuses sound and movement.

Ahead of the 2026 NAMM Show, AlphaTheta has introduced a new DJ-focused effects processor and performance sampler, the RMX-Ignite.

The RMX range was originally established under the Pioneer DJ name in the 2012, with the launch of the RMX-1000. That unit – which was later joined by a smaller sibling, the RMX-500 – proved popular with both DJs and producers for its ability to quickly apply rhythmic and modulated effects to incoming audio.

In more recent years, both models have gained popularity among hardware live performers and ‘DAWless’ musicians, as a means to access software-style effects processing without the need to run through a computer.

Now the RMX range has been relaunched under the AlphaTheta brand. The RMX-Ignite significantly redesigns the format, and represents something of a step up in terms of both capabilities and price point.

In the words of AlphaTheta: “More than a decade after the launch of the RMX-1000 – the model released in 2012 that’s still highly respected by top DJs worldwide – this completely renewed effector combines dynamic sound-shaping control with advanced effects to enable new levels of live performance.”

The Ignite is broadly divided into three sections. To the right hand side of its interface are two effects sections, each of which are split into low, mid and high frequency bands.

The upper section is labelled ‘Lever FX’, so called because its effects are engaged by flipping three chunky paddles. This section can make use of six effect types, labelled Echo, Reverb, Juggle, Reverse, Solo and Stretch, each of which can be refined using a sub parameter knob.

These effects are applied differently depending on the direction the user pushes each level. When pulled downwards, the effects are only applied while the level is held in position and disengage as soon as the user lets go. By pushing a lever upwards, the user can latch an effect so that it’s held until manually disengaged.

The lower section of the effects is labelled Isolate FX. These are engaged using a trio of bi-directional knobs that function much like the Color knobs found on DJM mixers, which let users sweep through effects to adjust the amount or character.

The effects offered by the Isolate section are Tape Echo, Reverb, Drive, Filter, Ducker, and Rhythm. Again, a sub parameter control lets users adjust the character of each.

The third main section of the RMX-Ignite is its sampler, which sits to the left of the control interface. Here users have access to four sample pads, each of which is capable of playing four samples simultaneously. The sample section has a Sample Roll function that triggers samples at rhythmic intervals at different timing intervals. These intervals can be combined to create more complex rolls and patterns.

The sampler has an overdub feature that lets users capture simple single-bar loops. Samples can also be processed using a dedicated Sampler Color FX processor, with Echo, Space, Filter, Pitch, Decay and Swing modes.

The RMX-Ignite comes loaded with a factory library featuring vintage drum machine sounds. Users can easily load their own sample collections via USB or Pro DJ Link, and make use of a dedicated RMX-Ignite Sample Manager application.

The Ignite’s final major feature is its Release Echo function, controlled by a large pad to the right of the interface. This is designed to smoothly reset effects and samples back to the original dry audio, while applying an echo tail to smoothly transition out of any effects.

This works in two ways – dry, which smoothly transitions back into the unprocessed audio, and mute, which mutes all incoming audio while the Release button is pressed in order to create a more dramatic transition.

The RMX-Ignite can process audio via classic analogue connections, with stereo TS jacks for both input and output. The unit can also be hooked up digitally to AlphaTheta’s DJM-V10 and DJM-A9 mixers, by connecting a single USB cable to the mixers’ Multi I/O terminal that will function as a single digital send/return.

The Ignite supports Pro DJ Link for BPM and beatgrid sync to other DJ gear. It’s also possible to load samples directly from USB drives or SD cards plugged into players connected via Pro DJ Link.

AlphaTheta is also touting the jump in audio quality compared to previous RMX units, with Ignite offering 96 kHz/64-bit DSP processing, along with 32-bit A/D and D/A converters from ESS Technology on the input and output.

The RMX-Ignite is out now, priced at £1,039/€1,199 including VAT or $1,299 excluding tax. Visit the AlphaTheta site for more.