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

Developer and musician Matt Goodluck let us know that he’s introduced a new software instrument, ToneField.

Goodluck said that it’s inspired by an old app, TonePad Pro, that’s no longer available. Goodluck says he “rebuilt the concept from scratch, expanded it into a modern instrument and launched it as ToneField.”

ToneField keeps the minimalist pattern-based workflow that made TonePad addictive, but adds features including selectable scales and modes, probability for evolving generative patterns, live performance recording, MIDI export, audio export and pattern management.

Place dots on the grid, press play and let the music unfold. You can use the probability controls to make your patterns evolve with every loop.

Features

• Original ToneField Classic sound engine — pure sine wave synthesis with precision decay
• 16×16 step sequencer with amber dot interface
• Per-column probability for generative, evolving patterns
• 13 scales including all 7 modes and pentatonic variants
• All 12 keys
• BPM 40–180
• Velocity and gate control
• Delay with time, feedback, filter and mix
• 8 named pattern save slots
• Record live performances as WAV — capture every probabilistic variation in real time
• Export patterns as MIDI for Logic Pro, GarageBand and any DAW
• Export audio as WAV or MP3
• Live MIDI output to your DAW as the pattern plays
• Transform tools — flip, rotate, shift and randomize your patterns

Tonefield is available now for $14.99 USD.

Jasmine & Olive Trees, Barcelona-based Euro maker – let us know about their new drum module that has a unique capability to change function through the use of panel overlays.

Doppler is a compact Eurorack percussion processor that accepts an oscillator, sample, or other audio signal and the module reshapes it into kicks, snares, hi-hats and “stranger stuff in between”.

The engine is a delay-line pitch processor, so a trigger resets the read head, it sweeps down to a target depth, and out comes that falling-pitch kick. A single knob (Mod) sweeps the whole thing continuously, from pitch-shifted chords, through the Doppler kick zone, into FM and cross-modulation for metallic, industrial hits.

Every CV input takes audio-rate modulation, so you can push it somewhere genuinely chaotic if you want to.

That One Weird Trick

Doppler changes its firmware when you lay a different overlay on top of it. No computer, no reflashing, nothing to unscrew. You set an overlay panel over the module, and instantly it’s a different instrument, with the new panel’s labels lined up with the new functions.

This is the first time we’ve seen this feature in a synth module.

The module ships with three overlays included, free.

• Door is a stereo LPG that reacts to pitch and rhythm.
• Doppler is the “drummerizer”.
• Rubin turns it into a stereo ADSR VCA/VCF.
• Lichen makes it a dual AD/VCA.

So the single module can function as a LPG, a drum voice, a stereo ADSR, or a pair of envelope VCAs, depending on which overlay is sitting on it.

The developer says that, because it’s built on a DSP platform, future “family firmwares”can be loaded to the module, as they are developed.

Features:

• Doppler processes external oscillators, samples, or other audio signals into percussive sounds
• The processing range moves from a clean signal through pitch-envelope processing into FM modulation
• Thirteen chord voicings are available
  • Chord voicings include major, minor, suspended, sixth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh chords
  • Chord processing uses four pitch-shifted taps
• The Body input handles the main signal
• The Trans input provides a dedicated transient channel with an auto-tuned band-pass
• VCA and LPG modes are selectable by long-press
• VCA and LPG mode selection is saved to memory
• An independent noise output provides a dust oscillator
• The dust oscillator density tracks the character of the input signal
• CV inputs are provided for Attack, Decay, Mod, and Amount
• Smart Attack provides noise decay when turned to the left and a long swell when turned to the right
• Doppler includes Door, Rubin, and Lichen overlays

A video demo, via Cinematic Laboratory:

Doppler is available now for $265 USD.

LOON is a software instrument that lets you build sounds by combining oscillators, sampled instruments, FM synthesis, effects, and modulation within three independent layers.

Each layer includes its own instrument groups and effects chain, with macro controls for assigning multiple parameters to a single performance control.

The instrument supports standalone operation as well as VST3, Audio Unit, and AAX plugin formats, includes more than 200 factory presets, and offers compatibility with a wide range of MIDI controllers, including full MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) support.

Features:

• Three independent sound layers with dedicated instrument and effects panels
• Each layer supports multiple instrument groups
• Sound sources include oscillators, sampled instruments, and FM synthesis
• Each layer includes an independent effects chain
• Macro controls can map multiple parameters across layers and instrument groups
• Deep modulation system with LFOs, ADSR envelopes, MSEG modulators, and MIDI CC assignments
• MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) support for per-note expressive control
• More than 200 factory presets are included
• Additional sound expansion packs are supported
• Standalone application for macOS and Windows
• VST3 plugin support
• Audio Unit (AU) plugin support on macOS
• AAX plugin support
• Compatible with a wide range of MIDI controllers, including keyboards, pad controllers, wind controllers, electronic drums, and MIDI guitars
• Scalable user interface with high-DPI and Retina display support
• Available in multiple interface languages

LOON is available for macOS and Windows as a standalone application and in VST3, Audio Unit, and AAX plugin formats. It is priced at $49.99 USD (regular price $99.99) and is also included at no additional cost with eligible Jamstik MIDI Guitar purchases.