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

The US Copyright Office has released a new report that clarifies and reaffirms their stance on AI-generated works, essentially stating that AI-generate works can’t be copyrighted.

This has become a huge issue, as there’s not just been an explosion of AI-generated text, images and audio, but it’s increasingly being used commercially in web content, Spotify playlists and other places where companies are trying to save costs by replacing people with computers.

The Office started their inquiry in August 2023, formally seeking public input on the full range of copyright issues that have been raised:

“In response, we received more than 10,000 comments representing a broad range of perspectives, including from authors and composers, performers and artists, publishers and producers, lawyers and academics, technology companies, libraries, sports leagues, trade groups and public interest organizations, and even a class of middle school students. Comments came from all 50 states and from 67 countries. That valuable and extensive input, supplemented by additional Office research and information received from other agencies, forms the basis for the discussion and recommendations in this Report.”

The Report Conclusion states that works may be copyrighted when AI is used as a tool, but not when the work was generated by an AI work from prompts:

“Based on the fundamental principles of copyright, the current state of fast-evolving technology, and the information received in response to the NOI, the Copyright Office concludes that existing legal doctrines are adequate and appropriate to resolve questions of copyrightability.

Copyright law has long adapted to new technology and can enable case-by-case determinations as to whether AI-generated outputs reflect sufficient human contribution to warrant copyright protection. As described above, in many circumstances these outputs will be copyrightable in whole or in part—where AI is used as a tool, and where a human has been able to determine the expressive elements they contain. Prompts alone, however, at this stage are unlikely to satisfy those requirements. The Office continues to monitor technological and legal developments to evaluate any need for a different approach.

The Office will provide ongoing assistance to the public on the copyrightability issues related to generative AI, including by issuing additional registration guidance and updating the relevant sections of the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices. In doing so, we will rely on the comments received in response to the NOI, judicial developments, and other relevant input.”

This is really interesting guidance for musicians, because it seems to make clear that:

• AI-generated works cannot be copyrighted, making them public domain; and
• Human-generated works that make use of AI tools can be copyrighted.

This has some interesting implications for musicians. It seems to suggest that all AI-generated music is public domain, making it potentially a huge new source of audio for musicians to sample, transform and use in original, human-generated music.

And it clarifies that music made with the use of AI-powered tools – such as the AI-powered beats of hardware tools like the Mutable Instruments Grids, or AI-powered stem separation – can be copyrighted, as long as the creative work is human-authored.

Do you have concerns about the rise of AI tools for music and AI-generated music? Check out the Report and let us know what you think!

Photo Credit: Public domain image of a cat, with human hands, reading a newspaper taken from the above US Copyright Report.

At the 2025 NAMM Show, held Jan 21–25 in Anaheim, CA, Ketron introduced the Fusion Real Arranger, an arranger workstation keyboard that supports international musical styles.

Arranger workstations are synthesizers that focus on letting you perform live with a full arrangement.

Key Features:

• Full Audio Styles
• Live Drums, Real Bass & Real Chords Style Modeling
• Massive Audio Library Customizable Real Styles
• Top Professional Sounds
• Unique Real Solos Twin Organ
• 240 Gb Disk Storage

Specifications:

• Polyphony: 216 notes, multitimbral.
• Keyboard: 61-note light weighted action with velocity and aftertouch. 4 Dynamic curves.
• Controls: Aftertouch. Portamento. Legato Mono/Poly. Transposer +/- 24. Octave +/- 2. Sustain pedal. Volume/Expr.
• Pedal with 6 curves. Joystick with Pitch and Modulation. 2 Articulations. Ribbon controller: Arabic Scale. Arabic Set.
• 10 sliders with rgb led.
• Display: 7” touch capacitive display. Brightness control. 5 different skin colors.
• Factory Sounds: 10 Voice Families : Piano, Strings, Organ, Brass, Sax, Pad, Synth, Guitar, Bass, Ethnic. 464 Factory
• A single Preset can be made with up to 5 different sounds. Second Voice. High quality multilayer sounds with a great selection of Real Solos ® and a large variety of oriental instruments. Advanced Voice Editing. Factory overwrite and restore. Up to 1.280 User Voices available. Preset programmable Arabic scale and key shif.
• User Sounds: 4 GB non-volatile Flash memory for additional sounds ( 2 GB for Sound Banks and 2 GB for User Samples ). Sample Editor : up to 32.768 samples ( max 6 seconds per sample ). 128 stereo instruments ( Voice or Drum Set ), up to 4 layers per instrument and up to 64 splits per layer. Advanced editor with Split, Octave, Level, Range,
• Tune, Cut off, Velocity, Adsr. Sample Loop utilities. User Drum kits.
• Adsr/Filter: separate controls for Attack, Decay, Sustain, Lfo, Cut Off and Resonance.
• Drum Set: 44 Drums kits. 18 Oriental Kits. 32 User Drum kits with Remap, Filter, Tune, FX controls. Drum Mixer : 9 sections with separate controls for level, pan, reverb, pitch, velocity compression. 86 Midi Drum styles ( Pattern )on Grv1_Loop section.
• Arranger : More than 550 International Styles. Audio, Live and Midi styles. Freeze real control. 260
• Live Styles. Over 64 Oriental Styles. 10 groups : Ballad, Pop, Dance, Rock, Swing, Latin, Country, Folk, Party, Ethnic. 3 Intro, 3 Ending, FIll to End, ABCD, 4 Fills, 4 Break. Reintro, Count In, Pause, Key Start, Key Stop, Variation. User Styles with unlimited store capabilities.
• 5 Midi Chords and Bass. Close, Parallel, Logic mode. 3 x Lower with Mono/Poly function. Chord Variation. Varitone. Voice to ABCD. Auto Fill, Fill to Arrange, Fill to Aftertouch. Chord modes : Easy1, Easy2, Easy3, Fingered 1, Fingered 2. Orch. Variation Morphing. Rootless mode. Manual Bass, To Lowest, To Root. Bassist and Pianist mode ( Standard/Expert ).
• Live Drums: over 500 Live Drums with a complete Arranger structure ( 3 Intros, 3 Endings, ABCD, 4 Fills, 4 Breaks ). Oriental and Latin Percussions loops. Reverb and 3 band Parametric Equalizer with 10 presets, programmable on each style. Drum Boost. Possibility to load external User Live Drums.
• Drum Pad: real time control for percussions.
• Grooves: 3 x independent Groove sections. Huge library of more than 780 Latin percussions, Electro and Acoustic
• Drum loops, Single percussion hits. Groove to Variation. Separate volume and EFX controls.
• Live Guitars: 216 sliced Guitar patterns including Long Chords. Separate volume and EFX controls.
• Real Chord: Real audio accompaniments covering a full chord range ( up to 13 different chords ). A big variety of electric, acoustic and jazz guitars patterns and other orchestral sequences synchronized to Midi. Dedicated Insert EFX with full editor, programmable for each style. Possibility to load external User Real Chords. Possibility to modify the Style voices with Adsr, filter and Q.
• Real Bass: Real audio Basses.Twin Bass. Support to external User audio Basses. 3 band Parametric Equalizer with 10 Presets, programmable on each style.
• Style Modeling: navigate and choose Drums, Grooves, Bass and Chords from the massive Midi and Audio Library. Multichord and Multibass templates.
• Style Edit: advanced pattern recording and editing. Copy, Quantize, Velocity, Octave functions. Special quantize available for oriental styles ( 7/8, 9/8, 13/8, etc. ). Single GM voice edit with ADSR and Filter.
• Registrations: 4 Banks with unlimited Registrations controlling the global set up of the keyboard.
• Performance: fast access to Styles, Registrations, Mp3, Wav, Midi files and Subfolders. 7 Sets with unlimited file storage.
• Play Mode: Master, Accord/Style, Accord/Classic, Organist.
• Phrase: real time recording and play for Style chord sequences.
• Footswitch: 20 programmable Set. Assignable to the most relevant machine functions and features.
• Arabic Scale : 16 sets. 6 scale memories.
• Dsp: Reverb, Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, Overdrive, Distortion, Tremolo, Autopan, Equalizer. 2 Stereo EFX Inserts (one dedicated to Voice and one to Style/Midifiles). 64 Single Presets and 64 Chain Effects. Deep editing. Dedicated reverb and EQs for Drumsets. Dedicated reverb for Arranger section.
• Stem: 4 Scenes. 5 audio tracks per scene to be played simultaneously. Lead track, Transpose, Time Stretching, Loop, Solo, Mute, Autoplay. Fixed pitch for Drum section. Support for external User Stems.
• Player: Transpose, Audio Time stretching, GM, Jukebox, Playlists, Drum Remix, Markers, Lyrics, Cross Fade, Search, Midi Mix, Karaoke Backgrounds. Support for wav, midi, mp3, mp4, avi, mov, flv, cdg, jpg, png, txt and pdf files.
• KTune: audio Wav files can be assigned to keys. Synchronization with Style (Bar, Beat).
• HD Recording: 1 stereo audio track. Midi and Song Style recording.
• Audio Multitrack: 5+1 audio tracks with separate track control.
• Micro: 2 x Micro inputs. Micro 1 ( XLR ) with gain control and phantom power. Effect with Reverb, Delay, Equalizer,
• Pitch shift. Micro 2 ( jack ) with volume and reverb control.
• Voicetron: 3 voice vocalizer. Assignable to Arranger or Midi file with Presets, Equalizer, Mode functions.
• Video: HDMI connection for displaying lyrics, pictures and videos. Mirror mode. Up to Full HD Resolution. Support for external touchscreen displays.
• Bluetooth: Streaming audio input ( ad2p profile ).
• WiFi: remote control via VNC.
• Storage: 240 GB internal SSD disk ( Up to 60 GB reserved for System ). Optional external SD Card ( up to 512 GB ).
• Side Connections: 2 x USB device. USB Host. HDMI.
• Rear Connections: Main Out Left / Right. Headphone/Aux. Sustain pedal. Volume pedal. Footswitch. Midi In, Midi Out. Micro 1, Micro 2.
• Optional: Volume pedal normal or deluxe. Sustain pedal normal or piano type ( available also with Footswitch connector). Footswitch 6 or 13 switches. Midi Pedalboard 13 notes ( K8 ). Soft bag. Trolley for bag. Hard case.
• Dimensions: 99,5 x 36.6 x 11,5 ( 39,1 x 14,41 x 4,53 inch. ).
• Weight: 11 Kg ( 24,2 lbs )

Details are still to come at the Ketron site.

The Sound Stone shared this preview of the String Armonica mkII, an updated version of their electroacoustic instrument, based on ‘acoustic synthesis’.

Acoustic Synthesis is based on the idea of electronically controlling acoustic instruments to allow them to synthesize sounds that would not be possible using traditional performance methods.

With the mkII version, the String Armonica has been upgraded with several key improvements and new features to expand its capabilities. This version includes adjustable string height with redesigned bridges and custom-polished steel pickup plates for improved tone and performance.

New built-in modes include:

• Staccato Mode: Adjust note duration for sharper, more defined sounds.
• Harp Sweeping Function: Use the pitch wheel to sweep seamlessly across strings.
• Arpeggiator: Choose from five patterns for dynamic, rhythmic sequences.
• Envelope Mode: Notes automatically fade in with adjustable timing for smooth, expressive playing.

A demo of the new functions:

What The Sound Stone has to say about the String Armonica:

“The String Armonica reimagines musical synthesis by using strings, instead of electronic waveforms, as its sound source.

This instrument employs 12 chromatically tuned strings, each harmonically resonating through a custom-built internal synthesizer. This setup enables users to play a range of four octaves using a MIDI keyboard, with all strings capable of sounding simultaneously in full polyphony. The strings function similarly to speakers, being precisely tuned to respond to the synthesizer’s output. Imagine an array of 48 strings, each with its own Sound Stone sustainer, but all controlled through a keyboard or MIDI interface for a unique and rich musical experience.

The String Armonica also features additional expressive controls for enhanced musicality. An external expression pedal allows for nuanced dynamic control, and an onboard tremolo system can be operated through a MIDI keyboard’s mod wheel. This functionality gives the player the ability to pulse the strings, adding depth and texture to the sound.

The String Armonica has a unique timbre, reminiscent of the Glass Armonica, which is how we stumbled upon the name. It can sound like a variety of instruments including a celesta, a reed organ, or singing bowls. We believe it will be a great tool for composers to add a new layer of high harmonic richness to their compositions.

It’s capable of producing both infinitely sustained and staccato notes. Players can control the decay of these notes using the included felt damper. Each string is equipped with an individual pickup, which is summed to a stereo output, allowing a wide sound field and immersive experience.”

The String Armonica is available now for $1,600.