PeacockMedia shared this first look at MIDI Kalimba, a MIDI controller that’s played like a kalimba, with fingers or thumbs on touch-sensitive pads.
MIDI Kalimba can output:
MIDI over USB; and
MIDI over TRS (a TRS-5-pin DIN lead gives MIDI over 5-pin DIN)
You can set any scale/mode, octave and root note, for example C6 Mixolydian or G4 Minor Pentatonic, and then you’ll be able to play the notes in that scale and key.
It also features velocity-sensitivity for expressive playing.
Rob Papen has introduced WirePluck, a new software synthesizer for Mac and Windows.
At the heart of WirePluck are three layers, made up from four selectable source synthesis types, which are tailored to creating pluck sounds. Papen says that the focus is not to recreate acoustic instrument sounds, but creating original synthesized pluck sounds.
The official WirePluck overview video:
Four source synthesis types are available:
The 1st source synthesis type for each layer is ‘Wire’, a newly developed sound source that sounds a bit like hitting a wire.
The 2nd source synthesis type available is ‘String’, which uses a custom Karplus physical modelling synthesis.
The 3rd source synthesis type is ‘FM’, which is a 3-Operator FM (phase modulation) synthesizer. A unique addition is that each Oscillator also has a Pitch Envelope Decay control, which is uncommon in classic FM synthesis, but great to add extra pluck to the sound.
The 4th source synthesis type is ‘Wave’, which is a 1 Oscillator subtractive synthesizer lineup featuring an array of various Filter types.
All of these different sources can be combined in the 3 layers, and each layer has its own output routing.
The included FX inside WirePluck are ‘Distortion’ with various types, ‘Modulation FX’ which are Chorus, Flanger and so on, a Stereo Delay, and Reverb.
WirePluck also features a fully featured ARP, an extensive Chord Memory section and a Modulation Matrix.
