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

2024 NAMM: The Pioneer DJ parent company celebrates its new brand by throwing a party, and OMNIS-DUO is playing the tunes. AlphaTheta Corporation has been quick off the mark after announcing a new eponymous brand that will sit alongside its roster of Pioneer DJ products. One of the first new products off the mark is OMNIS-DUO, the “perfect” portable DJ setup to take to your next party. And its colour is inspired by denim jeans.

It is a big hello to AlphaTheta, a new brand that is spinning out of, but apparently not actually replacing the Pioneer DJ brand.

As well as being a flexible and portable DJ setup that can fit in a backpack, OMNIS-DUO sports a distinctive indigo colour which is, yes really, inspired by denim jeans. That’s because, says AlphaTheta, “it looks at home in professional venues and casual environments”.

OMNIS-DUO is lightweight and portable enough to be taken anywhere – it can be powered by batteries if you wish – and can even be used outside, according to AlphaTheta. It has Bluetooth connectivity, so anyone with a phone can chip in with their favourite tunes, and there’s plenty of connectivity around the back. As well as offering two mic inputs, you can also plug into decent sized PA systems using XLR connections, or simple speakers with its RCA terminals.

You can play music from a variety of sources, as well. OMNIS-DUO supports USB Type-A drives, and SD cards can be plugged straight into it. Alternatively, link up to a Mac or PC via USB-C and use the rekordbox Performance mode. There’s also a Wi-Fi option, for doing all of the above wirelessly.

OMNIS-DUO has a touchscreen in the centre that operates in either Light or Dark mode, depending on whether you are indoors or out, and the batteries should give you five hours of operation before needing a recharge by mains or USB.

Onboard controls include an EQ, effects (eight Beat and six Colour), tempo change, eight hot cues, and scratching, so there should be enough options to sound ‘pro’ while you are playing on the beach.

The OMNIS-DUO is price $1,499.00 There’s more info at the AlphaTheta website.

Waves goes intergalactic with Space Rider, a new multi-effects plugin for applying spatial effects to your project.

Space Rider features chorus, delay and reverb alongside an envelope follower that can be used to modulate any of its parameters via an external source.

Hardware tends to dominate the spotlight at NAMM, and while we can’t deny that the new synths unveiled by brands like Korg and Yamaha have got us pretty excited, there’s also a ton of new plugins and music software being announced that deserve your attention.

One such plugin is Waves’ Space Rider, a new multi-effect that packs reverb, delay and chorus together in a single processor. Waves tells us Space Rider is designed to allow producers and mix engineers to quickly and easily create “deep, lush and high-quality spaces” in their projects.

Space Rider’s interface is divided into three, with each effect on its own separate panel with its own gain knob; effects can be fed into one another using the dials positioned between them. This will be a time-saver for anyone looking to get experimental with their effects without having to mess about with auxiliary channels.

The delay panel features controls for delay time and feedback, and delay time can be synced to project tempo or dialled in milliseconds. There’s high and low-pass filters onboard, along with controls for modulation depth and rate, and an offset control for introducing subtle variation between delay times in the left and right channels. Those hoping to get their stereo fix will be pleased to know that Space Rider is also capable of ping pong delay.

Space Rider can do two types of reverb; Space is a more realistic, conventional algorithmic reverb while Plate emulates the lush sound of a plate reverb unit. Decay time can be tweaked along with high and low-pass filters, pre-delay, dampening and stereo width. Finally, the plugin offers two distinct types of chorus, with controls for intensity and width.

The plugin also features an envelope follower, controlled by the slider at the bottom of the interface, which can be used to modulate any of Space Rider’s parameters via an external signal from elsewhere in your DAW.

We like the look of Space Rider, and while it lacks some of the more advanced controls you might find in dedicated (and more expensive) reverb, delay or chorus plugins, this looks like a fun and intuitive tool for quickly and easily applying spatial effects to your project.

Waves Space Rider is available now for Windows and macOS in VST/AU/AAX formats. The plugin is priced at $49.99 and is free for Waves Ultimate subscribers.  Find out more on Waves website.

Supercritical Synthesizers has introduced their first desktop instrument, Redshift 6, a six-voice analog “Variable Character Synthesizer”.

“To distorted misbehaviour and beyond” – Redshift 6 could well be the unexpected synth star of NAMM season.

Supercritical Synthesizers Redshift 6 is a synth that certainly looks as cool as it sounds, and seems to have the specs to match. It features both six-part polyphony and multitimbrality – hence the name – and has some super-flexible oscillators at its core, all of which look like making it one of the synths to look out for this year.

The Supercritical Redshift 6 combines technology from the company’s previous products, the Demon Core Oscillator and the Neutron Flux Filter. Each of the six voices features a DCO, with analog waveforms generated under digital control. The filter core is an analog 4-pole state variable filter, also digitally controlled, to “act like almost any classic vintage synthesizer filter and more”.

There’s a Demon Core Oscillator behind each of Redshift’s 6 voices, with this providing digitally-controlled analogue waveforms. This oscillator is unusual, though, in that the user can choose between various engines, including traditional twin oscillators, supersaw, flanging phase sync, or a transistor organ.

The Neutron Flux filter is an analogue 4-pole, state-variable type, also under digital control, and can “act like almost any classic vintage synthesizer filter and more,” according to Supercritical. Whether it can power a Starship is debatable, however.

What is certain is that this digitally-controlled analogue marriage seems to be central to Redshift 6’s ‘Variable Character Synthesizer’ philosophy. It essentially means it has a pure analogue signal path but can go in multiple digital directions, all controlled by way of a software-updatable engine and a lovely-looking screen.

“It can cover the full [sonic] range from almost digitally sterile and clean to distorted misbehaviour and beyond,”  says Supercritical. “No modelling here – it’s all analogue until the bypassable stereo DSP effects processor.”

The multitimbral angle in Redshift 6 is also interesting because you can use the synth in a single sound mode, with all six notes of polyphony accessible, or in a six-part mode with six different sounds, all monophonic. Or use any combination of sounds versus polyphony in between, including a classic vintage poly dual-layer mode with two voices, each with three parts of polyphony.

As if that’s not enough – and to slightly muddy the polyphony water – each of the six voices can also operate as a paraphonic voice with up to 16-note paraphony. Paraphony verses polyphony – there’s a feature right there.

In addition, Redshift 6 has plenty of modulation action built in, MPE support, and DSP effects. There are two main plus four auxiliary outputs, so you can presumably assign one sound to each output, which could be very cool indeed.

Features:

• Six voices
• Full analog signal chain
• Digitally controlled analog Supercritical Demon Core Oscillator
• Analog four pole Variable Character Filter
• Flexible gain staging with an analog boost circuit
• Physical audio output per voice (2 main outputs and 4 aux outputs)
• Optional voice chaining
• Bypassable digital effects in main outputs 1-2
• 7 inch TFT IPS color screen with a bank of 8 endless clickable potentiometers and quick navigation via button grid
• Quick powerful controls for oscillators and filters.
• Six user-assignable macro controls
• Six parts multitimbral
• Modern MIDI implementation with USB-B connection and DIN IN/OUT
• MPE

It’s not due until summer 2024, but Redshift 6 is certainly making a synth statement ahead of this year’s NAMM Show. It has a distinctive desktop design, complete with lit-up access to its innards (or so it seems) and even – get this – hexagonal buttons and screen.

The Supercritical Redshift 6 will be available in summer 2024 with an MSRP of £1,099/$€1,259. Preorders are open now. There’s more info at the Supercritical Synthesizers website.