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

Ahead of Superbooth 2023, being held in Berlin May 11-13, Knobula shared this sneak preview of Pianophonic, a multi-oscillator wavetable module for Eurorack systems.

Pianophonic is a 12 HP wavetable synthesizer that takes its inspiration from the hammer and string action of the piano. With its three wavetable oscillators and sample-based playback engine for each one of its eight voices, Pianophonic mimics the characteristics of the three-string piano sound, using a range of professionally sampled wavetables and hammer samples.

Users can access 16 banks of preset sounds with the included SD card. Because sounds can be stretched, morphed and reversed, or sent through the module’s on-board filter, envelope generator, compressor and reverb circuits, Pianophonic’s sound palette goes far beyond traditional piano sounds.

“I wanted to create a synth that borrowed its design from the four elements of a piano mechanism: three strings and one hammer,” says Knobula founder Jason Mayo. “Simply put, Pianophonic can make anything sound like a piano, and make a piano sound like anything.”

Pianophonic is expected to be available this September for £350 (UK), $440 (US) and €400 (EU).

Ahead of Superbooth 2023, being held in Berlin May 11-13, Wavefonix shared a sneak preview of their upcoming Procyon monophonic synthesizer.

Wavefonix makes a variety of analog Eurorack modules, along with complete Eurorack systems.

Here’s what they say about it:

“We’d like to introduce you to our first dedicated monophonic synthesizer – the Procyon (still a work in progress).

It will feature two CEM3340 VCOs, a SSI2140 VCF, MIDI interfacing and a wide range of modulation capabilities, including Eurorack compatible CV inputs.”

In addition, they announced two polyphonic Eurorack modules, the P402 Poly-4 VCO and P403 Poly-4 Signal Processor.:

The modules, along with others, allow you to build a compact and versatile 4-voice polyphonic Eurorack system.

• The P402 Poly-4 VCO is the smaller sibling of their P802 Poly-8 VCO. They’ve added common controls, allowing for global control of all four VCOs.
• The P403 Poly-4 Signal Processor adds a mixer, VCF and VCA elements to each voice, with a wide range of modulation potential.

Details are still to be announced at the Wavefonix website.

Ahead of the 2023 NAMM Show, Polish hardware developer Polyend has announced the Polyend Tracker Mini, a portable production workstation that builds on the success of their original Tracker.

Polyend says that the Tracker Mini is smaller, lighter, and more powerful than its predecessor. New features include stereo sample playback, audio over USB, a high-quality onboard microphone, and an onboard battery. The Mini also features lower latency and a faster CPU.

Polyend says that they listened to feedback from users of the original Tracker and incorporated popular feature requests into the Mini, including upgraded headroom, easier project management, and a refined signal path for more transparent audio playback.

“The Polyend Tracker Mini is the portable instrument that I’ve been dreaming of for years,” says Polyend CEO Piotr Raczynski. “I’ve been using trackers since I was eleven, and I’ve always thought the interface was perfect as a travel companion. Before the original tracker was created, we started developing the platform as a portable battery-powered unit. Part delays and sourcing issues made us switch gears, so we built the original tracker in desktop format. The original Tracker was received so well that we extended development time and upgraded the Mini. Now we have a portable tracker that is more powerful, with a lot of room for us to continue to develop the tracker and add new features well into the future. Mini is easy to use and suitable for both experienced and novice music producers”, and that, “its workflow is easy to pick up, allowing you to get creative in no time”.

Tracker Mini certainly looks the part, and even though it is designed to be a handheld device – to the point where it resembles a Game Boy-style video game – that large screen should make it great fun to work with. And as it is more mobile and powerful than the original, we can almost forgive the price hike.

The Polyend Tracker Mini is available for pre-order now, priced at $699/€699 , with orders shipping July 12, 2023.