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

UK-based synth maker UDO has unveiled a new instrument at this year’s Superbooth gear expo.

At Superbooth 2024, being held May 16-18 in Berlin, UDO has introduced the Super 8 synthesizer, a 16-voice polyphonic, bi-timbral analog-hybrid performance synthesizer.

UDO’s Super 8 is a slimmed-down Super Gemini with everything we loved about that synth – and a cheaper price tag

The Super 8 features immediate hands-on controls, an expressive 61-note weighted keyboard with polyphonic aftertouch, and the “powerful, flexible and addictive sound of the UDO Audio family”.

Sitting in the middle of their product line-up between their debut synth, the 12-voice Super 6 and the beastly 20-voice, multitimbral Super Gemini, the Super 8 packs many of the features of its bigger brother into a slightly smaller and lighter form factor with a reduced price tag.

First look at the new Super 8 with UDO founder and designer George Hearn, via Sonicstate:

Super 8 offers 16-voice polyphony when not used in its binaural mode, which reduces the number of voices available to 8. Aside from the reduced polyphony, the most notable difference between the Super 8 and Super Gemini is the omission of the Gemini’s ribbon controller and the extra set of controls that could be used to control the bitimbral synth’s second sound layer. (Super 16 is still bitimbral, but you’ll have to switch between layers on one set of controls.) The synth also comes in at 13.4kg, about a kilo lighter than the Super Gemini.

The Super 8’s architecture is similar to UDO’s other synths: it’s a hybrid instrument with high-resolution, FPGA-based digital oscillators and two analogue filters (a 4-pole 24dB/oct low-pass and a 1-pole 6dB/oct high pass) and it offers the same Binaural Mode, which makes use of the synth’s true stereo signal path to pair up its 16 voices into 8 ‘super voices’, each of which gives both the left and right channels an independent synth voice.

Waveforms available include sine, saw, square, triangle, and noise, along with 32 additional waveforms that can be updated by the user. Additionally, there are various bells and whistles that include oscillator sync, ring mod, PWM and wave morphing, along with a Super Mode that’ll give you six extra unison voices for each oscillator.

Though it lacks the ribbon controller found on the Super Gemini, Super 16 still has polyphonic aftertouch on its 61-note semi-weighted keyboard, something the Super 6 does not. Elsewhere, you’ll find the same modulation matrix, multi-mode arpeggiator and 64-step sequencer as the Gemini, along with an effect section that includes stereo chorus and a delay with a freeze function that can be used as a rudimentary looper.

All in all, the Super 8 looks like an excellent choice for those drawn to UDO’s unique approach to synth design but torn between the two options in their line-up. If you’re after more than 12-voice polyphony but aren’t particularly fussed about the independent bitimbral controls or the ribbon controller, this could be the synth for you.

Hearn says that “The Super 8 sits confidently between the Super 6 and the Super Gemini. This synth is the distillation of the UDO philosophy of The Power of Play — with the dual cores and playability features of it’s bigger cousin, all in a more compact and simplified presentation — it’s the best of both worlds.”

Super 8 is priced at $3749/£2995/€3669 and will be shipping in July 2024.

Find out more on UDO Audio website.

At Superbooth 2024, being held May 16-18 in Berlin, Korg Berlin is showcasing their latest prototype of the Acoustic Synthesis_phase8.

The Korg Acoustic Synthesis_phase8 is an electronically controlled acoustic instrument, that is part melodic synthesizer, part drum machine.

What makes it acoustic? You and the environment interact physically with the instrument. You can even mute, pluck or interfere with the resonators to sculpt the sound.

Here’s how it works:

• Acoustic Synthesis unites the sonic richness of real physically vibrating bodies with electronic control.
• The vibrating bodies in this prototype are a set of metallic resonators. Their geometries have been tuned so they vibrate at specific frequencies.
• Like in a piano, the resonator is hit it with a hammer, except Korg’s hammer is electromagnetic. This provides very precise control over when and how the resonators are struck.

An unofficial audio demo, via Bonedo Synthesizers:

Features:

• 8 independent electromechanical voices
• Sequencer with polyrhythmic shifting
• Waveshaping, Tremolo and EG control
• Replaceable and tunable resonators
• Mechanical sound shaping possibilities

Korg Berlin introduced the phase8’s predecessor, the Acoustic Synthesis_phase5, at Superbooth 2023. The phase5 was positioned as a demonstration of Acoustic Synthesis as a technology.

The Acoustic Synthesis_phase8 is being positioned as a product prototype. Korg notes, “We expect many similarities between this and the eventual product release. While there are details to be ironed out, as we adapt the design for mass-production, expect something along this trajectory.

They plan to debut the production version at Superbooth 2025.

Superbooth 2024 – Billed by iZotope as “Hollywood’s favourite toolkit for intelligent audio repair,” the company’s RX software has been updated to version 11. Stacked floor-to-ceiling with machine learning technology, this offers both new tools and improvements to existing ones.

RX 11 comes in three versions – Elements, Standard and Advanced – and the majority of the new features are available in the top two packages.

The enhanced Dialogue Isolate module (available in Standard for the first time) now comes with a De-Reverb option, and Loudness Optimize can maximise perceived loudness for streaming platforms. Relatedly, the new Streaming Preview module enables you to hear how your music will sound on different streaming platforms.

Music Rebalance gets a new neural network that enables you to access the individual parts within a full mix. There’s now a Mid/Side mode for the RX app, and Spectral Editor ARA means that you can now fix your audio without leaving your DAW (currently exclusive to Logic Pro for Mac in Rosetta mode but coming to more hosts soon).

Elsewhere, the machine learning-enhanced Repair Assistant is included in all versions of RX 11. It promises improved quality and speed and comes with more controls.

Conversely, the Dialogue Contour tool is exclusive to RX 11 Advanced, and comes with new Formant and Variation controls for adjusting the character and expressivity of a voice.

Prices for the new versions are as follows: RX 11 Elements, $99 ($49 introductory); RX 11 Standard, $399 ($299 introductory); RX 11 Advanced, $1,199 ($999 introductory). Introductory pricing is available until 13 June, and existing iZotope customers may be eligible for loyalty discounts if they log in to their accounts.

Find out more about RX 11 on the iZotope website.