The KMI K-Board Pro 4  The KMI K-Board Pro 4 started off as Kickstarter campaign in 2016 and quickly got to its funding goal of $50.000. What sets the Pro 4 apart from other controllers is KMI's patented Smart Sensor Fabric technology which is a unique and proprietary conductive material that changes resistance as it i...

There's more to life than audio echo—like MIDI echo. Although the concept of MIDI echo has been around for years, early virtual instruments often didn't have enough voices to play back new echoes without stealing voices from previous echoes. With today's powerful computers and instruments, this is less of a problem so let's re-visit MIDI echo.It's ...

Despite rumors to the contrary, Congress did not pass a law saying that mod wheels could be used only to add vibrato. Granted, the periodic vibrato a mod wheel adds is something only a synth can do, but try adding vibrato with the pitch wheel instead—it will sound more human, and more like the vibrato guitarists use. Now that you've freed up your m...

There are lots of websites that offer information on DAWs and music production.  Audio Assemble takes a unique approach by offering articles, videos, reviews, interviews and information on schools that offer degrees in music and music production. The database they have put together about music schools is impressive and they also have...

Gewa was founded in 1925 by Georg Walther in a region in Saxony famous for its musicians and manufacturers of musical instruments), Today, the GEWA company not only has subsidiaries in all important export markets but also holds substantial shares in Asian factories of musical instruments that enable a world-wide marketing of lots of GEWA prod...

Reclouder- personal hybrid recorder MMA member CME based in Singapore was at Music China in October, 2019 and their new concept called Reclouder received an award as "Most Innovative Newcomer".Reclouder is a unique idea and actually more than just another hardware product. It's actually a totally unique approach to solving ...

If you're a keyboard player using chords to define a chord progression, it's easy enough to have chords hit on, for example, the beginning of a measure. But "strumming" the chord can add interest and a more guitar-like quality (note that the intention here isn't to replicate a program that emulates strummed rhythm guitar parts, but to add interest ...

In early April, Roland began offering the full unlocked version of Zenbeats for iOS and Android for free for the time being through the #rolandathome initiative. The giveaway garnered attention from Yahoo Finance, Discchord, KEXP, Trend Hunter, CDBaby Podcast, The Verge, and other outlets.Whether making a first beat or tracking a full song, Zenbeat...

A company asked me to do a video for a reverb plug-in they were introducing, and I wanted to demo it with a variety of instruments. Drums? It's easy to find good acoustic drum loops. Guitar? I play guitar. Vocals? The company provided me with a vocal I could use. But I really wanted an acoustic piano piece, like something from Debussy, to demo the ...

Founded in 1994 by Los Angeles composer Eric Persing and his wife Lorey, Spectrasonics quickly became a leading developer of world-class sampled sound libraries. As Chief Sound Designer for Roland Corporation since 1984, Eric was already well-known in the music industry for creating many of the most popular sounds in their classic synthesizers, inc...

Jamstik+ from Zivix is an interesting solution for guitarists who want to play MIDI instruments. While it's not a guitar, it feels mostly like a guitar because it has real strings, a neck, and frets—but it doesn't make any sound. On the plus side, you don't have to change or tune the strings. Also, the basic version has only five notes, so it's mor...

A macro lets you string together multiple keyboard shortcuts into a single keyboard shortcut. For example, suppose you often quantize to 1/16th notes, with 50% strength, and like to add a swing factor of 52%. You can set up a macro so that after selecting your data, you do a single keyboard command and voilà—all three editing operations occur. Keyb...

5 Tricks to getting a great MIDI bass track  1. How to get rid of a hangover  Most bass lines are single notes, and because bassists lift fingers, mute strings, and pick, there's going to be a space between notes. Go through your MIDI sequence note by note and make sure that no note extends over another note's attack (Fig. 1). If two note...

Way back in 1996 — around the time electricity was discovered and cell phones were the size of your average 4-slot toaster — two Italian engineers got together to solve a problem in a recording studio. Could you get the sound of classic analog gear from a computer? One of them said (in Italian, of course) "Could we emulate electronic circuits using...

Tristan is an acoustic musician and a coder so he combined his skills in this musical performance.   What worked and what didn't Tristan tried a number of different types of motors for his robot including Car Door Locks, Stepper Motors and Solenoids, but they were all too noisy for the acoustic application he was ...

You can "humanize" sequences that have been quantized too rigidly by tweaking the start times for individual notes or phrases. Ignore any menu item called "humanization," because this usually just adds randomness—that's not what makes timing human (unless the human in question had too much to drink). Instead, alter note timings manually or use a "s...

Six New Companies Join the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) at Winter NAMM 2019  With the MIDI 2.0 specification moving forward, more and more new companies are joining the MMA. Blokas (https://blokas.io/)  is the team behind PiSound, an ultra-low latency high-quality sound card and MIDI interface specially de...

​Complimentary Summer NAMM registration for TMA members!Thanks to NAMM (the National Association of Music Merchants), we have complimentary registration through June 13 for MIDI Association members to the Summer NAMM show which happens this year in Nashville from June 28-30. Summer NAMM is open to all NAMM members as well as professionals and ...

When audio plug-ins entered the mainstream, MIDI plug-ins took somewhat of a backseat because they weren't the "shiny new toy" in town. However with MIDI's resurgence, companies are paying more attention to MIDI plug-ins. For example Cubase has always had a great roster of MIDI effects, Ableton Live almost gives parity with MIDI and audio plug-ins,...

One of the main differences between music recorded in the past and today's recordings is the use of click tracks to maintain a constant tempo. We can debate whether this is a good idea or not, but here's an easy-to-do tempo track tweak that can add a lot of impact to a song. Short, subliminal pauses can create a fleeting sensation of tension and an...

Earlier this month, Roland unveiled the biggest enhancements yet to the Roland Cloud platform. These include the introduction of the ZENOLOGY software synthesizer, new membership options, and the ability to buy Lifetime Keys to individual instruments.Since its inception, Roland Cloud has grown into a collection of more than 50 instruments—including...

Geert Bevins' watch app lets you wear your MIDI controller on your wristGeert Bevin (who was one of the main people who developed MIDI Polyphonic Expression)  recently released MIDIWrist.  MIDIWrist truns your Apple Watch intoa MIDI controller. Here is a pre-release demo using the Moog Model D iPhone app (Geert does a lot of wor...

ReWire is a software protocol that allows two (or sometimes more) software applications to work together as one integrated program. For example, suppose you wish your DAW of choice had Propellerhead Reason's roster of way cool virtual instruments, but you don't want to learn a different DAW. No problem: use ReWire with your DAW, and get Reason into...

 The best new way to learn piano. Learning with flowkey is easy and fun. Practice notes and chords interactively and receive instant feedback The idea behind flowkey is simple: "learn piano with songs you love." And the flowkey app makes it easy to learn your favorite songs, whether your level is that of a Beginner, Intermediate, Adv...