Marco Parisi plays an amazing version Jimi Hendrix’ Little Wing on the Seaboard RISE, a wonderful example how expressive per-note controllers make musical performance so much more emotional.
The de-facto MPE specification, written by the consortium of interested companies, has now matured into an official MMA working group. The aim is to get all MMA companies on board and make this an official MIDI specification that can be adopted by the whole music industry. This is a very exciting step for expressive electronic music!
Kyma 7 being controlled by LinnStrument using the new MPE (Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression) MIDI standard!
Kyma automatically puts the LinnStrument into MPE mode when you connect; once connected, any keyboard-controlled Sound in Kyma automatically sets the polyphony and responds to the LinnStrument — no extra controllers are needed, and you don’t have to select a special mode on the LinnStrument — so you literally plug it in and play.
A late night venture into electro (or someone other e-genre) using the LinnStrument with U-he Bazille’s per-note expression and Logic Pro X’s Drummer. Everything played in one take without editing and using a single synth patch.
Oval is in its last stretch, I’m really looking forward to this electronic instrument, I think it might be the first one that feels intimate, immediate and expressive.
Jordan Rudess wrote a very interesting article about alternative controllers for Keyboard Magazine. The print version contains a distilled version, but the full text is available on Keyboard Magazine’s blog and well worth a read.
Jordan nicely explains why alternative controllers are a big deal and how to approach them. He then summarizes what the strengths are of each different controller.
This article is a perfect document for anyone that is looking for an introduction into alternative controllers or that is evaluating which instrument to adopt.
Today we released a long-awaited update to Animoog with fixes and improvements for the modern iOS landscape (iOS 8, 64 bit devices, latest Audiobus, IAA, …).
An important improvement is that Animoog will now properly handle full-rate MIDI coming from the Eigenharp, LinnStrument, Continuum, … The massive amount of expression messages used to sometimes put Animoog into a weird state. We tracked this bug down and fixed it, making Animoog an excellent choice for any controller that supports polyphonic aftertouch!
Here’s a summary of the changes:
Stable support for iOS 8
Stable support for 64-bit devices
Revised timbres panel with categories (touch-hold timbre in category for preview)
Fixes for timbres showing up with domain name prefixes
Audiobus input slot compatibility fixes
Virtual Animoog MIDI ports are now always available even if no port is explicitly selected
Improved IAA instrument compatibility (IAA transport panel will be done for a future release)
Use with any buffer size from 128 to 4096 (256 being the intended size for all supported devices)
Fixes for restore purchase functionality
Improved in-app store layout and interaction
iTunes File Sharing access to timbres, presets and projects
Removed import/export preset from setup panel since iTunes File Sharing should cover all needs
Added timbre category list under ‘random preset’ to enable/disable categories to randomize timbres from
4-track recorder fixes for loading clips, pasting clips and AudioPaste
4-track project fixes for save/load/delete/share
4-track now remains unlocked when not connected to network
Pitch bend range is now always saved with presets and correctly loads from presets when this option is active
Pitch and mod strips now light up with incoming MIDI
Hold button now more clearly show when it’s active
Manual MIDI CC input now ensures only numbers can be entered
Keyboard scale selection now doesn’t misbehave after selecting the whole tone scale
Preset panel is laid out more consistently
Resuming after interruptions from Siri now reactivates audio
Proper handling of large amounts of MIDI expression data, coming from alternative controllers
