Native Instruments Giant Piano (Video Review)

Native Instruments has introduced The Giant – a new piano virtual instrument:

Sampled in amazing detail, THE GIANT is a unique instrument with an extremely strong low end, crystalline highs, rich overtones, plenty of punch, and a colossal sonic spectrum – from the devastating to the sublime.

This powerful sound is easily enhanced and modified to fit your productions. 40 meticulously-tweaked presets provide production-ready starting points, and detailed control features let you precisely shape the sound in every dimension, making the instrument supremely versatile, whatever the project.

THE GIANT is two instruments in one. A dark, cinematic alter ego, effectively a separate instrument alongside the main piano, offers an irresistible playground for sound design and dramatic effects. Create your own mix of unconventional, individually-sampled sound sources – overtones, resonances, plucked strings, release sounds and special techniques such as piano hits, kicks, sweeps or scratches – all directly and instantly playable from the interface, delivering professional results with a fast workflow.

These avant-garde sounds are also enhanced with detailed control options and a dedicated FX convolution engine with over 100 special piano effect impulse responses.

The original instrument is the Klavins Piano Model 370i. The ‘i’ stands for integrated – this huge upright piano is built into the wall of a room, effectively securing the soundboard. Over three meters high and weighing over two tons, the Klavins Piano Model 370i provides a soundboard that’s roughly twice the size of a typical 9′ concert grand piano soundboard.

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Spectrasonics’ Eric Persing Releases 78 OmniSphere Patches To Honor Bob Moog’s 78th Birthday

In honor of the anniversary of Bob Moog’s 78th birthday, Spectrasonics has released 78 new Omnisphere patches for the Bob Moog Tribute Library.

The new ‘birthday’ patches were created by Spectrasonics founder Eric Persing. With the new patches, the tribute library now features over 800 sounds for Omnisphere.

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Moog’s Chief Engineer Explains The MiniGoog Moog Doodle Synth

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In celebration of Bob Moog‘s birthday, Google created an awesome web based synthesizer – the Moog Doodle Synthesizer, aka the ‘MiniGoog’.

In this video, Moog’s Chief engineer, Cyril Lance, explains the doodle’ s capabilities and how they relate to the classic MiniMoog design.

via MoogMusicInc

Maago Intros 4×4 DJ Controller & 4×4 Virtual Controller For iOS

Maago has introduced a new hardware DJ controller, the 4×4, along with a virtual version of it for iOS, the 4×4 Virtual.

The Maago 4×4, shown above, is designed to give you ‘total control over Traktor’. Here’s what they have to say about it:

With more than 20 knobs and 40 buttons, this new hardware is built in a sturdy aluminum case and will be the perfect controller for all TRAKTOR PRO™ versions and any DJ software that supports the MIDI protocol. Simply connect the Maago 4×4 unit to a computer running TRAKTOR™ (or other DJ software) and gain instant control of your 4 decks, 4 effect parameters, loop controls, etc, all at same time and with no need to use the shift button to reach all these functions. High quality rotary knobs with a heavy-duty feel and 40 backlit buttons provide real visual and tactile feedback of your workflow, letting you perform on TRAKTOR™ without having to touch your computer.

Hardware Details

  • Buttons and knobs:
  • 40 high quality back lit buttons
  • 71 high quality buttons
  • 42 high quality small buttons
  • 11 high quality rotary enconders
  • 8 high quality knobs
  • 4 leds
  • Connections:
    • 2 USB ports / 1 Midi out + 1 Midi in
  • Dimensions:
    • 120 mm (4.7? ) x 52 mm (2?) x 294mm (11.5?)

    Pricing and availability are to be announced. See the Maago site for details.

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    Google Honors Bob Moog, Turns Search Engine Into A Synth!

    Google is honoring Bob Moog‘s birthday with a special interactive Moog style synth.

    Moog’s birthday is May 23rd, so the interactive ‘doodle’ was active in Australia and Japan first, and is now active in the US. The browser-based synth not only lets you play notes, but you can use the controls to shape the sound.

    Here’s what Google has to say about their Moog tribute:

    With his passion for high-tech toolmaking in the service of creativity, Bob Moog is something of a patron saint of the nerdy arts and a hero to many of us here.

    So for the next 24 hours on our homepage, you’ll find an interactive, playable logo inspired by the instruments with which Moog brought musical performance into the electronic age. You can use your mouse or computer keyboard to control the mini-synthesizer’s keys and knobs to make nearly limitless sounds.

    Keeping with the theme of 1960s music technology, we’ve patched the keyboard into a 4-track tape recorder so you can record, play back and share songs via short links or Google+.

    We tested out the ‘MiniGoog’ in Chrome – so your results may vary in other browsers.

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    DJ Template For Livid OhmRGB

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    Developer Will Marshall sent word of his DJ Template for the Livid OhmRGB:

    I’ve just released a new version of my existing Ableton DJ template for the Livid Instruments OhmRGB.

    While my APC template has been quite popular (it even showed up on Synthtopia a couple of times), I’ve had numerous requests to add support for the Livid controllers, so here’s the first one :)

    The DJ Template Pro is available now for $20 at Marshall’s site.

    Marshall adds, “Enjoy das blinkenlichts”.

    gTar iPhone Guitar Has Three Levels Of Difficulty + USB/MIDI

    Incident Technologies has introduced the gTar, a hybrid iPhone dock + music controller guitar that’s described as ‘the first guitar that anybody can play’.

    The gTar uses digital sensors to sense your finger position and then the iPhone is used for sound generation.

    The guitar offers three levels of difficulty/playability:

    • If you’ve never played the guitar before, start with Easy, where you only need to play the open strings. This gives you the chance to start playing your favorite songs right away while getting a hands on feel for the strings. SmartPlay is in effect here, so if you hit the wrong string, you won’t hear anything.
    • When you’ve graduated from Easy, you can move up to Medium and start playing the frets and strings at the same time. Smart Play is still in effect, so you can continue to play without the fear of messing up.
    • When you’ve mastered a song and want to take it to the next level, try playing in Hard. Here, the gTar will continue to display the correct notes, but allows you to play whatever you want. SmartPlay stops working here, so every note you play will ring out.

    Several aspects of the gTar may make it interesting for electronic musicians:

    • The gTar is USB-MIDI compliant. Incident says that they’ll “be releasing some tutorials and hacks soon!”, if you’re interested in hacking the gTar to create/perform music.
    • They also plan to offer an SDK in the future, for people that are interested in building apps for the gTar.

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    SoundPrism 2.5 Released – Here’s What’s New

    Audanika has released an update to its iOS software synth, SoundPrism.

    Here’s what’s new in SoundPrism 2.5:

    •  Retina Support for the new iPad
    • MIDI-In: Control SoundPrism with other MIDI controllers and apps
    • Vastly improved MIDI-capabilities (local-off, dedicated Virtual-MIDI-ports, etc.)
    • Improvements in usabilty
    • Fullscreen Mode has been moved to the Settings App so it won’t be triggered by accident

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    DJ Shakey & Her VoltAxe Controller For Ableton Live

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    Saturday Synth PornDubspot had controllerist Julie Covello, better known as DJ Shakey of NYC’s Warper Party, in for a set as part of the final week of their Ableton Live educational program.

    In this video, Covello explains her custom Ableton Live controller, the VoltAxe. The Voltaxe combines multiple controllers into one to create a dual-necked Franken-controller. It was built with a Novation Launchpad, two USB MIDI controlers from Korg NanoSeries 2, Kensington Expert Pro Turbo Trackball Mouse, acustom eyepiece, foam board and custom cabling power.

    via DubSpot