Nick at Sonic State gives the Keith McMillen Instruments QuNeo MIDI controller a thorough workout. He calls the QuNeo “an unusual and extremely powerful 3D MIDI controller” with “massive amounts of control potential”.
The QuNeo differs from other common MIDI controllers by sensing pressure, velocity and location. It’s available for about $200.
For more on the new controller, see our earlier QuNeo posts and the KMI site.
If you’ve tried the QuNeo, let us know what you think of it!
via sonicstate
In this video, Neil of airusersblog takes a detailed look at the advanced features of the Arturia Mini V, a software emulation of the classic MiniMoog synthesizer.
Features in the latest version of Mini V include:
We got a nice surprise in the mail at Synthtopia this week – a vinyl LP of synth music by Swiss synthesist Bruno Ender Lee.
Long time readers of Synthtopia will be familiar with Lee’s live synth jam videos from our Sunday Synth Jam series. Lee’s music is explicitly in the space music category, with titles like Hyperspace, Mindsong and Moonsphere. Though Lee has clearly been inspired by classic Berlin school music, especially the work of Klaus Schulze, his albums, now in the dozens, define a unique vision for this genre.
Here’s another video review of the new Arturia Mini Brute analog synthesizer, via Russ of the airusersblog.
The bottom line? He calls it ‘a fantastic analog synth’.
Land Of The Rising Sun is a new CD of synth music from Berlin Heritage.
WIth a group called Berlin Heritage, you probably expect to hear some old-school analog synth sounds and Berlin School style sequencing – and Land Of The Rising Sun delivers.
The first track, Long Journey To Different Temples, for example, is an epic 34:50 sonic trip through intricate sequences, washes of synth strings, vocal synth pads, deep drones, Minimoog solo explorations – and more sequences.
The next track, Spectral Enso, is an extended drone piece. It mixes gentle sequences and phased synth pads to create blissful textures. Zen seems like it could be a lost 70′s synth music classic. It’s structured in an A B A form, starting with drones and Mellotron-style flute a la Tangerine Dream’s Sorceror, building to a more propulsive sequenced section with Minimoog soloing and then returning to the more reflective mood of the beginning.
The album ends with Flying Cranes in Slow Motion, the shortest track on the album at 8:27. The track has a relaxed, hymn-like quality. Synth organ/string pads are used in slowly changing chord progressions, over a deep bass pedal point. These are accented by quiet, percussive synth notes that create an effect almost like distant birds.
Berlin Heritage’s Land Of The Rising Sun harkens back to the classic synth music of the 70′s, evoking at times artists like Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze. But, rather than sounding imitative, Berlin Heritage uses vintage sounds to create a ‘second generation Berlin School’ sound, taking some of the best elements of classic Berlin School synth music and looking forward, instead of back.
Land Of The Rising Sun is available via Amazon or the Spheric Music label site. Audio demos are available at the Spheric site.
Nick from Sonic State takes a look at the EIE Pro – a 96kHZ 24-bit USB audio interface that offers 4 channels in and out, MIDI and a USB hub.
If you’ve used the EIE Pro, let us know what you think of it!