Developers of the Zynthian – an open hardware platform that promises to be a ‘swiss army knife of synthesis’ – have announced Zynthian Kit V5.
ZynthianLabs has introduced Zynthian Kit V5, which they say offers more display, more buttons, more connectivity, more power, more usability, more design, more quality and more integration.
ZynthianLabs says that they are limiting purchases of the Zynthian Kit V5 to a small group, initially, so that they can validate both the Kit and the assembling instructions before opening sales to everyone. Details are available at the Zynthian site.
So what is the point of this post? What does it even do?
from the site: “Well, you can’t do it YET, unless you are in our list and receive an invitation for buying.” “Until then, you can check the shop, but not submit the order.”
It’s a teaser for a new version of this hardware synth & FX environment.
The above article explains the limited roll-out.
This does look very promising– addressing many of the shortcomings and annoyances of working with iOS/Android devices; offering more integration.
I’d guess the software, power & workflows won’t be as slick as working in AUM/iOS, but OTOH, all that built-in connectivity and hardware controls (knobs & buttons) are nothing to sneeze at.
The price seems quite fair considering the scale & scope of this project.
well, i’m pretty excited by this news, i almost got a zynthian but now i’m glad i waited
I was this close to buying the previous version but then opted again for my ipad, which has zillions of apps available at prices from free to relatively cheap, especially now that PianoteQ is also available.
The only thing I envy the Zinthian at the moment is the ability to play a Gigasampler-compatible sampler outside of a PC.
Unfortunately, no one has yet made a Kontakt or Giga player without bank size limitations for the iPad.
Remember when a handful of manufacturers made audio/MIDI “docks” for iPad? That seemed like a pretty useful concept– giving you similar connectivity. Now the crap shoot is whether any i/o device will connect/work from your iOS device without some hoop jumping.
With my iPad, I bought a fairly expensive i/o device, and had to jump through several hoops to get the iPad to “see” it. Must use this (not that) powered USB hub, must connect hub and i/o in a particular order, etc.
My iPad with all my music software is probably THE way to go, but part of me feels the urge to try this– as a kind of break away from the lil walled garden, tedious file management that is iOS. If the software development was robust enough, it could be very promising.
I’d be curious to know if there was a robust “host” like AUM, and a robust sequencer like MultiTrack Studio, and a robust Sampler/Sample-Player like Kontakt. Will keep an eye on this.
I simply use a Lightning to 3USB + SD + socket adapter (very cheap on Amazon) connected to a Zoom U-44 (also incerdibly cheap) that has everything you need. I’ve never had any compatibility problems, it works with just a few cables and with a 512GB SD inserted I can even use all the sampling apps properly without clogging up the iPad’s internal memory.
I still use some mono analogue for important tracks, for the rest, especially for poly synths the ipad replaced all the external racks I had, even the analog ones.
Even the soft VSTi’s I’m using very little because my ipad with the Zoom U-44 always works at 96kHz and especially before going into the DAW I go through an analogue preamp stage which makes it all sound even more credible as “hardware sound”.
Thanks, Erminio. I really appreciate this info. I was looking at iOS i/o yesterday and saw the Zoom U-44, amongst others. The socket adapter seems like a cool thing, too. I need to learn more about how iOS handles attached external card-readers. I always thought that was a no-go.