Keyboard

Richie Lawrence, of The Loose Acoustic Trio, talks about using his accordions live and in the studio.  

If you had your choice between a keyboard made by an air conditioning company or a keyboard made by a reputable instrument company that had been run over with a vehicle, which would you pick? The Black Angels picked both.  

Stephen Kay and Karma-Lab bust out another set of combis: Chemistry 3 "Groove Injection!" In conjunction with Paul Osborn and Eric J. Sawyer, Chemistry 3 adds more KARMA-fied sounds to your Karma or Triton with appropriate software.  

Although his first major venture into synthesis involved custom-rigging synths for Rick Wakeman, Larry Fast became an overnight electronic music sensation with his first Synergy release, "Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra". In this interview, Larry talks about working with Moog, FM Synthesis, and helping Peter Gabriel bring his Musique concrète fantasies to life.  

In the Final Season of Head of the Class, Billy Connolly took over for the well-loved Howard Hesseman, original principal in the ground-breaking sitcom. Fans were worried at first, but soon fell in love will Connolly's wit, charm and crazy accent. I'm sure Yamaha's new P85 will fare just as well as it takes over for the lauded P70. Plus, it probably won't get canceled after one season.  

Seth Vanek of the band Roommate and Milquetoast Sounds takes us on a tour of Milquetoast's "live room." It's chock full of vintage synths, acoustic pianos and percussive instruments.  

Bill Holland Recaps his reactions to this year's Winter NAMM. While many drooled over gear they couldn't possibly afford without taking out a second mortgage, Bill decided to look at things he might actually buy for himself.  

At Winter NAMM 2008, Rhodes had some incredible new Mark 7 pianos with keys that feel like they're made out of the flesh of angels. Improvements have been added, but nothing has changed about the fact that Mark 7s are authentic Rhodes pianos.  

We went to Mark Mothersbaugh's Mutato Muzika for the real scoop on a MIDI Piano that Albert Fox had been talking up. Albert expected us to believe that the piano plays on its own based on digital information stored on floppy disks. We still think it's ghosts.  

The CME VX Series is unique in that its the only keyboard on the market with motorized faders. Don't believe me? I didn't believe me either, so I Googled "keyboard motorized faders," and it turned out I was right.  

Berlin keyboardist Mitchell Sigman proves that the M-Audio ProKeys series does more than just act as a controller. The built-in sounds are a key component to the appeal of this item.  

MIDI Mel shows us the CME UF80, a wireless keyboard with a nice operating range.  

The Korg Pa500 makes music pretty easy, and even though some may argue that easily music is not a good thing, a sizable army of new and versatile musicians could aptly argue back in defense of Korg's new arranger.  

If the Kurzweil PC3 and PC3X were suitcases, you'd basically need some sort of medieval torture device to squish it shut. That's because these new workstations are figuratively bursting with all the features and programs that Kurzweil's engineering team could fit into them.  

Roland's flagship synthesizer workstation series, the Fantom, brings it to the next level with the all new Fantom-G8, Fantom-G7, and Fantom-G6, and Winter NAMM 2008. These super-comprehensive workstations have so many features you might have to be reincarnated a few times to use them all.  

CME releases the VX series of controllers that are all packed with at least 64 controllers and at least 49 keys. That's more control than you can shake a stick at, unless you are really good at stick shaking.  

ESI's new K.ON keyboard controller is making waves across the pond. It will soon be available here in the U.S. as well, bringing it's 88 keys and nine endless knobs stateside.  

The Korg M1 turns 20 this year, and as one of the most influential pieces of gear in workstation history, has built up lots of experience. But could it be our next president?  

Yamaha releases its new KX series of USB Keyboard Studios - workstations that function as controllers with plenty of sounds and features built in as well. They'll be on display at Winter NAMM 2008.  

At Winter NAMM 2008, Kurzweil will be showing off some new products, one of which is the PC3X. The PC3X advances leaps and bounds over its predecessors with brand new features and tones that are all Kurzweil quality.  

Electronic musician, Jamie Radford talks about the gear he uses and his plans to create music for the movies  

Remember back in day when Sesame Street was actually fun for parents to watch with their children? Remember back when cookie monster had a serious cookie addiction and there weren't any stage-stealing red muppets running around? Well, then you might want to check out this clip of Herbie Hancock turning children's voices into micro samples.  

Bill Holland thoroughly examines two more patches in the Korg M3. The first is Drums N' Hits, part basic drum patch, other part hits. It's followed up by Horror World, which you can probably imagine just by the name of the patch.  

The Korg M3 Combinator patches in this video include Wah Organ, Brass, and some Ethnic Beats. Bill turns on the KARMA and lets the Wah Organ rip.  

Bill Holland overviews some more patches on the Korg M3, starting with Fireside in this video. He also gets into pads and the velocity options pad users have to work with.  

Bill Holland examines the Beatbox patch on the Korg M3, displaying what happens when you use the keys, the pads, KARMA, the ribbon and X/Y controllers and more.  

Bill Holland is back with more patch work on the Korg M3, and this time he examines two patches. Coming from the cheesy Colored Impressions to the standard Mixed Strings, Bill works on two tones that are a pretty odd couple.  

Gearwire Graveyard is back, and Bill Holland holds a seance to conjure up the history of the Prophet synth series and dig up some dirt on Dave Smith and his conception of MIDI.  

When he was a child, Bill Holland dreamed of being a mailman, but after a traumatic experience with a wily Pomeranian, Bill gave up his dream and became a media producer for Gearwire. Bill revisits his old dream of playing with lots of envelopes in Propellerhead's Reason 4.  

Ever wonder what Tom Cruise would sound like if he were a patch in the M3? The answer lies in this video where POD DOORS ARE OPENING.