NAMM RUMOURS?

McHale · Post by **McHale** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 2:59 am

...especially with companies doing their big reveals of new products on the internet in advance.

John Bowen's Solaris is the biggest thing IMHO. Everything else is same ol' same ol' for me.

-Mc

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 8:53 am

McHale wrote: John Bowen's Solaris is the biggest thing IMHO. Everything else is same ol' same ol' for me.

I've watched all of the youtube vids for the Solaris. Whilst it looks exciting, with a very innovative interface, It just doesn't seem capable of producing any interesting sounds. I don't know if this is just the demos they've got, but every sound they do with it seems pretty raw and basic, and very cold and digital sounding.
I wasn't very impressed with the oscillator options, or the effects, or even the filter options, there's just nothing new....

Synthoid · Post by **Synthoid** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 1:40 pm

McHale wrote:John Bowen's Solaris is the biggest thing IMHO.

That was introduced quite awhile ago--seems it took longer than originally expected to get to market.

Post by **Sharp** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 2:06 pm

Sorry to say but I think I've got to the point where the mere mention of yet another Synth like the Solaris doesn't excite me at all. They just don't produce anything even remotely interesting any more to me.

PCM based synthesis is just so much more interesting to me because there's endless waveforms to modulate, warp and twist.

Regards
Sharp.

gjvti · Post by **gjvti** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 4:37 pm

what I'm still missing in my hardware setup is nonlinear midi/wave sequencer - a hardware ableton live. Obviously the closest contenders so far are elektron monomachine, which in my opinion has limited machine and pattern management and storage (no PC or SD flash support) and doesn't offer wave play/trigger (not essential to me actually), or probably akai mpc 5000, but none of them seem convincing enough (from what is available on youtube) and none is available for testdrive in my area and, honestly, I do not expect any ableton live like hardware solution on the market anytime soon

- so for me there is nothing to hope at namm.

afr · Post by **afr** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 5:05 pm

@ Winter Namm 2010, kurzweil will present PC3K

http://www.kurzweilmusicsystems.com/NewsStory.php?id=21

............ and korg

Hugo · Post by **Hugo** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:52 pm

afr wrote:@ Winter Namm 2010, kurzweil will present PC3K

http://www.kurzweilmusicsystems.com/NewsStory.php?id=21

............ and korg

Mindblowing. This should make the Kurtzweil PC3K a major contendor to the big 3 and their workstations. I fear, however, that many will think 128mb memory is "not enough", and that it should have featured full blown sampling. Personally I would of course have liked to see this myself, but having non-volatile memory is MAJOR. And the PC3 has a totally mindbending synth engine that features more deep programming possibilities than the competition.

16 simultaneous arpeggiators.
128 Voice Polyphony.
16 insert effects + master eq & compressor.
VA synth engine onboard

ksounds · Post by **ksounds** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:21 pm

16 inserts is very welcome, but I expect a lot of that power may be needed to compensate for the lack of per-part EQ's. (Similar scenario to the Fantom G in that respect.) If you count the part EQ's on the synths that have them, the M3 has 21 stereo "inserts," the OASYS has 28, and the Motif ES and XS series have 32 (16 part EQ's plus 8x2 inserts).

What's cool about the PC3's VA section is that it's integrated into the regular voicing system. You can select a VA waveform in place of the multisample and send it through the filters (etc.) like the samples. This means the PC3 can function as a 128-voice VA synth - quite impressive.

Adding RAM for user samples makes this the first true replacement for the K2600, IMO.

Hugo · Post by **Hugo** » Sun Dec 13, 2009 10:11 pm

ksounds:
Your're probably right about that. Some efx may include some sort of eq'ing, though. And the VA implementation is excellent!
Do you know if the arpeggiators are programmable?

Barbenzinc · Post by **Barbenzinc** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:21 am

Hi there !

Wow, it's been a very long time !
Glad to be here !

ksounds is right about the EQ's, there are no Eq's on the busses...they are on the patches themselves.
In the list of the DSP functions, you have parametrics and semi parametrics EQ's, and you can put them anywhere in the DSP chain.
And because they are a part of the patch, they can have modulations, exactly like a filter, a shaper or another function....(ENV, LFO, PitchWheel etc...)
Of course, in the EFX section there are complex equalizers too...

Speaking about the arpeggiator, you have 16 arps which can run at the same time and each is fully programmable.
And it can behaves like a step-sequencer (2 rows -> pitch and velocity)
The step sequencer is also affect by the arp settings, which gives a lot a possibilities.

I made a demo of the arpeggiator here :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irTRpQUyFfs
the patch at left is a 12 layers program, driven by the arpegiator, configured as a step-sequencer...

Hope you'll like it....

Hugo · Post by **Hugo** » Mon Dec 14, 2009 11:42 pm

Barbenzinc:
That is AWESOME! You totally got me convinced there

And thanks a lot for the info, much appreciated. I guess I'll have to start saving up for a new synth, then

ksounds · Post by **ksounds** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 2:44 pm

Barbenzinc wrote:ksounds is right about the EQ's, there are no Eq's on the busses...they are on the patches themselves.
In the list of the DSP functions, you have parametrics and semi parametrics EQ's, and you can put them anywhere in the DSP chain.
And because they are a part of the patch, they can have modulations, exactly like a filter, a shaper or another function....(ENV, LFO, PitchWheel etc...)
Of course, in the EFX section there are complex equalizers too...

Yes, you do get the option to add EQ in VAST, but it consumes polyphony. Adding a single band of parametric EQ to an existing sound means adding another layer, which consumes an additional note of polyphony for every key you play. I doubt this would be a deal-breaker for anyone, but it's something to be aware of. With 128 voices on the PC3, I doubt this is as limiting as on a 48-voice K2600.

vEddY · Post by **vEddY** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:09 am

Hugo wrote: Mindblowing. This should make the Kurtzweil PC3K a major contendor to the big 3 and their workstations. I fear, however, that many will think 128mb memory is "not enough", and that it should have featured full blown sampling. Personally I would of course have liked to see this myself, but having non-volatile memory is MAJOR. And the PC3 has a totally mindbending synth engine that features more deep programming possibilities than the competition.

Actually, what I like the most about this keyboard is the fact that it (will) support K2xxx sound libraries, which is something Korg keyboards can't do (import Trinity sounds to Triton, Triton's to M3 or Oasys and stuff like that). Yeah, we all "understand the reasons". But it is still frustrating ....

afr · Post by **afr** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 11:41 am

New Yamaha Stage Piano

http://www.yamahasynth.com/products/stage_pianos/

CP1

CP5

CP50

CP Comparison Chart

http://www.yamahasynth.com/jp/library/c ... n_eng.html

Post by **Sharp** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:48 pm

Kurzweil specifications always look like something from the late 90's.
Always expect a tiny ROM and tiny sampler.

Ooooo but it has VAST ...!!!!

Regards
Sharp.