A month till namm... (speculations)

Bachus · Post by **Bachus** » Sun Dec 18, 2016 4:49 pm

So what to expect at Namm from the major brands (keyboards) or later in 2017

- Korg SV2
- Yamaha Tyros 6
- Roland RD800 NX
- Nord Stage 3

These are all model upgrades, sad but true, i dont expect anything gamechanging current Namm... i think if one of these 4 makes the show... we atleast have something to chat about..

Koekepan · Post by **Koekepan** » Sun Dec 18, 2016 6:44 pm

I took a look at my crystal ball, and watched the SonicState NAMM coverage in the future. It's real trippy, yo.

Teenage Engineering OP-Z: amazing! Does incredible visual synthesis! Costs $2K and ships "whenever they feel like it". Fanboys shank each other on the floor of NAMM to get to touch it.

KORG Volca Wave (wavetable), Volca Spectrum (FFT synthesis), Volca KS (Karplus-Strong), MegaTribe (marriage of MicroArranger and Electribe). Nobody admits to being impressed, but they sell like hotcakes. A mysterious masked man with a complex flipchart explains to a mystified Nick Batt how the Illuminati are collaborating with the Rosicrucians to infiltrate KORG as part of a plot to counter Freemasons by inhibiting keyboard skills, thereby preventing the Freemasons from using music to summon their alien allies. With his usual aplomb, Nick asks the mysterious stranger a few questions about aftertouch, pulse width modulation, and xenharmonics before moving on to the next booth.

Casio CTK8088 - a stage piano with a touchscreen and updated synthesis/effects, intended to be a full-blown composition workstation. It's actually surprisingly competent, amazingly cheap, and because it's from Casio, it gets roundly panned by people who wouldn't have bought it at the price even if it were a joint venture between Nord and Elektron.

Yamaha FaceOff series of dedicated desktop synths, no keyboards, but at least 16 voice polyphony. They cost $800 each, and do pretty much nothing else, but there's a non-stop stream of people passing the Casio booth to ask where they can buy the FaceOff.

Roland FAIRA update to the AIRA series. Runs on OSC, rather than MIDI. No comment on the rumoured EARTHA and WADDA series supposedly in the works. The Roland rep points out that FAIRA has full polyphonic aftertouch and three degrees of freedom on each key, but because it uses a chromatic button layout like an accordion, nobody wants to buy it. A mysterious masked stranger arrives with a complicated flipchart, and corners Nick Batt to explain how Roland are a spoiler sent by the hidden heirs of Knights Templar and the Mole People to interfere in the conflict between the aliens and the Rosicrucians. Nick Batt, with his usual aplomb, passes some remarks about the difficulty of reliably achieving accurate play on an interface like that before moving on.

The show dissolves into open combat centred around one particular booth. The intrepid SonicState reporters piece together the evidence to tell the world what happened: The dauntless engineers of Bastl managed to create a fully modular synthesis standard, driven by steam rather than electricity. In their demo, they offered a lovely keyboard for people to try, complete with aftertouch, velocity and release sensitivity - but because they used microkeys, the crowd turned ugly, with the tragic result of the untimely shutdown of NAMM2017.

Oh well, all those musicians were getting spoiled anyway. Send them back to carving their own flutes from the bones of deer they killed.

Kontrol49 · Post by **Kontrol49** » Sun Dec 18, 2016 8:48 pm

Here's hoping that the Full sized Key Karp Oddysey prototype recently seen in some pics at a synth convention will be announced.

Interested to see what comes from the Clavia camp,they've recently discounted the NLA1 and NL4 models so that's maybe a clue that something new is coming into their Synth Line,I'd like to see a new edition to the Modular line or a new Wave synth.

Koekepan · Post by **Koekepan** » Mon Dec 19, 2016 12:50 am

After some caffeine, and more serious consideration...

I would not be at all surprised if we got a Tyros 6 (or at least a major software update) at this point.

On the other hand, I don't really foresee much big from Yamaha along the lines of the Montage for a while.

I could see KORG expanding the Volca line, but I could quite seriously see something like an Electribe Pro. Maybe also a Kross update? I don't mean physical hardware, but the software.

Roland have brought out a lot of goodies in the last six months, so I think that they may be tapped out for a bit - unless they're finding some kind of add-ons to their latest developments.

For smaller market members:
I rather hope to see the KDJ-ONE in full production. The latest rumour suggested that they were pinning that down. The OP-Z would also be interesting, if they're still working on it.

Do you think that Eigenlabs might provide an embedded synthesis tool, rather than tethering everyone to general purpose computers?

Bachus · Post by **Bachus** » Mon Dec 19, 2016 7:50 am

Koekepan wrote: Roland have brought out a lot of goodies in the last six months, so I think that they may be tapped out for a bit - unless they're finding some kind of add-ons to their latest developments.

the RD 800 is 4 years old now..

And there is a whole lot of new piano technollogy available from Roland
I definately think they want to show off their PHA-50 keybed in their high end stage piano..

BasariStudios · Post by **BasariStudios** » Mon Dec 19, 2016 1:58 pm

I know new Tuner are coming out.

Timo · Post by **Timo** » Mon Dec 19, 2016 2:25 pm

I yearn for a new Virus with touchscreen. All Access' time has been taken up with Kemper Amps and the poor Virus has been neglected for many years now.

Bachus · Post by **Bachus** » Mon Dec 19, 2016 4:20 pm

Timo wrote:I yearn for a new Virus with touchscreen. All Access' time has been taken up with Kemper Amps and the poor Virus has been neglected for many years now.

Definately in need of an update... VA should not be forgotten in the current era of Analogue revival..

Koekepan · Post by **Koekepan** » Tue Dec 20, 2016 1:04 am

Obviously I've been driven insane by too much playing with sequencers, but ...

Now all I can think of is some clever plan by Waldorf, by which they make a hardware device that can provide sound for an Eigenharp, as well as a Roli Seaboard.

Sold as a package, an Eigenharp Pico and the Waldorf M, for $1,000. You know you'd want it.

chelsea4023 · Post by **chelsea4023** » Tue Dec 20, 2016 2:09 am

Hi,

I expect/hope to see a replacement for the Casio PX5-S stage piano sometime in 2017.

There should also be a replacement for the Tyros 5. Some people are speculating that it will be called a Genos. Wait and see on that one.

I'm also pretty hopeful that Key B/DLQ of Italy in conjunction with Viscount Organs of Italy will be showing their new Hammond clone/drawbar organs at NAMM 2017. There are already videos on Youtube of the Legend and the Live. All they need now is to get them shipped through the viscount network.

Chris

BasariStudios · Post by **BasariStudios** » Tue Dec 20, 2016 6:06 pm

Modules...and more Modules!

Koekepan · Post by **Koekepan** » Tue Dec 20, 2016 6:37 pm

That would be interesting. More modular pieces that are MS20 compatible, rather than eurorack or something else.

BasariStudios · Post by **BasariStudios** » Tue Dec 20, 2016 8:43 pm

Koekepan wrote:That would be interesting. More modular pieces that are MS20 compatible, rather than eurorack or something else.

I am waiting for AMSynth to release his next Batch of the ARP 2600 VCO and VCF.

michelet · Post by **michelet** » Tue Dec 20, 2016 10:20 pm

Well, the Kronos project is long in the tooth. Although Korg product specialists say there's a lot under the hood, I think the music industry last instruments for 4-6 years maximum, then a radical change happen.

All that said, I think Kronos has a wonderful operating system and features that run on a lame hardware.
Korg should increase the quality of the components, processors, memory, storage solutions while keeping the price tag similar.

From Winter NAMM and/or Frankfurt Musik Messe I'd also expect a downgraded Kronos in place of M3.

GregC · Post by **GregC** » Wed Dec 21, 2016 12:30 am

michelet wrote:
1)All that said, I think Kronos has a wonderful operating system and features that run on a lame hardware.
Korg should increase the quality of the components, processors, memory, storage solutions while keeping the price tag similar.

2)From Winter NAMM and/or Frankfurt Musik Messe I'd also expect a downgraded Kronos in place of M3.

1)I would like that, too. But I have my doubts about this happening over the next few months. There are many Kronos 2's in the marketplace ( at least here in the US). As a rule, I have not seen Korg release/announce a significantly improved model while the current model was widely available.

2) The M3 has not been produced for some years.