Gadgetoid

Building upon the sucess of Yamaha’s MM6 “Mini Mo” synthesizer the new Yamaha MM8 Music Synthesizer will also feature sounds from the Motif Series. however this larger sibling of the MM6 will boast an 88-note Graded Hammer action Yamaha keyboard making it essentially a full-sized version of the MM6 with all the features that made the MM6 successful.

Unfortunately the one gripe I’ve always had with the MM6, looks, has not been fixed; the Yamaha MM8 still boasts the ugly, boxy, grey exterior. This could, perhaps, be part of the reason behind the MM6 and MM8s budget pricing and I am almost convinced to let Yamaha off for sacrificing superfluous design in favour of producing solid audio products at such affordible prices. However Yamaha have proven themselves masters of attractive design (You need only look to the slimline Clavinova series) so I remain somewhat let down by the Yamaha MM8s aesthetic that somehow manages to be a step back from the consumer DGX series Yamaha I owned years ago. Curves, please, Yamaha.

There’s no word yet on when this will be available in Europe, but it’s set to drop in the states in July for $1,299.99 placing it well below more professional synthesizers in the price spectrum.

Digital Village also have the Yamaha MM8 available for pre-order at £699, putting it in a similar ball park to the Roland Juno G and the Korg Triton TR61 in price. Not a bad price at all for a budget synth with an 88-note Graded Hammer action keyboard! This makes the Yamaha MM8 look like a solid choice as a master keyboard offering both portable synthesis and VST or rack control.

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It’s not often you find a product changing the way you work, normally you pick something you expect to fit in with your workflow and go with it. Being a journalist I end up trying products I would not normally consider for purchase and just occasionally I find them becoming irreplaceable.

The Novation Remote 61SL is one such product. As an owner of a Roland Fantom X8 I was heading down the road of live audio recording from hardware synthesizers, but this posed two problems that I did not fully recognise until getting my hands upon the Novation Remote 61SL

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Just when I thought the Roland Juno-D couldn’t possibly get any better Roland have thrown a curve ball and crammed more awesome sounds into their already incredibly good value for money package. This might be somewhat dissapointing for anyone who has just bought a vanilla Juno-D, but remember you’ve still bought into the best budget Synth on the market.

The Roland Juno-D Limited Edition, looks and feels the same as the regular Juno-D, the only difference is in the sounds. Roland have packed in a realistic multi-sampled 88-note piano which puts the Juno-Ds old piano patches to shame and sounds exceptionally good for such a low-end synth. (Yes, I have tested it for myself) The piano patch isn’t the only new sound, however, the Juno-D limited edition also boasts new organ patches recorded by none other than Jon Lord plus some vintage synth sounds and electric pianos. Some of the new synth sounds are excellent and do exceptionally well to compliment the Juno-D’s already fantastic set of sounds.

If you’ve been eyeing the Juno-D then the Limited Edition should really be the icing on the cake for you. I will either be replacing or complimenting my existing Juno-D with this beauty shortly.

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For the aspiring, mobile and professional computer DJs Numark have got three potential solutions for you. Total, Mobile and Professional. These are all, if the “in a box” didn’t give you a clue, one box DJ solutions that eliminate the need to choose software, a controller, an audio interface and headphones.

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Akai have released another high end entry into the MIDI controller fray in the form of the MPK49 which boasts 12 MPC Drum Pads and a 49-key semi-weighted keyboard with aftertouch in addition to the usual combination of knobs and faders totaling up to 76 assignable controls.

It’s in the same ballpark as the Novation Remote SL series and those drum pads could just place it first for many musicians. The MPK49 also has an onboard arpeggiator which is handy if your sequencer either doesn’t have one or you find it complex or inconvenient to use.

The Akai MPK49 is currently in stock at Digital Village or you can check out Froogle for a range of prices/retailers.

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Due in March, Roland’s new RD-GX pianos are a sight for sore eyes. Adopting the design aesthetic of the Juno-D, V-Synth GT and Roland Fantom G series the RD-700GX and RD-300GX Digital Stage Pianos boast a stunning black aluminium surface.

Looks aren’t the only thing the new RD-GX has borrowed from the Fantom G series, however, as the pianos boast an electric-piano sound back derived from Roland’s new and unique SuperNATURAL technology. This allows for new depths of realism, expression and control.

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The little known TerraTec, producer of some pretty damned good products in my opinion, are now offering a USB edition of their popular 6Fire PCI audio board.

The unofficial successor to the DMX 6Fire 24/96 has been completely overhauled to deliver oodles more performance and pump out 96bits/192kHz via a USB 2.0 interface.

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It’s official, and it’s drool-inducing. The Fantom G series synthesizers will drop in April to take the torch from the X series and become Roland’s new flagship synth. The G series will come in 3 familiar flavors; the G6, G7 and G8 but there is unfortunately no sign of a rack alternative.

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The Korg MicroKORG is an impressive, ultra-portable and robust
synthesizer which makes up for its diminuiative size and somewhat
controversial half-sized keyboard in droves with powerful synthesizing
features including a vocoder, arpeggiator, effects and 128 genre-grouped
pre-programmed patches to get you inspired and playing music out of the box.
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Cubase 4.1 is now available for download absolutely free for users of Cubase 4 and Cubase Studio 4. Many areas of Cubase have been re-engineered and updated to offer more speed and flexibility for musicians, producers and composers and there are additional features as detailed over the fold.

You can head on over to the Cubase 4 downloads page and grab the 4.1 update now.

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