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Just checking in

No updates for 2 years, because apart from Look Mum No Computer, Gieskes, Love Hulten, and a few other folks we have covered here in the past, there has not been any “really unusual” new instruments or controllers released to the public. That we know of. Covid followed by a recession and all that?

Prove me wrong and post something. (Other than the CHOMPI, please.)

Sensel Morph — discovered on someone’s FB comment

https://sensel.com/

First product is (finally!) a 3-axis tablet controller with changeable graphic overlays for various uses. The overlays appear to have buttons/sliders molded into the surface. V nice esp for software use. Output is USB MIDI or good-luck-making-it-work Bluetooth. The control/assignment app only works on Windows 10 and MacOS. Draw your own controller layout if you don’t like what they offer. Can even use it as a typing keyboard.

It doesn’t seem to be heavily promoted or I would have noticed it earlier. So buy one.

(And if you find a USB host converter that will output at least 3 CVs plus a trigger, tell us. The ability to control analog would be a biiig plus. Also beg them to make a bigger control surface.)

“It’s a MIDI RING”

https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/13/16868970/enhancia-midi-ring-keyboard-music-effects-ces-2018

Wasn’t something like this made before? Strange to see a music gadget shown at CES, one that only musicians would probably be interested in. Not exactly “general consumer electronics”. Hope they also go to NAMM.

(Also wish The Verge would hire an actual editor to edit the awful posts their “correspondents” keep posting….)

” This terrifying synth installation is powered by human blood “

Dmitry Morozov (previously) does another crazy thing. “It took 18 months for Morozov to collect all 4.5 liters (almost eight pints) of the blood necessary to power the installation, which went through a preservation process and was diluted to seven liters. When brought into contact with the aluminum and copper in the battery, the electrolytes in the blood generate a small electrical current.”

His website blogs the numerous devices and installations he’s done in recent years, and lists older devices under “Instruments”. He really cranks out the ideas.

!!VURT!!

Mentioned in an incoherent Matrixsynth post in 2009 and almost ignored since then. As far as we can find, it was made in 1958 and uses twelve Tesla bench audio oscillators to generate an octave (FYI the Tesla company was the largest electronics manufacturer in Czechoslovakia in the Communist era); with unspecified top-octave dividers to do the lower pitches. Might be all-tube as far as we can tell. It appears to have primitive pitch and other controls for each key. Thus is more like an electronic organ with expansions than anything else. “Synthesizer” is really pushing it. Three whole octaves!

Anyone wanting to learn more will have to physically go to the Czech Museum of Music and ask intrusive questions. Only one was built and it’s kept in a sealed glass case.

Roli puts out a new Seaboard

https://roli.com/products/blocks/seaboard-block

And the worst part: people post it on social media and snipey little nobodies start attacking it for being “too expensive” and “oh I heard the keys were wrong or too close together or something” or “it doesn’t work with suchandsuch gear”, whine whine whine. Have a look at this Facebook thread for a perfect example. (Warning: you must be a member of the “Synthesizers and Drum Machines” FB group to see it.)

Nowhere else online can I find negative comments or reviews of Roli controllers — the tech and music blogs who covered it had good things to say. And NO ONE screamed that $299 was “too expensive”.

Facebook is a haven for petty attacks. For all I know the people on that thread were employed by competitors and being paid to knock down any innovative product. Seen it happen on Wikipedia over and over and Facebook is perfect for this kind of “carpet bombing”.