Tag Archives: MIDI keyboard

Affordable Music Production: The $99 EASYPLAY 1s MIDI Controller with Built-In Speakers

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Small enough to fit in a pocket, lighter than an iPhone, but equipped with a 25+ sound bank, MIDI capabilities, 25 keys, and its own built-in speaker system, the EASYPLAY 1s might just be the easiest way to play music anywhere you go. Music instruments, whether digital or physical, have had a problem of being too expensive, too bulky, or both. The $99 EASYPLAY 1s makes music production and even jamming as simple as pulling the MIDI synth out of your pocket and starting to play. It comes with multiple instruments built-in, a drum machine for you to drop beats, and knobs that let you change octaves and instruments in mere seconds. When you’re done playing with the built-in instrument packs, the EASYPLAY can hook to your laptop or tablet, working as an external synth to let you access millions of other instruments… or even build your own.

Designer: SummerTones

Click Here to Buy Now: $99 $198 (49% off) Hurry! Only 60 hours left!

The beauty of the EASYPLAY 1s is that it rejects the status quo with a design that feels fresh, fun, and inviting. It doesn’t look like an electronic keyboard or piano, and opts for a more retro-funk design that’s reminiscent of something Teenage Engineering would create. The EASYPLAY 1s comes with colored keys, the ability to change keycaps, and a design that encourages endless experimentation. When you start playing with the EASYPLAY 1s, you start afresh – the entire experience feels new, which means you learn new things, stumble across new patterns, and create something that feels absolutely original. With time, muscle memory kicks in, and your fingers figure out how to dance across the EASYPLAY 1s’ 25-key interface.

Think of the Casio synthesizers back in the 80s and 90s, and imagine it condensed down into the size smaller than a Nintendo Switch. The EASYPLAY 1s has a small form factor that can be either used handheld, or even kept on a tabletop surface. Switch it on and it starts working off the bat, allowing you to choose instruments, set your pitch or octave, and begin playing. A set of two 2W speakers on each side is enough to play solo, or if you want something a little more comprehensive, a 3.5mm input lets you hook the EASYPLAY 1s to a set of headphones or even a speaker system. Want to go a step further? A USB-C port lets you hook the device to a computer or tablet running any DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), effectively turning your EASYPLAY 1s into an external synth. Use it to jam, produce music, or even play samples and loops during a deejay set. Heck, you could even use the EASYPLAY 1s as a gaming controller for games like Guitar Hero, or a slew of other key-smashing games.

The small, lightweight device packs its own 25+ bank of music instruments. You can choose between traditional instruments like a guitar, piano, accordion, saxophone, or go more electronic with waveforms like sawtooth or square waves. Two knobs on either side let you choose instruments or octaves, while keys at the center become your MIDI pads, allowing you to tap for singular notes, or press multiple buttons together to create chords. There’s also a built-in metronome that makes playing in rhythm easy when you’re learning or composing, and Bluetooth capabilities that let you connect your EASYPLAY 1s to a smartphone and play along with your favorite songs on Spotify or any other streaming service.

What sets the EASYPLAY 1s apart is its incredibly low barrier for entry. At $99, it’s more affordable than most regular instruments, making it a great addition to your music arsenal, or even a perfect first gift for a youngster interested in music production. The entire device weighs around 6 ounces (170 grams) and is made of durable ABS and Silicone, making it impervious to rough usage. The $99 variant will get you one EASYPLAY 1s and a set of stickers to put on the keys, or upgrade to the full package for $129, which also includes a lanyard, a carry case, and four sets of keycaps to replace the current ones, for a more themed music experience.

Click Here to Buy Now: $99 $198 (49% off) Hurry! Only 60 hours left!

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Yamaha channels ‘Teenage Engineering’ with its incredibly funky SEQTRAK MIDI sequencer

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I distinctly remember the first time I saw the Teenage Engineering OP-1. It was in a Swedish House Mafia music video (One feat. Pharrell), and the entire video was centered around that one gorgeous-looking synth, which the EDM trio even used in their own music production. The song seemed less like a dance track and more like the perfect endorsement of exactly how powerful and incredible the OP-1 synth was. Fourteen glorious years later, Teenage Engineering has absolutely cemented its position as an audio company with a fun streak… and it seems like Yamaha wants a bit of that too. Just last week, the company debuted the SEQTRAK, a funky-looking synth that tries to emulate the casual brilliance of the OP-1.

Designer: Yamaha

The SEQTRAK is a compact, affordable, and highly capable battery-powered MIDI synth that lets you play, sample, remix, loop, and manipulate audio from multiple sources, whether it’s from your laptop, an SD card, or even audio samples recorded on the SEQTRAK’s microphone. It’s got two rows of 12 keys each, a set of dedicated knobs for percussions, synths, and sampling, a few more for sound control and effects, and even a bunch of touch-sensitive sliding pads for working with audio envelopes, passes, and filters. Designed for both hobbyists as well as seasoned professionals, the SEQTRAK lets you do everything from jam to compose, and even occasionally deejay. Who knows, maybe you’ll make a cool music video too??

The SEQTRAK’s petite design is a crucial element in its appeal. Its compact size, fitting comfortably in a laptop bag, makes it an ideal companion for music producers who are always on the move. This portability doesn’t come at the cost of functionality; the SEQTRAK is equipped with a built-in speaker and microphone, allowing for impromptu music sessions wherever inspiration strikes.

Despite its compact form, the SEQTRAK doesn’t compromise on sound quality. It houses two versatile sound engines: the Advanced Wave Memory 2 and a four-operator FM engine. The former supports 128-note polyphony, offering a range of authentic sounds from acoustic instruments to synthesizers. Meanwhile, the FM engine can generate synth pads, leads, FM electric pianos, and more. These features are packed into a unit that sports a playful design, with an orange-gray variant reminiscent of LEGO bricks… or perhaps an unofficial hat-tip to Teenage Engineering with a playfully-minimalist design that we’ve come to expect from the Swedish design studio.

The SEQTRAK is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, catering to both beginners and seasoned music producers. Its one-to-one interface allows producers to take control of their music, effectively turning them into their own DJs. Additionally, the SEQTRAK includes a station sequencer for creating seamless compositions and arrangements. The machine’s station library, with over 2,000 presets of professionally crafted tunes, is a significant resource for experimenting with different styles and sounds.

Yamaha has enhanced the SEQTRAK’s functionality with streamlined connectivity options. The dedicated SEQTRAK app allows users to shape their sound with various editing features. The app also supports adding supplemental content, providing a more comprehensive music production experience. Additionally, Bluetooth MIDI and Wi-Fi functionality are included for wireless connections, further enhancing the unit’s flexibility.

The $599 Yamaha SEQTRAK represents a significant step in the evolution of portable music production. It combines quality sound, intuitive design, and connectivity in a package that’s both affordable and appealing to a wide range of music enthusiasts. Whether you’re a budding producer or a seasoned pro, the SEQTRAK seems to have something for everyone. And at a price that doesn’t hit a sour note, it’s poised to be a hit in the electronic music community. So, if you’ve ever dreamt of laying down tracks on a flight, sequencing synths at a café, or having a rave in your room, Yamaha’s SEQTRAK might just be your ticket to on-the-go musical nirvana​.

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World’s First Programmable Music Box can play anything from Christmas Carols to the Latest Pop Hits

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Nostalgia Upgraded – The Muro Box brings a fond childhood music instrument into the future with App Support and MIDI Connectivity

The second you hear a music box, your mind is taken to a fairytale land. Music box sounds have been used in cinemas to transition to dream sequences, showing exactly how rooted the sound of a music box is in childhood nostalgia. In the past, most of these mechanical musical instruments were found inside toys like snowglobes, jack-in-the-boxes, or other wind-up toys. You can still find music boxes today, although most of them just play fixed tunes like your odd nursery rhyme or Happy Birthday (some novelty stores even sell music boxes that play the Harry Potter or the Game of Thrones theme)… but the folks behind the Muro Box are doing something absolutely unusual. The Muro Box is the first customizable music box that can play pretty much any tune you want it to play, thanks to app connectivity and a MIDI interface. You can use Muro Box’s app to either compose your own tracks or browse through a library of pre-composed tracks… or better still, hook it to a MIDI synth and play music directly from your keyboard onto the Muro Box. The result is a charmingly nostalgic rendition of pretty much any song. Whether it’s a Christmas Carol or a Slipknot song, it’s sure to sound positively delightful and just incredibly dreamy!

Designer: Muro Box Global

Click Here to Buy Now: $299 (Ships Before Christmas) Hurry! Only 7 Days Left!

The way most music boxes worked was simple. Each box would come with a rotating cylinder that had studs on it, and a metal comb placed strategically near said cylinder. When the cylinder would rotate, the studs would ‘pluck’ against the comb, creating notes. Based on the cylinder’s pattern, you could play elements of any song. The problem with the music boxes of the past, however, was that A. You couldn’t change the song and B. The drum’s limited circumference meant you could only play a small portion of the song over and over again, which would become a little annoyingly repetitive after the first few times. The Muro Box solves both those problems thanks to a patented dynamic cylinder that can change while it rotates. This game-changing innovation allows the Muro Box to not just play different songs, but also play ENTIRE songs.

While the Muro Box is built to be a treat for one’s ears, its beauty starts with that gorgeously nostalgic design, echoing the steampunk aesthetic of the good old days. The mechanical parts of the box are surrounded by gorgeous brass detailing, sitting on top of a single-piece maple or acacia wood platform. Zinc-alloy components help create a warm, pleasant sound, while the acacia platform comes with an acoustic chamber that amplifies the music box’s sound. A glass enclosure seals the Muro Box’s internal components, preventing dust, dirt, or fidgety children from toying with the box’s delicate assemblies. Quite like the Muro Box’s sound transports you to a simpler time, its design is a hallmark of the simpler years before electronics, circuit boards, and internet connectivity.

That being said, the box itself has some seriously impressive tech underneath its hood. It’s designed to be entirely programmable, which means you can choose what to play, thanks to a variable cylinder design that can pluck on the resonating comb in a variety of ways. The box connects to an app that allows you to either choose from a library of songs, or design your own melodies using a MIDI-style interface (think Guitar Hero, but with more notes). A single-button interface lets you twist to toggle between songs in the app’s playlist (left for previous, right for next), and pressing the button toggles the play/pause feature. If you’re looking to push the Muro Box to its absolute limit, a MIDI port on the back lets you connect your Muro Box to a synth or a laptop running a DAW, so you can play more complex melodies directly off music production software.

Most users will be more than content with running the Muro Box off its app. The vast library contains user-submitted tunes from all around the world, featuring classics, latest hits, and even local/regional tunes. Pick a tune and the box begins emitting a gentle whirr that’s punctuated by the melodious clinks of the cylinder’s studs hitting the resonating comb. The Muro Box’s different variants come with single, double, and quadruple-comb arrangements, allowing you to play simple tunes or even incredibly layered musical compositions.

The Muro Box comes in three variants, ranging from simple to complex. The catalog starts with the N20 Lite, a redesign of the company’s first N20 music box from back in 2020. The N20 Lite comes outfitted with one 20-note music comb, limiting the number of notes you have to play with. Designed to be smaller than its siblings, it also ditches the MIDI feature for app-only control, and comes with a battery-powered design that lets you carry your music box with you, unlike the larger models that are wired.

The next step in the Muro Box journey is the N40 Standard, with two 20-note combs, giving it a total of 40 notes. This allows the N40 to cover more notes and more octaves, allowing you to play more complicated songs with a lower baseline and upper melody. The final music box in the series is the N40 Sublime, a more complex version of its standard sibling with four 20-note combs instead of two. However, instead of offering 80 different notes, it sticks to 40 notes, but has duplicates for each note. This makes each individual note sound richer as it’s played twice, creating more resonance. The phenomenon is called Sublime Harmonizing, and the best way to understand the difference is to think of a solo singer versus a choir.

Both the N40 variants come with a DIN 5 and USB-C MIDI input, and there’s even a 6.5mm (1/4 inch) audio output with a transducer pickup system. The N40 Standard comes with a Maple box, but you can upgrade to the high-quality Acacia for an extra $90. The N40 Sublime, on the other hand, is outfitted with the acacia-wood box and even has a laser-engraved metal plaque that you can customize with a message of your own.

The Muro Box starts at a commendable $299 for the N20 Lite, going up to $996 for the N40 Standard or a hefty $1,826 for the N40 Sublime. It’s difficult to put a price on nostalgia but the Muro Box definitely doesn’t make things cheap! The music boxes are all made in Taiwan, and ship globally as early as December 2023.

Click Here to Buy Now: $299 (Ships Before Christmas) Hurry! Only 7 Days Left!

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2.1 Million Views in 6 Days… What Made This MIDI Synth’s Launch Video SO Viral?

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Visually, the Nopia looks like quite a basic synth. No display unit, no labeling, basic construction, and just 12 keys… yet the synth’s launch video has over 2 million views since its debut last week, and the Nopia Instagram page has more than 17 thousand followers. If you’re wondering why, just give the video above a watch and you’ll realize what makes the Nopia so special.

Unlike any other MIDI synth I’ve seen before (and I’ve seen quite a few), the Nopia v1 isn’t as much a synth as it is a chord generator. This means that when you hit a key, instead of hearing an individual note, you’ll hear a pre-ordained chord that’s programmed to that note. Press another key and you get another chord within the same tonal scale. Buttons on the right side let you change your scale, but whenever you do, the synth keys never play notes… they only play chords, and they play chords within the same “tonal harmonic scale”. The result is fantastic to the ears, and opens up a myriad of possibilities for amateurs and professionals alike.

Designers: Martin Grieco & Rocío Gal

Playing chords are tricky. You need to learn which notes make up which chords, then you need to figure out where they’re located on a keyboard, and then struggle as your fingers work up their muscle memory as you switch between different chords. With the Nopia v1, it’s as easy as just pressing a button. Moreover, the Nopia v1 also lets you accompany your chords with bass notes, drums, and arpeggios by just pressing a button or flipping a switch.

The different buttons, knobs, switches, and sliders on the Nopia v1 help layer your chords with more complex elements. A bass option gives a punchy root bass note, while the arp option turns your chord into a dreamy chordscape of dancing notes. The Nopia v1 even has a built-in vocoder that lets you almost instantly turn your song into something very Daft Punk-like, helping modulate your voice along with the synthesizer to create something robotic yet melodic.

The synth works on the concept of “Tonal Harmony”, which maker Martin Grieco mentions that no other synthesizer on the market does. Tonal Harmony looks at chords related to a particular scale, and lets you play them instead of playing ‘any random chord’. It’s a lot like choosing your toppings for you, based on an ice cream flavor you pick. Choose a sorbet and your toppings get limited to fruits and syrups. Choose a chocolate or vanilla and you get options like oreo, mint, and choco chips. This ability to offer a select number of chords makes playing/ideating/jamming a whole lot easier and fool-proof.

The Nopia v1, built as a prototype by Martin Grieco and Rocío Gal, has an incredibly basic aesthetic. There’s no labeling, no branding, and really no display to tell you what you’re doing, what features are on, or what preset you’ve selected. The synth looks basic, almost to a fault, but it’s all by design. The reason it looks so bare is because it’s an audio playground for anyone to tinker with. I’m assuming Grieco and Gal will probably make a few tweaks to the overall design as time passes by, but for now, the Nopia is simple… and that’s just the way it should be.

So what’s the hype around Nopia v1?? Why does this simple-looking synth have millions of views online and upwards of 17 thousand followers on Instagram? To understand what makes the Nopia so special, it’s worth comparing it to ChatGPT. The reason ChatGPT became so popular is because it was intelligent, unique, and had the ability to turn practically anyone into a specialist by providing them with a vast amount of tailored information on any topic. Google Search could never do that. Nopia works sort of the same way. Instead of having you learn chords, harmonic scales, modes, synthesis techniques, etc., Nopia just invites you to press keys and play with controls. There’s no judgement, and there’s absolutely no way you’ll be able to play anything “wrong”. Everything you do sounds melodic, sort of like playing a harmonica, but with a whole lot of sonic complexity built in.

Makers Grieco and Gal just dropped this video announcing the Nopia a week back, and the response has been absolutely overwhelming. We’re still awaiting details on availability, interoperability, price, etc… so stay tuned for more!

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Love Hultén’s latest synth comes with a 15-inch display that serves as a music-based NFT Visualizer

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Collaborating with digital artist Lirona over his latest synth creation, Love Hultén’s latest synth is an audiovisual treat. The MIDI Synth, handcrafted by Hultén, is paired with a 15-inch display that showcases Lirona’s digital work, titled #synthboi. Limited to 10 synths, each digital work is, in fact, an interactive NFT that the buyers get to own when they purchase the synthesizer.

Synthboi falls perfectly into Hultén’s portfolio of quirky, bizarre synths, with its odd human-shaped visualization that lights up as you play the tunes. The collaboration bridges the worlds of bespoke electronic instruments and NFTs, allowing music enthusiasts and collectors to also own their own one-of-a-kind non-fungible digital artworks along with their music instruments!

The synth features a 25-key MIDI keyboard that plugs via USB into an Intel NUC i5 computer that’s also connected to the circular 15-inch display on top. The electronics sit within handcrafted cabinets that boast of an alternative 90s Apple-esque design with terrazzo and matte metal materials. Each Synthboi ships in a wooden crate to its 10 owners, and comes marked on the back with a QR code linking to Dissrup’s website, which powers the NFT experience.

Designers: Love Hultén & Lirona

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Move over Guitar Hero, this music-based gaming hardware gives you the entire ‘band experience’

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You play music, you play games… coincidence?

That weird intro aside, Drop is a nifty gaming console ensemble that turns music into a fun, game-like experience. Quite like Guitar-hero, Drop’s instrument-esque controllers allow you to play along with your favorite tracks, but with a wider ensemble. The Drop’s hardware features a MIDI keyboard, a 4-button MIDI controller, a guitar fretboard, a bass-guitar fretboard, and even a microphone for some karaoke-style showdown!

The individual instruments connect to Drop’s smartphone app, which lets you choose the track you want to ‘play’ to. After that, it’s just chaotic, musical fun as you pair up with bandmates or against rivals for a battle of the bands! All the Drop’s gear tie back to its messenger-bag-style carrying case, which plays a pretty big role in the gaming experience. Apart from the case itself working as a controller, filling the role of the kick drum, it also serves as a charging dock for the individual instruments. Besides, a speaker grill running along the side allows the case to work as a wireless speaker so you can quite literally rock out!

Designers: Sigyeong Lee & Sieun Roh

Mockups supported by Model Solution

Amazon just announced a musical keyboard… for coders.

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You’d probably think Amazon got its target audience slightly wrong with this one, but that title couldn’t be more accurate. Amazon’s newest reveal is a musical instrument, but it isn’t for musicians… it’s for developers. This is the AWS DeepComposer, a machine learning-driven keyboard aimed at coders and developers, giving them a creative, hands-on way to approach machine learning, and probably knock out a few jams while they’re at it.

“AWS DeepComposer is a 32-key, 2-octave keyboard designed for developers to get hands on with Generative AI, with either pretrained models or your own”, says Julien Simon from Amazon Web Services. Generative AI works a lot like generative design does, wherein the AI uses parameters and experience to create something new and advanced. Introduce machine learning to it and the AI gets better over time, creating more polished, refined, and accurate results. Amazon’s AWS DeepComposer isn’t a musician’s tool, but Amazon hopes it could be in the future. Coders and developers can help train the AI by using the keyboard to play tunes and have the AI support it with genre-specific music. Developers can either choose from genre-models, or develop new genres of their own within the AWS DeepComposer console. The keyboard also works as a MIDI controller within DAWs or digital audio workstations, allowing you to quickly and effectively jam out tunes, creating layered compositions built by a combination of human and AI creativity. Who knows, the next deejay at Coachella could be an artificial entity…

This is Amazon’s third machine learning teaching device, along with the DeepLens camera that the company introduced in 2017 and the DeepRacer racing cars debuted last year.

Designer: Amazon Web Services