Is Kore a Nightmare?

Title link takes you to a post on the CDM forums with the following posted by Vincent. I was wondering about this ever since my dongle post. It's a 10 pound dongle. They should have shipped with a mini dongle for times when you don't want to use the controller. Say composing out in the park or in your comfy recliner. If any one has anything to add please feel free to comment.

"I just returned KORE after 3 weeks of unknowingly being an unpaid alpha tester...

What a nightmare. Just read NI's KORE forum and you'll see what I mean. I don't know if/how NI will fix this.

They've made the KORE hardware a 10 pound dongle, and since it must be attached to run and sends control messages through usb audio it requires a fair amount of cpu even if you don't want to use it...

Sounds like some of you guys are inside industry types that may know the guys at NI, if so, someone please have a talk with them... "

Earth, Wind & Fire’s Yamaha DX7 II FD Centennial LE

Shot and details via this post on craigslist.
"Earth, Wind & Fire’s Yamaha DX7 II FD Centennial limited edition. Stunning, silver body with gold buttons, 76 fluorescent keys. Flight case included. Celebrating their 100th anniversary in 1987, Yamaha created 100 of these worldwide selling for $3,995. Only 13 were allocated for the USA-this is one of them. Features: 76 keys (channel after touch; split; layer) 32 Voice (16 x 2); 6 operator x 2 (A & B); 64 patches; 64 performance memories; 64 voices via cartridge."

Ladytron on KCRW

Title link takes you to the post on DVDBorn. 4 Korg MS2000s and 2 MS20s all played, no sequencing. Great band. Love the feel of their music.

Electronic Ballet with Sound Beam

Via Alex Theakston on AH:
"the one we had [EMS Sound Beam] was a bit more advanced, with a control box and a separate beam device. in the first half of the video (not the upbeat last bit) it's triggering a virus, and we set up a constrained range of notes that could be triggered along the length of the beam. theres a CS5 in the mix too, and a speak n spell."

If you listen closely at the beginning you will hear that she is playing the sound beam with her movements and they are playing accompaniment.

Update: It's not an EMS Soundbeam but actually one of these.

Update: Alex pointed out that the Soundbeam logo is the same as the EMS. Interesting, I wonder what the history is. According to the EMS History page the sound beem was designed by Richard Monkhouse (Digital & Video design:1972 - 1975), however it was not manufactured until after Edward Williams took over the assests in 1984. According the site, EMS (London) folded in 1979, their assets were bought by Datanomics who owned them from 1980 to 1984, followed by Edward Williams when the Soundbeam was made.

Bluezone

Title link takes you to Bluezone, home to a number of unique electronic musical instruments built by Blauw.

Playstation - New Flickr Shot

flickr by Stebbi.


via Sameli.

First MIDI Sequencer - New Flickr Set

flickr by Nohaptimus. Title link takes you to more.

via Sameli.

Riday T-91 Midi Controller - New Flickr Shot

flickr by floorvan.

Riday T-91
Midi Controller

Invented by Rick Riday,
the T-91 is a midi controller that uses his patented "unified keyboard" design. This design allows for identical fingering patterns for all 12 scales (12 major scales, 12 minor, 12 blues, etc.)


via Sameli.

Updates via the comments:
Via Carbon111:
"Its too bad but I don't think they ever went into production. I contacted Rick about twenty years ago and he sent me some promotional material...I think I've still got it somewhere."

Via divbyzero:
"Riday's patent sheds some light on the details of the keyboard. It's isometric like the Janko (Chromatone) and Hayden (Thummer), which makes transposition simple and shortens the learning curve compared to other nonstandard keyboards.

However, his choice of isometric offsets (go up by a half-step as you move one key to the right; go down by a whole step as you move up a row and half a key to the right) is a little odd. In particular, going down in pitch as you move up in row feels quite backwards. At least half-steps are on adjacent keys, unlike the Hayden.

I've posted this before, but I'll mention it again... my little free program qwertymidi is great for testing out experimental keyboard layouts like these."

MIDI for Musicians - New Flickr Shot

flickr by betameme.

via Sameli.

Casio ck200 - New Flickr Shot

flickr by floorvan.

"Probably one of the rarest boomboxes, this Casio surfaced briefly in 1985. It was their second effort to create a crossover musical intstrument / entertainment system, preceeded by their KX-101 a year earlier."

via Sameli.

Nova Edition Studio Electronics SE-1X

"THE NEW SE-1X NE...Innovative NEW LOOK!...Limited Edition with NEW Amp Overdrive for Saturated "Fuzz", Ultra fast ADSR for ultimate SNAP, Expanded wide range Filters, NEW added SINE WAVE GENERATOR for more BOOM, and Custom Scroggins Techno Sounds Bank... "

Interesting. This appears to be a Nova Music edition. Check out the Nova Music logo. I wonder how often manufacturers have done this. Studio Electronics does offer custom paint designs and mods so I guess this wouldn't be too difficult to do.

Gear of Carbon Based2 - New Flickr Shots

flickr by ^^Orion. Yamaha AN1X and CS1X. Title link takes you to more.

Chroma Polaris Demo

Title link takes you to a demo of the Chroma Polaris by memo on VSE, also saved here for posterity. I'm surprised at how much this actually sounds like a Rhodes Chroma. The character is there.

Analog Overkill Pro One Demo

Title link takes you to a demo of the Pro One by Digital Screams on VSE, also saved here for posterity. I'm noticing old VSE posts expire over time. Anyone else notice that?

Aliens Project Toy of the Month - Wersi Bass Synth AP6

Title link takes you there. Samples on site. Via sequencer.de.