In what could perhaps be the longest gap ever between multi-part blog updates, I’m finally going to continue my recap of the last decade and just how amazing the changes that took place over that timeframe were. While the first part focused on the convergence of hardware and software companies and the drastic consolidation that took [...]
I’ve watched the growing micro-key keyboard trend with some disdain. “But they’re not full-size keys,” I say. They’re compact, even playable, but … I just realized I’m a hypocrite. Let’s back up a bit first. So where did the micro-key trend start? The lineage of the current line-up of micro-key keyboards is most easily followed [...]
I came across this post over at one of my favorite blogs, Synthtopia - the question posed is whether Apple’s iPad has made digital synth keyboards obsolete. The discussion there is really great and worth the read – but it made me think even more about an idea that I’ve been thinking about recently: is [...]
I was fortunate to attend the recent Winter NAMM Show where the Arturia MiniBrute made its debut. For any of you synthfiends who have been frozen in carbonite, trapped in a well, or without a computer or smartphone for the last couple of weeks, the MiniBrute is Arturia’s first analog synth (and arguably one of [...]
This is one time that I can honestly say I was reading a Playboy magazine for the articles. I came across this post about Wendy Carlos, which mentioned a 1979 article in Playboy magazine about her. It just so happens that my father was an avid collector of Playboy magazines which I’ve kept tidily boxed up [...]
Nearly a decade ago I began a pet project over at The Keyboard Corner forum at Musicplayer.com (an excellent keyboard community that I highly recommend). Basically, I set out to establish a synth history of sorts based on what instrument defined each year. Here’s a link to the thread. So, for each year in question, [...]