AHHH WHAT IS THIS SYNTH!!

[istari182]

hello,
here is a video of my favourite band playing live on jools holland. they have recently taken a new electonic approach, and are playing a lot of synths. i have looked on the korg and roland sites to see if this synth is on their products lists, and i have had no luck. to make matters worse, for some reason the singer has decided to cover with black tape, the areas where the company name and model would be viewable on the front and on the panels, although, looking at its desgin it apperas to be rather Roland esque??



it can be seen at 0.53

i would be so, so appreciateve if someone could figure out what this is?? would be much appreciated. thanks so much in advance

[schmidtc]

That looks a bit like a korg kontrol49

[john909kid]

That doesn't look like a synth as such, but a controller keyboard. I think it's an
Akai MPK49.
Probably connected up to some Laptop to provide the sounds via soft synths.

[pflosi]

not a synth. a midi controller.

akai mpk-49

http://www.akaipro.com/mpk49

midi cable is plugged, but i dont know into what

other guy seems to have a minimoog

[istari182]

im a bit slow with all of this, im a bass player by nature and im singing in this band... so this isnt actually a synth, so if i bought it and plugged it in id get no sounds at all correct? how would you go about making it make sounds haha?! i know i sound so slow, but im just curious how all of this works in really basic terms, sorry for being dim

[Hair]

Essentially a controller keyboard like the MPK49 sends MIDI data which synths, both hardware and software, can receive. It's essentially telling the synth what notes to play. In addition to musical note data from the keyboard, it also has knobs and things which you can assign to whatever parameters you like on the synth. It doesn't matter if the synth already has a keyboard or not, chances are it can be controlled by an external one as well (as long as you're talking modern synths).

If you're looking to get into synths, Virtual Analogs are a great place to start. Alesis Micron/Ion, Korg MS2000/MicroKorg/R3/MicroKorg XL, Yamaha An1x, Novation K-Station, Xiosynth etc can all be had for reasonable prices and will give you a lot of great synth sounds off the bat, plus you can get into actual synthesis and making your own sounds which is where the real fun is.

As far as what's in the video, the keyboard player in the band has a Voyager and it looks like a Juno 106 below it, can anyone catch what the desktop unit to the right is? I wouldn't be suprised if that's what the MPK is hooked up to.

[istari182]

i believe it is some form of pad instrument. hear is a video of him using it live, it sounds amazing, but again, it sounds like its also hooked up to some external source.


at 3:05

[Hair]

Looks like an MPC 1000 to me!



Definitely triggering it's own samples, and definitely not what the MPK is triggering (as there aren't even any MIDI cables hooked up to it)

[istari182]

im getting so confused now!! i could really do with some help. i have to get a synth this weekend, because we have a concert in a month and i have to learn this stuff. i was originally looking at a microkorg xl, problem is, i will have to play and sing at the same time, and it has tiny keys, and all the full size keys belong to full size synths, which is not what i want, i want a small to medium synth, with full size keys, which is around the same price as the xl. i came up with the miniak, problem is there are no real product demos on the internet and because its just over my price range it needs to be really good for me to spend that much money. so i have time against me and i know nothing about the field in which im looking. could someone please help me out im getting a headache haha!

[druzz]

the keyboard players seems to be playing a moog voyager, and underneat it seems to be a juno.

the singer plays on a midi controller.

i would say what you need is a little phatty. with that you will be able to get a sound simillar (if not identical ) to the main synth part in this song. it is small but has regular sized keys. but beware : it'S monophonic so only one note at the time!

[Stab Frenzy]

im getting so confused now!! i could really do with some help. i have to get a synth this weekend, because we have a concert in a month and i have to learn this stuff. i was originally looking at a microkorg xl, problem is, i will have to play and sing at the same time, and it has tiny keys, and all the full size keys belong to full size synths, which is not what i want, i want a small to medium synth, with full size keys, which is around the same price as the xl. i came up with the miniak, problem is there are no real product demos on the internet and because its just over my price range it needs to be really good for me to spend that much money. so i have time against me and i know nothing about the field in which im looking. could someone please help me out im getting a headache haha!

The Miniak is an Alesis Micron in a different shaped case, so check out some Micron demos if you want to hear it. I think it's the best option for what you want.

[jojoman]

That's defenitely a Akai MPK49.
Were the Akai MPK49 is written on the frontside in the left upper corner,they covered it with a black sticker.

[Stab Frenzy]

Oh yeah just to clear it up, the singer is playing an MPK49 which has midi out connected, the other dude has a Voyager Old School, a Juno 106 and an MPC1000.

edit: thought the MPC was only hooked up to midi but now I see it's actually audio.

[chrisrnps]

None of the synth sounds they're using in that song are very unusual, and you should be able to cover what you need with one of the basic "virtual analog" synths.

You wouldn't be ill-served by the aforementioned Alesis Micron, and there are plenty of them available on the used market if budget is a concern. It's the same sound engine as the Akai MiniAK (and the same as the more-expensive-because-it-has-more-knobs Alesis Ion, which didn't have built-in effects; the Micron/MiniAK does). I love my Alesis Micron (and the Editors, too!) myself - although I have several "real" analog synths, I plan on paring it down to the Micron and maybe one or two others for live shows as it's small and covers a lot of different "analog" synth sounds reasonably well (better and more versatile than the currently-trendy MicroKorg, IMHO).

Put your own piece of black gaffer's tape across the rear panel, and you're good to go. 8)

[snod_donkey]

If i was you i would think about what type of sounds you actulay want first. Virtual analog? Pianos organs and other acoustics sounds? If all of these then something like a yamaha motif will be great. Get a used one for about £400