Have you ever been bitten by a loud little dog? In the back of your knee, or maybe in your hand? That does sometimes happen, even though the critters in question “never bite”, as their owners assert.
Now, to be fair, there are different types of dogs …
Let’s take the big ones. They can give you a deep growl and a loud snarl and still be basically nice critters, more playful than vicious. Gentle giants … Then there are the mean little ones! Tugging at their leashes, they bark at anything that moves. They are really aggressive, despite their tinyness. Really mean, the opposite of those big members of their species.
Panning over to GRP, we find astonishing parallels to this animal world.
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The Mellotron ranks amongst the instruments that has been able to count on a loyal following for decades. Beyond that, it can serve as a good example that what sounds good needn’t be technically perfect. When I first heard of Manikin’s Memotron a while ago, my first thought was a respectful ‘now that’s bravery for you’! Ironically, in a time where music products are expected above all to be free, but provide number one chart hits worth millions at the push of a button, which is comical when you consider the growing number of illegal downloads, a Berlin-based manufacturer is bringing this uncompromising specialist keyboard instrument to market: the Memotron. Whether the implementation of the design, but above all the quality of the sounds, are convincing is the subject of our test report.
Manikin Memotron
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In the laboratory of the mad Professor Thomas Welsch (a.k.a. Tommy Analog), a baby monster was born. Don’t get fooled by its size, as I mentioned: it is a monster! Has a monster sound and monstrous possibilities of sound creation.
Anyware Instruments Tinysizer - Analog Modular System
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The Kawai K3 is a typical representative of those mid-80ies synthesizers: membrane buttons (instead of real buttons and sliders), an Alpha Dial which is used to edit the extensive selection of parameters, plus a six-voice hybrid sound engine. The latter consists of two wavetable oscillators, a VCF and a VCA per voice. The LED display is huge (similar to that of a Korg DW-8000, but much bigger).
Kawai K3
In his appearance, the Kawai K3 (released in 1986) is reminiscent of the DX-7, just like the Oberheim Matrix-6, Casio CZ-Series, Sequential 2000, Roland Alpha Juno 1/2, JX-8P/10, and others. Continue reading →
For some people, this year’s NAMM was amongst the more exciting of its kind. In addition to the now undeniable return of analog synthesizers, it will probably be remembered for the successful appearances made by smaller manufacturers. The German-based company Radikal Technologies is, amazingly, still an unknown for a not inconsiderable number of synthesizer enthusiasts. Jörg Schaaf and his “team” are having a go at changing this with the ACCELERATOR, shown at the NAMM and newly available.
Radikal Technologies ACCELERATOR
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