Interview: Benn Jordan (The Flashbulb) Part 2

 

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Interview: Benn Jordan (The Flashbulb) Part 1

 

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ICE-T LIVE with Hip Hop Originals, Bad Azz Brijion and Ruben interviews ...

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Can Lego Play the Drums?

Interview: Bjorn Englen w/ Sally @ Daniel Mari Strings booth @ NAMM2020 - Soul Sign, Quiet Riot, Dio...

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NAMM 2022: Positive Grid Spark Mini Presented by Rob Math

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NAMM 2022: Artesia-Pro Efnote Drums Presented by Mike Bedard

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JackTrip at NAMM 2022

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Interview: Vincent US at NAMM

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NAMM 2022: TAMA True Touch

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NAMM 2022: Artiphon's Orba 2

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Interview: Kam Media Studios at NAMM 2022 with Special Guest Yung Escobar MX

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NAMM 2022: 4D Fun

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NAMM 2022: iZotope

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Interview: Briannagh Dennehy with Sally

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NAMM 2022: Casio

 CASIO UNVEILED POP ART-INSPIRED CT-S1 KEYBOARD, ‘MUSIC TAPESTRY’ TECHNOLOGY AT NAMM 2022

Creativity and Innovation Combine to Take Keyboards To An Entirely New Level of Enjoyment and Inspiration 

DOVER, NJ, June 7, 2022 – Casio America, Inc., the world’s leading provider of powerful and affordable musical instruments, showcased several inspiring keyboards and artistic projects at the 2022 NAMM Show, held June 3-5 in Anaheim, California, USA.

On its main stage, Casio put the spotlight on two recently introduced instruments: the PRIVIA PX-S3100 digital piano and the CT-S1000V vocal synthesizer.

 

The PX-S3100 and its companion PX-S1100 are the latest additions to Casio’s award-winning family of PRIVIA keyboards. These musical instruments are defined by a simple yet elegant slim design that brings a certain sophistication to homes everywhere.

 

Faithfully delivering the sound and playability of a grand piano, these PRIVIA keyboards provide outstanding performance and continue to evolve with the times to match users’ lifestyles while featuring vibrant colors to complement the interior décor of today’s homes.

 

Sharing the spotlight was the new Casiotone CT-S1000V, the first vocal synthesizer that can literally turn any text — such as song lyrics — into a musical phrase and then “sing” it in full harmony based on any notes played on its keys.

 

Casio built 100 Lyric Tones (phrases inspired by familiar songs) into the CT-S1000V, which can be overwritten, and there’s space for 50 more brought in from the Lyric Creator app. The instrument supports both English and Japanese text. No keyboard instrument has ever been able to speak and sing with this degree of ease and musicality.

 

For musicians who simply want all the CT-S1000V’s great instrument sounds, accompaniment features, sampling, MIDI recording, and effects without vocal synthesis, Casio showcased the new CT-S500, which hits this sweet spot at an even more compelling price. Weighing just over 10 pounds and featuring the ability to run on six AA batteries, both keyboards are designed to make music on the go.

Music Tapestry

Casio unveiled “Music Tapestry,”a new technology that creates art out of musical performances during the NAMM Show. Triggered by the pitches of the musical piece and touch on the keyboard, Music Tapestry enables users to create evolving imagery in real-time that generates a single still image when the performer stops playing. As a result, even musicians who have never played the piano can create pleasing pictures, including bouquets, cherry blossoms, roses and geometric patterns.

 

Music Tapestry is the latest project of Casio Sound Developer Hiroko Okuda, who saw real value in offering people the emotionally engaging experience of creating visual artwork by playing music. This year, Ms. Okuda received worldwide notoriety when it was revealed that she created a particular “rock” preset for the original Casio MT-40 keyboard four decades ago. That preset inspired Jamaican singer Wayne Smith to write his 1985 hit song, “Under Mi Sleng Teng.” The famous “riddim” became so popular that more than 250 records featured it, starting a reggae revolution that has reverberated to this day.

 

Casio Collaborates with Renowned Pop Artist Britto

Casio also announced a collaboration with Romero Britto, a renowned Brazilian Pop Artist who has previously collaborated with Disney, Audi and Wilson Sporting Goods and has had his works exhibited in more than 100 countries.

 

Casio recently invited Britto to apply his unique style to the speaker fabric of a white Casio CT-S1, a 61-key keyboard with built-in speakers, multi-functional buttons and weighing only 9 lbs.—ideal for players of varying skill levels and convenient for casual play at any time. The result is “Flowers & Hearts,” an exciting and fun design that combines cubism, pop art, and graffiti painting elements. The Limited-Edition CT-S1 FH model will be available later this year in the U.S.

Rounding out the Casio display were several recently introduced keyboards, including the CT-S400, CT-S500 and LK-S450.

NAMM 2022: Trovarsi & Novation

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Interview: SM Familia

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NAMM 2022: Oberheim OB-X8 Synthesizer with Marcus Ryle

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NAMM 2022: Shure KSM11 Microphone With Laura Davidson

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Interview: Anxious Annie

Interview: Arthur Darien and Joshua Fox

NAMM BIM 2022: Recap

 

The second Believe in Music event preceding its genesis in 2021 came to a close and if you missed it, here are some of the highlights below. Don't forget: BIM is open to the public so download the app now, network with attendees, watch the presentations and performances, and don't miss it next year!

NAMM BIM 2022: Marketing and Networking

NAMM's Believe in Music event 

had another amazing line-up this year of Networking and Marketing professionals to help us succeed:

Isotonik Studios: Euphony Sounds Live 11 Pack, Inspired Rave Stabs demonstrated by Liam O'Mullane

This Ableton Live Pack started out as a trip down memory lane. We wanted to explore what it was like to create rave stabs using old techniques and gear. 

Back in the 90s, we sampled chords from digital sound modules into many of the different samplers available at the time, like the infamous Roland W30, various Akai and Emu samplers, and the lesser-known Casio FZ1. 

When one-shot samples are mapped across the keyboard without any form of warping, the duration changes and, in turn, the pitch; for example, the sample's duration is shorter the higher up the key-range, thus higher in pitch. The duration is longer, lower down the key-range, therefore lower in pitch. As a result, a distinct character to the sound emerges when riffs are played within two octaves. 

Another popular technique in the 1990s was to tune the oscillators of analog synths to different intervals creating chords. These sounds were sampled as one-shots and mapped across a key-range. The same pitch characteristics were prevalent due to the change in duration, adding to the distinct sound and era. 

The pack has been put together by sampling chords created from tuned analog synth oscillators, stacked intervals from classic 90s digital sound modules and the the tonal character of the Roland W30 and Akai S3000. 

All samples are un-warped to retain the classic pitch nuances of the era. Each rack has been carefully put together exposing useful macros and taking advantage of macro variations giving a minimum of 4 variations per rack. Within this pack there are over 400 variations of stab sounds to keep you gurning to the early hours.

This Pack is built using the following five elements:

1. Basic Stab Instrument Racks
2. Layered Stab Racks
3. Processed Stab Racks
4. Stab Modules
5. Rave Effect Racks

Get this pack HERE.

NAMM BIM 2022: Artificial Intelligence

At NAMM's Believe in Music event, Paul Sitar (A3E) hosts Daniel Rowland (LANDR), Jack Joseph Puig (Waves), and Maya Ackerman (WaveAI) in a discussion about AI and the dueling rejection and acceptance of the technology among music makers. Quite often, the desire for creative human romanticism feels conflicted with the logical structure and production aspects of music creation when in fact both are needed and AI can assist in the process especial during mundane tasks. It also empowers the open minded with the impossible who can now create lyrics and song in languages and cultures they would never be able to touch. AI best comes into play at the beginning stages of writers block and musicians can impose their own data sets to truly make it theirs. It helps with problem solving, production techniques, and can save a lot of time as the logical frameworks of AI are allowed, pathing the way for human romanticism as it shines through to new sonic worlds. 

WaveAI creates LyricStudio and Alysia AI tools, for any eager creator, that will assist you in writing music.

NAMM BIM 2022: New Casio Keyboards

Casio is releasing 2 new keyboards: The CT-S1000V and CT-S500. Some of the unique features include: 

• Built-in vocal synthesizer with performance capabilities in Japanese or English.
  
• Strap capabilities to turn it into a key-tar.
• Smartphone app syncing.

They can be pre-ordered now. 

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 DOVER, NJ, January 20, 2022– Casio, the world’s leading provider of powerful and affordable musical instruments, today announced the Casiotone CT-S500 and its big brother, the CT-S1000V, the first vocal synthesizer that can literally turn any text — such as song lyrics — into a musical phrase and then “sing" it in full harmony based on any notes played on its keys.

For centuries, instruments have been designed with the human voice in mind — not necessarily to sound exactly like it, but to enunciate and express emotion like it. The violin, cello, and saxophone are all examples, as are modern vocoders and certain aspects of synthesizers. The CT-S1000V fulfills this creative dream by tapping into an activity almost everyone does every day: typing text. 

To get started, Casio has built 100 Lyric Tones (phrases inspired by familiar songs) into the CT-S1000V, which can be overwritten, and there’s space for 50 more brought in from the Lyric Creator app. The instrument supports both English and Japanese text. No keyboard instrument has ever before been able to speak and sing with this degree of ease and musicality. 

For customized lyrics, the player simply types in words using the companion Lyric Creator app for iOS® and Android® devices. These are then transmitted into the CT-S1000V via USB and played using any of its 22 Vocalist types, including talkboxes, processed choirs, robot voices, vocoders and whispered voices, all drawn from the history of synthetic vocals in pop music. Phrases can be played all at once, according to a set rhythm when keys are pressed, or one syllable at a time as new notes are played with or without legato. They can also be sequenced together to play complete songs. 

The CT-S1000V also offers all the features that make Casiotone synonymous with the fun of immediately playing music. Its AiX tone source offers 800 high-resolution sounds representing all categories of instruments, the keyboard may be split or layered to play multiple sounds at once, and 64-voice polyphony ensures players will never run out of notes. The accompaniment section puts a complete backup band under the player’s fingers, including 243 built-in rhythms, 50 user-programmable rhythms, simplified chord fingering modes (including CASIO Chord™) for easy playing, and auto-harmonies. Players can arrange songs on the fly by switching between various intro, normal, fill-in, variation, and ending sections. 

Casio was the first company to make sampling available to everyone, regardless of budget, with its SK-1 keyboard in 1985. The CT-S1000V continues this tradition with its ability to sample up to ten seconds of high-quality audio (or several three-second samples for creating drum kits) via its 1/8-inch stereo input. The CT-S1000V also gives you the flexibility of sampling wirelessly using the included WU-BT10 Bluetooth MIDI & audio adapter. It can sample up to ten seconds of CD-quality audio via its 1/8-inch stereo input or via the included WU-BT10 Bluetooth MIDI and audio adapter— or several sounds at up to three seconds each for building custom drum kits. 

For learning and songwriting, an onboard MIDI recorder can store up to five performances. With its capacity of six tracks and 40,000 notes per song, musicians can sketch out fully arranged compositions — and beginners can listen back to their own practice — without the need for a computer. Of course, the CT-S1000V can also connect to a computer or mobile device via USB-MIDI or Bluetooth, taking advantage of the entire world of MIDI and recording software as well as Casio’s own Casio Music Space iOS/Android app, which turns the process of learning music into an interactive and engaging video game. 

The 100 built-in, studio-quality DSP effects can add a polished shine to any sound, including lyrics. The effects include many amplifier and cabinet simulators, modulation effects, choruses, reverbs, delays, and much more. Each of the effects can be extensively customized, and can be modified on the fly using the CT-S1000V's three assignable knobs. 

For musicians who simply want all the CT-S1000V’s great instrument sounds, accompaniment features, sampling, MIDI recording, and effects without vocal synthesis, Casio is introducing the new CT-S500, which hits this sweet spot at an even more compelling price. Weighing just over 10 pounds and featuring the ability to run on six AA batteries, both keyboards are designed to make music on the go. 

As part of the release, Casio has unveiled an exclusive landing page taking consumers through the features which can be viewed HERE.

The CT- S1000V (MSRP: $679.99) and CT-S500 (MSRP: $499.99) are available at musical instrument retailers nationwide and at CasioMusicGear.com. To learn more about Casio’s full portfolio of electronic musical instruments, please visit www.CasioMusicGear.com.