One more year . .

"How many do you reckon sire…?

It’s not as if he hasn’t behaved himself in a fairly organised fashion and some people have even been using that peculiar device he produced even thou’ the general consensus around the village of those we have asked for their opinion say the keyboard runs the wrong way . . .

Lord Wyleu spun round…

“asked…?” he spat the words . . .

“ASKED …?”

"what do you think this is , Bloody Pointless… ?

He span round and glared out the window which he’d flung open, knocking a window-cleaner off in the process . . .

He listened to the shrieking descending cry. and grimaced briefly at the thump. . . .

What do we normally do in these circumstances…?

Well, Sir, perhaps a small gift to the widow and a minor payment to the window cleaners guild, would . . .

Lord Wyleu hushed him,

"Not the bloody window cleaner . . . . "

The Ravens . . . .ten ought to do it. . . give them channel numbers…

The courtier shuffled of, and returned with a large wooden frame covered in a cloth carried by several struggling peasantry . . .

Lord Wyleu waited impatiently, whilst they pushed and pulled the device into the room. . .

He narrowed his eye and peered at one of the peasant’s who was prodding the cloth cautiously . . .

There was a loud CaaaWWW! and the peasant yelped as a beak glinted briefly then withdrew. . . .

“Keen . . .” ,
thought his Lordship…

The cloth was finally withdrawn to reveal a row of bells each with a raven sitting next to it. . .

Ok lets hear it. . .

Ok that will do…

Ship it.

What do you mean he won’t accept delivery . . . .

Happy Birthday @riban !

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Quite!

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Thank you boys. Something I found quite amusing but did pique my interest was some Pignose guitars. They are short travel guitars with a built in amplifier and headphone socket. I was tempted to have a play but ended up going for a beer instead! I would probably have bought the Keystep Mini Mk3 if they had it in stock. I was tempted by some Squire Telecasters and some rather low cost Squire Strats too but thought I should really avoid growing my guitar collection until I proved I have the time to play them. I’ve gotta go to work now but will watch the stock levels in case something comes in whilst I am here.

BTW - I had a lovely chat with the young man in Brighton Guitars about Japanese guitars (amongst other things) and everyone at GAK was wonderful. It took all I could muster to avoid laughing at a punter who asked, “Where are your expensive guitars”. The shop keeper asked what he meant. “Expensive and old” he continued. The shop keeper was very polite as he explained those things were not necessarily the same thing but that there are vintage guitars on that wall and second hand over there and newer, esteemed names here. I couldn’t figure out who would ask such a question. My wife (who was similarly amused by the conversation) suggested he might be sourcing props for a film shoot.

i like pignose amps, and those guitars do appeal to me, but i don’t think i have seen one ‘in the flesh’ … are they full scale neck? I have a teardrop shaped acoustic travel guitar which is full scale.

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The frets looked like they were fully spaced but the fretboard was shorter. The bridge was on the edge of the guitar so I think the neck is full scale but with a shorter fretboard - less cut-out. I might go an play with one this week. GAK is round the corner to where I am working and I haven’t been in such a friendly music shop for many years. I think I am best spending my birthday box on the launchkey though. It will have more benefit and I have a dirt cheap guitar I could throw in the car if I want to take one with me.

Yeah they look nice… do they have a “Ableton live lite” license with them? My beatstep said it came with Ableton live 10 lite, but when I downloaded it, it mysteriously became Ableton live 11 lite when I registered it :wink: :ok_hand:

I don’t have anything to run Ablton Live so not bothered.

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Here’s one a bit closer to your age.

I hope you find the mini midi controller keyboard you’re after.

Have a great birthday!

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Happy birthday Brian, joyeux anniversaire, @riban .

That one is in French:

From the fabulous band “Fabulous Trobadors” in their excellent album “duel de tchatche”.
Here in live with all their music rig (quiet light isn’t it ?!).

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Congrats @riban, Here, have a taste of what old-school spanish music was. I wasn’t even born back when this outed but I can’t say I wish I was there.

I hope work today is not too bad, have a great dinner!

EDIT: Just to clarify, there was also good music around, and this was kinda of a kids band, but yeah, this totally happened.

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Just seen Akai Professional APC Key 25 Controller Keyboard is in stock and looks quite good. Anyone know anything about this? I might see if the have one to demonstrate. I didn’t see one on display today

I have an APC mini… Basically a similar device without the keys. They are designed as clip launchers in Ableton rather than say… sequencers or beat pads. A very very different device than the beatstep. It’s more of a dumb controller, where the beatstep has got a lot more “brains” going on…

Of course, the LEDs are controlled by midi so you should be able to get some nice stuff going with the sequencer with it, but you lose yet another midi channel that way. Eek!

Mpk mini is more beatsteppy… Although again, I think it is probably dumb without the software.

My God what have I started . . . .

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I have been interested too.:grinning:

It’s from 2009!
In France, you can’t find it in any shop. On second hand market, it’s sold <100€.

Audiofanzine user’s feedback:

  • A bunch of features for the price
  • Seems to be well build and strong
  • pads are known to be hard to play, but there is a simple hardware hack that seems to give a better responsive experience.
  • The hardware controlers maping can be configured and stored, but looks a bit fastidious.
  • The 25 semi weighted keys with aftertouch lets a mitigated overall feeling.

And some nice features :

  • Midi In/Out using standard connectors + usb midi. Jacks for sustain and expression pedals
  • Can be usb or externaly powered
  • built in Arpegiator
  • 5 butons for sending MMC Sysex programable messages

My POV: this could be the perfect companion for a little :zynface:

That is not a description of the APC Key 25! This device has mini synth action keys with velocity but not aftertouch. Check what device you are describing because it sounds interesting whatever it is!

I am currently weighing up between the APC Key 25 with 5x8 grid of launch buttons which are not velocity sensitive and only have 3 colour LED or the Launchkey Mini Mk3 which has 2x8 velocity sensitive pads with RGB colours and also pitch and mod (touch) sliders. The Akai is cheaper and you get more buttons but the Novation may give a better performance feel and offer more feedback via pad colours.

uhh, you’re right, I’ve been looking at MPK 25 :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

Yep! I had a quick look at that but it doesn’t have illuminated pads so doesn’t give the sequence launcher / feedback I want. It looks like a great unit with aftertouch on keys and pads plus some cool functions and it has full size keys - nice! It’s more expensive than the units I am looking at but as a small additional performance device it looks good. I want something that I can throw in a bag with the Zynthian to play whilst on the road, e.g. in hotel rooms. I also want something to test existing and future features of Zynthian, particularly around sequencer control and feedback.

Happy birthday riban !

Regarding the MPK 25, based on the users reviews, it seems very prone to faults - buttons / keys failures. But well, one can suppose if a used one still works, this one is a good unit !

[OT] Do you guys find it appropriate / usable to use a continuous piano pedal to mimick aftertouch ? Just wondering as my MiDI keyboard is a digital piano. It has no pitch-bending, no after-touch. BUT it has 2 continuous pedals + 1 regular one + it also has midi OFF velocity… Was planning maybe to stick a nanopad on it but it’ll be awkward :wink: