New Keyboards (Musikmesse 2011)

[Cheez]

Good article in Harmony Central showcasing the new keyboards in Musikmesse (Roland Jupiter-80, Yamaha MOX6/8, Nord Electro 3 etc). http://www.harmonycentral.com/commu...2011/04/06/messe-day-one-highlights-keyboards

Link to the Jupiter-80 (Roland has been teasing this for a long time...) - http://www.rolandconnect.com/product.php?p=jupiter-80

Yamaha MOX8 - only 14.8kg!

 

[poladark]

Not being primarily a player and more of a sound synthesis nut, i found the Roland Jupiter-80 to be immensely disappointing. It's not a keyboard designed for people like me and it has much fewer front panel controls than the precursor.

Fortunately there was a lot of other cool stuff at musikmesse to keep me happy. The Korg Monotribe was one of those things that just makes you want to pinch yourself to see if you've been dreaming it all. The "Superbooth" with various smaller manufacturers of synthesizers and effects is always exciting. John Bowen is saying that he's about ready to start producing the Solaris now (i almost prepaid for one a couple of years back).

 

[Cheez]

The Jupiter-80's design doesn't seem to be intended to be exactly like the Jupiter-8 - other than the colours. You still get the sound, but not the usual method of doing it. It does seem to be a combination of everything Roland. That's great for a live performer, but making the name "Jupiter" a misnomer, considering it's predecessor.

Glad to hear about the Solaris. John Bowen certainly took an awfully long time getting it ready to be market-ready. There's quite a bit of hype a number of years ago when he debuted it during one of the NAMM shows. I wonder if the hype has lost it's luster after such a long wait. Any idea what's the MRSP?

 

[poladark]

The Solaris story is quite long and they had a few problems along the way. They were forced to switch engineers for the synthesizer engine after the original engineer simply disappeared. This particular engineer was brilliant and that was a big loss IMHO. It probably set the launch date back quite a bit. Perhaps what's come out now after all this time is a more polished and mature product though.

I think i heard 3,000 Euro mentioned as a price for the Solaris in one of the video clips from musikmesse. It's a massive chunk of money but i expected it to be more somehow.

There seem to be a few products out now with almost as much flexibility as the Solaris (such as the Novation Ultranova). I still feel very tempted to order a Solaris - but not before i see them being widely sold! (I've been waiting 14 months for a Chimera Synthesis bC16 synthesizer that i ordered. I'll think twice before preordering next time.)

 

[iansoh]

Hammond finally gone and produced something that is actually portable without breaking one's back (XK3 is still damn heavy). I think Hammond really got a winner with this one. dual manual organ + additional keyboard/synth voices with split/layer capabilities? I'm sold.

Nord on the other hand, is doing it wrong by using backdated technology in the new Electro 3. Still using first generation leslie sim from about 10 years ago when the electro 1 first debuted. fail.