An open Letter to All Synth Manufacturers

[xtreme sounds]

To whom it concern (I talking to you Korg, Roland, Yamaha and Elektron):

Would someone please make a proper hardware synth for electronic musicians who want to live perform (like a groove box)? For some reason no company has all the ingredients. What I (and probably most others) would like to see are the following:

1. Take the structure of a polyphonic multi part synth like the Fantom or Montage with 16 parts under keyboard control
2. Include seamless sound switching from the Montage (no delays or load times switching multi part performances)
3. Include a TR step sequencer from the Fantom for drums (with proper visual note editing)
4. Include the performance recorder from the Montage (this is helpful to get a jam going, but sadly they do not have proper visual note editing)
5. Add the note trigs p locking from Elektrons devices (including note probability and changing the sound parameters per step)
6. Have much more polyphany so it never runs out (Roland what did you do???)
7. Include Rolands VA engine with lots of lfos and destinations (its really good better than the new Montage)
8. Allow live switching performances while the sequencer is still playing back a scene etc. (with the Montage, in order to switch a performance in the live set we have to stop the performance recorder playback. If we had this we could transition from one song to the next with no laptop needed) Maybe an idea here would be a way to live loop capture an audio snippet while its playing, and then that audio would continue to play in a loop while we load up a new performance and then have some sort of cross fader or something.
9. Of course make it easy to fade out parts volumes, solo and mute parts just as one would do with a live performance. How about applying solo to more than part at once? With a few button presses we could cut parts we dont want. But no thats too difficult isnt it?
10. Add ableton like clip and scene launching)
11. make both a desktop unit and a keyboard version.
12. include root note scale locking (again Yamaha booo!)
13. 16 velocity sensitive drum pads (with the ability to also trigger samples)
14. Have enough memory to save so many user performances and libraries.
15. Easy arpeggio creation. (Again Yahaha doesnt get it. We have to make an arp in the DAW then load it on a USB and wait half an hour for the Montage to accept it)
16. and really important is AUDIO and MIDI over USB) Once cable!!!
17. button presses to turn off keyboard control for each part
18. The superknob is pretty cool.
19. Make the sequence length up to 128 steps. (not sure why most place limits to 32 or 64)
20. Performance transpose. (+1 Elektron)
21. Performance FXs that can be triggered with buttons

Anyone else have features they would like?

[vurt]

polyphony is a fad.

[xtreme sounds]

polyphony is a fad.

thats what you got out of this?

[foosnark]

thats what you got out of this?

Personally I don't care about points 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, or 19.

5 is kind of neat (I can still do it with my K.O. II)
9 I have controllers for.
For 10 you should probably use Ableton.
18 I don't know what it is.
20 and 21 I can patch.

I'm not really making fun of your list, except for the "probably most others" part. Everyone wants different things! Yours are valid for you (probably) but not universal by any means.

What I want is... pretty much the setup I have already with a few extra features for Bitwig Grid, and the occasional creative new FX plugin or VCV Rack module, and the time and motivation to make the most of it.

Vurt just said it more concisely

[kritikon]

11, 13 and 15. Some of the others are kinda useful but I don't want or need all of it on every synth.
I like the idea of a Superknob. No idea WTF it is, but it sounds good. A super anything has to be betterer than an ordinary one, always. Though I have to question why you aren't demanding a megaknob or even a hyperknob?

As for putting Roland VA in every synth - definitely no. I've avoided it pretty well so far for good reasons.

I think vurt's not too far off, though polyphony does have its uses. I prefer polyphony that plays the same note multiple times though - playing different notes at the same time just gets complicated IMO.

[Constructed Identity]

To whom it concern (I talking to you Korg, Roland, Yamaha and Elektron):

Would someone please make a proper hardware synth for electronic musicians who want to live perform (like a groove box)? For some reason no company has all the ingredients. What I (and probably most others) would like to see are the following:

1. Take the structure of a polyphonic multi part synth like the Fantom or Montage with 16 parts under keyboard control
2. Include seamless sound switching from the Montage (no delays or load times switching multi part performances)
3. Include a TR step sequencer from the Fantom for drums (with proper visual note editing)
4. Include the performance recorder from the Montage (this is helpful to get a jam going, but sadly they do not have proper visual note editing)
5. Add the note trigs p locking from Elektrons devices (including note probability and changing the sound parameters per step)
6. Have much more polyphany so it never runs out (Roland what did you do???)
7. Include Rolands VA engine with lots of lfos and destinations (its really good better than the new Montage)
8. Allow live switching performances while the sequencer is still playing back a scene etc. (with the Montage, in order to switch a performance in the live set we have to stop the performance recorder playback. If we had this we could transition from one song to the next with no laptop needed) Maybe an idea here would be a way to live loop capture an audio snippet while its playing, and then that audio would continue to play in a loop while we load up a new performance and then have some sort of cross fader or something.
9. Of course make it easy to fade out parts volumes, solo and mute parts just as one would do with a live performance. How about applying solo to more than part at once? With a few button presses we could cut parts we dont want. But no thats too difficult isnt it?
10. Add ableton like clip and scene launching)
11. make both a desktop unit and a keyboard version.
12. include root note scale locking (again Yamaha booo!)
13. 16 velocity sensitive drum pads (with the ability to also trigger samples)
14. Have enough memory to save so many user performances and libraries.
15. Easy arpeggio creation. (Again Yahaha doesnt get it. We have to make an arp in the DAW then load it on a USB and wait half an hour for the Montage to accept it)
16. and really important is AUDIO and MIDI over USB) Once cable!!!
17. button presses to turn off keyboard control for each part
18. The superknob is pretty cool.
19. Make the sequence length up to 128 steps. (not sure why most place limits to 32 or 64)
20. Performance transpose. (+1 Elektron)
21. Performance FXs that can be triggered with buttons

Anyone else have features they would like?

Now translate this list to Japanese and send it to the manufacturers... Good luck!
It seems for Yamaha and Roland they are content to sit on IP. Korg has gotten rich off it's Volca series and don't care much, but do have smart people working for them.
Smaller makers are probably the future.

[egbert101]

Actually Korg had a burst of creativity recently, only to blow it all on corporatism by charging ridiculous prices for the special editions. Roland are obsessed with their stupid cloud system but at least they're catching up to the integration between hardware and software, still nowhere as good as Elektron.

[xtreme sounds]

Please keep in mind it doesnt have to be the exact brand tech that currently exists in existing machines. These are concepts that would be essential. My point is one synthesizer, no DAW, no tiny memory bandwidths, no nothing else needed to do a live set on one machine with all the features one could dream of.

[xtreme sounds]

OK I managed to do what I wanted with one synth and the DAW recorder (looper). So my finding reveal that perhaps what is needed most in current gear is an internal looper that auto-records a few bars of what is being heard and once it finishes recording it takes over the audio being played out. Then we can load a new performance and start that playing, then run the cross fader over to smoothly transition the sampled audio out and bring in the new performance. This way the music never stops

[Jim Roseberry]

For live loop performance, might this be worth considering?
https://www.boss.info/global/products/rc-505mk2/

[imrae]

I'm not convinced that an all-in-one do-everything device would be commercially viable or have a good UI. Arranger keyboards and knobby creative synths are different market segments that respectively suit gigging keyboard players (who need great sequencing and a versatile set of standard sounds but not much tweaking) and studio/live-techno types (who want character, good hands-on workflow at low cost for use with external sequencing.)

Korg did a neat job of providing both as well as some intersection with the M3/Radias system. I think in general it makes sense for the minority of players who want a good creative synth *and* full-arrangement sequencing to add a synth module to their arranger keyboard.

The trouble is P-locking, this is not very MIDI-friendly. Would be great if a note event and patch-change (or a batch of CC) could be queued/synced together somehow. Does anyone know if MIDI 2.0 can help with that?

[dayjob]

To whom it concern (I talking to you Korg, Roland, Yamaha and Elektron):

Would someone please make a proper hardware synth for electronic musicians who want to live perform (like a groove box)? For some reason no company has all the ingredients. What I (and probably most others) would like to see are the following:

1. Take the structure of a polyphonic multi part synth like the Fantom or Montage with 16 parts under keyboard control
2. Include seamless sound switching from the Montage (no delays or load times switching multi part performances)
3. Include a TR step sequencer from the Fantom for drums (with proper visual note editing)
4. Include the performance recorder from the Montage (this is helpful to get a jam going, but sadly they do not have proper visual note editing)
5. Add the note trigs p locking from Elektrons devices (including note probability and changing the sound parameters per step)
6. Have much more polyphany so it never runs out (Roland what did you do???)
7. Include Rolands VA engine with lots of lfos and destinations (its really good better than the new Montage)
8. Allow live switching performances while the sequencer is still playing back a scene etc. (with the Montage, in order to switch a performance in the live set we have to stop the performance recorder playback. If we had this we could transition from one song to the next with no laptop needed) Maybe an idea here would be a way to live loop capture an audio snippet while its playing, and then that audio would continue to play in a loop while we load up a new performance and then have some sort of cross fader or something.
9. Of course make it easy to fade out parts volumes, solo and mute parts just as one would do with a live performance. How about applying solo to more than part at once? With a few button presses we could cut parts we dont want. But no thats too difficult isnt it?
10. Add ableton like clip and scene launching)
11. make both a desktop unit and a keyboard version.
12. include root note scale locking (again Yamaha booo!)
13. 16 velocity sensitive drum pads (with the ability to also trigger samples)
14. Have enough memory to save so many user performances and libraries.
15. Easy arpeggio creation. (Again Yahaha doesnt get it. We have to make an arp in the DAW then load it on a USB and wait half an hour for the Montage to accept it)
16. and really important is AUDIO and MIDI over USB) Once cable!!!
17. button presses to turn off keyboard control for each part
18. The superknob is pretty cool.
19. Make the sequence length up to 128 steps. (not sure why most place limits to 32 or 64)
20. Performance transpose. (+1 Elektron)
21. Performance FXs that can be triggered with buttons

Anyone else have features they would like?

[pdxindy]

Please keep in mind it doesnt have to be the exact brand tech that currently exists in existing machines. These are concepts that would be essential. My point is one synthesizer, no DAW, no tiny memory bandwidths, no nothing else needed to do a live set on one machine with all the features one could dream of.

There would be 2 limitations with one machine with all the features one could dream of...

1 - It would have a price that most people could still only dream of it.
2 - It would have a far too complicated interface.

[FranklyFlawless]

Would someone please make a proper hardware synth for electronic musicians who want to live perform (like a groove box)?

For quite a few months, I used the Synthstrom Audible Deluge (OLED) for that purpose, but I sold it in favour of acquiring a different MPE hardware synthesizer that can reproduce the sounds I am looking for. If my musical needs were more modest, I would have kept it instead.

[xtreme sounds]

I think if manufacturers would stop cutting corners a little we could have more on this list without breaking the bank.