Akai Pro Celebrates Synthstation 25 Controller with Price Drops
(ShackMan | Posted 2010-11-01)
Portability. Affordability. Ease of use. $1.99. Synthstation Application. Synthstation 25.
If you take nothing else from this article, remember those sentences (well, okay, almost sentences), and think about just how simple it is to start making music these days. Akai has just begun to ship it's Synthstation 25, the hardware partner-in-crime to the Synthstation Application for the iPhone. And to celebrate it's release at just $99 a pop, Akai is taking it's latest version of the Synthstation app down to under $2. That's a full music production kit for barely over a Benjamin. Wanna know what that all entails? Read on, grasshopper.
Okay, so you've already got the iPhone. Start yourself off with the Synthstation app. For $1.99 you'll get yourself over 50 drumkits with genuine MPC beats, 3 programmable synthesizers, and a full mixing board for creating loops and sequencing entire songs. The music production app is all laid out so that anybody could learn to use it. Even a caveman (Are there cavemen with iPhones out there?). It's enough to start getting all those ideas down in .wav or .midi format, and the recording captures all sequences, loops, and onscreen keyboard playing. The songs can then be downloaded through WiFi for playback on a computer. The latest version, 1.21, is a free upgrade for current users and features improved graphics and support for iOS 4.
But maybe you already have the Synthstation app, and you're tired of playing on the screen. You need a real keyboard to control all of this craziness. So you check out the Synthstation 25, brand new from Akai Pro. Pretty sweet as far as portable MIDI controllers go, with all the buttons you need for performance on the board: Octave up and down, patch select, and part select. It also features headphone and RCA outputs for recording and monitoring as well as a MIDI out for controlling any Mac or PC software.
Speaking of software, Akai aren't keeping the Synthstation 25 to themselves. They're offering AkaiConnect SDK free to approved third-party app developers to create applications like iVoxel
vocoder by Virsyn that support the Synthstation 25's capabilities and make use of it in new ways. Just like developing music on the iPhone and the Synthstation 25, all those apps need to get started, is you. In today's world, all these programmers and developers can do is offer their creativity to make your creativity easier to share. You just have to start using them.
For further information on Akai's Synthstation Application and the Synthstation 25 controller, check out Akai's website at www.akaipro.com.
James Rushin is a bassist, keyboardist, writer, and composer living and working in the Greater Pittsburgh area. He has performed with Selmer artist Tim Price, Curtis Johnson, guitarists Ken Karsh and Joe Negri. His compositions have been featured at West Virginia University and Valley Forge Christian College. He will be spending the Fall and Winter months working on a full-length album with his latest project, Shutterdown.
Feel free to e-mail James with comments, questions, concerns, at james.rushin@musicgearreview.com
