KORG SP250

The Korg SP-250 brings you the sound and feel of an 88-key piano in a package that's as complete as the real thing. You get a sturdy stand, built-in speakers, music rack, and even an integrated damper pedal right out of the box. Touch a button to access stereo sampled grand piano sound, plus an assortment of classical electric pianos, organs, and more. Whether you're a novice looking for a realistic keyboard to learn on, or a pro who needs a compact rehearsal instrument, the Korg SP-250 will have you up and playing right out of the box.

Everything Included

The Korg SP-250 may just be the most complete digital piano package you can get. A sturdy, robust stand designed specifically for the SP-250 supports your instrument with no fear of wobbling or tipping like a run-of-the-mill X-stand, yet is easily removed and collapsed down for easy travel. Another feature that's optional for most keyboards in this price range (but standard on the SP-250) is the included damper pedal, which attaches securely to the integrated stand, so it won't slide back and forth when you're playing. This high-quality pedal provides realistic acoustic piano damping and "half-pedaling," adding to the expressiveness of this instrument. Along with the built-in, full-range 2 x 11-watt speaker system, you've got a complete digital piano package, ready to play right out of the box. Just add a pair of headphones, and you'll have everything you need for those late-night practice sessions.

Detailed, Realistic Piano Reproduction

With a bass port for extended low frequencies, the SP-250's on-board speakers sport enough power and range to faithfully reproduce Korg's inspiring palette of 30 sounds. Korg's stereo piano samples are longer in length than just about any other keyboard in this class, meaning slow, emotive passages are even more dramatic, full, and authentic, with no audible looping to spoil the atmosphere. The Korg SP-250 also boasts a number of electric pianos, pipe organs, blues organs, harpsichord, clav, choir, strings, mallet percussion and guitar sounds. Layer two sounds together and adjust their levels independently for the perfect blend. Whether you're playing in a worship service, a jazz trio, or at cocktail hour, you'll have the appropriate sound at your disposal. Three levels of reverb and chorus effects add depth and color to your favorite instruments at the touch of a button.

Experience Korg's Third-Generation Weighted Keyboard

Adding to the real-piano experience afforded by the SP-250's realistic piano sound is the RH3 graded hammer-action weighted keyboard, the latest refinement of Korg's "Real Hammer" mechanism. "Graded" means the keys feel heavier in the bass and lighter on the treble end of the keyboard, just as on an acoustic grand piano, where the hammers get thicker and heavier as you move toward the low end of the keyboard. Pianists used to playing on an acoustic instrument will appreciate the quick response and familiar feel of the RH3 keys, while new players will be getting the accurate piano experience they'll need to be comfortable on the real thing later on. Not only are the keys substantial and responsive, but their sensitivity can be adjusted to suit the player.

The Perfect Practice Partner

The Korg SP-250 offers plenty of extras to make practice more efficient, whether you're rehearsing by yourself or with a private instructor. A flexible metronome is on board with an intuitive slider for tempo adjustment. You get two headphone outputs for student and teacher, and a transpose function to accompany a singer in any key, or play along with your favorite songs. There's even standard MIDI I/O jacks so you can use your keyboard with composition and education software, and dual 1/4-inch audio outputs to plug into an amp or PA for live performance. Of course, nothing will improve your playing more than more playing - and nothing will inspire you to play more than a digital piano that sounds and feels as good as the Korg SP-250.

Features:

- 30 expressive, high-quality sounds, including a stereo concert grand piano
- Layer function to simultaneously play two sounds
- Built-in reverb and chorus effects and depth and richness to your sound
- Damper pedal included
- Built-in metronome
- Graded hammer-action RH3 keyboard with 3-level adjustable touch control
- In addition to equal temperament, choose Kirnberger or Werckmeister temperaments
- Transpose function lets you play in any key at the touch of a button
- Pitch Control can make fine adjustments -- play duets in tune with a grand piano!
- MIDI I/O -- connect the SP-250 to your computer or any MIDI device
- Powerful on-board speakers
- Two headphone ports -- practice duets or with a teacher without disturbing others
- Built-in keyboard stand and music rack -- just add a piano stool

Power Supply: DC 12V 3.5A Power Cord (Included) 

zZounds is an authorized dealer of Korg products.

- Keyboard: 88 notes, Real Weighted Hammer Action 3 keyboard
- Touch Control: Light, Normal, Heavy
- Sound Generation: Stereo Sampling System
- Polyphony: 60 notes maximum
- Programs: 30 sounds (5 Pianos, 7 Electric Pianos, Harpsichord, 2 Clavs, Vibraphone, Marimba, Acoustic Guitar, 3 Jazz Organs, 3 Church Organs, 3 Strings, 3 Choirs) Two Programs can be layered
- Effects: Reverb, Chorus (3 levels each)
- Demo: 30 songs (10 songs in 3 banks)
- Sound System: 2 Dual Cone Speakers (2 x 10 cm) with bass-reflex speaker box, 2 x 11 Watt
- Tuning: Key Transpose, Fine Tuning, Temperament (Equal, Kirnberger, Werkmeister)
- Pedal: Damper (included). Half-pedaling supported
- Metronome: Tempo, Time Signature, Accent and Volume controls
- Power Supply: DC 12V (External AC adapter) 3.5A
- Power Consumption: 42 Watts
- Dimensions (WxDxH): 50.98 x 14.96 x 5.51 in. (1,295 x 380 x 140 mm) main unit only, not including stand
- Weight: 41.89 lbs. (19 kg) main unit only, not including stand.
- Accessories (Included): Stand, Music stand, Damper pedal, AC adapter
- Sound processed by INFINITY.
- Specifications subject to change without notice

Power Supply: DC 12V 3.5A Power Cord (Included)

STUDIOLOGIC NUMA COMPACT

Studiologic Fatar Numa Compact, 88 Key Masterkeyboard with semi-weighted Keys, Polyphony: up to 128 Voices, 10 Sounds, Layer-Function thomann (2 Sounds), Effects, Pitch Bend and Modulatio Wheel, Connections: 2x 1/4" TR Line Out, Headphone Out, Sustain Pedal Input, Expression Pedal Input, MIDI In/Out, USB, 12v DC Power Supply Input, Dimensions: (L x D x H): 1260 x 220 x 80 mm, Weight: 6.3 thomann kg

Product Highlights
88 Weighted Action Keys
128 Voice Polyphony
10 Built-in Sounds
Adjustable Keyboard Touch Sensitivity
Lightweight and Portable Design
Pitch Bend and Modulation Wheels
Transpose, Master Tune, Velocity & More

Onboard Modulation and Reverb Effects

Fatar / Studiologic VMK-161-plus

Fatar / Studiologic VMK-161-plus

Features

What drove my selection is a mixture of a quality poised touch with the many MIDI commands. Furthermore, I also liked that you could carry, while retaining their musical possibilities with 61 keys.
In terms of features, it seems quite complete: 8 knobs, 9 sliders, 8 buttons, a wheel of pitch, 3 pedal inputs, and everything is assignable. Feeding classic USB or adapter.
I use it with Live to manage virtual instruments (piano, vintage synth ...), I add effects, samples shipping in concert. I could bricolage again with vintage synthesizers, and touch that looks like a piano ... excellent.


Utilization

The touch is very nice, of course we are far from natural piano touch but, anyway, never achieved any digital keyboard complexity play a piano touch. So it is nice touch, too quick with a quick return, sensitivity and dynamics is present also, just one good use virtual instruments.
The manual is informative but poorly documented. A beginner can MIDI panic.
The MIDI setup a once understood the concept of MIDI, it's easy to use and coupled to a program like Live, is a charm.

Studiologic SL-990 Pro

Studiologic SL-990 Pro

Master Keyboard

88 hammer effect keys for a realistic touch piano
Speed ​​Sensitive thomann
Pitch and modulation wheels
Eight velocity curve settings
1 output MIDI
Sustain Pedal Connection
Includes power supply 9VDC 500mA (positive inside)
Dimensions: 132.8 x 34.92 x 12.07cm
Weight: 20kg

KING KORG

KING KORG

The new King Korg Virtual Analog Synthesizer has been somewhat overshadowed by the simultaneous announcement the Korg MS-20 Mini, which frankly stole the show at NAMM this year. However the King Korg also has some pretty desirable features.
We had a visit from product specialist Luke Edwards, who showed us what the new King Korg can do.
One of the big surprises for me was the CV/GATE output which we were able to hook up to the original MS-20.

3 Oscillators
Multi-mode modeling filters
Three master effect sections (each with six effect types)
Vacuum tube driver circuit adds rich overtones and powerful distortion
Support for librarian software that lets you manage programs

NORD LEAD 4

NORD LEAD 4

Main features

Three models

Nord C2D B3 tone wheel simulation NEW

Improved Key Click and Percussion NEW

122 Rotary Speaker simulation NEW

Vox and Farfisa organ simulations

Nord Piano Library compatible

String Resonance (Gen 1)

Long Release

Nord Sample Library compatible

Powerful Effect section

4 Live Locations/Program Banks

Extended Control Pedal Support

USB MIDI NEW

2X Memory for Nord Sound Libraries

(Electro 4 SW73/HP Only)

The Nord Electro 4 features the B3 tone wheel organ engine from our flagship organ Nord C2D and includes a redesigned Key Click simulation as well as the Rotary Speaker simulation of a vintage 122 unit with a great new overdrive. The percussion model has been improved to offer increased control over the percussion levels when playing near-legato. Naturally, the vibrato and chorus scanners have been carefully modeled to be just as alive as the tone wheels.

The Farfisa* and Vox* models are just as impressive as the B3, simulating the behavior and unique response of the original instruments. The Farfisa Compact Deluxe, considered by many to be the mother of transistor organs, involves routing matrixes and complex filter combinations that offer a tailored sound with massive energy and high-end.

The Vox* Continental's brute design brings you a more hollow tone, but with a very intense character. Both these transistor organs have their own unique, irreplaceable personalities. Combine them with any of the Amp simulations, add some distortion, adjust the EQ and they will definitely get you through any organ gig with flying colors.

Click to enlarge

The Nord Electro 4D is fitted with physical drawbars of the same type as on our flagship organ, the Nord C2D, perfect for actively shaping the sound on the fly.

The Nord Electro 4 SW73 & HP organ section is identical in features but sports our Digital LED Drawbars.

The organ can be split, for compact dual manual action and its even possible to assign the lower manual to a second MIDI keyboard. Inputs for a Swell pedal and Rotary Speaker control are also available.

he Nord Electro 4 comes loaded with a selection of amazing sounds from the Nord Piano Library - our specialized library for Grand, Upright and Electrical Pianos, Clavinet and Harpsichords.

All the sounds have been recorded using our state-of-the-art sampling techniques to capture the extraordinary nuances and unique characters of the source instruments and covers everything from brilliant, factory new Grand Pianos to detuned upright bar pianos with tons of charm.

The entire Nord Piano Library is included on DVDs and new additions can be downloaded free on the Nord Piano Library page. Replacing the sounds is simply a matter of dragging and dropping files in the Nord Sound Manager for Mac and Windows.

The Long Release feature is suitable for legato playing styles and the String Resonance (Gen 1) feature on Grand and Upright Pianos can be turned off when desired.

185 MB of the Electro 4D memory is dedicated to Nord Piano Library sounds.

FL STUDIO

When learning any new piece of software it takes a little while to understand things. The Fruity Loops workflow is the basic set of activities taken to make a tune.

Creating a choice music track in 5 steps:

Instruments/ generators -These are used to make sounds and are arranged vertically in the step sequencer. The instruments/generators are shown to the left as Kick, Clap, HiHat, Snare ect.
Step sequencer:

Composition/ sequencing – The musical elements are entered in to the step sequencer or piano roll. The step sequencer consists of the grey/red boxes in the image on the left. Highlight a box in the step sequencer  to play a note on the corresponding beat.   
                                                                                                             
Playlist editor

Arrangement – Pattern blocks are arranged and can be looped in the Playlist window. The are shown on the right as long grey rectangles. Audio clips can be loaded in and arranged towards the bottom of the playlist editor.

Mixing – The sound produce by the instruments, generators and/or audio clips pass through the mixer where effects can be appliend to them. Reverb, compression, eq and distoriton are just some of the many effects to choose from. The mixer can also be also used to set the levels of each of the individual sounds so that the overall sound is loud enough to a level that it doesn’t clip.

Mixer

Exporting/ rendering – After a set of intruments have been programmed in the playlist to form a song, the sound data can be exported to a sound format such as .wav or .mp3 and played in winamp or burnt to a CD.This is a basic overview of the Fruity Loops workflow in its simplest form. So get to it – start a new project make a tune, convert it to mp3 and bounce around the room to your sweet new tune!Yeah well ok you might not fully understand Fruity Loops just yet but play around you will fill in the gaps for yourself

for yourself

HOW TO OPEN A VST PLUGIN IN FRUITY LOOPS STUDIO

If your still wondering how to open a vst plugin in FL Studio then you don’t know what your missing out on! VST’s are one of the most widely used plugins in music production software and are a must have to expand your music creating abilities.

Over time your collection of 3rd party VST plugins will grow large, so its good practice to store them outside of the FL Studio installation directory so that they are independent of the FL Studio installation.

Create your own directory where you will save ALL your 3rd party plugins outside of the FL Studio install folder, e.g. C:\VST
Set C:\VST as the VST search directory. Open up Fruity Loops and select File Settings from the Options Menu. Near the bottom of the window there is a section named VST plugins extra search folder. Set this to C:\VST or whatever the folder you created for your VST plugins was called.
Create sub-directories for FX and Instruments (be organized, as later you will have no idea what is an instrument or FX plugin among your .DLLs).

Install VST Instruments/Synths/Generators (VSTi)

Refresh the plugin list. Click: Channels > Add one > More > Refresh (button at the bottom of the list) > Fast scan. The plugin you have installed should appear in the plugin list in red. If this does not happen, check to make sure you have installed the VST correctly.
Place a checkmark before the plugin name if you want it listed in your favorites and close the window.
Now the plugin is installed and can be used as a standard FL Studio instrument.To add an instance of the plugin to the current project, open the Channels menu, select Add One and in the submenu that appears select the name of the plugin. An instance of the plugin will appear in the Step Sequencer window.
Install VST effects

Install the Effects plugins (.DLLs etc) into a directory such as C:\VST or whatever you like. (If installation uses an installer, override the default install directory and point it to your VST directory.)
Refresh the FX plugin list – In the Mixer window, click down arrow for any of the plugin slots (external effects banks), click the Select item. In the submenu that appears, select More…. You will see a window listing all effect plugins available in FL Studio. At the bottom of the window, click the Refresh button and select Fast Scan. The plugin you have installed should appear in the plugin list in red color. If this does not happen, please make sure you have followed the previous steps properly.
Place a checkmark before the plugin name if you want it listed in your favorites and close the window.
Now the plugin is installed and can be used as a standard FL Studio effect. To add an instance of the plugin to the current project, open the Mixer FX slot, select Add One and in the submenu that appears select the name of the plugin. An instance of the plugin appears in the Mixer window.

HOW TO MAKE A BEAT