Kristin Hersh, Waco Brothers, HTRK, Alex The Astronaut, Dry Cleaning, Hater, GRIP, Beabadoobee, Nekojam, Pom Poko and more!

It’s a huge music festival and daytime conference, all dedicated to electronic music and everything in that world!

It’s a huge music festival and daytime conference, all dedicated to electronic music and everything in that world! There's a club-based festival, daytime conference expos by artists and extensive art, film, gear, and pop-up experiences.

We’ve got a new kit that’s indispensable for your gear. So hey, let’s celebrate Black Friday really early. Buy a MeeBlip synth, get a MIDI splitter kit for free.

The thru5 is a new MeeBlip kit. It’s a splitter (also known as a thru box), whatever messages are sent to the MIDI IN jack gets simultaneously passed through to all five MIDI OUT jacks. It’s perfect for routing clock in a jam session, for instance.

The board is mostly assembled; all you have to do is solder on the MIDI jacks and (for power) the USB port. That’s about as easy as electronics soldering gets, meaning the thru5 makes a good kit if you’re just getting started with soldering. For everyone else, you’ll put it together quickly and have a useful tool.

Our geode synthesizer is in stock right now, so we’re making this easy to buy both: order a geode, and get a thru5 free, while supplies last.

But hurry: the offer runs just through Wednesday October 23, 23:59 West Coast time.

Check out the MeeBlip thru5.

And get it free when you buy geode. Plus, we’ve got free standard shipping on now.

About MeeBlip geode

If you’re not already familiar with geode, here’s why you’ll want our hardware synth – and now you’ve got a great excuse to get one right now.

Q&A

Can I use the USB port to make this a USB MIDI interface?

No – USB is just for power on thru5. If you want a USB MIDI interface, check out cubit go.

Isn’t there already a MeeBlip thru box?

Yep, we also make the cubit splitter, which comes in a rugged case and features vertical-mount jacks, and doesn’t require soldering. We had a chance to make thru5 really affordable and easy as a kit, so we wanted to offer it to you.

Why is it already partly assembled? I want to do everything myself!

Hey, more power to you – but this is the most reliable, cost-effective way to offer up this particular kit, so we kept it simple.

Will you make more kits?

That depends on you – let us know if you like this, and what you’d want to see.

Get MeeBlip geode now, with free thru5 [expires 23:59 Wednesday October 22!]

Get MeeBlip thru5 kit (free with geode for 48 hours, $19.95 after that)

The post This is the new MeeBlip thru5 kit, and it’s free with our geode synth for 48 hours appeared first on CDM Create Digital Music.

There’s an all-new keyboard instrument, born in the USA. It’s got the spirit of the Roland SH-101, but with modern design features. And CDM is getting an exclusive first look.

It’s analog for the 21st century – rechargeable and thin, like a smartphone, but with analog circuitry and instrumental interaction, like the classics that inspired it.

Superlative Instruments showed a non-final version of this instrument back at the Superbooth show in Berlin, but the company tells us they’ve been hard at work developing the design through the summer.

What’s new? They’ve changed materials, including upgrading to an all-aluminum chassis. It’s rechargeable, with up to 16 hours of battery life. And they’ve updated the design.

We’re seeing some new keyboards these days, but generally with big manufacturers behind them. SI is a real indie hardware label, and they tell us they have some ambitious progressive ideas about keeping the design open and supporting good causes (we got talking about bee health, for one). There will even be open-source firmware.

Of course, the irony of this is that, wonderful an instrument as it may be, the engineering on the SH-101 was anything but luxurious. So curiously what you get on the SB01 is like a deluxe remake, retaining the workflow and basic layout but re-imagining the 101 in a much more attractive “space bee” look.

If original synth designs is what you want, this isn’t it – it is intentionally a clone of the analog essentials, which on some level puts it in contention with the likes of Behringer. But rather than cloning being a race to the bottom, here you get more of the equivalent of what happens in boutique sports cars – recreations that modernize the form and engineering while retaining basic function.

What’s actually inside?

• Analog circuitry, inspired by the original Roland (in collaboration with Open Music Labs)
• 3340 voltage controller oscillator + 4-pole OTA filter (that’s what makes this sound like a 101)
• USB-C connector for both power and data (MIDI)
• MIDI in and out (on minijack)
• Pedal input
• Full CV inputs, too – CV (1v/octave) for pitch, gate, trigger, and mod CV input for the VCO/VCF
• And CV output – 1v/oct, gate, trigger
• Phone and line audio outputs
• 32-key keyboard with octave transposition, portamento
• A new “performance” bender – 360 degree joystick for pitch bend, filter, and vibrato
• Keytar grip (as on the Roland) 3-axis accelerometer control (that’ll be new)

There’s also a new step sequencer. This basically expands the original, with 256 notes x 64 different locations. It’s got the signature SH sequencing (LOAD, PLAY buttons, rest, slide), but also an arpeggiator and chord mode/hold. There’s also a CHAIN mode and JUMP for immediately triggering sequences, so you get deeper sequencing possibilities but still oriented around live performance.

Sequencer specs:

• Dual sequencer / arpeggiator
• Arpeggiator modes: up, down, up&down, random
• Sequencer: play directions, live editing
• Key transpose, latch, hold
• Bi-color LED layer indicators
• 256 steps per sequence
• 2 banks x 32 pattern memory locations

The keys are actually full size, but fit into a slim casing – so they say this is carry-on friendly (and they’re offering a tote bag as accessory). The action is a quiet rubber dome switch to allow that slim shape.

The whole package is 491mm x 249mm x an incredible 24 mm (that’s 19.3″ x 9.8″ x 1″)!

No pricing details yet, but Kickstarter is launching shortly. 200 “Early Bee” units will be available in the preorder.

Waiting on updated videos on this one – I’ll post an update soon – but here’s a slightly outdated look at what they had going earlier this year:

More info:

https://playsuperlative.com/

Kickstarter campaign (pre-notification)

The post SH-101, the next generation? Superlative Instruments launch the svelte SB01 appeared first on CDM Create Digital Music.

Various venues, Cardiff
Based everywhere from an Irish chain pub to an antiques centre, this slickly organised festival shows how varied and vibrant today’s indie scene is

Prowling the stage at Clwb Ifor Bach, the Murder Capital’s James McGovern sums up the mood at Cardiff’s Sŵn festival: “There’s only one thing we want: more.” The crowd responds, stoking the Dublin post-punks’ fires as they charge from coiled menace towards frenzied collapse.

Smouldering among the dying embers of the weekend their set is the ideal capper to the event, which sprawls across a number of venues in the Welsh capital. Foregrounding new music and a sense of adventure, the bill must satisfy both planners and gamblers, and does so adeptly. Twelve years on from its first staging, Sŵn is a slick machine defined by rapid turnarounds and minimal clashes.

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