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Both the Physis and GEM products have had university input (Padova in the case of GEM). I suspect that the research has been ongoing for years, with cross-fertilization involving former GEM employees. I saw a post recently from a Viscount rep that stated that their i-motion chip is similar to GEM's Drake engine.

Having owned two GEM products based on the Promega engine, I can say that it was a great concept, but that the long-term reliability factor was an issue.

+1

Sexism everywhere? What about prettier boys?

Girls look nicer lying across pianos than boys do

Hmmmm ...

All that depends on their ages ...

Back on topic...

I'm a little curious about the BK-5 OR ('OR' = 'oriental'?) backing keyboard from Roland:

http://www.rolandconnect.com/product.php?p=bk-5_or

Although this type of 'arranger' product isn't terribly interesting for me personally, it's clear that Roland have identified a market need for an instrument that caters for Arabic tastes.

Cheers,
James
x

Another product to plug one of the holes left when GEM went belly-up. Their "oriental" workstations with quarter-tone capability were fascinating keyboards.

Santana settings and all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7SYnEyCoSo&feature=related

It's an up-market cheese bucket. Fascinating.

Dripping in cheese, but there's no denying he's a great player, and does an excellent job of demo-ing the board.

Cheese Cheers,
James
x

EDIT: Wow, it has an onboard vocoder too (around the 7 minute mark...)?

Yep. I couldn't lick his boots - not in that respect anyway.....and it should be remembered there's room enough in this world for some cheese.

.....must admit, though, I hadn't navigated anywhere near into the 7 minutes mark. I shall don my topee and have another go.

Crikey! Jangling chain round his neck, slick-back hair, distorted mike-into-PA effect.....he's really done his homework this bloke.

Viscount Physis looks impressive (and expensive)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GCzvwFbWxk

Two models, plastic keys (4l lbs) or wood keys (60 lbs)

It certainly does look expensive, yes.

24 GHz processing, I think he said. How does that compare to the V-piano? Actually, the piano sounded a bit like V-Piano to me.

Doesn't it sound a lot like $599 GEM RP-X piano module? The unnatural ringing at forte in particular.

Looks and sounds promising.

I would have preferred to hear the Rhodes model without the phaser, but hey, at least you're giving the option to chose from different models (are you watching Roland?).

Fatar action, presumably?

Cheers,
James
x

I can't possibly imagine otherwise.

Way to take the sheen off a product, hey?

Fatar actions are almost universally known as being sub-standard next to the actionbs made by the big 3. Why on earth would you develop an expensive, ground-breaking product and skimp on the action?

On the other hand, why don't Fatar just pull their finger out and just develop a premium performance action...?

Now that's just crazy talk.

Because developing a realistic keyboard action is expensive, relative to software development.

And in the internet-era, consumers no longer visit stores, or play-test instruments with their own hands, rather they rely on audio demos and YouTube clips before purchasing online. I believe a Nord rep was quoted the other day as saying "It's all about the sound...", right?

Cheers,
James
x

And yet, on PW we have almost as many discussions about actions as we do about sound...

Fatar is actually an action company - so I don't know what their excuse could possibly be for not getting developing better actions. They seem to be standing still at the moment. In the end, an action isn't that complicated, they could even take their pointers from existing good actions and incorporate these things into their own designs. I'm damn sure I could come up with a decent action myself if I had access to the Fatar laboratory. Geez, you'd think it was rocket science. Now granted, they are targeted more towards the lighter portable market, but if they are going to start appearing in heavier, expensive flagship instruments, they need to lift their game and develop an action that lives up to the premise of the product.