Видео

This is s very good sounding instrument with good capabilities. Sort of a Model 10 for 1/12th of the price. However, it would be better if it at least had a Minimoog sized keybed, and was called a different name. Maybe a Basemoog, Smallmoog, Tinymoog, Firstmoog, Intromoog, Demomoog, whatever, but not what they chose to name it... The name choice is atrocious.

Vienna Symphonic Library has an amazing free piano.

My goto for noodling around is Galaxy Instruments Noire. None of the pianos in this video sounded very good, but that might have been the MIDI file, which seemed to be very much lacking in the expressive nuance that would highlight the differences.

Skills with arranging pads strings or whatever for melodies is not my forte.. unfortunately. Im trying though! Lush ambient soundscapes have always fascinated me. I found an amazing free plug in today, been meaning to download it for a while and always forget.. anyway 'Supermassive by Valhalla Sure to improve ambient soundscapes😮quite incredible considering its FREE

I wish it came in cherry still. I’m not keen on this finish.

Ian, are you quite certain you've got the audio right, here? These pianos are sounding astonishingly similar to one another, and I note that the Woodland piano here doesn't sound much like the demo recording of it on the pianobook page.

Ian that braid of cables over your left shoulder gives me so much anxiety!!!

Of those you played in the video the Hammersmith Free is my favourite. Coincidentally I already have this piano. However, I was at a very posh piano shop just the other day (amazing that they let me in!). I was able to noodle around in my inept way a grand and baby grand pianos costing upwards of $500,000! Sadly, this experience has spoilt it for me. Now, nothing else is close to good enough!!! Even more sadly, I couldn't even afford the paint stool I was sitting on when noodling about.

I am very poor at playing the piano, but to my ears the Audio Ollie and Hammersmith Free pianos sounded the most realistic followed closely by the Sonic Atoms Novel Piano. However, if I just want a simple piano to try to write a piece of music, my go-to tends to be the Heavyocity Foundations Piano because although it doesn't sound as real, I like the slightly treated warm sound it produces.

Thanks Ian!

🎹🎹🎹

The only feature add vs the Mk2 is the poly aftertouch. Most of us can do without that. However the value add from Keylab 61 mk2 is pretty big, which is my upgrade to the mk3

If you buy plugins for money it also involves giving your information and these companies spam you just as bad. They also sell your information.

Got the platinum WaveState this week for $900 off which is ok free shipping and free case. That's decent as someone listened at $900 off. Prices are back to the original currently.

Awesome video. Thanks! Just what I needed. The last "mix" definitely had a Tears in Rain vibe to it

Congratulations for the explanations. I just bought the Mk I have a problem every now and then increase the volume or the expression yourself can you help me I use MOTU DP GRAZIE Daniele

I enjoy your video editing!!!!

Fry of the Valkyries is a perfect song for America. I thought it was so funny I shared it with my wife. She thought it was funny too

no matter what i do i can never use the black notes they always sound out of key to me

This is the simplest and best video about paraphonic synthesis that I've watched. I finally understood why a lot of people dislike it. I'm a noob in synths and that really helped me understanding the basis concepts. Thank you and happy new year!!

Delightful! I loved “Fry of the Valkyries” as well. I am flabbergasted at how real the vocal sounds. As I commented elsewhere that I was planning to do, I just bought a one year “rent-to-own” subscription to Ace Studio for US $199. I plan to have some fun with some spoof songs, as you have done, and also use it for reference vocals for my own songwriting efforts. If it seems like I got some good use from it in 2025, I will pay for a second year, thus obtaining a permanent license. However, listening to this wonderful example using Synthesizer V, I hardly think that Ace could do a better job, though it is much more expensive.

Moog and apparently even knock off Moogs and polyphony--in this paraphony go together like peanut butter and motor oil. And you can't spell "paraphony" without "phony"

Bach would be spinning in his gravy!

Have you tried a plugin called "Unify" you will be amazed what you can do with it.

I thought the frying tonight was from the Carry On film 😂😂. I think it’s a little like photo realistic graphics, there’s always something not quite right. Happy new year mate 🤘🤘.

Beautiful song which also makes me hungry...a little drink to wash it all down would be nice. lol BRAVO MY FRIEND, BRAVO!

Tortilla typical spanish? 🟡 Hey, I'm from Spain! 💃

Does ambient music generally (like almost always) avoid 3rds and 7ths to preserve ambiguity or are there certain modes that are less clearly major or minor that also lend themselves to ambient music. I never really made the connection of ambient and ambiguous in such a defining way though I get how it makes sense.

Thx! Great ambient tutorial.

now that's delightful.

I bought MK1 versions Modwave and Opsix for sound design and I think I don't need more than 3 octaves and more polyphony. Still missing Wavestate and I am going to buy it in summer. But in terms of playable instrument I probably would buy Genos 2 or whatever Roland Phantom newest things will be when time comes to choose and buy. Now my play instrument is Roland GO:KEYS 5 and it does this very good!

Update from Christmas Day, my last piece of hardware super gas was farted out. Cue Wayne’s World moment ‘’ oh yes it shall be mine, oh yes “. I’m now the proud owner of a PWM Malevolent 🙏.

Bravo, big up my friend!

I'm setting up a personal studio in my new house, switching back to hardware synths ... bought too much, or maybe not enough. Not sure what my favorite is, but I've been holding back on my GAS since the late 1980s, and "now is not the rehearsal" so ... some of my new purchases this year: Waldorf Iridium keyboard ASM Hydrasynth Deluxe Intelligel Cascadia (Two) Dreadbox Nyx Reissue kits Behringer 2600 Blue Marvin Behringer Odyssey Behringer Solina Tasty Chips GR-Mega (Preorder) Elta Music Solar 42F (Shipping now!) SOMA Laboratory Cosmos 1010 Blackbox Oxi One sequencer ... and an embarrassing number of effects pedals, plus a Tascam Model 2400 mixer. Gonna be years worth of learning curves. But, hey, I need something to do in retirement.

Effortless, smooth teaching, Ian ! Thank you !!!

Have a nice Christmas Day, Ian! I saw your great video and got myself a Conductor Mark II Midi Controller for Christmas - and now I'm faced with the problem that I don't know where to enter it in the Studio in Cubase 13 pro (Windows): my PreSonus Faderport is under Mackie Control, for the Conductur I created and connected Mackie Control 2. But it doesn't work... Can you please help me? 😉 Greetings from Vienna/Austria

Delightful! 🐶🦴🐾❤🎵🎹

I've always wanted Omnisphere. It's one of those plugins that is on the I must own list. PS Did you see the deal for Sampletank 4/Syntronik Max 2? It's ending today. Amazing for 28 quid. My buy of the year was the Teenage Engineering PO 133. They hit a really nice price point. I got mine for £220. They have been producing such expensive stuff then they did this. Ok it has limitations like a proper song mode but it was very well designed and very easy to use. I love the Medieval - that was the best product of the year for me - I don't want to double up again but I would really like one. I also love my Kastle stuff just for mucking around a bit with modular on the cheap. Next year I want to get a Phonicbloom Loopstyler. That is a very inventive device. Like a Stylophone with sampling and gryo detection. It looks so immediate. I also bought a ZX Spectrum bluetooth keyboard. So I can run 'The Ram Music Machine' sampler. It has to be run on a proper speccy rubber keyboard to feel like it's 1985 again!

A very funny version of the old classic 👍

I also have recently upgraded to Synthmaster 3, having bought the "Everything Bundle" some time ago. I haven't started using it yet, but I'm very impressed with the tutorials I have watched. I bought precisely one piece of gear in 2024. Was it necessary? Well, yes and no. We've had to get some major repairs done to the house, so we had to send pretty much everything into storage. We found out on the Friday that the furniture truck was coming first thing Monday, so we had Saturday and Sunday to pack everything up. All I had left in the music room was my chair, a very small desk, my laptop computer, and my Arturia Minilab 3. At the last minute, my wife decided not to send her spare computer desk into storage, and to throw it out. I decided to keep it, and dismantled my small desk to repurpose. With hindsight, I could have kept my Arturia Keylab 88 mkii, but it was too late, it had gone to storage. When an 88-key iCON i-KEYBOARD went on sale at 179 Australian Dollars, reduced from 399, I couldn't resist!

What I tell myself about a piece of music software I want: “I don’t need it, but it could be useful in a future project, and I want to get it on sale now, so I don’t have to pay full price later. Should inspiration suddenly strike, I want a fully stocked toolbox.“ Of course, another part of my brain is fully aware that I already have a hundredfold as much software as I need to implement any idea I could possibly have, and that I should start working on learning to use what I already have.

My favourite purchase this year was Sonuscore Time Textures Expanded (US $179), with Fracture Sounds Brass Band Soloists (US $144) a close second. Third would be Cherry Audio GX80 (US $57). I also like Native Instruments Komplete 15 Collectors Edition update (US $345 after 28% off). Fifth is NextMidi Divisimate 2 (US $199), though I haven't got it to work properly yet. I liked your list too. I already had and like Musio and V Collection X from last year. My favourites were Acid V, Mini V, and MiniFreak. Omnisphere is a someday maybe for me, as I have several great synths already, with Arturia Pigments, Arturia V collection, and Kilohearts Phase Plant topping the list. Thinkific Orchestration Recipes is high on my wish list, though I am waiting for either a good sale on the whole collection (reg US $219), or the desire to start digging into learning orchestration. I have been thinking of AI singing too, leaning toward Ace Studio, though I may get Synthesizer V instead.

Wanting to avoid Apple's outrageous upgrade prices, I bought a MacBook with the smallest SSD. I don't have room for more soft synths which often take up a lot of space. I suppose I'll buy an external SSD one day, but until then no more new software for me.

Thanks Ian, I was just curious what you picked up over the year. Omnisphere has been my go to synth since the day it came out. I come from the days when it was Atmosphere. It is a beast of synth and you can cook up pretty much anything. The Sonic Extensions are not just sounds they also come with effects, and Nylon Sky is certainly one to look at just for that reverb. Stepic is also in my arsenal and pretty much matches everything I can do with my Schrittmacher (hardware sequencer). Thanks for pointing out Orchestration Recipes, I also picked up the whole series and they are certainly interesting and helpful. The witty way he delivers the lessons is a breath of fresh air. All the best for Christmas and New Year to you Ian.

I HAVE MINE PLUGED into usb c motherboard connecter powers fine but its stuck on serail number and isnt being recornised in the midi. Spent 4 hours moving computer closer because of usb c cable not long enough. think i might just take it back tomorrow

Hi Ian. Interesting video. I haven't got any of the items mentioned. Indeed, I haven't purchased any music software/hardware this year. Due to poor finances I stick to what I can get free. There certainly is a lot out there that are useful for free. Thus, I haven't felt the urge to buy anything. Happy Xmas!!!!

Look on the positive side Ian, the samples I have heard in your compositions are crackin', :) We all drop money clangers . :)

I don't do subscriptions myself. Software as a service was never for me.

I’m very sorry that it appears you’ve been had, Ian.

Normally I dislike subscriptions either, for the exact same reasons you gave in your videos, however, I made a carefully considered exception for Roland' Cloud's "Play4Life" offer. So I subscribed "Ultimate" at 222 € for 1 year, and after that, I was allowed to select 2 instruments for perpetual licenses. I chose the D-50 and XV-5080, which would have cost me a lot more if it wasn't for the Play4Life deal. Not to mention that this 1-year membership gave me the opportunity to check out all the other vintage instruments and expansion boards available on Roland Cloud!