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I reckon that deep down inside, the Caped Crusader has a soft spot for crappy progressive 80s synth music. But how’s a superhero meant to get his musical groove on whilst out and about kicking arse? With this deeply menacing machine, of course.
Made in our very own sunny isles, the Stylophone 2 isn’t so much synthesiser as pocket badass music-making machine. I could bore you with facts, like that it fits a 3-octave keyboard into a 12-inch package (teehee), or that the signal path is beautiful, crisp analogue, unpolluted by any of that digital crap, or even that it’s powered by a couple of AA batteries.
But none of that matters. Because this isn’t something you buy because you need it. This is something you buy because you want to be the answer to the question “what happens if you cross Iron Man with a virtuoso pianist?”. You probably don’t even care that they’re charging £299 for the damn thing. [Stylophone]
Thanks Southern!
I’d prefer a Korg microKorg, around the same price
As a fellow owner of a MicroKorg (in limited edition beige, no less), I’d have to agree with you.
But you could totally twat someone in the face with that. My Korg would break if I breathed on it too hard.
thanks, i played with one of these ages ago in a shop and thought it was the nuts, didn’t catch the name of it, and was only on display for a day before someone bought it. went back a couple of weeks later and no-one could identify the “little black and red synth”
aimless searches and gave up…
tap in korg microkorg into google and there is the special edition red and black wonder!
buying!
Check eBay first, there are some cracking deals if you’re patient!
Agreed, I bought my original Microkorg for £180 all included. Paying top whack for a 10 year old modern synth is a little ott.
Metal > plastic.
By the way, you have the Microkorg XL if you have a beige LE model. What a git!
Oh yeah, true. Why does that make me a git?!
A lucky git.
I wanted one of them ;_;
They’re sweet. Vocorder is also nice
Yeah, double the bands than the standard MicroKorg so it’s a sweet sound.
Keep an eye on the NAMM show coverage tomorrow, there are tons of cool new instruments being premiered – the DSI Prophet 12 is lush, but probably in the £2.5K price range.
Batman may have skills on a Stylophone, but no one raps like Bane.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfVTJTSDD1c
I haven’t laughed that hard in a long, long time.
Is Rolf going to be advertising this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE2HVWC6cWY
did i read that right? 10 years in the making, no midi, no presets, no save…
£299… lololololol
Shhh! Who needs MIDI, it’s 30 years old! This thing’s got control voltage input (what us oldies used before MIDI came along) so you can play it with your old Modular Synths.
i know that, but this is £300 of new equipment that can interface with old stuff only?
for £35 you can get these, which are basically the equivalent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWLOxRSll5Q
Because it’s really not the same. There’s no LFO on the Duo (I have all three monotrons, they are great fun!) and the X-mod is not really the same as proper detune. There’s no amp or filter envelope and the main problem with the monotrons is that they are cheaply made so there is some audible background hiss when you do recordings with them. As long as you take it with a pinch of salt, yeah it will do.
I’m not trying to defend the price though – £300 prices it into the league of people who want expensive toys or who can afford a big modular cabinet
Serious synth inside a stylophone? Point missed.
That said, a reasonably sized ribbon controller with the option of note quantisation could be a really interesting performance input method. Buuuuut… it doesn’t have MIDI, and is way too much to be used just as a MIDI controller anyway.
I have to say it is quite a growly-sounding synth, perfect for doing leads and basslines with a nice, old-school British 12dB filter and you can detune the two oscillators nicely.
£299 entry price is a little steep, yes, but they will probably come down in price soon enough.
And here it is put to some good use
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVZaM_5hdDM