Jay Smith of Livid Instruments may be in the business of making controller hardware himself, but that doesn’t stop him from appreciate the knob-laden goodness of the NAMM show floor. Jay’s own gear reveals a not-so-secret love of knobs and buttons and faders, and if you’re into that sort of thing, this year’s NAMM music trade show had plenty to love – Akai’s APC40 controller for Live, Akai’s MPK keyboard, the Alesis MasterControl, Arturia’s Factory Experience controller for their soft synth emulations, and even another brutish-looking computer-in-a-keyboard, now with pads, from Open Labs.

The shots give you a particularly good feel for what the Akai APC40 is like up close and personal. It’s no accident that Jay himself is a VJ. I really imagine that a number of these devices might be brilliant for running live visuals, though we still have yet to find out exactly how the APC works. I assume it’ll run as a standard MIDI controller outside Live, but I’m unclear on the specifics of what that will mean.

Thanks to Jay for sharing these photos with CDM.

Now I can’t wait to get another look at Livid’s own controller line and what may be next for it; see its wooden crossfader below. Previously:

Hands-On: Livid’s New Ohm Controller, Custom Control Geared for Visualists

The MiKo is a Windows PC built into a big, blue keyboard that doubles as a:

So, got all that? It’s a computer – control surface – keyboard – DJ / VJ workstation – home entertainment studio, after all.

And it’s all in a case that’s sparkling bumper car blue. The price is great: intro US$1999. (Keeping in mind this features a touchscreen, control surface, keyboard, software bundle, audio interface, and desktop-class machine.) The bad news is the weight and bulk: 35 pounds means us subway musicians will probably stick to a laptop and keyboard. But Open Labs does promise it’ll fit in the back of a Honda (part of the reason for making the instrument), and I can say the package is very cool in person. You wouldn’t turn one away if it showed up in your living room.

I’m not saying rationally I should want one. Only that I irrationally do want one. Wave of the future or not, Open Labs has paid attention to a lot of the details, and built an instrument everyone at the show was drooling over. (I surveyed both vendors and showgoers, just to make sure I wasn’t insane, and the whole thing wasn’t a mirage.)

Sadly, Open Labs isn’t holding a keyboard-burning party this year I can rescue a unit from. Just wait until summer NAMM hits Austin, Texas, their hometown. I’m sure I’ll wind up in jail with these guys at that party. Stay tuned.

Open Labs’ NeKos are powerful keyboards that pack a full-blown Windows PC, tuned software, and control surfaces into a single musical instrument. They’ve got some heavy-hitting celebrity endorsements, and they’re rugged: one NeKo managed to continue functioning after being being beaten with a baseball bat and set on fire by DJ Richard Devine.

This month, Open Labs unveiled the next-generation NeKo keyboard: sexier looking, more features, and cheaper. Porsche car paint, faster processors (up to a dual core 64-bit AMD CPU), Pro Tools software, and even Borg-like ability to clone your hardware synths and automatically create multisamples. Priced for mortals, too: US$2,295 gets you all the basics, up to US$5,995 for the absolute top-of-the-line. More after the jump.

What’s new:

Faster/cheaper: The top-of-the-line NeKo 64 has been upgraded to a dual-core 2.0 AMD Athlon 64-bit brain, but it’s $4,000 cheaper than before (now US$5,995).

Quieter: RunSilent features let you throttle back temperature and fan speeds for ultra quiet operation (like during recording).

More responsive: PowerRush adapts CPU clock speeds on the fly to respond to load.

Faster data: Serial ATA 3GB/s support for new high-speed hard drives.

Prettier: New color scheme using the same paint used on Porsche automobiles. (Just hope Richard Devine doesn’t key your keyboard.)

More M-Powered: Pro Tools M-Powered is now included standard. (Though you know I’ll be using SONAR and Ableton Live, of course.)

More Expandable: 5 PCI Express / 4 available. (Note that like the new Power Macs from Apple, plain-vanilla PCI is gone.) Hard drive options are up, too: up to 1 Terabyte on the LE, or 2 Terabytes on the high-end 64.

Sounder: Uh . . . soundier? 5,000 presets plus an upgrade to Open Labs’ Karsyn software (1.5), shown below.

More Controllable: Dedicated buttons launch the most used apps, controllers all map automatically for different software, and more applications now include preset maps.

More Borg-y: The clone hardware option lets you assimilate hardware synth technology into the NeKo.

That last feature is especially intriguing. The Neko’s clone hardware feature lets it automatically multisample any other instrument, pumping out MIDI for different velocities, etc., and then automatically recording, looping, and converting the resulting sounds. You can then export the results as HALion, Vsampler, or SoundFont2. (Hey, no Kontakt? Oh, well.) You can use the features for traditional sample creation, too, by starting with an uncut sample file.

Here’s my question: any reason Open Labs can’t release this feature as software, too? It’s not the first time this sort of thing has been tried, but it sounds like they’ve done a really nice job with it.

But I’ve saved the best feature for last. I hear the new NeKo has automatic defense systems. Now if Richard Devine comes after it with a blowtorch and a baseball bat, it can fight back.

Run, Richard, run!

Here at CDM, we've covered instruments powered by flames,
but not necessarily instruments set aflame. This one is just too
painful to watch. At a party hosted by Native Instruments,
Windows-powered keyboard maker Open Labs encouraged DJ Richard Divine
to destroy their NeKo keyboard, supposedly to demonstrate how rugged it
is. So Rick D responded by setting the NeKo on fire. Apparently that
did nothing, as the keyboard plays on in the video. Until he hit it. Hard. With a baseball bat. Several times.

I had to avert my eyes. Um, Open Labs, next time can you just give it to me instead?

Via Music Thing. I think Dave may be a guitarist, if he has a stomach for watching this happen to a keyboard.