Wholetone Revolution; Just ordered one!

[Aidin Foroughi]

Hi all,

I'm REALLY excited to finally have a change to get my hands on one of these keyboards. Next step is to figure out the IO on these things. I've never owned a keyboard so not sure how to interface it with a PC or a sound rack etc. I'll probably take it to one of those huge music shops and ask them to hook it up and test it for me, as well as maybe getting a few quotes for sound modules..

Does anybody know a good combination? I'd need a clean classic sounding piano, and a jazzy-neo-souly patch for the soulful things.

Also, has anybody ever worked with Kontakt? Can I just hook up the wholetone to a PC and use a software to get all the nice sounds? 

I figured with the shipping overhead, Chromatone wouldn't be the best choice; it seems to have lower quality keys, and no after-touch. Also, I don't want to get a Chromatone, really getting into it, and then deciding to upgrade to a wholetone! that would be pricey. Anyway.

Also somewhere I read Wholetone is based off of Korg N5.. Have found much info for N5 though.. 

Any tips or info that can help a novice out will be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

Aidin

[O.E. Soriano]

I work with Kontakt every day.


Your biggest issue is going latency.  Unless you splurge for an audio interface that has its processing power and takes a load off your main CPU, you're going to have some latency (an interval of time between when you press the key and when the puter processes a sound)

I'm told that on the mac side of things, latency is less an issue.

EDIT: I'm just rereading and seeing that you're getting a wholetone and not a chromatone.  If thats the case, enjoy the fat juicy sounds on the wholetone without a need to plug in into an external module or computer.

[Aidin Foroughi]

I got the wholetone and have hooked it all up; The quality and sensitivity of the keys are quite good. Good velocity sensitivity and it also has aftertouch which might be useful for some stuff in future.

But! Other than the piano sound which is satisfactory, the rest of the sounds are not so great. The bass sounds are good too.. but I can't find a nice smooth soul/ R&B sound. 

I'm looking for a setup with Kontakt or a software with lower latency.. So far, not much luck. I've been meaning to get a new laptop, as my old one is approaching 8 years of age and struggles with web browsing.. 

Not sure if I'll need a good sound card, or a good CPU.. I've been looking at Lenovo laptops and they have some reasonable high end laptops. 

My next move will be to devise a curriculum, composed of practicing basic triads and chords, while capturing it in realtime in Clairnote to see and associate the notation with them.

Then moving to standard progressions. Later I'll be practicing chords with left hand and scales over them with my right. Kind of like chord-scale theory. Ultimately, I want to be able to improvise fluently on Janko. 

I'm excited to see progress with Daskin and having a wholetone revolution, I can now wait indefinitely for a Daskin model! 

[gguitarwilly]

Hi Aidin,

Here are some starting excercises in Clairnote, made by Paul Morris and me.

Let me know if you find them useful. They are written for guitar, but they should also work for Janko keyboard.

The trick is to recognise both the intervals between the root notes as you jump from triad to triad and from sixth to sixth, and to quickly recognise a minor or major triad or sixth interval.

cheers, and have fun on your new keyboard! (by the way, check out the fingering tips Paul Vandervoort gives on his Daskin site)

Willem

[Aidin Foroughi]

Hi Willem,

Thanks for the exercises. They look really good. I'll try them as soon as I get a chance.

Cheers,

Aidin

[O.E. Soriano]

Congratulations on getting a Janko layout keyboard.  I know how excited you must be.

If there's anyway we can help, let us know.

cheers, and have fun on your new keyboard! (by the way, check out the fingering tips Paul Vandervoort gives on his Daskin site)

Yes, and check out the fingering tips I give on this site :)

[O.E. Soriano]

My next move will be to devise a curriculum, composed of practicing basic triads and chords,

This is also the goal I am working towards as well, except I don't have a unique notation in mind.

Before I began the process of releasing a single, I had made pretty good headway into organizing the outline of what would become an Janko/Chromatone curriculum someday.  Of course, I'd need to master all the stuff myself first :)

Maybe I'll dig it out and we'll discuss it in a separate thread

[O.E. Soriano]

Aiden, how's that wholetone coming along? Making progress?

[Aidin Foroughi]

Hi Omar, 

It's going well. Slow, but steady! Just working on Barry Harris theory stuff, and progressions. I'm getting some really cool soul/jazz sounds out of the wholetone and I'm loving it so far. My left hand is lacking in "dexterity" I find (my left hand it gauche :D ) 

Anyway, hopefully I'll have something by next .. year? I'm thinking when I'm good enough, maybe I should start a cult in Vancouver and teach all the hipster kids the new ways of music haha. 

Saw your video when you released it; cool stuff. It's great seeing how proficient you've gotten with the chromatone and gives me hope that it's possible!

Good luck all.

p.s. sorry for the late response. Was on a long work trip.

[O.E. Soriano]

Keep us posted. And don't wait till you feel you have something good before you show us some footage.