Our recent controller keyboard round-up showcased some of the best piano-style MIDI instruments for 2023, but those not of an ivory tickling bent might be wondering what we’d recommend for less traditional means of note entry. Wonder no more…
Ableton Push 3
The third iteration of Ableton’s dedicated controller for Ableton Live launched only a couple of weeks ago at the time of writing, marking a major step up for the platform – in terms of price as well as functionality! Push 2 was already the first choice for Live users seeking a creatively slanted pad-based instrument and controller, but version 3 implements MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) across all 64 pads for deep playability, and, most impressively, the ability to operate completely standalone without a Mac or PC in sight. Live sets are transferred to and from the unit over WiFi and edited (minus access to the Arrangement View) using Push’s comprehensive control set; plenty of audio interfacing is onboard; and all of Live’s integrated plugins are available, although third-party instrument and effects aren’t. Much like Native Instruments’ similarly untethered Maschine+, the implication here is that Push 3 is intended to be a mobile production and performance platform in its own right, and to that end, there’s a battery built in, providing up to 2.5 hours of juice.
All in all, it’s an amazing proposition for Ableton heads, and if the £1699 price tag is a showstopper (understandable!), you can opt for a controller-only configuration, losing the standalone stuff, for £879, with the option to upgrade the internals to the full system later via a forthcoming upgrade kit.
Novation Launchpad
Also aimed primarily at Live users, Novation’s range of alternatives to Push are not only much, much cheaper, but lend themselves far more readily to working with other DAWs, too, thanks to their freely configurable Custom Modes, which are edited by dragging pre-made widgets around in the Novation Components application. The three models on offer – Launchpads Mini (£100), X (£180) and Pro (£300) – are all USB bus-powered and centre on an 8x8 grid of RGB backlit pads, but differ in various ways beyond that. The Mini focuses on clip/scene launching and thus doesn’t really qualify as an ‘instrument’, but the Launchpad X facilitates melodic play with dynamic Note and Scale modes, and the Pro model adds to that with more (and better) buttons dedicated to specific Live functions, an onboard four-track sequencer, and MIDI I/O for hook-up to hardware synths and drum machines.
Roland V-Drums
Electronic drum kits have been empowering percussionists on both creative and purely practical grounds since the late ’90s, and Roland’s current line-up offers a setup for every budget, from the cheap and cheerful TD-02K to the sublime and pricey TD-50KV2, with its innovative ‘Prismatic Sound Modeling’ multisampling technology, super responsive mesh heads and cymbals, and stunning sound libraries. If you’re taking your e-drumming adventures to the stage, that last feature will, of course, be crucial; but for us, the best thing about V-Drums (and, indeed, rival models by Yamaha, Alesis and others) is that they can be used to trigger virtual drum kits in your DAW. A decent audio interface is required to keep latency down, but if you’ve yet to discover the joys of truly playing Superior Drummer 3 from a good set of MIDI tubs, you’re missing out.
Akai EWI5000
Akai’s awesome electronic wind instrument and MIDI controller allows sampled sounds to be loaded into the unit itself and played directly out through a stereo wireless audio connection, but more importantly for the purposes of this round-up, also serves up MIDI output over USB and 5-pin DIN to trigger and control external synths and samplers, be they virtual or physical. Clearly, some training in wind instrument performance is required to actually play the EWI5000, but four fingering modes cater to flute, oboe, saxophone and brass players, and the degree of expressive control enabled by the air pressure level and bite sensors, and eight parameter dials, is nothing short of astonishing.
Artiphon Instrument 1
The most abstract of our entrants, Artiphon’s futuristic battery-powered MIDI device appears to be guitar-inspired, but actually switches its fingerboard and bridge (a set of six strumming/triggering ‘blades’) between four behavioural modes – Guitar (fretted), Violin (fretless), Drums (the fingerboard becomes a set of 78 pads) and Piano (a row of 12 vertical pads) – with four further user modes available for customising and mixing them up. The performance interactions open to the player – tapping, strumming, sliding and/or bowing – depend on the selected mode, and the Instrument 1 is MPE-compatible, so you can get fully polyphonic with your modulations. The fingerboard is pressure sensitive for pitch bending, with a virtual capo in place for transposition, while tilting generates mod wheel data, and the built-in arpeggiator turns held chords into rhythmic patterns.
It might look a bit toy-like, but with its MPE specification and functional adaptability, the Instrument 1 has bags of creative potential – experimenting with combinations of playing techniques and virtual instruments is always fun and productive. And the price is certainly competitive.
Jamstik Studio
There are many systems on the market for converting the output of the electric guitar to MIDI data, but Jamstik’s Studio is without doubt one of the best. This 24-fret headless, two-humbucker axe works well as a regular guitar but also outputs MPE-spec MIDI over USB, TRS-MIDI or Bluetooth, for routing to virtual (such as the included Jamstik Creator synth – a compelling MPE showcase) or real-world synths and samplers. The tracking accuracy of the MIDI pickup and the algorithms it feeds into is incredible, delivering an authentic and inspirational playing experience for any guitarist looking to expand their sonic horizons in an electronic direction. It’s keenly priced, too, although you’ll need to shell out a bit more for the Classic variant if you’d prefer a headstock.
What unusual MIDI instruments have found a place in your studio? Tell us in the comments.