Music

Back in February, Vlad Kreimer of Soma Laboratory announced the creation of a Dvina prototype, the first electro-acoustic instrument from the Russian synth maker. Now the slightly-tweaked production model has been released.

Last year, music gear maker Boss cut the instrument cable for its impressive portable guitar amp: the Katana Air. Now the company has put premium amplifier technology and guitar effects into a pair of wireless headphones.

Artiphon first came to our attention in 2012/13 with a strange-looking digital instrument called the Instrument 1 that leveraged the processing power of a docked iPhone to create music. Now the ream is back with a handheld synthesizer called Orba.

Back in early 2018, Behringer launched what it called an homage to the Minimoog Model D, an almost exact copy of Moog's iconic monophonic analog synth. Now, after a short teaser campaign, the company has built a polyphonic version called the Poly D.

There's a new expressive keyboard synth in town, the result of a collaboration between France's Expressive E and Haken Audio out of Illinois. The stylish Osmose offers expression over three dimensions for every note on the raised keyboard.

A collaboration between the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has resulted in a mid-air gestural tone and beat controller called the GripBeats.

Astell&Kern released the first portable audio player with dual DACs in 2013, and it's the design of the AK120 that has informed the overall look of A&K's latest offering, the SA700.

Fender has officially announced the American Ultra Series electric guitars and basses. With the release, the iconic brand is aiming to set "a new industry standard for precision, performance and feel."

Originally announced in January, and planned for release a month later, the Stylophone Gen R-8 touch analog synthesizer has now finally been released. But only 500 will be made.

The Spark amp from Positive Grid is paired with a voice-activated mobile app that opens the door to real-time practice and learning tools, and allows players to jam along to tracks from streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.

Back in 2016, Tim Jacobs of mixtela managed to cram a MIDI synthesizer into a MIDI plug. He's now revisited that project, teamed up with H-Pi Instruments and created the much more capable Flash "mini-poly-MIDI-micro-synth."

Whiskey has inspired much creativity among musicians over the years, and now Big D Guitars is cementing that relationship with a Telecaster-shaped instrument built from barrels once home to Jim Beam and Wild Turkey.