5. Hardware

Most manufacturers now offer their workstations as a product range with various keyboard qualities and sizes, typically a 61 note standard action, a 73 note semi-weighted action, and an 88 note fully-weighted action. This covers all bases, from those whose budget and space availability is in line with the typical home musician, to the professional performer wanting a ‘flagship’ instrument with a solid keyboard action that’s built to last, and from the ‘first purchase’ sole music creation tool, to the mother keyboard at the heart of a studio.

As with most modern synthesizer keyboards, the typical workstation comes with a complement of controllers including pitch-bend and modulation wheels, and mixer-style knobs and faders, but these are often further enhanced with additional specialist features: Korg’s KARMA technology is now incorporated into most of their workstations and uses ‘variable performance modeller controls’ that allow the real-time alteration of characteristics such as tempo, complexity of phrase, and melodic direction; Roland’s unique ‘theremin-style’ D-Beam technology, featured in their Fantom series workstations, offers realtime manipulation of sound via an infra-red beam built into the top of the keyboard chassis - this can be routed to a range of modulation destinations, allowing you to create a variety of timbral changes as you wave your hand in the beam.

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