ControlBLADE ES Keyboard Workstation

With my love of the Fairlight CMI, it is little wonder that any tool that emerges that in some way modernises the concept instantly grabs my attention. Such was the case with Music Computing’s ControlBLADE ES. This is nothing particularly new. Like I said, people have been designing computer based music workstations since Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie invented the Fairlight CMI. More recently, Open Labs had their Neko 64 product with prices starting at approx. $5500. But what Victor Wong and his team at Music Computing have done is to refine the concept and, more importantly, reduce the cost. And when I say reduce, I do mean reduce! The ControlBLADE ES has a street price of $999. For another $900, you can add a multi-touch monitor. There are two keyboard sizes too, coming in the shape of a 61 and a 25 key model. Each model is resplendent with pads, rotaries and faders as well as an LED display.

Inside the ControlBLADE ES is an Intel dual core processor, 4GB RAM (max 8GB), Windows7 64 and an audio interface as well as Traktion 4 DAW and Audacity Audio Editor. Also included are around 5000 sounds and plenty of other plug ins and effects.

Here’s Victor to show and tell…

As well as the ES, the G3 is available with touch screen monitors, a full version of PreSonus Studio One and there is also an OSX version that features a Mac Mini at its heart.

For more information, visit the Music Computing website. Exciting stuff! 🙂