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Details of the new Suzuki Omnichord OM-108
- scorxn 3y agohttps://newatlas.com/music/suzuki-omnichord-om108/ https://newatlas.com/music/suzuki-omnichord-om108/ says $750
- naet 3y agoDang, I wanted one of these but that is a lot of money for it.
- adastra22 3y agoSimilar price to a Roland keyboard.
- xhevahir 3y agoAside from the interface, this instrument has the functionality of arranger keyboards that cost well under $100. A $750 Roland is not comparable.
- bch 3y ago'dang might be sympathetic, but i doubt will actually buy it for you.
- kraquepype 3y agoThank you, I'll never read sentences that start with Dang the same again. The Time Being and the Bear with me will be in great company.
- Cthulhu_ 3y agoYeah a lot of cool digital instruments are expensive; I suspect it's because they're not mass produced like for example "my first keyboard" type toys.
- ninjin 3y agoExpensive, but the Omnichord very much comes across as an expensive toy for adults to me in terms of which market it targets. It looks like a heap of fun though and I am happy that my analysis of the name (OM-108) back in December when Midi was unconfirmed was incorrect [1]. Now there is the option to run it through your synthesisers and effects. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38567925 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38567925
- zwieback 3y agoDemo from NAMM, love the presenter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uWk5_ifkFk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uWk5_ifkFk Mother Maybelle would have loved this thing.
- dylan604 3y agoI loved the part about "new features" and he pulls out the skin to overlay the buttons to give it a keyboard layout, and then promptly does absolutely nothing with it that required the use of that overlay.
- shermantanktop 3y agoSure, but what he did promptly do is play a complex rhythm track on an Omnichord. I was not expecting that.
- kstrauser 3y agoSame. You can sing along with it! It has faceplate! You can throw down crazy complex percussion without missing a beat! You can sound like a 4th grade music teacher! I literally laughed in happiness when he did that. It was awesome.
- tnecniv 3y agoHe makes some sick beats. The overlay is just for the vibes
- criddell 3y agoThat presenter was amazing. Reminded me of the old video of the Creative Labs keyboard drummer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVfbTqRJliw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVfbTqRJliw
- jacquesm 3y agoPaul Seow... 10 years later: https://coconuts.co/singapore/news/catching-paul-seow-singaporean-man-whose-creative-keyboard-drum-clip-went-viral-worldwide/ https://coconuts.co/singapore/news/catching-paul-seow-singap...
- justsomehnguy 3y ago> Powered by 8, AA batteries Guess some things never change.(18650 is not the best thing in the world but it is miles ahead of 8 (eight) AA batteries)
- anigbrowl 3y agoThing is you can buy AA batteries anywhere
- stonogo 3y agoBut you only need to buy 18650s once.
- tengwar2 3y agoAA and 18650 are just form factors. You can get rechargeable AA.
- dotancohen 3y agoIf I'm not mistaken, rechargeable AA batteries are 1.2 volts not 1.5. That might not be enough for this device. And in any case rechargable AA batteries do not last as long as the same volume of an 18650.
- bemusedthrow75 3y agoThere is zero chance this won’t work with rechargeable AA batteries. (More of a chance that a vintage one would have trouble with NiMH batteries, though)
- dotancohen 3y agoThank you. I've seen a simple domino-setting toy that just would not work on two rechargable AAs. Replacing one with an alkaline was enough to get it moving. I'm not sure what technology the batteries are, both them and the toy were new last year. Edit: And yes, the batteries were properly charged ))
- benzible 3y agoPerhaps another hit single lurks within the presets! https://www.musicradar.com/news/damon-albarn-gorillaz-clint-eastwood-omnichord-preset https://www.musicradar.com/news/damon-albarn-gorillaz-clint-...
- dylan604 3y agoI remember the first time I heard one of the CD samplers that musicians use, and then started recognizing there unaltered use in pop music. Some sounds were so widely used, it almost felt like a Wilhelm scream intent rather than musical intent.
- anigbrowl 3y agoThis happens in every genre. I remember getting a K2000 and playing around with the preset floppy disks, only to suddenly find Hallucinogen leads cascading out of the speakers. In fairness I had read interviews with him where he said he didn't do super fancy programming and just picked sounds that seemed to go well together, but I thought he was just being modest.
- vouaobrasil 3y agoCool device! I think I'll get one. Should be very useful for chord experimentation.
- Pathogen-David 3y agoIf anyone wants to learn more about the older OM-84 model mentioned multiple times on this page, David Hilowitz has a fantastic video about it and its history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAIar0O-yvg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAIar0O-yvg
- stephenitis 3y agoSecond this, the algorithm pushed this to me recently, curious coincidence? I also produce music so it tracks with my feed a bit.
- nilptr 3y agoWell OK, you convinced me I want one but that website sucks. How do I buy it?
- layer8 3y agoYou wait until July when it will become available.
- jmmcd 3y ago> All that is needed are the chord names required to play a song which is a method commonly known as ‘tab’. Urgh, no that is the opposite of tab.
- Aardwolf 3y agoIt says no musical experience needed, but is a whole bunch of chords to switch between really easier than the same amount of plain piano keys in a predictable order? Cool instrument though and selecting a single chord, then playing around with the sensitive pad does seem easy
- alamortsubite 3y agoIt would seem so. Piano keys play a single note. It takes three or more notes to make a chord.
- kstrauser 3y agoI think so. For instance, you can get “fake books” that are charts of chord progressions of hundreds of songs. Someone could sit down with this and a fake book and imitate a lot of songs well enough for a sing-along evening. It would take an awful lot more piano practice to go from zero to that level of playing. That’s setting aside the quality question. A good pianist in the right setting’s going to sound way better than a newbie with an Omnichord. However, the newb and their Omnichord would probably be a lot more fun at a house party than not having live music at all.
- cwillu 3y agoAnd a good pianist could have fun playing with a newb on an omnichord.
- tnecniv 3y agoIt’s probably like a harmonica. You won’t sound that bad with it because it prohibits you from playing off key, but a good harmonica player knows what they’re doing.
- navane 3y agoFor sixty bucks you got yourself a "toy" keyboard which will let you play those chords with just pressing the root note. When you're ready to move on and play the full chords yourself, you already know which roots to play.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- unpopularopp 3y ago>Omnichord does not require any previous musical experience with an instrument, or even knowledge of staff notation Doubt. To me it looks like an inverse piano
- jojobas 3y ago5-pin midi out and no USB, in 2024?
- adw 3y ago5-pin MIDI out is still the best MIDI out, at least for serious applications.
- squarefoot 3y agoNot to mention a MIDI to USB interface costs just a few bucks and is supported by every common OS out there, while one can't have the opposite (that is, adding MIDI to a USB only instrument) short of going DIY, which would be neither that easy nor cheap.
- 100pctremote 3y ago5-pin DIN is still the more stable option today and doesn't introduce any noise, unlike USB which carries power.
- jojobas 3y agoNoise in midi? Seriously?
- uxp100 3y agoYeah, I’ve got devices where there is a hum on their output while using usb-midi. 5 pin midi should not have such issues (but if done badly could)
- adw 3y agoYep. It's not noise on the MIDI signal, obviously, it's crosstalk induced by USB circuitry. It gets worse when bus power is involved; USB-powered instruments are notorious for it.
- jacquesm 3y ago
- asimovfan 3y ago800 dollars what the hell.. i guess i'll have to skip this one
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- schlauerfox 3y agoOne of my favorite uses for it is in Rebecca Sugar's music for Adventure Time and Steven Universe. https://www.tiktok.com/@rebeccasugar/video/7327390313171930398 https://www.tiktok.com/@rebeccasugar/video/73273903131719303...
- tunesmith 3y agoRobbie Robertson's "Somewhere Down The Crazy River" had it in its music video, 0:16 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KP9PNSUME4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KP9PNSUME4
- zygy 3y agoMy Morning Jacket's "Touch Me I'm Going To Scream pt 2": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3PciCWIGLE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3PciCWIGLE
- kypro 3y agoI have an OM-100 which I brought a few years back after being obsessed with Omnichords for years. I listen to a lot of dream pop and dreampop artists use them quite a bit. For me there's no instrument which sounds more nostalgic than the Omnichord – and imo the OM-100 is the most beautiful sounding of all models. If you have young kids who have an interest in music they're great instruments to introduce them to playing and writing music. They've been designed to be as easy to play as possible to the point where you'd struggle to play it badly. They are expensive, but if those worried about price it's worth keeping in mind that they will hold their value if you look after them. This channel has some of my favourite Omnichord covers for anyone interested in how lovely these things sound, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2HMdP-bXaA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2HMdP-bXaA
- notfed 3y agoFor $800 this is a scam. (Though in their defense they admit that it is a cult on that page.) If you're interested in this because you're someone who "doesn't know music": don't believe the "does not require any previous musical experience" bait. The key "thing" about this Omnichord device are that its notes are arranged in fifths, and you can play chords with a second button which means not having to memorize chord shapes. That's neat, but... I'm going to suggest an app that is vastly superior to Omnichord's layout. It's called "Navichord Lite". It uses the Tonnetz layout: a layout that arranges notes like The Universe intended: you really have to see it to believe it. Basically, notes near each other sound good. Any local triangle of notes is a major or minor chord. A fifth or seventh means adding on one more note nearby. It's (two-dimensionally) isomorphic. The list goes on for advantages here. (Also, you don't need to know any of this to start. You just play. It's intuitive. It's actually a great way to learn music.) Navichord Lite also highlights notes in whatever scale you choose, and highlights a few other things in a useful way...THIS is the ultimate "don't need to know anything about music" instrument and you can play like Mozart within minutes. (It's only available on iOS, unfortunately. But, for $800 you can buy an iPad and use it just for this.) Also, I'd like to add an alternative reason why Omnichord is a ripoff, especially to a "person who doesn't know music". For $800, you can buy a used MacBook, a Novation Launchkey Mini MK3, and a USB cable to connect them together. You can then install Reaper and map the MIDI keys to a scale, any scale, or a chord, and literally hit random keys and it will sound good. You don't need to know anything about music, you don't even know what a scale or a chord is, and it will sound good. And if you are willing to go slightly higher than $800, get a Linnstrument: https://www.rogerlinndesign.com/linnstrument https://www.rogerlinndesign.com/linnstrument
- Scene_Cast2 3y agoAmusingly, I've been on a 2D note layout Wikipedia reading spree lately. I'm really digging the idea of isomorphic layouts, and I've been thinking of picking up something to help me see the chord patterns better in whatever music I'm already familiar with. Any thoughts on the Exquis? Any VSTs worth looking into as well? Linnstrument looks cool too.
- wahnfrieden 3y ago
- CarRamrod 3y agoFor me, it's the Otamatone. https://youtu.be/ZmxLja-DRIw https://youtu.be/ZmxLja-DRIw
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- glandium 3y agoSince I was surprised to learn that there's a Suzuki Music, I checked, and unlike Yamaha, it's unrelated to the Suzuki that builds bikes and cars. Interestingly, they all are from the same city (including Yamaha). Suzuki is a rather common name in Japan (I think it's number 2 in number of people) so it's not totally surprising that two companies share the name. While I'm here, Yamaha motors was actually spun off Yamaha music. Yes, they started with instruments and went building bikes.
- brenainn 3y agoTo add to that fun fact, it's why the Yamaha logo is three crossed tuning forks.
- ninjin 3y agoTo further add facts, logos such as these draw upon the tradition of Japanese emblems or "mon" [1]. Mitsubishi being another famous one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mon_(emblem) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mon_(emblem)
- nottorp 3y agoOh :) Good to know. I have a Suzuki ... car. When I bought it i had to always specify it's a car because everyone assumed I got into motorcycles. At least the musical instruments are made by a different company.
- helloplanets 3y agoFor anyone interested in trying it out, here's a free browser version with sounds sampled from an original Omnichord: https://onlineomnichord.com/ https://onlineomnichord.com/
- Reason077 3y agoRuns on 8 AA batteries? 12V line in? Come on, I appreciate the retro looks and analog circuitry, but they could have at least made one nod to modernity with a rechargeable battery and USB-C power…