For many users, the KBP4 will find a natural role tethered to a computer DAW setup, but it also has the potential to flourish in hardware-based rigs as well, in conjunction with a dedicated MIDI Expander (see the 'Hardware Store' box). They're supplemented with four backlit 'slider' strips running horizontally above the keys, which let users tweak settings in real time. The keys aren't pads any more but more or less full piano–key-size silicone strips, which, despite standing proud of a smart metal casework by a few millimetres, don't actually move. First off, it's physically much heftier, at 66 x 21.5 cm, with a four–octave keyboard (though one that unusually spans C to B, rather than C to C). Dimension KĬompared to the QuNexus, the new controller is a different kettle of fish. Whilst it took a longer time to become a reality than was originally envisaged, it's very much here with us now, and shipping in good numbers. Interestingly, the K‑Board Pro 4 (which I'll refer to as the KBP4 from now on) first came to light as a Kickstarter project back in 2016. The tiny, low-priced QuNexus has been available for some years, but its two octaves of pad-like keys don't necessarily appeal to serious keyboard players. The Keith McMillen K‑Board Pro 4 is, at the time of writing, the most recent MPE controller to come to market, but it's not the California-based company's first. For many styles, an MPE controller can be responsive and musically intuitive in a way that a conventional piano-style controller can't match. In essence it's a scheme that assigns each played note its own MIDI channel, to allow independent finger-driven vibrato and bends, polyphonic pressure/aftertouch, and generation of CC messages from front-to–back finger-slides, using a suitable 'expressive' control surface. MPE is an extension, now officially adopted, to the standard MIDI specification that dates all the way back to the early 1980s. MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) has been rearing its head as a concept ever more frequently in recent years, driven largely by innovative MIDI controllers like ROLI's Seaboards, the Linnstrument, and the Haken Audio Continuum. KMI's K‑Board Pro 4 offers one of the most cost-effective ways into the enticing world of MIDI Polyphonic Expression.
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