The freshly engineered Alesis Vortex, enclosed in a serene white exterior, is apparently the world’s first USB keytar controller meant for keyboardists. This device claims to deliver improved performance through its stylish design and is slated to be available in the second quarter of 2012.
The body of this keytar controller is embedded with touch-sensitive keys along with pads sensitive to velocity, while its neck is fitted with radical octave and pitch controls. It can be used in conjunction with a large number of software instruments and synths on PCs, Mac and iPads due to the presence of USB MIDI as well as traditional MIDI. Additionally, it is already automapped for popular software synths and DAWs or can be customized to create mappings for a wide range of software. Its neck and body are adorned with standard guitar strap pegs and is accompanied by an adjustable strap.
“The Vortex liberates keyboard players from stationary setups and visual performance limitations. The audience won’t know what hit them,†commented Dan Radin, Alesis Product Manager.
The Vortex is deployed with an accelerometer allowing players to control parameters through their motions, while a tilt to the device’s neck produces volume swells, pitch bends, filter cutoffs and vibratos amongst others. The ergonomic controller possesses volume slider and pitch bend wheel on the neck, which can be controlled by the thumb along with nine controls such as MIDI-assignable touchstrip and keys to select octave that needs to be controlled through fingers. Large transport and patch select controls are positioned in the center for instant access. It can be bus powered via Mac or PC or through batteries.
The Alesis Vortex USB keytar controller MSRP and estimated street price are $399 (approx. Rs. 20,105) and $249 (approx. Rs. 12,545), respectively. It will be available in Q2 of this year.
