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Future Retro 512 Capacitive Touch Keyboard Arpeggiator Sequencer & MIDI CV Converter
Capacitive touch keyboard with 9 octave ranges for the 29 full-sized keys
The 512 is a capacitive touch keyboard, packed with a unique blend of truly musical features to enhance your creative experience. The 512 is available with or without the optional rack ears that allow it to fit in a standard 19" rack enclosure, taking up only 4u spaces.
Why is capacitive touch better? Quite simply, eliminating mechanical moving parts found in traditional keyboards makes a product that will never wear out, as mechanical keyboards do. No more intermittent key contacts, or failed aftertouch circuits to worry about! In addition, capacitive touch provides a much faster response time for playing notes, and allows multiple forms of expression to be executed by the performer.
There are five main functions of the 512. It can act as a keyboard, arpeggiator, sequencer, MIDI to CV converter, and MIDI to MIDI converter. The 512 can control both MIDI and CV/Gate synthesizers simultaneously. Pitch, Pitch Bend, Mod Wheel, Gate, Velocity, Aftertouch, and Clock are all available in both their MIDI and CV form. CV's follow the 1V/Oct standard with positive polarity Gate signals, allowing the 512 to control the majority of analog synthesizers both past and present. The 512's CV output is adjustable providing a range of .47V/Oct to 1.34V/Oct. This then allows you to control other CV standards such as the 1.2V/Oct synthesizers used in Buchla and EML brands as well.
KEYBOARD:
The 512 provides 9 octave ranges for the 29 full-sized keys (although shorter in length than typical keys) with response to Velocity and Aftertouch. Users can define one of five different Velocity and Aftertouch curves to apply to the keyboard, and dial in the range for each curve to customize the response. The Pitch Bend provides positive and negative pitch bends, and the bend range can be adjusted for full or half range. Mod Wheel is also provided as a modulation source.
ARPEGGIATOR:
The arpeggiator allows you to quickly construct melodies on the fly, and manipulate them to your hearts content. Up to 16 notes can arpeggiate, and there are 29 user definable rhythm patterns to apply to an arpeggiation. Each step of a rhythm pattern can define note on/off, note duration, sustain, glide, and velocity value. Rhythm patterns can be reassigned to an arpeggiation on the fly. Arpeggiations can play in five directions being: Up, Down, Up/Down (inclusive or exclusive), and Random. You can also apply up to +/- 4 octave reiterations so the arpeggiation plays through multiple octave ranges automatically.
When notes are entered live into the arpeggiator the 512 will generate the typical ascending playback order (when playing in the UP direction), or descending (when playing in the Down direction). At any time you can latch the held notes into memory using the Hold feature. Once Hold mode is active, you can enter notes in any order, and even use the same pitch multiple times.
Once the arpeggiation is latched with the Hold feature the real fun begins. You are free to select different scales, add chords, apply chord inversion, transpose, scalar transpose, change octaves, rhythm patterns, note combinations, MIDI channels, or time signatures. You can also add Pitch Bend, Mod Wheel, and Aftertouch control, and all of these can be done in realtime.
SEQUENCER
The 512 sequencer is similar to beloved classics like the SH-101 or Pro-one in how easy it is to use them. However the 512's sequencer expands on these ideas and goes a lot further. There are 145 user writable sequencer pattern locations. Each pattern can be any length up to 64 steps (4 bars when using 4/4 time signature). Each step records a single note pitch, the note duration, sustain, glide, and velocity. Similar to the arpeggiator, the sequencer in the 512 can play sequences in five directions being Forwards, Backwards, Fowards/Backwards (inclusive and exclusive), and Random. And again, you can apply up to +/- 4 octave reiterations so the sequence plays through multiple octave ranges automatically.
Once a sequence is playing, you are free to select different sequences to play next, choose different scales, add chords, apply chord inversion, transpose, scalar transpose, change octaves, MIDI channels, or time signatures on the fly. You can also add Pitch Bend, Mod Wheel, and Aftertouch control in realtime.
*For full description, please visit - http://www.future-retro.com/products.html#!/512-Touch-Keyboard/p/66528039/category=0
Specifications
| Power | Mains Adapter |
| Connections | MIDI IN/OUT/THRU |
| Controls | Keys with response to Velocity and Aftertouch |
| Keys | 29 |
| Dimensions (mm) | 445 x 38 x 178 |
| Weight (g) | 1179 |