Sam Sessa

Umpteen sounds and almost as many add-ons

Sam Sessa reviews the latest digital piano from Roland

My first mistake: judging the Korg Pa800 Arranger by its looks. With built-in speakers on top, it could easily be taken for a child’s first keyboard-like a cheap Casio. The Pa800 is far from it. With the Pa800, Korg delivers a powerful, versatile keyboard with an immense cadre of authentic-sounding presets and a fairly user-friendly … Read More “Korg Pa800 Keyboard”

With an arsenal of warm, thick tones and an accessible interface, Moog’s new Little Phatty (LP) Stage Edition is an expensive but user-friendly throwback synthesizer. The Stage Edition is a slightly cheaper, sleeker version of the Moog Tribute Edition Little Phatty. Its list of roughly 100 analog presets covers all the bases: smooth, classic Moog … Read More “Moog LP Stage Edition Synthesizer”

It’s easy to be skeptical about computer programs that advertise thousands of vintage synthesizer presets in one convenient package. Some digital reproductions of analog keyboards sound thin and watery when compared to the original synthesizers. But Analog Factory, a new program from Arturia that retails for a reasonable $250, presents a huge library of authentic-sounding … Read More “Arturia Analog Factory Softsynth”