Hello guys.
I'll make it short for now.
I'm a blind person and I'm thinking of getting a new synth. I currently have two - a Korg M3 and a Motif XF. I like them both, but I'm contemplating on selling the M3, because I can't really use it without assistance (apart from switching presets). I would like to get something more blind-friendly instead, but the question is what my options are.
In your opinion, are there any Roland machines that could work for a blind user? I was looking at the DS and FA, they both look nice, but how deep can one navigate/edit them without sight?
I know that it all depends on personal abilities, but still some boards are more accessible than others. In an ideal world, the synth should come with an accessible computer editor that would allow visually impaired people to tweak every single parameter. I have been reading up on Roland gear and so I know that there barely are PC editors for the more recent stuff so I guess that deep editing is more or less out of the question. And of course, having a PC editor does not automatically mean that it will work for blind users. For instance, basically all Korg workstations have an accompanying editor, but unfortunately none of them seem accessible.
The least I'd like to be able to do without help is to make splits and layers. If I'm not mistaken, making a simple split or layer on the DS and maybe even FA is just a button press away, so that's definitely good. Compared to what I'm able to do on the M3, this alone is an improvement. On the other hand, in terms of build quality it would definitely be a downgrade. And of course, I'd like to go beyond basic splits and layers if possible.
From the older stuff I think that something from the XV range would work fine for me, but despite of the fact that I like that 'retro' sound, I'm not entirely sure I want to go down the path of getting an almost 20 year old synthesizer even if there's an enough accessible editor out there for it.
I have spoken to some blind guys through E-mail and I know that there are blind musicians who use Roland gear. Not sure that there are any on this forum tho.
I'm considering other brands as well, but to be honest there aren't all that many accessible synths out there at the moment (apart from the now discontinued Motif series). Besides, since I already have an XF, buying another Yamaha would not really give me anything new.
Any responses are greatly appreciated.
Many thanks and have fun!
Blind Guy Looking for a Synth
Re: Blind Guy Looking for a Synth
Hi MinorKey,
You've asked such an interesting question. My first thought was, the Jupiter-80 is a great synth and has all the banks and buttons below the keys so it would be easy to get to various patches. But then when I actually sat down with it, I realized that just about everything is done from the touch screen, not what you are looking for.
But there is the JD-XA. It is also a great synth and it has a feature that most people complain about, but might be just what you need. That is, it has this really tiny old school display that I have to say I usually ignore. Really everything is done by using the knobs and sliders. The other complaint about it is that because of the way all the controls are illuminated, it is really hard to read the labels. But if your eyesight is very poor, this could be a feature, it could help you locate the knob and you are already used to having to memorize what each knob does. If you check out the JD-XA, let us know if it could help you out.
Rodan
You've asked such an interesting question. My first thought was, the Jupiter-80 is a great synth and has all the banks and buttons below the keys so it would be easy to get to various patches. But then when I actually sat down with it, I realized that just about everything is done from the touch screen, not what you are looking for.
But there is the JD-XA. It is also a great synth and it has a feature that most people complain about, but might be just what you need. That is, it has this really tiny old school display that I have to say I usually ignore. Really everything is done by using the knobs and sliders. The other complaint about it is that because of the way all the controls are illuminated, it is really hard to read the labels. But if your eyesight is very poor, this could be a feature, it could help you locate the knob and you are already used to having to memorize what each knob does. If you check out the JD-XA, let us know if it could help you out.
Rodan
Re: Blind Guy Looking for a Synth
Hello Rodan and thanks for your response.
I'm glad you found my question interesting. :-D
Thanks for letting me know about the JD XA. I must admit that I haven't heard of it before. I try to keep track with the offerings of at least the largest synth manufacturers, but there's just too much out there. :-)
The XA looks nice and although I'm more interested in 'rompler' style machines than analog synths at this point, I'm considering it as a possible alternative for the future. There are 2 reasons for this. First, if I get it correct, every single parameter is available directly on the front panel and can thus be adjusted without complicated menu diving. The second reason why it might just be the right thing for me is that it's an analog-style machine. I know that this seems like a contradiction of what I wrote before, and to a certain extent it probably is, but I find the Motif somewhat lacking in the synth department and maybe the XA could fill in this gap nicely. As a matter of fact, I have looked at some similar boards before (mainly the Nord Lead 4 and A1) and it's great that now I have one more board to consider. That being said, all these machines are well above of what I was originally intending to spend, but than again I'm not deciding on anything yet. At the end of the day the most important thing for me is to get something I'll be 100% satisfied with, something that I won't want to sell in the future.
I bought my M3, because I have always been a fan of the Korg sound, I thought I could live with the limitations my condition imposed on me, but overtime I grew more and more frustrated - after all I had so much synth power at home and yet couldn't use it. Now, I don't want to make the same mistake with my next purchase and that's why I'm trying to take it slow and careful - although it's fairly simple to act on impulse in the world of synths, because there are so many great things to choose from. :-)
I'm glad you found my question interesting. :-D
Thanks for letting me know about the JD XA. I must admit that I haven't heard of it before. I try to keep track with the offerings of at least the largest synth manufacturers, but there's just too much out there. :-)
The XA looks nice and although I'm more interested in 'rompler' style machines than analog synths at this point, I'm considering it as a possible alternative for the future. There are 2 reasons for this. First, if I get it correct, every single parameter is available directly on the front panel and can thus be adjusted without complicated menu diving. The second reason why it might just be the right thing for me is that it's an analog-style machine. I know that this seems like a contradiction of what I wrote before, and to a certain extent it probably is, but I find the Motif somewhat lacking in the synth department and maybe the XA could fill in this gap nicely. As a matter of fact, I have looked at some similar boards before (mainly the Nord Lead 4 and A1) and it's great that now I have one more board to consider. That being said, all these machines are well above of what I was originally intending to spend, but than again I'm not deciding on anything yet. At the end of the day the most important thing for me is to get something I'll be 100% satisfied with, something that I won't want to sell in the future.
I bought my M3, because I have always been a fan of the Korg sound, I thought I could live with the limitations my condition imposed on me, but overtime I grew more and more frustrated - after all I had so much synth power at home and yet couldn't use it. Now, I don't want to make the same mistake with my next purchase and that's why I'm trying to take it slow and careful - although it's fairly simple to act on impulse in the world of synths, because there are so many great things to choose from. :-)
Re: Blind Guy Looking for a Synth
Hi there, MinorKey,
Don't own a Roland FA-06 these days but I recall there being some helpful stuff for blind players on this site regards the FA-06. Here's an example link of many from the FA-06 group:
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=48647&p=279076&hilit=blind#p27907
cheers and good luck
Don't own a Roland FA-06 these days but I recall there being some helpful stuff for blind players on this site regards the FA-06. Here's an example link of many from the FA-06 group:
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=48647&p=279076&hilit=blind#p27907
cheers and good luck
Re: Blind Guy Looking for a Synth
Thank you for chiming in, geeman. :-)
I took a look at that thread you linked to. Thanks a lot, now I know that there's at least one blind FA user here. So now I have one person I can try and contact for more info. But as with everything, the info I gathered so far is highly subjective and I could even say contradictory.
There was a similar question about the FA over at Korg Forums and according to one user (a sighted person BTW), the FA is not suited for blind people at all. He wrote something along the lines that the menu system is quite complicated and that there are in total some 500+ pages in the machine which makes it rather hard to remember anything (this last bit is more or less my interpretation). Either way, he arrived at this conclusion when trying to teach a blind friend of his to navigate the FA.
On a related note, there's a quite nice and accessible editor for the Fantom series out there, but the caveat is that it's no longer being developed (I checked that with its developer). Just in case someone bumps into this thread and finds the info useful, he told me that it worked reasonably well with a Fantom-XR, but that there were some issues with it e.g. when editing performances. Just my note: The developer mentioned the XR, because that's the model he had, but the editor should work with the other Fantoms as well, but as far as I understand, not all Fantoms have been tested with it.
In case someone wants to take a look, you can find the editor here:
https://davykager.com/projects/fxed/
I took a look at that thread you linked to. Thanks a lot, now I know that there's at least one blind FA user here. So now I have one person I can try and contact for more info. But as with everything, the info I gathered so far is highly subjective and I could even say contradictory.
There was a similar question about the FA over at Korg Forums and according to one user (a sighted person BTW), the FA is not suited for blind people at all. He wrote something along the lines that the menu system is quite complicated and that there are in total some 500+ pages in the machine which makes it rather hard to remember anything (this last bit is more or less my interpretation). Either way, he arrived at this conclusion when trying to teach a blind friend of his to navigate the FA.
On a related note, there's a quite nice and accessible editor for the Fantom series out there, but the caveat is that it's no longer being developed (I checked that with its developer). Just in case someone bumps into this thread and finds the info useful, he told me that it worked reasonably well with a Fantom-XR, but that there were some issues with it e.g. when editing performances. Just my note: The developer mentioned the XR, because that's the model he had, but the editor should work with the other Fantoms as well, but as far as I understand, not all Fantoms have been tested with it.
In case someone wants to take a look, you can find the editor here:
https://davykager.com/projects/fxed/
Re: Blind Guy Looking for a Synth
shame on me to tell about nord keyboard on a Roland forum. the big thing is that nord have one knobb för every feature so a blind person would easy learn to use. no meny in a lcd. (the newest model have meny-lcd. old model have allmost number-lcd)
here is a blind girl who uses Swedish Nord keyboard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_hPlrLJj4I
mail her and ask
i tested the keybed in a musicstore and Think the new version is really good key action.
http://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-stage-3
its a small Company so they are expensive. may then they can develope klicksound for every parameter change. so its been more frendly use for blind person. they like to show how blind person easly can use nord key in namm . Contact nord in sweden and tell what you need, they would listen to you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mzcED3vJ3g
here is a blind girl who uses Swedish Nord keyboard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_hPlrLJj4I
mail her and ask
i tested the keybed in a musicstore and Think the new version is really good key action.
http://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-stage-3
its a small Company so they are expensive. may then they can develope klicksound for every parameter change. so its been more frendly use for blind person. they like to show how blind person easly can use nord key in namm . Contact nord in sweden and tell what you need, they would listen to you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mzcED3vJ3g
Re: Blind Guy Looking for a Synth
Sorry for being so late - I haven't noticed your reply before.o carl wrote:shame on me to tell about nord keyboard on a Roland forum. the big thing is that nord have one knobb för every feature so a blind person would easy learn to use. no meny in a lcd. (the newest model have meny-lcd. old model have allmost number-lcd)
here is a blind girl who uses Swedish Nord keyboard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_hPlrLJj4I
mail her and ask
i tested the keybed in a musicstore and Think the new version is really good key action.
http://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-stage-3
its a small Company so they are expensive. may then they can develope klicksound for every parameter change. so its been more frendly use for blind person. they like to show how blind person easly can use nord key in namm . Contact nord in sweden and tell what you need, they would listen to you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mzcED3vJ3g
Thanks, Nords look great, but I was looking more for something with bread and butter sounds at this point. That being said, a Nord is definitely on my wishlist. It's fun and interesting that it comes from Sweden BTW (for me at least), as Swedish is one of the foreign languages I speak.
Re: Blind Guy Looking for a Synth
So, after a lot of time spent with wondering and researching I have decided to go with the INTEGRA-7. I don't have it yet, but it should arrive the coming week. What made me rule in its favor is that a) it has bread and butter sounds; b) it has no touchscreen and c) its VST editor seems accessible to blind users.
In a way the 3rd thing is the crucial thing for me, as having something I can't edit without assistance is no fun. During the past weeks I have been testing the VST editor as much as I could without owning an actual unit and as far as I can tell, I will be able to change every single parameter present. Granted, the process is a bit more time consuming, but I think that I'll be able to live with it. The reason why it takes more time to edit values is that the VST editor uses a web based interface. Screen readers interact differently with web pages than other programs and changing a value on a web site sometimes requires 2 shortcut presses instead of one. It's definitely a compromise in a sense, but I'm used to making compromises and at the end of the day this compromise is not all that big for me personally. I don't know how many times I will want or need to edit something on the machine, but it's important to have the possibility to do so, should the need arise. That being said, the fact that the editor has a web interface can be seen as positive as many VST plugins are not blind friendly at all and one has to resort to using OCR and other workarounds when working with them. And even so in a lot of cases most of the parameters remain out of reach.
In a way the 3rd thing is the crucial thing for me, as having something I can't edit without assistance is no fun. During the past weeks I have been testing the VST editor as much as I could without owning an actual unit and as far as I can tell, I will be able to change every single parameter present. Granted, the process is a bit more time consuming, but I think that I'll be able to live with it. The reason why it takes more time to edit values is that the VST editor uses a web based interface. Screen readers interact differently with web pages than other programs and changing a value on a web site sometimes requires 2 shortcut presses instead of one. It's definitely a compromise in a sense, but I'm used to making compromises and at the end of the day this compromise is not all that big for me personally. I don't know how many times I will want or need to edit something on the machine, but it's important to have the possibility to do so, should the need arise. That being said, the fact that the editor has a web interface can be seen as positive as many VST plugins are not blind friendly at all and one has to resort to using OCR and other workarounds when working with them. And even so in a lot of cases most of the parameters remain out of reach.
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Fourfiftyfour
- Posts: 107
- Joined: 02:17, 21 October 2017
Re: Blind Guy Looking for a Synth
Hello Minor Key,
I was going to ask what were you looking for because I couldn't figure out if you were interested in a synthesizer or a work station. I was even going to recommend something like the King Korg if you were looking for synth and traditional type of sounds. Menu's are limited and it has group buttons on the front of it to access instrument genre's. The Intergra is a cool choice I was looking to acquire that one myself let us know how you like it!
I was going to ask what were you looking for because I couldn't figure out if you were interested in a synthesizer or a work station. I was even going to recommend something like the King Korg if you were looking for synth and traditional type of sounds. Menu's are limited and it has group buttons on the front of it to access instrument genre's. The Intergra is a cool choice I was looking to acquire that one myself let us know how you like it!
Re: Blind Guy Looking for a Synth
Thanks, will do. :-)Fourfiftyfour wrote:Hello Minor Key,
I was going to ask what were you looking for because I couldn't figure out if you were interested in a synthesizer or a work station. I was even going to recommend something like the King Korg if you were looking for synth and traditional type of sounds. Menu's are limited and it has group buttons on the front of it to access instrument genre's. The Intergra is a cool choice I was looking to acquire that one myself let us know how you like it!