Superbooth 2019: A Steinberg-branded hardware synth isn’t something that we saw coming, but an instrument bearing the company’s name is exactly what you’ll see at Superbooth this week.
This is the result of a collaboration with Mind Music Labs. As we reported earlier this year, the company’s ELK music-specific operating system offers the potential for software developers to turn their plugins into hardware, and now we’re starting to see that potential being realised.
The new synth is a prototype that’s powered by Steinberg’s Retrologue 2. It’s been developed as a proof-of-concept, but could point the way to similar commercial products in the future.
“We immediately saw the potential of ELK MusicOS, and that’s why we added it to the official VST SDK [Software Development Kit],” says Florian Haack, Senior Marketing Manager at Steinberg. “The development of the ‘Powered by ELK’ Retrologue 2 hardware prototype has further strengthened our belief that, with the help of ELK MusicOS, VST can become a standard for not only software, as it is today, but also for hardware.”
MIND Music Labs CEO Michele Benincaso added: “Plugins and software synths have brought amazing power and flexibility to computer-based recording, but now musicians want to harness all that power without the computer; there are times when you want to twist real knobs, rather than wiggle a mouse. It’s really exciting to be empowering those users with ELK MusicOS.”
We’ll be sure to check out the Retrologue at Superbooth. Stay tuned for more.
