Is This MIDI Keyboard a Game Changer?
We are back with another startup review. In this video, Matt reviews this Indiegogo campaign for a MIDI keyboard for musicians. As a nonmusician, what will Matt think about this product? Tell us in the comments if you would use it.
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Video Transcript:
Product Promo Video:
Person 1: What is that?
Person 2: That’s the Chord Machine from Akuto Studio. It’s a MIDI keyboard for playing chords. Person 1: But chords are so complicated.
Person 2: Not with Akuto. Look, it’s super easy. I can play this chord, and this one, or this one, or even this one. And I’ve never played the piano before.
Person 1: Nice.
Person 2: Okay, here, try it yourself.
Person 1: Oh.
Person 2: Sounds good, right?
Person 1: Oh, and it has a screen?
Person 2: Yes. You can modulate sounds with it, or even change the interaction mode. Look, now I can play chords with only one button.
Person 1: Like an accordion?
Person 2: Exactly.
Person 1: Awesome. And can it do more?
Person 2: Oh, yes. You can strum, see the names of the chords, and learn about them.
Matt’s Review:
Well, clearly a device for musicians. Because when I look at it and I see all the buttons and the buttons are all the same. There’s nothing on it that says like A chord, B chord, C, D Minor, those options are, however you combine it. I mean it’s either got to come with instructions or you have to be somebody who’s musical to understand how to use it. So it doesn’t seem like a beginner’s type of thing. It seems like somebody who’s already musically inclined and knows how to play instruments knows how to read music, and is probably creating music, recording music, this might be a great product for them. It’s not something I’ve seen before. So I don’t know really how it stacks up with say just buying a regular keyboard. Where you can play all the different Instruments and then the layout is much more familiar to you if you’ve played a piano or keyboard, it looks the same. So it’s smaller than a keyboard. I’m not sure if that’s the attraction or just the tuning or what it can do. I don’t know, I’m probably not in a good position to really judge this. It does seem like it’s raised a good amount of money and gotten interest. I guess if they’re selling it to musicians, then what may have made sense there was targeted to musicians. But as a non-musical person, I’m just not clear on what exactly the pros and cons of this are. But it seems to me if you were musical, they didn’t talk a lot about music theory or music creation or how you would use it beneficially as a musician. It’s fine that I didn’t get it, but I’m not sure they really hit it right with their target audience either, if that is people who are more musically inclined. So, I don’t know, maybe they’ll do well with it, but it was kind of lost on me as to the benefits of this.
