Spotify Wrapped live in London: A Top Of The Pops-style end-of-year celebration at IKEA-turned-superclub DrumshedsSince its arrival almost a decade ago, Spotify’s ingenious digital marketing tool Wrapped has grown from a platform for stans to prove their dedication to a cultural moment in its own right.
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However, until this year’s edition, the meme-spawning phenomenon – whose new-for-2023 highlights include an AI DJ and video messages from artists for their top fans – has remained a virtual affair. Yes, it’s dominating Instagram stories and rightfully sparking discussions on fairer artist pay and shady data collection, but there’s not yet been a physical manifestation to match the frenzy on socials.
That all changed last night (30 November), however, as the debut Spotify Wrapped live show brought a handful of the year’s biggest breakthrough artists (and some well-established names) to Tottenham’s IKEA-turned-superclub, Drumsheds.
Spotify Wrapped Live. Image: Getty
Live-streamed so that those not lucky enough to bag a ticket could still watch, albeit from the comfort of their homes, the choice to broadcast the first Wrapped on TikTok made perfect sense – especially because many of the songs performed throughout the show first went viral on the platform.
The lineup skewed towards 2023’s most popular genres (d’n’b, rap, pop and Afrobeat) and felt like an edgier counterpart to next weekend’s comparatively-commercial Capital FM Jingle Bell Ball at London’s O2 Arena. With the Wrapped hosts, social media favourites Harriet Rose, Big Zuu and Max Balegde, mingling among the crowd on the dancefloor and chatting to celebrity special guests including Louis Theroux, it also felt like a throwback to Top Of The Pops.
Spotify Wrapped Live. Harriet Rose, Big Zuu.Image: Getty
Kicking the night off with a vocally and visually impressive performance of their number one hit Unholy, Sam Smith took to a square stage in the middle of the crowd and was joined by a troupe of suited men inside what looked like a box made out of neon lasers. On the same stage, chart-topping MusicTech cover star Kenya Grace brought her d’n’b-pop hit Strangers to vibrant life in front of pink strobes; Libianca glowed in a ruffled golden dress while delivering the strongest vocal of the night with her track People; and Charli XCX raced through a UK-exclusive live rendition of her huge Barbie-soundtracking hit Speed Drive.
Spotify Wrapped Live, Chase & Status. Image: Press
Spotify Wrapped Live, Sam Smith. Image: Press
Towards the end of the show, the action moved to the huge main stage as London rapper Strandz and a group of dancers worked the runway for Us Against The World, before Chase & Status closed proceedings with their bass-heavy top-five smash Baddadan. Considering d’n’b’s mainstream renaissance this year, scheduling the latter as the finalé made a real statement.
Overall, the pacing of the night’s individual sets felt a little rushed and the general consensus on the train home concluded that there was too much filler chat between acts. Nonetheless, it was undoubtedly a fun way for fans (and industry types) to catch a glimpse of some huge names in quick succession.
Spotify Wrapped Live. Image: Getty
While the sprightly show may have only lasted for just over an hour, with each performer allocated just one song, the first Wrapped delivered on its aim: to present a concise yet sonically-diverse snapshot of the year’s most popular music trends. If Wrapped Live is to become an annual event, we’d like to see more focus on the music next time.
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Jenny Hermanson, Spotify’s MD for the Nordic region, to exit company after 14 yearsSPOT's Sweden-based MD for the Nordic region, Jenny Hermanson, is leaving the company
Source

Hainbach says his 1 million annual Spotify streams earned him $2,160 before taxBerlin-based electronic composer Hainbach has detailed his earnings from the 1 million streams he’s garnered from Spotify this year.

READ MORE: UK government intervenes after London Mayor rejects plans for MSG Sphere in the city

Breaking down the data in a thread on X/Twitter, Hainbach shares that one of the main drivers behind the numbers is his instrumental track The Guide.
“Since I released it in 2020 it has gathered 560,000 views, and stills finds about 12,000 listens per month,” he writes.
“Another surprise hit was The Wooden from my album Voice Magnetic on Seil Records with 116,000 listens in 6 months. I made this with the most hated-on instrument of recent times, the Teenage Engineering Choir.”
As for the, ahem, million dollar question, ‘How much do a million streams a year pay?’ Hainbach reveals that “It averages out at about $2160 a year or $180 per month for me, before tax. Nothing to sneeze at, it covers my utilities bill.”
That said, the musician adds that Bandcamp or going to a live show is “still the best way to support me and other artists”.

(1/5) I am super-stoked about reaching 1 million streams this year on @Spotify – it means the world to me that so many of you are listening. Thank you! (But how much is that in cash? Look below) #SpotifyWrapped pic.twitter.com/zOi99JNF5V
— HAINBACH (@Hainbach101) November 30, 2023

Spotify has long come under fire for its modest payouts to musicians, with “Weird Al” Yankovic putting the streaming service’s artist payout system on blast this week on his Spotify Wrapped video.
“It’s my understanding that I had over 80 million streams on Spotify this year,” Yankovic said in the clip. “So, if I’m doing the math right that means I earned $12. Enough to get myself a nice sandwich at a restaurant. So, from the bottom of my heart, thanks for your support, and thanks for the sandwich.”

The legend Weird Al criticizing what Spotify pays artists in the video he made FOR Spotify. pic.twitter.com/wASQunepBg
— Ray Padgett (@rayfp) November 29, 2023

Last month, Spotify announced that it would phase out operations in Uruguay after the country passed a law requiring “equitable renumeration” for artists.
Citing the new law’s ambiguity as the primary reason behind its cessation of operations in the country, the streaming giant said that “changes that could force Spotify to pay twice for the same music would make our business of connecting artists and fans unsustainable.”
“Without clarity on the changes to music copyright laws included in the 2023 Rendición de Cuentas law – confirming that any additional costs are the responsibility of rights holders – Spotify will unfortunately begin to phase out its service in Uruguay effective January 1, 2024, and fully cease service by February,” says the company.
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RELEASE DETAILS
Release title:
TROOPS
Main artist name:
Kazi
Release date:
1st Dec, 2023
https://publme.lnk.to/TROOPS
#newmusic #Release #Music #indepedent #artist #hiphop #rap

UK government intervenes after London Mayor rejects plans for MSG Sphere in the cityThe UK government has intervened to stop London Mayor Sadiq Khan from torpedoing plans for London’s controversial MSG Sphere.

READ MORE: Listeners think human creativity is still the most essential part of music creation amid rise in AI, report finds

According to The Standard, levelling-up secretary Michael Gove has ordered a six-week pause as he considers calling in the mayor’s decision to pull the plug on the development of the Vegas-style venue in Stratford, East London.
Mayor Sadiq Khan rejected MSG’s plans to build the sphere last week, siding with local residents and councillors who raised concerns about health risks, light pollution, and strains on local infrastructure and heritage sites.
“London is open to investment from around the world and Sadiq wants to see more world-class, ambitious, innovative entertainment venues in our city,” a spokesperson for the mayor told the publication.
“But as part of looking at the planning application for the MSG Sphere, the Mayor has seen independent evidence that shows the current proposals would result in an unacceptable negative impact on local residents.”
Gove’s department is now planning to instruct Khan not to abandon the planning proposals via a letter to the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC). It reads: “The Secretary of State hereby prohibits Your Local Planning Authority from implementing the Mayor’s direction of November 20 to refuse permission.”
Should Khan attempt to thwart the venue’s development, the secretary of state has the power to overrule the Mayor on his decision. Gove also indicated his interest in examining the development, which received approval from the LLDC last year.
Designed by architectural firm Populous, the MSG Sphere would have been comparable in height to Big Ben and in diameter to the London Eye. U2 opened the first-ever residency at the Las Vegas Sphere back in September. However, the venue recently reported a $98.4 million loss, and its CFO resigned amid reports of “yelling and screaming” from MSG boss James Dolan.
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How This Record Label Sells More Vinyl Than StreamsThis week, Ari is joined by Terry Cole, owner and operator of Colemine Records and Plaid Room Records.

Alphabet/Google is now in the music rights management business buying stake in Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI). Expect fireworks. Very interesting.
#MusicIndustry #MusicBusiness #Google #MusicTechnology #AI #Google #BMI
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/3-observations-on-the-sale-of-bmi-and-googles-entrance-into-music-rights-management/

The Dorian Scale for Jazz ImprovisationUnderstanding the Dorian Scale

Dorian is the 2nd mode of the major scale. So if we start any major scale on the 2nd degree we get a dorian scale.

Step 1 – We are going to play the major scale and then the related dorian scale. 

A useful variation of this step is to understand where the half-steps are in the dorian scale and then play all dorian scales without considering the related major scale.

Step 2 – Play all dorian scales by thinking of where the half-steps are and the degrees that you’re playing. The formula for dorian is W H W W W H W.

And the scale degrees are 1 2 b3 4 5 6 and b7.

Chordal Implications of the Dorian Scale

If we stack notes from the Dorian scale by 3rds, we get a m7(9,11,13) chord.

So this scale is ideal for related 2 chords. Related 2 chords are m7 chords that are followed by the related V chord.

For example: in a Dm7 G7 progression, the Dm7 is the related 2 chord of the G7 chord because Dm7 to G7 is a 2-5.

But, not all m7 chords are good candidates for the Dorian scale. In the progression Cmaj7 Am7 Dm7 G7, the Am7 does not want to be paired with the dorian scale. And that’s because Am dorian contains an F# which is not part of the C major scale. And of course Am7 is not part of a 2-5.

Another possible use of the dorian scale on m7 chords is on modal tunes, like in Recorda-me. In this case the Am7 pairs well with the Dorian scale. You can even see how the F# is part of the melody under the Am7 chord.

It is also worth noting that the 13 in Dorian is a tricky note to use on a m7 chord acting as a related 2. And that’s because the 13 creates a tritone with the b3 of the chord. In a Dm7 the 13th is B and the b3 is F. These two notes create a tritone F to B which is exactly what the V chord (G7 in our case) uses to create tension. That does not happen in a modal context -as I’ve shown you before in Recorda-me.

Step 3 – Play the dorian scale in 3rds like this:

Notice how we are arpeggiating the m7 chord and then we introduce tensions 9 and 11, and finally tension 13.

Pay attention at how tension 13th sounds in this m7 context. It turns the sound of the m7 into a dorian modal sound.

Applying the Dorian Scale

The last 3 steps are more about lines using the dorian scale in a 2 -5 progression.

Step 4 – Play an arpeggio with the 9th as an approach tone, and we end up landing on the 9th, which is the 13th of the V chord.

Bebop-izing the Dorian Scale

We turn the dorian scale into a Bebop scale using a chromatic passing tone. 

Step 5 – Start on the root of the scale and use the maj7 as a passing tone between the root and the b7. The cool thing about the bebop scales is that all the chord-tones from the m7 chord are played on the downbeats, while the rest of the notes from the dorian scale are used as passing tones.

Step 6 – We’re going to add two chromatic passing tones, which allows us to start on the 9th of the dorian scale.

If you’re looking for a complete course on the modes of the major scale and how to use them for jazz improvisation, you can check out Jazz Scales & Modes Vol.1: A Guide To Improvisation available for Piano, Bass Instruments, Bb and Eb Instruments.

Learn more on mDecks.com

The Major Scale (Ionian) for Jazz ImprovisationThe Major Scale (Ionian)

The major scale serves as our “source scale,” the point of reference for its related modes. We will delve into the intricacies of this scale, explore its unique properties, and discover its role in improvisational music.

The Concept of Source Scales

In the realm of musical modes, the Ionian scale takes center stage as the most familiar and frequently employed scale. We designate it as our “source scale,” a reference point from which we derive all related modes within its group. 

Whether it’s Dorian as the 2nd mode or Lydian as the 4th mode, these modes find their origins within the Ionian scale. The choice of the source scale is primarily based on its prevalence in musical practice, and there are no intrinsic properties guiding this selection.

Understanding the Ionian Scale

Step 1 – Play the Ionian scale in all keys.

Throughout the book we will use a modulation pattern of a perfect fifth down. This is the most-often-found root movement in music.

Step 2 – To deepen our understanding of the Ionian scale, we’ll explore its structure in terms of whole and half steps. This perspective helps us navigate any scale more intuitively and utilize its degrees effectively. 

The half-whole pattern of Ionian is: W W H W W W H

This gives us all major/perfect degrees: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7.

Chordal Implications of the Ionian Scale

Stacking notes from the Ionian scale by thirds reveals a maj7(9,11,13) chord. We’ll investigate the unique relationship between the 11th and the 3rd, understanding the dissonance they create in tonal contexts. In modal harmony, we can leverage these tensions to emphasize the Ionian sound.

Step 3 – Transformation of Maj7 to 6 Chord

The Ionian scale’s adaptability allows us to transform a maj7 chord into a 6 chord, a valuable skill in jazz improvisation. We’ll explore this transformation and its applications.

Bebop-izing the Ionian Scale

Much like Dorian and Mixolydian, we can enhance the Ionian scale by adding a chromatic passing tone between the 5th and 6th degrees, creating a Bebop scale. This alteration aligns chord tones with downbeats.

Step 4 – Play ascending bebop scales.

Step 5 – Play descending bebop scales.

The Passing Diminished Chord

By integrating all passing tones into the major Bebop scale, we form a diminished chord. This chord plays a significant role in jazz, facilitating reharmonization of passing tones. 

Step 6 – Play ascending scales using passing diminished chords.

Modal Perspective of the Ionian Scale

In a modal context, the Ionian mode presents unique challenges due to its tonal implications. We’ll focus on the characteristic tones, the 4th and 7th degrees, and explore their role in defining the modal sound.

To further our modal understanding, we’ll construct altered quartal voicings using the root, 4th, and 7th degrees. This unorthodox yet captivating sound adds depth to our Ionian explorations.

Putting It All Together

Step 7 – Combine modal quartal voicings with melodic lines. This comprehensive approach helps us grasp the full potential of the Ionian scale within the realm of improvisation in a modal context.

If you’re looking for a complete course on the modes of the major scale and how to use them for jazz improvisation, you can check out Jazz Scales & Modes Vol.1: A Guide To Improvisation available for Piano, Bass Instruments, Bb and Eb Instruments.

Learn more on mDecks.com

Recent Classical Highlights for November 2023Each month we review a variety of classical music from different eras, countries, and genres. This month, many of the best releases were instrumental music, although there were several great vocal releases also. Organist and choral conductor Anna Lapwood released her sophomore solo album to well-deserved acclaim, while award-winning ensemble Third Coast Percussion (pictured) gathered a few new, inventive compositions.

The vast world of South Asian percussion instruments
Learn about the history, anatomy, and sounds of South Asian percussion instruments spanning the mridangam, ghatam, chenda, and more.

Bel Aylon Offers FREE Thiol Drum Senegal Vol. 1
Ben Aylon offers the Thiol Drum Senegal Vol. 1 sample pack as a free download on Cyber Monday. The Thiol (pronounced as Tchol) is a Senegalese traditional sabar drum, considered to be one of the oldest drums in West Africa. Its unusually shaped body, not carved fully through, gives it unique timbres and overtones. In [...]
View post: Bel Aylon Offers FREE Thiol Drum Senegal Vol. 1

“Never once have I been asked to give the festival a pre-recorded set”: James Hype says pre-recorded DJ sets are the “artist’s choice” and not something festivals ask forDJ-Producer James Hype has weighed in on the debate about pre-recorded live sets, saying “that is the artist’s choice” and most certainly not something festivals actively request.

READ MORE: Black Friday 2023: best deals on DJ controllers, DJ headphones and turntables

“I don’t know where this dialogue came from that when you play a festival you have to play a pre-recorded set but it’s clearly not true,” Hype clarifies in his latest YouTube video.
The DJ, who a few weeks ago played at the 2023 Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), spotlights a recent Reddit post discussing “which artists were actually DJing at EDC Orlando this year?”
So, which artists were “actually” DJing this year? byu/Okay_sure_lets_post inEDCOrlando

The post’s top comment referenced Deadmau5’s (in)famous claim in 2021 that DJs “have to play pre-recorded sets” and that they rarely do live sets at major festivals like EDC anymore, to which Hype replies: “I have played at 95 percent of the biggest festivals in the world… and never once have I been asked to give the festival a pre-recorded set.”
“No one has ever asked me this and I don’t think that this actually happens.”
“I’m not saying that pre-recorded sets don’t exist because I’m sure they do,” Hype says, “And there are artists who do play pre-recorded sets—there’s some artists who’ve been playing the same pre-recorded set for two or three years and that’s just wild—but what I want to make very clear today is that that is the artist’s choice and not something that the festival or the event tells them that they have to do.”
He also rebuts claims that DJs have to pre-record so the lighting can “sync up with your set” by pointing out how software like Show Control easily “allow the lighting engineer and the firework guy to read what the CDJs are playing so they can see every track at the right time and where the drop is”.
“Now the way I DJ— it’s all about the live performance,” Hype continues, adding that “anyone can play the Beatport Top 10” and “mix one record into another really smoothly” with the technology we have in 2023.
Ultimately, “what I want to bring to the table is the stuff that only happens once in a lifetime where I’m mixing one track into another in a specific way that’s never going to happen like that ever again,” says the artist.
“I’m not trying to give people perfection, I’m trying to give people a true live performance. And that is something that a robot or AI could never do.”
“So to be very clear I will never be pre-recording a set for any festival for any club for any event. I firmly stand for real DJing—that’s what gets me excited and that’s what people want to come and see me do when I play.”
Watch the full video below.

The post “Never once have I been asked to give the festival a pre-recorded set”: James Hype says pre-recorded DJ sets are the “artist’s choice” and not something festivals ask for appeared first on MusicTech.

A bus driver has claimed he’s owed rights and royalties for Tupac’s Dear MamaA bus driver and former musician has filed a lawsuit claiming he’s owed rights and royalties for his production work on Tupac’s hit Dear Mama. 
The song was famously the third single from Tupac’s third album Me Against The World, with the Library of Congress describing it as an “eloquent homage to both the murdered rapper’s own mother [Black Panther activist Afeni Shakur] and all mothers struggling to maintain a family in the face of addiction, poverty and societal indifference”.

READ MORE: Black Friday deals 2023: Best deals for music producers, DJs, beatmakers and musicians

In his lawsuit, Terrence Thomas has pointed to interviews from the late rapper as well as handwritten credits written by Tupac himself which name him as the creator of the beat in Dear Mama.  According to court documents seen by Music Business Worldwide,  Thomas claims he was “never properly and fully credited for his publishing copyright”.
Thomas also alleges that producer Tony D. Pizarro conspired with the label, Interscope, and Universal Music Group to obscure Thomas’s role in the track’s creation to prevent him from receiving the royalties he was owed.

Dear Mama inspired a five-part docuseries of the same name about the rapper’s relationship with his mother. The series aired earlier this year on FX and has received nominations from the Black Reel Awards for Television, the Emmys and the Grammys.
Thomas is also suing Warner Brothers, NBC, Fox, Hulu and Disney who have together brought the Dear Mama documentary series to the small screen. He is seeking an unspecified amount in damages and a jury trial.
In other Tupac news, earlier this year one of the late rapper’s custom-designed rings fetched over $1 million at an auction, and it looks like Drake may be the one who purchased it.
The ring sold last Tuesday (25 July), and its huge sale made it the most valuable hip-hop artefact ever sold at auction, according to Sotheby’s.
The post A bus driver has claimed he’s owed rights and royalties for Tupac’s Dear Mama appeared first on MusicTech.

Roland Gaia 2 marks a ‘tricky second album’ moment for the series of synths£769 (street price), roland.com
The Roland Gaia SH-01, discontinued earlier this year, is a synth that’s easy and fun to use, making it ideal for newcomers, yet packs enough synthesis power to make it popular amongst experienced sound designers too. The new incarnation, Gaia 2, has much in common with its predecessor, but also a lot that sets it apart, and not always for the better.

READ MORE: Black Corporation’s ISE-NIN shoots for Jupiter – and lands lavishly

Zen and the art of synth modelling
Gaia 2 is the latest in Roland’s series of ZEN-Core instruments, joining the likes of Jupiter-X, Juno-X and the flagship Fantom series. ZEN-Core itself is the software platform in which most of Roland’s current synth designs run and, as well as powering hardware instruments like Gaia 2, it lies at the heart of many Roland Cloud software offerings too.
A practical and positive upshot of this is that ZEN-Core instruments can load models of other synths. In the case of Gaia 2 this means, alongside the new model developed for the instrument, Roland has pre-installed a free SH-101 model, and you can add additional Roland classics via purchasable Model Expansions.
Roland GAIA 2 in use
The Gaia 2 synth model is quite similar to the original Gaia SH-01, but with a number of welcome additions. The original’s single virtual-analogue oscillator has been doubled-up and a new wavetable oscillator added. This comes with 64 varied wavetables, each containing 128 waveforms, but unfortunately cannot load custom wavetables. What it can do, however, is apply wavetable folding – conceptually similar to adjusting the pulse width of a square wave – which Roland calls Phase Modulation (or P-Mod). It also sports a built-in waveshaper (Shape Mod / S-Mod in Rolandese), ideal for enhancing the harmonic content of the source waveforms.
The filter section has also been updated, and now offers low-, band- and high-pass filtering at 12, 18 or 24dB/octave, as well as a drive stage to add extra bite. The filter can self-oscillate and has a pleasing if inoffensive character, but if you need additional filters the enhanced effects section contains a variety of different types that can be applied as needed.
Modulation capabilities have been improved slightly with the addition of a second LFO, but it remains the case that neither the amp’s nor the filter’s ADSR envelope can be used as a modulation source; the only envelope that can be applied to varied destinations is the so-called Oscillator Envelope, but this is only a basic two-stage AD affair.
Roland GAIA 2 virtual analogue oscillator
Sounds and presets
Gaia 2’s three oscillator (virtual) architecture is not groundbreaking – many synths use a very similar set-up – but it does provide a rich toolset for sound design. The freebie SH-101 model adds a whole extra palette of sounds and sound design possibilities on top of this, but this isn’t a review of the SH-101 so ‘nuff said about that!
A total of 256 read-only factory presets are included, arranged into four groups of eight banks, each containing eight presets. The User storage area extends this by a further four groups for a total of 512 slots, some of which have been pre-populated by Roland. Roland’s habit of grouping patches in eights has its roots in early preset-capable synths, but in the 21st Century it’s bordering on the obtuse, and is needlessly awkward to work with via MIDI.
There are some very nice presets here, although we felt there were too many that were either too elaborate or too old fashioned to be particularly useful. Also, the effects section contains a pleasing new reverb processor, but Roland has tried too hard to make us aware of it, turning otherwise good sounds to mush with the amount of ‘verb they’ve been drenched in. Don’t get us wrong, the sound design is good, and the sound quality is outstanding, but we found too few presets that inspired musical ideas, and too many that elicited a “meh… Next” response.
Roland GAIA 2 informative display
Portmanteau pad
At the centre of Gaia 2’s panel sits an X-Y touchpad that serves a variety of purposes. Roland has given this touchpad an exceptionally silly name, a portmanteau of “motion” and “emotional”, that we can’t bring ourselves to use. We will therefore refer to it as the Portmanteau pad.
The Portmanteau pad, then, makes up for Gaia 2’s dearth of routable envelope generators by allowing a pattern of movement to be recorded and used as a modulation source, this pattern being stored with the patch. Patterns can be enabled or disabled at the touch of a button, and the pad can also be quickly switched to directly control the wavetable oscillator’s P-Mod or S-Mod values, useful during both performance and sound design.
Unlike most touchpads, which have a smooth and silky feel, this particular pad has a rough texture. This doesn’t feel the greatest when whisking your finger across it, and is likely to get quite grotty over time as dirt and grease get embedded in its texturing.
Roland GAIA 2 touchpad
Side games
From around the mid-80s, Roland (and most other synth manufacturers) included in their instruments a side game called Menu Dive. In this game the player was tasked with using a small LCD display and awkwardly-arranged buttons to navigate a fiendish maze in search of a special prize, namely the ability to adjust the desired synth parameter. This side game never made it into Gaia SH-01 (replaced by an exciting key combination guessing game), but Menu Dive is back in Gaia 2. Yippee.
Despite Gaia 2’s plethora of hands-on controls, almost every area of the synth features important parameters that can only be accessed via a game of Menu Dive. The game has been simplified somewhat thanks to Gaia 2’s monochrome OLED display, and it now has two ways to play: either twiddle and press the Value knob, or stroke and tap the Portmanteau pad, but we feel gameplay would have been improved infinitely had Roland just given Gaia 2 a touch sensitive display.
When not playing Menu Dive, the display shows a variety of information about the currently-loaded sound. Preset name and number occupy the upper area, whilst the lower area is taken up with an animation of any Portmanteau pad movement stored in the preset, alongside a real-time waveform display. We found the flickery animations to be hugely distracting, and largely useless given the display’s low resolution, so it’s good that the animated elements can be disabled. This then only leaves the screensaver to distract you when it kicks in!
Roland GAIA 2 connected to tablet
Design and build
The aluminium panel that houses all of Gaia 2’s controls looks smart and solid, but sits somewhat incongruously with the cheaper- and weaker-feeling underside of the enclosure. The rotary controls feel solid and move smoothly, although switch-style knobs are simply regular knobs with detents and so don’t feel very switch-like. The faders, used for amplitude and filter envelopes, aren’t as nice and aren’t even consistent. Some are a bit scratchy whilst others are very scratchy.
Gaia 2’s four-octave, full-size-key keyboard is an improvement on the original, with a firm, high-quality feel and response. Sadly, it lacks aftertouch sensitivity, and we experienced hanging notes quite often, especially when playing fast passages. This is almost certainly a software-related issue, so expect it to be fixed in a future firmware update.
In place of the classic Roland pitch-and-modwheel-joystick-combo-thing, Gaia 2 has separate pitch and modulation wheels. But these wheels are tiny, and consequently have too small a throw to allow detailed control. Frankly they’re a joke, and completely unacceptable on something that costs the best part of £800.
Another joke is the so-called manual, a collection of flow charts, tables, labels, arrows, and gaudy, migraine-inducing colours that take far more brain power to tease information from than would a conventional written tome. Whatever fever-dream inspired this dog’s dinner, we hope Roland realises it just doesn’t work and publishes a proper manual without delay.
Connection to Roland Cloud Connect with GAIA 2
Mixed bag
We thought we’d love the Gaia 2 – indeed we wanted to love it – because on paper it ticks all the boxes. Versatile, high-quality sound engine? Check! Hands-on control? Check! Large palette of sounds? Check! Ability to load entirely different synth models? Check! Granted, the synth’s (virtual) architecture is little different to that used by countless other synths, but there’s a good reason for this; it’s a very capable architecture!
However, what we’re looking at here – let’s face it – is a software instrument and control surface. Nearly £800 is a lot to fork out for this if you already have a computer whilst, for live performers, we’re not convinced that the synth is tough enough for life on the road. More to the point, this asking price places Gaia 2 into a bracket where we expect to find less jank and more polish.
Key features

4-octave keyboard and extensive hands-on control
Wavetable oscillator with 64 wavetables containing 128 waveforms each
Wavetable waveforms shapeable via Phase Mod and Shape Mod
2 virtual analogue oscillators with X-Mod, Ring Mod and Oscillator Sync
Multi-mode filter with low-, band- and high-pass modes at 12, 18 or 24 dB/octave
Dedicated amp and filter ADSR envelopes
2 LFOs
High quality multi-effects
Zen-Core engine can load Model Expansions
Comes with free SH-101 Model Expansion

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