5. Hardware
Most manufacturers now offer their workstations as a product range with various keyboard qualities and sizes, typically a 61 note standard action, a 73 note semi-weighted action, and an 88 note fully-weighted action. This covers all bases, from those whose budget and space availability is in line with the typical home musician, to the professional performer wanting a flagship instrument with a solid keyboard action thats built to last, and from the first purchase sole music creation tool, to the mother keyboard at the heart of a studio.
As with most modern synthesizer keyboards, the typical workstation comes with a complement of controllers including pitch-bend and modulation wheels, and mixer-style knobs and faders, but these are often further enhanced with additional specialist features: Korgs KARMA technology is now incorporated into most of their workstations and uses variable performance modeller controls that allow the real-time alteration of characteristics such as tempo, complexity of phrase, and melodic direction; Rolands unique theremin-style D-Beam technology, featured in their Fantom series workstations, offers realtime manipulation of sound via an infra-red beam built into the top of the keyboard chassis - this can be routed to a range of modulation destinations, allowing you to create a variety of timbral changes as you wave your hand in the beam.
