Review in MUSIC MART (Jan '06) magazine by Mark Jenkins. ******************************************************************************************************************        "A new MIDI product, from a new British design company - MARK JENKINS is first in the world to get his hands on it...

British electronic music design companies don't have such a wonderful history - with very few exceptions, new products tend to be launched in very small quantities and with both metaphorical and literal rough edges.

Another field which has a highly colourful past is that of the guitar synth, and more specifically, the alternative guitar-style controller. In the USA, companies such as 360 Systems pioneered guitar synthesis with bulky pitch-to-voltage convertors - John McLaughlin notably using one to run six MiniMoogs. Roland finally brought guitar synthesis to the mass market, while both Casio and Ibanez marketed some tasty but long discontinued MIDI-capable guitars, in the case of Casio in addition to some unconventional plastic-stringed budget hybrid instruments. But guitar synthesis and MIDI never really sat well together, which is why some of the attempts to fuse the two areas of expertise became extremely expensive.

We're thinking here of two long discontinued British designs (see how the subject at hand comes around again?) the Synthaxe, which had two sets of strings, one for each hand; and the Stepp DG1, which had only one set of strings which weren't tuned, since all the clever pitch detection was done by the frets. The strings you did have needed to be played either with the fingers, or with a special conductive plastic pick, as they relied on skin capacitance for their operation.

Both instruments were extremely expensive and short-lived, and since their time, for the sake of affordability, there have been several attempts at offering easy strumming-style playing (as on that classic folk instrument the AutoHarp) without actually sticking to the stringed guitar format. The Suzuki Omnichord or Q-Chord, much loved by Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno and Nick Rhodes comes to mind, as does the Charlie Lab Digitar, a small box on a belt clip bearing six metal wires with a MIDI output which plays a keyboard or module in a style determined by the strum technique.

Latest in this field is the Easy-Chord from a new British company, Rainbow Electronics. This could be described as a MIDI Strum Controller, and like the Stepp DG1 has a plastic body and a roughly guitar-ish shape, but unlike the DG1's multi-thousand pound price tag, comes in at a launch price of just £169.00.

SCHOOL OF ROCK
The Easy-Chord as its name suggests has an obvious place in music education. It's a very quick way to pick up the smooth production of chords, using a new technique which can be learned in a couple of hours. But though it has decent built-in sounds, it also has a very functional MIDI output, so could be used to perform using much more professional sounding keyboards, modules or soft synths, or to program guitar strum-style parts into MIDI sequencers. These multiple possible applications make it great value for money.

Having said that, in fact the Easy-Chord is less like a guitar than it may seem. If you totally master the Easy-Chord, you still know next to nothing about guitar playing. For a start it has eight solid wire "strings", not six - the first seven play arpeggiated chords over a range of two octaves, including the intermediate octave and two other intervals per octave, while the eighth half-length "string" produces a 7th note if you include it in your strum.

And for seconds, there are no neck strings, just four buttons arranged to fall easily under the fingertips of the left hand. The first three determine chords, and if I explain that this is done in Binary, please don't be put off. Quite simply, if chords A, B, C, D, E, F and G correspond to values 1-7, those values in binary are 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110 and 111 - and those are just the buttons you hold to get each chord. The fourth button gives you the Sharp version, while two thumb buttons give Minor, Augmented and (held together) Diminished versions. You'll be playing chord progressions in minutes, and there are a few very simple songs in the supplied handbook with which to practice.

SOUNDS RIGHT
The basic sounds of the Easy-Chord are generated using a custom wavetable synthesizer circuit and selected on a 6-by-3 matrix of buttons. They range from Acoustic, Nylon and Fuzz guitars, Acoustic and Electric Pianos to Strings, Synth Strings, Trumpet and Organs. They're decent quality sounds - about what you'd expect from a domestic keyboard of comparable cost.

If you want improved sounds though, simply hook up the Easy-Chord's MIDI output to any synth module or soft synth. Transmitting on MIDI Channel 1, the Easy-Chord sends out extremely dependable MIDI, and though you may have to adjust your playing technique depending on the sustain and decay characteristics of the sound, that's normally not hard to do.

When you select a new sound, does the Easy-Chord send a MIDI program change? Yes, hooray! When you set Octave Up or Key Transpose Up or Down on the Easy-Chord, is this reflected in the MIDI output? Yes, hooray! Does the Easy-Chord boast a huge, poser-friendly whammy/vibrato bar? No, boo!!! Never mind, perhaps on the next version...