Daria Uspenskaya

Arturia is a French electronics company founded in 1999 and based in Grenoble, France. The company designs and manufactures audio interfaces and electronic musical instruments, including software synthesizers, drum machines, analog synthesizers, MIDI controllers, sequencers, and mobile apps.

Arturia was founded in 1999 in Grenoble by INPG engineers Frédéric Brun and Gilles Pommereuil to create affordable software synthesizers. The first product they developed was Storm, a virtual instrument workstation. The close emulation of classic analog synthesizers helped the company gain popularity in its market. In order to create sounds with minimal digital artifacts, Brun and Pommereuil developed new software algorithms to eliminate these issues.

In 2003, using the algorithms they had developed, Arturia worked with Robert Moog to create the Modular V softsynth. The Modular V uses Arturia's True Analog Emulation (TAE) in an attempt to faithfully reproduce the oscillators, filters, and other modules from the Moog 3C and Moog 55. Following these releases, Arturia continued to develop software emulations of well known synthesizers, including the ARP 2600, Roland Jupiter-8, Minimoog, and Sequential Circuits Prophet-5.

In 2007, Arturia combined sounds from several of their softsynth titles into Analog Factory, which offered 2000 preset synthesizer patches, offering this the following year as Analog Experience, a hybrid system which combined the software with a MIDI keyboard controller specifically designed to play and control it.

Arturia entered the hardware synthesizer market in 2012 with the MiniBrute, a vintage-style 25-key monophonic analog synthesizer with one voltage controlled oscillator, two low-frequency oscillators, and a multimode Steiner-Parker filter. The synthesizer was introduced at the 2012 NAMM Show. Despite pre-production uncertainty about sales, the MiniBrute sold well due to its low price point and expressive sound. In the following year, Arturia announced their next hardware synthesizer, the MicroBrute, a smaller and less expensive version of the MiniBrute with minikeys, a patch bank, and a sequencer. Both synthesizers received critical acclaim.

In January, 2018, they introduced MiniBrute 2. This semi-modular analog synth includes its own tiny patch bay that connects to Eurorack modular gear. They also introduced the MiniBrute 2S which swaps a traditional keyboard for performance pads and a sequencer, more powerful than the MiniBrute 2, that can be recorded in real time.

The company's product line includes software synthesizers, software bundles, hardware synthesizers, MIDI keyboards and sequencers, mobile apps, and other audio equipment and controllers.

In December 2018, Arturia released their very first original software synthesizer called Arturia Pigments. It has similarities to the popular VST plugin Serum, which is visualising realtime timesignatures of envelopes, filter, LFOs and wavetables .

Arturia's previous software synths are emulations of other synthesizers, organs, and pianos, and are available to buy individually or all together in the V Collection. Arturia's Analog Lab is a collection of presets of these synths with limited sound modeling available, and comes bundled with many of their Keyboard Midi controllers, including the KeyLab MkII and KeyLab Essential series.

• ARP2600 V
• CS-80 V
• Minimoog V
• Modular V
• SEM V
• Prophet V
• Vox Continental V
• Farfisa V
• Wurlitzer V
• Jupiter-8 V
• Solina V
• Matrix-12 V
• Stage-73 V
• Synclavier V
• B-3 V
• Piano V
• DX7 V
• Buchla Easel V
• Clavinet V
• CMI V
• Mellotron V
• Synthi V
• CZ V
• Emulator II V
• Juno 6 V
• Vocoder V
• OB-Xa V
• SQ80 V

Software effects

• Chorus JUN-6
• Chorus DIMENSION-D
• Comp VCA-65
• Comp FET-76
• Comp TUBE-STA
• Mini-Filter
• M12-Filter
• SEM-Filter
• 1973-Pre
• TridA-Pre
• V76-Pre
• Phaser BI-TRON
• Flanger BL-20
• Delay TAPE-201
• Delay MEMORY-BRIGADE
• Delay ETERNITY
• Rev PLATE-140
• Rev INTENSITY
• Rev SPRING-636
• Audio interfaces
• AudioFuse
• AudioFuse Studio
• AudioFuse 8PRE

MIDI controllers

• KeyStep
• KeyStep 37
• KeyStep Pro
• BeatStep
• BeatStep Pro
• MiniLab MK II
• MicroLab
• KeyLab Essential 49
• KeyLab Essential 61
• KeyLab Essential 88
• KeyLab 49 MK II
• KeyLab 61 MK II
• KeyLab 88
• KeyLab 88 MK II

Hardware synths

While Arturia is mostly known for their software synths, Arturia has recently began building hardware analog synthesizers, including their popular Brute series.

• MicroFreak
• MicroBrute
• MiniBrute
• MiniBrute 2
• MiniBrute 2S
• MatrixBrute
• Origin
• PolyBrute

Hardware drum machines

• DrumBrute
• DrumBrute Impact

Akai (Japanese: 赤井, pronounced akai) was founded originally as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo, Japan, in 1946. Grande Holdings in Hong Kong purchased the Akai brand, and now distributes various electronic products such as LED TV, washing machines, clothes dryers, air conditioners and smart phones, through collaborations with other electronics companies bearing relevant expertise. inMusic Brands in the United States took over Akai's brand, starting the ‘Akai Professional’ label, that distributes high-end audio electronics products.

Akai was founded by Masukichi Akai and his son, Saburo Akai (who died in 1973) as Akai Electric Company Ltd. (赤井電機株式会社, Akai Denki Kabushiki Kaisha), a Japanese manufacturer in 1929 or 1946.

The company's business eventually became troubled and it left the audio industry in 1991. At its peak in the late 1990s, Akai Holdings employed 100,000 workers and had annual sales of HK$40 billion (US$5.2 billion). The company filed for insolvency in November 2000, owing creditors US$1.1B. It emerged that ownership of Akai Holdings had somehow passed in 1999 to Grande Holdings, a company founded by Akai's chairman James Ting. The liquidators claimed that Ting had stolen over US$800m from the company with the assistance of accountants Ernst & Young who had tampered with audit documents going back to 1994.Ting was imprisoned for false accounting in 2005, and E&Y paid $200m to settle the negligence case out of court in September 2009.In a separate lawsuit, a former E&Y partner, Christopher Ho, made a "substantial payment" to Akai creditors in his role as chairman of Grande Holdings.

Historical products

Akai's products included reel-to-reel audiotape recorders (such as the GX series), tuners (top level AT, mid level TR and TT series), audio cassette decks (top level GX and TFL, mid level TC, HX and CS series), amplifiers (AM and TA series), microphones, receivers, turntables, video recorders and loudspeakers.

Many Akai products were sold under the name Roberts in the US, as well as A&D in Japan (from 1987 after a partnership with Mitsubishi Electric), Tensai and Transonic Strato in Western Europe. During the late 1960s, Akai adopted Tandberg's cross-field recording technologies (using an extra tape head) to enhance high frequency recording and switched to the increasingly reliable Glass and crystal (X'tal) (GX) ferrite heads a few years later[citation needed]. The company's most popular products[citation needed] were the GX-630D, GX-635D, GX-747/GX-747DBX and GX-77 open-reel recorders (latter featuring an auto-loading function), the three-head, closed-loop GX-F95, GX-90, GX-F91, GX-R99 cassette decks, and the AM-U61, AM-U7 and AM-93 stereo amplifiers.

Akai manufactured and badged most of its imported hi-fi products with the Tensai brand (named after the Swiss audio and electronics distributor Tensai International). Tensai International was Akai's exclusive distributor for the Swiss and Western European markets until 1988.

Akai limited its consumer hi-fi product line in the United States and Europe towards the end of the 20th century.

Introduction of the on-screen display

Akai produced consumer video cassette recorders (VCR) during the 1980s. The Akai VS-2 was the first VCR with an on-screen display,originally named the Interactive Monitor System. By displaying the information directly on the television screen, this innovation eliminated the need for the user to be physically near the VCR to program recording, read the tape counter, or perform other common features. Within a few years, all competing manufacturers had adopted on-screen display technology in their own products.

In 1984, a new division of the company was formed to focus on the manufacture and sale of electronic instruments, and was called Akai Professional.

The first product released by the new subsidiary was the MG1212, a 12 channel, 12 track recorder.This innovative device used a special VHS-like cartridge (a MK-20), and was good for 10 minutes of continuous 12 track recording (19 cm per second) or 20 minutes at half speed (9.5 cm per second). One track (14) was permanently dedicated to recording absolute time, and another one for synchronization such as SMPTE or MTC. Each channel strip included dbx type-1 noise reduction and semi-parametric equalizers (with fixed bandwidths). The unit also had innovations like an electronic 2 bus system, a 12 stereo channel patch bay and auto punch in and out, among others. The unique transport design and noise reduction gave these units a recording quality rivaling that of more expensive 16 track machines using 1" tape. The MG-1212 was later replaced by the MG-1214, which improved the transport mechanism and overall performance.

In early 2003, Grande Holdings began undergoing a re-exposure of Akai's brands by marketing various audio visual products manufactured by Samsung. In the same year, Grande began to distribute Akai home appliances such as air conditioners, vacuum cleaners, and refrigerators. In 2010s, it began to distribute Akai smart phones collaborated with some Chinese smart phone manufacturers (Gionee, etc.), in India and some other countries.

Mohammed Sillah (born 8 February 1997), known by his stage name Saint, is a Gambian recording artist, songwriter and producer currently residing in Sweden. In 2015, he rose to fame in Sweden with the release of his debut single Chillin.

Mohammed Sillah was born in Serekunda, Gambia on February 8, 1997. As a teenage refugee he fled to Sweden during 2012 with only a backpack and the clothes on his back. Upon his arrival he applied for asylum in Sweden.

Between 2012-2015, Saint was relocated to various refugee camps by the Swedish Migration Board. His application for asylum in Sweden was initially denied, as well as several appeals for over a year leaving his stay in Sweden uncertain.

In early 2014 he was introduced to Swedish recording artist Rebstar through a mutual friend who worked at the refugee camp. Saint went on to eventually sign with Swedish record label Today Is Vintage. In March 2015, they released Saint's debut single Chillin to major acclaim and quickly rose to prominence in Sweden. In 2015 Saint was granted permanent residency in Sweden.

Saint is currently a third-year student at Rytmus Gymnasium in Malmö majoring in music production.

On October 2014 Saint was featured on Rebstar's hit single "Safe Safe (040 Zlatan Remix)" to international acclaim Saint released his debut single Chillin on March 8, 2015 to major acclaim. A cover story in major publication Sydsvenskan quickly rose Saint to Swedish prominence. Chillin went on to be declared as one of Sweden's best rap songs of 2015 by Swedish Radio P3 and was featured by Spotify in Sweden.

He shortly followed up with two song releases, Badman and lefunkyintro. The latter is said to be the first offering from his upcoming body of work The New Funky Dread.

In October 2015 Saint made his productional debut on Rebstar's EP You Know Nothing About Love.In December 2015, Saint was awarded a scholarship by Swedish performing rights society STIM for his production and songwriting.

Consequently, Saint's upcoming debut album is said to be titled Asylum

On March 8, 2016 Noisey premiered a 10-track project by Saint titled The New Funky Dread, declaring it the best hip hop they've heard in years.

Mixtapes

The New Funky Dread (2016)

Singles

• "Chillin" (2015)

• "Badman" (2015)

• "LeFunkyIntro" (2015)

• "Holly" feat. HB (2016)

Production credits

• Rebstar - Reputation (2015)
• Rebstar - All I Know (2015)

Collaborations

• “Safe Safe Remix” by Rebstar feat. Saint, Lilleman, Lazee & The C.I.T.Y. (2014)

Elmo Kennedy O'Connor (born January 11, 1994), known professionally as Bones (often stylized as BONES), is an American rapper, singer and songwriter from Howell, Michigan. He is also the founder of the music collective TeamSESH.

O'Connor is known for his pioneering work in a sub-genres of hip-hop referred to as emo rap and trap metal.Since 2010, O'Connor has released an extensive discography and developed a large fan base. As of 2019, he has released over 80 albums, mixtapes and EPs across several aliases.

Elmo Kennedy O'Connor was born in Marin County, California, to a mother who designed clothing and a father who was a web designer. His maternal grandfather was actor Robert Culp. His family lived in Muir Beach, California, before moving to New York City. When O'Connor was seven years old, his family moved to Howell, Michigan. O'Connor also lived in Minnesota for two years when he was thirteen. Around this time he met fellow artists Xavier Wulf, Chris Travis, and Eddy Baker online. The four artists would later come together to form the collective Seshollowaterboyz.

When he was 16, he dropped out of Howell High School and moved to Los Angeles, where his brother and current manager, Elliott, had already been living. Despite moving away from his parents at a young age, O'Connor speaks positively of them, stating, "If I tried to write a book about, 'oh, what would be dream parents?', I couldn't even make anything better than them. All they do is shower me in love. Unconditional love, forever." O'Connor describes Howell as a "mundane" place where its residents are "born and they die there", also calling it "one of the most racist towns in Michigan".

O'Connor first started making music at the age of nine after his father purchased an iMac G3. He would download hip hop instrumentals from SoundClick and use the computer's built-in microphone to record himself rapping, though it wasn't until 2010 at the age of 16 that he would start releasing music online under the alias "Th@ Kid". After moving to Los Angeles, O'Connor connected with other artists he met online including Xavier Wulf, Chris Travis, and Eddy Baker, who at the time were members of the now semi-disbanded Raider Klan. He later officially changed his stage name to Bones in 2012.

On July 4, 2012, O'Connor released his eponymous debut album under the alias "BONES". From 2012 to 2014 he released 12 albums before gaining journalistic attention for his 2014 album TeenWitch, which gained controversy for its themes based around the Columbine High School Massacre.The album following TeenWitch, titled Garbage, was released on June 9, 2014, and was the first of O'Connor's albums to gain the attention of major music publications such as Complex Magazine and The Fader who labelled the project as "massive" and "boundary-pushing." In April 2014, O'Connor, along with TeamSESH producer GREAF, formed "surrenderdorothy", a side project that is notably less focused on rap, with a stronger focus on acoustic guitar and singing, with stylistic similarities to indie rock and emo rap. Although O'Connor does experiment with this style in his solo work, surrenderdorothy features it much more predominantly. Since 2014, the duo have released six EPs as surrenderdorothy.

O'Connor uploaded several albums in 2015 and headlined his first sold out show at House of Blues on March 4, 2015 before opening for electronic artist Shlohmo at The Fonda Theatre. O'Connor was later featured on ASAP Rocky's "Canal St.", which was a remix of O'Connor's song "Dirt". The song later became O'Connor's first feature on the Billboard charts. Bones performed "Canal St." with ASAP Rocky on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show, but was cut from the TV broadcast due to his refusal to censor some of the song's lyrics while performing. Videos of the performance were made available online. In May 2015, O'Connor and GREAF started releasing songs under a second side project called "OREGONTRAIL". The project is stylistically similar to surrenderdorothy, but has been noted as having a "darker" and "rougher" tone. It also follows a loose narrative related to the game of the same name which is also reflected in the artwork of the singles. Since 2015, the duo have released seven singles as OREGONTRAIL.

O'Connor released 10 albums between 2015 and 2017. In 2016, he began releasing music under a new persona called Ricky A Go Go. He uploaded five tracks in total to a SoundCloud account for this persona with the fifth one being uploaded in 2017. There's a running joke in the description for each track as each one is the single for an album of a different name. None of these albums have released. These tracks have a disco, funk, or synthwave production style with sung vocals. There is a sixth track titled "Countdown" that is not on this account but has been uploaded by several other users. This track comes from the track "SeshRadio: Volume3" which is the final track on his PaidProgramming2 project. This was the official debut of the persona. The Ricky A Go Go persona has made appearances on multiple other tracks in the BONES discography on various projects, most prominently the collaboration project DamagedGoods with Drew The Architect. However, a majority of these tracks still credit BONES as the artist.

On January 19, 2018, O'Connor performed in KOKO, London, thus starting his first ever European tour, called the Deadboy Tour. It took him to countries such as Germany, Ukraine, Russia and Italy.

O'Connor is a founding member of the collective Seshollowaterboyz, along with Xavier Wulf and Eddy Baker, with whom he often performs and collaborates. Chris Travis was a founding member of the group but left in 2019.

Although O'Connor is often considered to be one of the pioneers of the emo rap sub-genre, O'Connor has said that he has no specific genre, though has been characterized as cloud rap, experimental hip-hop and "shadow rap". O'Connor's earlier music is a lot more futuristic (and is often compared to SpaceGhostPurrp's) than his current music, which showcases production and vocal styles ranging from rapping, singing, and screaming. O'Connor’s singing has been compared to grunge and emo, while his rapping has been compared sub-genres such as horrorcore and emo rap.He is also considered an early pioneer of trap metal.

O'Connor rarely talks about his musical influences, although during interviews he has mentioned Marvin Gaye, Earth Wind and Fire, Bootsy Collins, Stevie Nicks and Joni Mitchell as influences.

Over the years of his music career, O'Connor helped underground hip hop develop into new styles and has been noted as "one of the most influential underground artists of the internet age".