Taiga from Pittsburgh Modular

[donato]

To each their own. He’s by far my least favorite. I particularly don’t like how he puts down expensive synths simply because he can’t afford them.

[ddiamond84]

Hard for me to imagine someone having that thought, but truly to each their own!

[LyingDalai]

I find the 24hp case a nice touch, actually.
Better than an empty space, and the kind of extension that let you add the little thing you find missing. Good call.

[pumpkin_head]

And this, without falling into the modular rabbit hole ( … or other jokes that I tell to myself )

[Jukka]

I like that they made the new “Taiga” part of this keyboard so big. It’s scaled up. The knobs are larger, and the spacing too, and though it looks like the original, it’s all grow’d up now.

It’s got a 5U feel to it almost.

An alternative to the TK, and competing with themselves, is to use the original Taiga module and put it in the NiftyKEYZ Eurorack keyboard, as i suggested a year ago.

Those two products together only cost $100 USD more, and has many of the same functions plus some advantages like 49 keys and more Eurorack space. It is flawed with the placements of the patch points, in two rows at top and bottom though.

But on the other hand this would be more flexible as a general purpose Eurorack keyboard system too.

They clearly have carried over much of the engineering from the NiftyKEYZ, while still making the TK it’s own thing.

I guess as alternative to both of these, and with the same feel, might be the NiftyKEYZ together with the East Beast, or the West Pest, or both, plus some other extras.

ADDED : Size Comparison ( screen shot from the video ) :

[Starscream]

Maybe we can have a NiftyKeyz v2 with more I/Os and utilities, since they are not adverse to having 60 patch points at the top. Add a touch strip or two down the middle aka Polybrute, and make the keyboard poly after touch. As to the length, how about a 61-key version for more eurorack space. Dark walnut cheeks please

[m0ld]

The release of the keyboard version reminded me that I really, really like the way this thing sounds. Almost every demo is, like, a sound I could see myself using. I tend to shy away from synths that don’t have patch memory, but the Taiga could cause me to deviate from that and dip back into the semi-modular world again.

Do any current or previous Taiga owners have hangups with the device? I know the envelope knob range is wonky and the delay is really love-or-hate (and seemingly mostly hate), but anything else?

[ddiamond84]

Nope! Otherwise it’s amazing!

[ericd]

Like some other synths, it does not like the MIDI Clock or Note off (Velocity=0) messages from the Octatrack. But otherwise I like it.

[Oxenholme]

Sonic Lab review is up.

Taiga Keyboard - Pittsburgh Modular - Sonic LAB Review

[GurtTractor]

Some absolutely massive sounding patches in that.

[jdaddyaz]

Nick is one of the best. Knows what he’s talking about, doesn’t plaster his mug all over the thumbnails, and demonstrates the gear with some truly beautiful patching.

[OldmanChompski]

Plus he’s an OG if not the OG. Been making videos about gear since at least 2010.

[m0ld]

I broke down and ordered a Taiga. Listening again to that acid demo @phading posted pushed me over the edge.

[phading]

@m0ld not very proud to induce shopping but… reading this on a bad day warmed my heart thank you! I hope Taiga inspires you too (and I hope the envs don’t drive you half as mad as they do me)

check more of my music :-)

Cutoph - MNM Album & Current Sounds - #13 by phading

[m0ld]

Received mine a few hours ago!

First impression after about an hour of use (yes, I know this kind of thing is useless, but it’s fun):

• It sounds really good.
• Knobs are a bit too close together, but I think I can live with that. I’ve seen that mentioned before, but having tiny hands I didn’t think it’d feel quite so cramped.
• I’m definitely going to need to learn how to utilize the LPG/ dynamics module - time to dig into the manual!
• It’s been a long time since I’ve used a semi-modular synth, this is definitely the most intimidating one I’ve used yet.

[ericd]

Has anyone successfully used the OT to send a midi cc message to the Taiga for the assignable cc? I’ve followed the instructions in the manual and ruled out other problems but the Taiga will just not ‘read’ the cc message from the OT. It will accept and remember cc from other devices, just not the OT.

[Grumo]

I’d like to know if anyone succeeded with the Taiga + OT and + DFAM please.

[goldfarb]

FYI - Taiga Keyboard users!

Firmware update - v1.0

Taiga — Pittsburgh Modular Synthesizers

(near bottom of page where the Docs links are)

[TelePet]

I’m super curious about the Taiga Keyboard. I had been considering a Moog Grandmother, and am now on the fence. Looking forward to hearing your experiences.

Does anyone know the physical dimensions of the Taiga keyboard unit?

Details of recent 1.1 version update below:

Firmware Version 1.1 Changelog:

• USB MIDI Added

• Corrected USB device name to “Taiga_Keyboard”

• Added some slight slew limiting to Aftertouch control to make it more expressively usable/eliminate some signal noise.

• Rescaled keybed velocity to make use of the full output range.

• Fixed the pitch bend wheel so that it only sends Midi data when outside the center pitch, and also it always returns to zero.

• Pitchbend in Paraphonic Mode Fixed

• Fixed MIDI clock subdivision; was previously not subdividing the MIDI clock.

• Added random wave mode to the oscillators

• Added random filter mode to the filter section

• Edit button now adds an arp note when running the arpeggiator in hold mode.

• Clock properly handles MIDI clock microstepping so that the ARP will deterministically trigger on midi pulse 0 (out of 6) after receiving a MIDI clock start command.

• MIDI mod-wheel CC command is scaled to the value of the mod controller output rather than just outputting the position of the mod wheel, giving access to the mod controller functionality to outboard midi gear when using taiga keys as a midi controller.

• Rewrote the mod wheel functionality to make full use of all 13 scalings for each mod mode, and added more behaviors to the mod modes that are selected with the octave buttons:

• 0-5v Mode

• Added 4 Sub-Modes

• 0-5-0v center low, edges high

• 5-0-5v center high, edges low

• 5-0v Inverted

• 0-5v

• LFO Mode

• Increased the range of the LFO, and fixed the phase relationship, also made the LFO update after changing rate rather than after finishing a full cycle to make it more responsive at low frequencies. Also, added 4 Sub-Modes

• Sine Wave

• Triangle Wave

• Saw Wave

• Square Wave with PWM control rather than gain control

• Envelope Mode

• Fixed envelope length so that the mod mode value changes the length of the envelope, rescaled the envelope lengths for all 13 values. Also, added 4 Sub-Modes

• Percussive Envelope

• Swell-y Triangle Envelope

• Reversed Percussion Envelope

• Sustain-y Envelope

• Random Mode

• Increased the number of different randomness timings, and increased the range of these timings, and made them be more useful values that scale the randomness in a more naturally musical way. Also, added 4 Sub-Modes

• Soft Random Expression Generator

• Triangular Random Expression Generator

• Sawed Random Expression Generator

• Sample and Hold Generator