Neigh tweakers! This is Zac Baird, keyboard player for the band KoRn and welcome to my blog. We’re currently out on another world tour and I’m very excited about the Remote SL series MIDI controllers that we will be adding to the KoRn keyboard rigs. I had been curios about these controllers for some time and decided to go down to my local music shop and get one just before the end of last year. It was time for a holiday vacation, but I wanted to take something small along so I could write if the mood struck. None of my usual controllers were available and I thought this would be the perfect excuse to try out the Remote SL25.

Right out of the box, first thing that really got my attention was the feel of the keyboard. I’ve tried a lot of different controllers on the market but the SL has to be the best combination of synth feel and piano reality. It’s very easy for me to play hip-hop leads or get the real touch for soft synth pianos. The keys are just super-smooth and very expressive.

Another curious thing was this “Automap Universal” feature??? Of course I noticed in the literature that there were templates for working with Ableton Live, Reason, ProTools and many of the soft synths that exist in both my studio and performance rigs. I’m still getting my head around it but, with a little bit of trial and error, I’ve been able to access the built-in template for Ableton Live and was excited to find I could control aspects of the software for example: faders, panning, transport control, even clips. It’s also possible to get real time control over my favorite choice soft synths like Battery, Kontakt, B4II, Imposcar, Oddity, and Minimonsta while still inside my recording/sequencing software. Over the next few weeks I hope to get more into this feature and set up some of my own templates. As I figure it out I’ll be sure to discuss with you how I did it. After all, the point here is to share what we learn and make it simple for everyone to program. But I can already tell you these SL’s are definitely deep with possibilities!Talk soon,
HoRse!