I saw your posts to thevibe.net about this too, Bart - unfortunately, I don't personally know anyone who has the Xylosynth in their arsenal, and I've never had the opportunity to play one myself.  So, outside of doing the obvious, which is posting the URLs for the Xylosynth pages at the Wernick Musical Instruments Site (which you've probably already visited):

http://www.wernick.net/
http://www.wernick.net/xylo/xylosyn.html

...I can't add anything substantive to the debate.  It does look like an intriguing design.

I can tell you a little about my experience with the malletKAT...well, I can best compare it to this:  I like it, I enjoy playing it, but it's like a meal which doesn't quite leave you satisfied at the end.  It's really not fair of me to state that, given that I haven't tried other mallet synths such as the Xylosynth or the Marimba Lumina, and I'm not comparing it to an acoustic vibraphone or marimba (those sorts of comparisons are fatally flawed from the start, IMHO), but I just get the sense when playing it that the "mallet synth concept" hasn't really been nailed just yet.

The Xylosynth looks more and more intriguing each time I visit the site...I know that does NOTHING to answer your question, but I thought I'd mention it...

Also, I see on the Wernick site (go here - http://www.wernick.net/ - and click on the "endorsers" link on the left-hand menu) that David Friedman and Anthony Kerr both endorse the instrument.  That page offers links to their respective sites - perhaps they'd be worth contacting?

Granted, it's ten months off, but I'm hoping that when I attend PASIC in Columbus this year, I'll be able to check out some of the alterantives to the malletKAT first hand.  (...'cause the odds of getting Don Buchla and Wernick Instruments each to send me a ML and Xylosynth respectively to review are slim and none...")  :-/

upon reading this post this morning, i checked out the site about the xylosynth.  This thing sounds incredible.  If i was an avid mallet player, I would be all over this thing.  I also checked out their other pads, notepads i think is what they called them, those seem pretty darned cool as well.  I'm thinking potential purchase!

Bart., et al -

I just got an e-mail from Will Wernick at Wernick Musical Instruments.  They're coming out with an updated version of the Xylosynth, the "Mark 5" - a more streamlined, lighter design compared to the version currently pictured on their web site.  As I understand it, they're working on a newer software version, which will allow for layering of sounds on the keyboard (allowing the same bar to send information on two MIDI channels).

Will tells me that the three-octave version is going to sell for approximately $2500, and the four-octave version for approximately $3000, including sustain pedal, shipping and import duties from the UK to the US, but not including local taxes.

All I can say is, I'm holding off on ordering that fourth octave for my malletKAT - I'm very intrigued by this new instrument, and I'm saving my pennies.

(BTW, I'm not affiliated with Wernick Musical Instruments, have no endorsements, etc., etc., etc.)

What applications do you have in mind that would call for all five octaves?  Four would be plenty for me (sure, five would be nice, but even if Wernick offered one with that range, that'd be a big boy to truck around to gigs).  If you're using a sampler, you can use a number of different marimba samples across the range of the instrument, but a synth sample/patch spread over five octaves might start to sound a little squirrelly at one extreme or the other.  (I know you know about this already, Bart - I'm just mentioning it here for the sake of the discussion.)

This isn't a rhetorical question, and I'm absolutely not saying you shouldn't want five octaves - I'm just curious as to how you might use either a KAT or Xylosynth.  (Believe me, I'm all for extended range instruments - I'm looking forward to obtaining a 3.5 octave vibraphone in the next couple of months, and I'm trying to figure out how to come up with the $$$ for a 4.6 or 5-octave marimba before I retire...)

The only reason I would want 5 octaves would be for some of the marimba literature out there that requires 5 octaves. Seems silly to get an additional octave just for that ... but my philosophy has always been that if I'm going to do it ... I go all the way!  

I'm a long way from being able to get anything ... even a 3 octave malletKAT ... so I'm just in the thinking process ... and budgeting process.

Do you have any more thoughts on the 5 octaves; Pros or Cons?

Yep, I can relate...I've become an excellent "online window shopper" in the past five years!   LOL

If/when I get the Xylosynth, ya want dibs on my malletKAT?  


It all comes down to my applications, I guess:  I'm looking for an instrument I can take out on jazz/folk/rock gigs, so I'd have to balance out the benefits of those extra twelve notes against the transport and stage-space issues involved in a larger instrument - and since I wouldn't be using the KAT to practice or perform marimba literature, I think that four would be plenty.  (There's always that "one more note" factor - no matter what the range mallet instrument I'm playing, I always seem to wish it had that "one note more" in the range.  I've got a 4.3 marimba, and in the classical duo with my wife, we perform some transcriptions of old hymns - and they all seem to be in Ab or Db, and that low Ab would be SOOOOOOOO nice to have!)

For about five years in the late 80s, marimba manufacturers seemed to be playing "Catch-22" with us with regard to ranges - first 4.3 instruments were the standard...then "low F" marimbas start cropping up...then everyone says, "Low F is OK, but I want the low E for guitar transcriptions"...then everyone says, "let's go with five."  Fortunately, it seems to have settled down with everyone agreeing on the five octave range as the new standard.  Altho...I remember my teacher's old DeMorrow 5.3 octave instrument - a 4.5 marimba with a detatchable bass section that went down to low LOW A... "Mmmmmmmm...low A....."  

If I contact Wernick again, I'll have to ask Will if they've ever considered producing a five-octave instrument.

Oh my, I'd forgotten all about this thread, until I took a moment to see which threads Bart has moved to the "percussion" board.

I just bought a Xylosynth.  It arrived this past Wednesday, and I've been digging it nonstop.  I took it out on its inaugural gig last night (Thursday), and I'm sold - to the point that I've reached an agreement with Wernick Instruments to be an endorser (endorsee?  I can never keep that straight) of the instrument.  (BTW, I'm not getting any money or any free stuff from Wernick as an endorser, lest anyone here think I'm posting the comments below with any ulterior motives.)

I plan to put together a more complete review (and post it here at the Cafe) once I've had a week or two to live with the instrument, but in the meantime, I'll share a review I posted to another Internet board a few days ago.  (Hey, if you can't quote yourself, who can you quote?)

Also, I've got pictures of the XS on my web site, at http://www.malletjazz.com/xylosynth.html.

JW

The Xylosynth comes standard in three- and four-octave ranges (C-C or F-F).  The MalletKat is offered as a three-octave base unit (C-C), and the company (Alternate Mode) offers octave expander units which can be attached to the base.  Up to two octaves can be added, making the maximum size of a MalletKat five octaves.

(I know, I know - you want smaller, not larger.  Just thought I'd mention these specs up front.)

In terms of a smaller instrument, you could always contact Wernick instruments directly - which means e-mailing the owner of the company, Will Wernick.  E-mail me or IM me if you'd like his e-mail address.  I don't know if Will would build a smaller-ranged instrument as a special order item, but it certainly would be worth asking about.

There's also another MIDI mallet controller, the Marimba Lumina:  

http://www.buchla.com/mlumina/

I've never played one myself, but from what I hear, the MIDI capabilities of the instrument are just off the map.  It requires its own special mallets, however; one can't use "regular" vibraphone or marimba mallets they way one can with the XS or MK.  The standard sizes listed on their web site are 3.5 octaves and 2.5 octaves.  The dimensions and other specs of the instruments are available at the web site listed above.

Something else to consider:  before changing their designs in the mid-90s, Alternate Mode's MalletKat used to come as a one-octave base unit, expandable with single-octave expanders up to five octaves.  Occasionally, you'll see one of these up for sale on eBay or the like.  Keep in mind, however, that these instruments would have some mileage on them (MalletKat hasn't offered the single-octave unit in years), and the FSR sensor pad - the part of the instrument that translates your mallet strikes into MIDI information - wears out after a while.  I do not know if Alternate Mode would offer FSR replacement for one of these older instruments.  You could always ask them via their web site, http://www.alternatemode.com, or via their message board, www.katpercussion.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl.  Still, if you only want something two octaves in size, this may be something worth looking into.

There's one other option I can think of at the moment.  K&K (http://www.kksound.com/) makes vibraphone and marimba pickups, with an optional MIDI system.  The standard vibe/MIDI setup is three octaves (and runs a little over $2000, IIRC).  I know they are willing to do a customized MIDI marimba setup, so it may be possible, if you obtain an old vibraphone (or marimba, or xylophone) to have them custom-build a smaller instrument for you; or, since you're just looking for a limited range, you might be able to make your own "mallet instrument keyboard," or adapt some old marching xylophone or the like (they show up on eBay from time to time - as do lots of old "beater" marimbas and vibes), and see if K&K could create a MIDI pickup system specific to your needs.  I have no idea if they actually offer this service, I don't know what it would cost, and I have no connection to the company - this is all speculation on my part, take it FWIW.

Let me know if you stumble onto something.

All I know is, whenever I take apart the little preamp/"minimixer" that comes with my K&K vibe pickups, I'm stunned at how elementary it looks.  Now, looks may be deceiving, and the fact that my pickups system has functioned for seven or eight years without a major glitch is testament to the quality of work done by K&K Sound, but whenever I think about it, it looks to me like someone with a modicum of electrical skills should be able to put together something functional - not as flexible as the stuff put out by Alternate Mode or Wernick, but enough to do what you're describing.

Hell, the Simmons Silicon Mallet was (IIRC) little more than a piece of plywood with some triggers attached, no?

if i were to just build a trigger set its just a matter of wiring piezo transducers to 1/4" jacks (total of about $2.50 each at radio shack) which aint to tricky.  the hard part would be the wood work

ive used a k&k pickup on double bass before (not my own unfortunately) and it was very nice indeed.