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Open Labs MiKo Makes TV Debut With Prince
US
First computer keyboard played onstage in Saturday Night Live’s history 17/02/06
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You may have read our report on the launch of Open Labs MiKo at the recent NAMM show and now the portable digital media workcenter has made an appearanceon NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ (‘SNL’) with Prince on February 4th.
Prince’s first visit to ‘SNL’ since 1989 featured keyboardist Morris Hayes playing the MiKo, along with the Open Labs NeKo keyboard workstation on two numbers, ‘Fury’ and ‘Beautiful,’ with singer Tamar. The MiKo and NeKo were spotlighted on both numbers, and was the cause of pre-show buzz amongst the technical crew.
“We have crossed a major threshold in the keyboard community, when an artist of Prince’s stature allows a computer-based workstation to appear on national television,� said Hayes, a renowned groove-funk keyboardist who has played with Prince’s New Power Generation, or NPG, band. “I’ve been a major advocate of Open Labs equipment from day one, and the MiKo is yet another advancement in digital music. It is lightweight enough that I can take it as carry-on on a plane, a testimonial to how well-designed this unit is for the traveling musician.�
Open Labs MiKo is the first portable digital music, video, and animation system that provides the power of a fully-loaded Windows XP based computer, a world-class synthesizer, a video mixer/recorder, and a broadband Internet hub in an affordable unit that retails for $1,999.
Victor Wong, CEO of Open Labs had this to say, “We are grateful that Morris Hayes has been such a staunch supporter of Open Labs, and we expect that the debut of the MiKo, with Prince, will convince many other musicians of the power and stability of Open Labs products. There is no more technically exacting artist working today than Prince, and the ‘SNL’ performance essentially made computer music history in a rocking way.� Miko
The MiKo extends the power of Open Labs’ award-winning NeKo, the music industry’s most powerful production stations, to a broader audience of users, which include DJs, VJs, music video hobbyists, and amateur musicians. At the heart of the Open Labs MiKo is the AMD Athlon™64-bit single and dual core processor, which drives a powerful built-in, design-specific, full-featured, Windows XP™- based computer system. MiKo users can literally record, edit, mix, master, burn, and distribute their creations, whether high-definition video or 7.1 surround sound audio, on DVD or audio CD or send straight to the Internet, either through Ethernet or Wi-Fi.
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