Roland's $199 Aira Compact series are a serious play for the entry level

It might seem hard to believe, but until now Korg's seemingly ubiquitous Volca line has not had a true competitor. The Boutique range is portable and battery powered, but they are also twice the price of a Volca. Without the keyboard accessory. The company seems to be taking the entry level seriously with the Aira Compact series.

The VT-4 Voice Transformer and the TR-8 Rhythm Performer are two of the big siblings in the Aira line. The T-8 is a drum machine that uses the ACB to recreate sounds from the 808 and 909, and the J6 Chord Synth does the same, but for the Juno 6. There is nothing wrong with having more portable budget instruments, but the E-4 Voice Tweaker is something that stands out. It brings pitch correction, a harmonizer, vocoding, plus pitch and formant shifting and a looper to the world of mobile music hardware.

Let's take a look at what all three have in common. For one, they're all quite small. The cumulative effect is obvious, even though they are only slightly smaller than a Volca. There are two jacks on the back, one for charging the internal battery and the other for handling audio and MIDI. Across the top are sync in and out jacks, as well as mix in and out jacks, which allow you to daisy-chain multiple devices together.

The ability to connect all three Aira Compacts without an external mixer is huge. The less gear and cables you use, the better.

T-8

The T-8 is the easiest of the three to use. It has more advanced features, but anyone who has ever used a step scholl before should be able to start making beats. It doesn't feel like it would strain the hardware terribly if you went for a full four bars instead of 32 steps.

Thankfully, there are some things you can do to change things. There is a fill mode and a step looping for creating custom fills. There are also per-step and master probability options for a touch of unpredictability. It is more capable than you would find on a Volca Beats. The Aira Compacts lack automation in the form of Motion Sequencing.

The sounds are not particularly flexible without a lot of menu diving. You can change the tuning of the kick and snare from the front panel. If you prefer a kick and snare, it's tough. You get a mix of sounds from the TR-808, 609, and 606.

If you feel like slogging through the T-8's somewhat arcane menu, you can add overdrive, switch the bass synthesizer from saw wave to square wave, or swap out the clap for a second tom. The eight-segmentLED screen is hard to decipher without a manual.

Probability, velocity and effects are easy to manage. A lot of parameters require using the shift function, but it isn't the end of the world.

The bass synthesizer is a nice addition. It can handle acid basslines with relative ease. Again, there isn't a lot ofVersatility there. Don't expect much more from it. I would like to see you use the synthesizer's filter as a send effect. It would be great to route the entire drum pattern through it.

J-6

The J6 is a bit more complex. It's a four-voice synthesizer. The rubber keys aren't great for playing in real time. Instead, you are supposed to use it in a mode where each key plays a song. You can switch between 100 different sets on the actual device, each of which has a dozen or so words in it. There are 12 variations for playing arpeggios and rhythmic chord stabs in addition to the nine different styles.

I would be lying if I said I had no idea what was going on. What are the numbers in the sets? Is there any logic to which variations are lumped together?

Anyone who wants to design their own sounds will be disappointed by the J 6. If there is a way to design a patch from the ground up, I haven't found it yet. The only controls you have over the engine are the filters. The resonance and attack of the filter can be controlled by those knobs.

That's fine. Even if some of the sounds are a little similar, they are all solid. I would rather be given a small excellent palette to work with than be forced to spend three hours menu diving.

E-4

The E-4 is last. It is a blast. Full stop. It isn't that it doesn't have flaws, but they don't matter much. I would like to know if I should have gone with an XLR input or not. I do. Would phantom power have made a difference? Yes. I have trouble putting it down when I fire it up. The combination of auto pitch correction and synthetic harmony turns anyone into Bon Iver. If you want to get your funky on, there's a solid sounding vocoder with more than I can count.

You can enable all the effects at the same time, so you can pitch your vocals, create a choir of robot voices, and then feed your newly born voice through the vocoder. Then add a chorus, delay, or reverb to make it even deeper, and then turn the Scatter knob to glitch yourself out in real time. If you use auto correct, the vocoder will follow the pitch, or you can use a keyboard to control it.

You can record your own backup vocals if you don't like the preset harmonies, and there is also a 24 second looper with the ability to overdub. Before recording, pitch, harmony and vocoder are applied. After the fact, you can still use the reverb and Scatter to mangle your loop. The E-4 has a Scatter. It does work better on vocals than it does drums.

Wrapup

The world of tiny, dirt-cheap music gear is about to get a lot more powerful. Borrowing features and tech from its more expensive instruments that start at $400 brings it down to almost impulse purchase levels. There is a good chance that I will buy the E-4 vocal tweakinger soon. The sub-$300 range is important for synthesizer makers and should not be dismissed as the company merely playing catch up.