February 6th 2003 – Evolution Electronics, the UK based manufacturer of USB computer music products, announce the immediate launch of eKeys, a brand new USB music keyboard and software package that gives everyone, from total beginners to wannabe producers, the exciting opportunity to start playing and making music on their PC or Mac.

With an SRP of just £39.99 including VAT, eKeys, the world’s smallest USB keyboard, provides a fantastic range of creative and entertaining musical environments, covering traditional keyboard playing through to remixing and producing.

For PC and Mac users who have always wanted to create music but have never known where to begin, the MusicPlanet software is a great start. It contains hundreds of professionally recorded samples which can be played and mixed together to create an array of musical compositions, from a chart-topping pop hit to a classical piano masterpiece to a pre-school nursery rhyme.

PC users can also learn to play the keyboard with the super friendly Music Teacher software which comes complete with a range of lessons and games to make learning the keyboard fun and easy.

Then there’s the powerful music production software Sound Studio II VST, which turns any home PC into a professional recording studio with integrated digital audio recording and playback facilities plus VST plug-in support. Users can record and arrange MIDI tracks then record digital audio patterns, such as vocal riffs, drum loops, and ambient background sounds over the top.

‘The eKeys package is all about making music creation easy, fun and accessible to everyone,” said Richard Watts, Evolution’s CEO. “eKeys couldn’t be any easier and quicker to use straight out of the box. Simply plug it in and you’ll be remixing a dance track, creating a pop song or having fun with wonderful sounds, all in a matter of seconds.”

The eKeys keyboard connects to a PC or Mac using its USB cable. This also provides power which eliminates the need for a power adapter. In common with all Evolution products, the eKeys keyboard is Class compliant, so no drivers are required when using Windows XP or Mac OS X. Drivers for earlier operating systems are of course included.