IN: O-Town is an American boy band formed from the first season of the MTV-produced reality television series Making the Band in 2000. As of 2015 the group consists of Erik-Michael Estrada, Trevor Penick, Jacob Underwood, and Dan Miller. The most popular line up also included Ashley Parker Angel, who refused to participate in the 2013 reunion. Ikaika Kahoano was originally part of the band but replaced by Miller after dropping out of the group.

The members of O-Town moved on to solo careers. The most successful member of the group has been Ashley Parker Angel, who was signed to Universal's Blackground Records, and also given his own reality show on MTV, There and Back. Released in 2006, Ashley's solo debut album was heavily promoted, but did not achieve solid sales numbers. In January 2007, he began playing the role of Link Larkin in the Broadway production of Hairspray. Ex-bandmate, Trevor Penick, now professionally known as "Tre Scott", was signed to Mach 1 Music, and worked with established industry producer Eddie Galan. The other band members retained a fanbase and had success in their own right, as evidenced by their Myspace profiles. Erik stayed in the music business and went on to collaborate and co-write songs for other artists. Jacob Underwood went on to start his own country band "Jacobs Loc".  Back in January 2011, rumors were swirling that a reunion was in the works for the band. TMZ reported that Erik, Trevor, Dan & Jacob have returned to the studio to record the follow-up to O2, however, it was confirmed that Ashley Parker Angel declined the offer from the guys. He told TMZ in a following article his explanation. "O-Town was one of the greatest chapters of my life, so when the idea of a reunion was brought to me, of course I was intrigued. However I have made the decision not to be a part of an O-Town reunion. It was a difficult decision, but ultimately necessary to move on with the next chapter of my career."  He has, however, given the guys his blessing for them to reunite without him. When interviewed about his rejection, Erik said that the guys eventually come to terms with it, but admitted "I would just think he would want to come on board and be a part of it ... but he doesn't and that's cool."  The remaining guys continued to pursue the reunion over the next few years, keeping details very private.

Did any of the other members go solo?

OUT: TMZ reported that Erik, Trevor, Dan & Jacob have returned to the studio to record the follow-up to O2,


IN: A synthesizer (often abbreviated as synth, also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates electric signals that are converted to sound through instrument amplifiers and loudspeakers or headphones. Synthesizers may either imitate traditional musical instruments like piano, Hammond organ, flute, vocals; natural sounds like ocean waves, etc.; or generate novel electronic timbres. They are often played with a musical keyboard, but they can be controlled via a variety of other input devices, including music sequencers, instrument controllers, fingerboards, guitar synthesizers, wind controllers, and electronic drums. Synthesizers without built-in controllers are often called sound modules, and are controlled via USB, MIDI or CV/gate using a controller device, often a MIDI keyboard or other controller.

A ribbon controller or other violin-like user interface may be used to control synthesizer parameters. The idea dates to Leon Theremin's 1922 first concept and his 1932 Fingerboard Theremin and Keyboard Theremin,  Maurice Martenot's 1928 Ondes Martenot (sliding a metal ring),  Friedrich Trautwein's 1929 Trautonium (finger pressure), and was also later utilized by Robert Moog. The ribbon controller has no moving parts. Instead, a finger pressed down and moved along it creates an electrical contact at some point along a pair of thin, flexible longitudinal strips whose electric potential varies from one end to the other. Older fingerboards used a long wire pressed to a resistive plate. A ribbon controller is similar to a touchpad, but a ribbon controller only registers linear motion. Although it may be used to operate any parameter that is affected by control voltages, a ribbon controller is most commonly associated with pitch bending.  Fingerboard-controlled instruments include the Trautonium (1929), Hellertion (1929) and Heliophon (1936), Electro-Theremin (Tannerin, late 1950s), Persephone (2004), and the Swarmatron (2004). A ribbon controller is used as an additional controller in the Yamaha CS-80 and CS-60, the Korg Prophecy and Korg Trinity series, the Kurzweil synthesizers, Moog synthesizers, and others.  Rock musician Keith Emerson used it with the Moog modular synthesizer from 1970 onward. In the late 1980s, keyboards in the synth lab at Berklee College of Music were equipped with membrane thin ribbon style controllers that output MIDI. They functioned as MIDI managers, with their programming language printed on their surface, and as expression/performance tools. Designed by Jeff Tripp of Perfect Fretworks Co., they were known as Tripp Strips. Such ribbon controllers can serve as a main MIDI controller instead of a keyboard, as with the Continuum instrument.

How influential was the fingerboard controller in music?

OUT: