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OMEGANAUT
Omeganaut is I SATELLITE's vintage recording studio consisting of primarily vintage analog
synths and drum machines from the 70's and early 80's. Eventually I'll be creating pages for every item with
photos, sound samples, and additional information. Click on an item for more information.
Synths
ARP Odyssey (white-face w/ CV/GATE/FILTER mods)
Crumar Performer
Logan String Melody II
Moog Minimoog
Moog Multimoog
Oberheim OB-X (Rev. 3 w/ Encore MIDI)
Oberheim OB-Xk Controller
Octave-Plateau Voyetra-8 w/ VPK-5 Controller
Roland D-550 w/PG-1000
Roland JD-800
Roland Juno-60
Roland Jupiter-4 (w/ CV/GATE inputs)
Roland Jupiter-8 (12-bit model w/ Encore MIDI)
Roland SH-1
Roland SH-2
Roland SH-3
Roland SH-5
Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 (Rev. 2.0 w/ cass. int. & Kenton MIDI)
Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 (Rev. 3.3 w/ Factory MIDI)
Sequential Sixtrak (modularized by Sequential Circuits)
Studio Electronics MidiMini
Univox MiniKorg (w/ Kenton HZ/VOLT mod)
Yamaha CP-30
Yamaha CS-15
Yamaha CS-50
Yamaha YDP-323 Piano
Sequencers
Akai MPC60 MIDI Production Center
Akai MPC3000 MIDI Production Center
Roland MC-4b MicroComposer w/ MTR-100 Digital Cassette Recorder
Genoqs Octopus MIDI sequencer
Drum Machines
Korg KR-55 (Univox Rhythm 55)
Korg KR-55b (Univox Rhythm 55b) (x2)
LinnDrum (w/ Forat MIDI & master/snare/sidestick tuning mods)
Oberheim DX w/ MIDI (DXa)
Pearl SC40 Syncussion Percussion Synthesizer Module w/ MIDI
Pearl SY1 Syncussion Drum Module w/ pads
Roland CR-78 CompuRhythm (w/ Kenton KADI mod)
Roland TR-606 Drumatix (w/ Kenton KADI mod)
Roland TR-707 Rhythm Composer
Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer (w/ Kenton KADI mod)
Sound Master SR-88 Memory Rhythm
Tama Techstar TS305 Electronic Voice Module
Tama Techstar TS306 Electronic Voice Module
Effects
Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble
Boss OD-1 Overdrive (OD-1d w/ Texas Instruments TL4558P)
Boss VB-2 Vibrato
Ibanez AD202 Multi Mode Analog Delay
Ibanez UE405 Multi-Effects
Janglebox Compressor
Lexicon 224 Digital Reverberator w/ remote
Lexicon 224X Digital Reverberator w/ remote
Lexicon PCM-41 Digital Delay Processor (x2)
Lexicon PCM-60 Reverb
Mu-Tron Bi-Phase Stereo Phase Shifter (w/ CV input mod)
Roland GE-820 Graphic Equalizer
Roland SBF-325 Stereo Flanger (x3)
Roland SIP-301 Bass Pre-Amp
Roland SPH-323 Dual LFO Phase Shifter
Roland SRE-555 Rackmount Chorus Echo
Roland SVC-350 Vocoder
Guitars/Amps
Gibson RD Artist (w/ Victory neck & chrome hardware) - 1981
Rickenbacker 360v64/12 12-String Jetglo - 1989
Rickenbacker 4001 Fireglo Bass - 1980
Takamine EF-391-ME 6-string acoustic/electric - 1984
Takamine EF-381-SC 12-string acoustic/electric - 2005
Vox AC15 Twin Black - 1961
Miscellaneous
Alesis HD24 24-Track Hard Disk Recorder (with 24-bit/96k upgrade)
Alesis MasterLink ML-9600 Master Disk Recorder
Allen & Heath GS3000 8 Buss Recording Console
Allen & Heath MixWizard WZ3 16:2 Rackmount Console
Garfield Electronics Doctor Click
Garfield Electronics Doctor Click 2
Garfield Electronics Mini Doc (x2)
Genelec 1030a Nearfield Monitors
HHB CDR-800 Professional CD Recorder
Innerclock Systems Sync-Shift
Kenton Pro-4 MIDI>CV Converter (x3)
Moog 1120 CV Pedal
Roland MPU-101 (x2)
Roland OP-8 CV>DCB Convertor
Roland OP-8m CV>MIDI/DCB Convertor (x2)
Shure SM57 Microphone
Ultimate Support Stands
Equipment From the Past
I've owned and used a lot of equipment since the mid-90's.
For one reason or another I sold or traded towards something else that I needed or wanted at the
time. It may have been that a particular piece didn't sound that great, or didn't have enough features,
or was too big, or another synth did what it could do, only better (or at a cheaper price). For whatever reason, I let
them go on to better homes, and in only a few cases have I regretted letting them go:
Akai MPC1000 - In July 2005 I took on another job that resulted in me having to travel out of State
during the weekdays. So I bought this to see if I could use it on the road to come up with songs in my
spare time using sampled synths and drums. But the MPC1000 just didn't cut it. The interface was
unintuitive compared to the MPC60 and MPC3000, and it just didn't work well for the style of music I make.
Akai weren't thinking when they neglected to include x10 changes to the scroll wheel for
sample trimming. I was spending way too much time spinning that little wheel just to trim a simple sample! So I took it back and bought
a Yamaha RS7000 instead (see below).
ARP 2600 (grey-face) - A nice sounding and great looking semi-modular synth, but I found it to
be poorly constructed and a strange bulky shape that really didn't fit into my studio setup without taking up too much space
(more like a suitcase than a synth). I've owned
two of them and sold them both. Most people
don't bother to use the keyboards that came with them, but just hook it up to CV/GATE and trigger it that way. Maybe
that's the main issue...when triggered from CV/GATE, I usually stuck to basic sounds, and it was difficult to program from
my master keyboard on the other side of the room, so I didn't use it as much as I thought I would. Almost every famous artist
who used this synth
primarily used it for percussive sounds, which it does very well. For the money, an Odyssey through a spring reverb will
get you very close in a much more compact package with a built-in keyboard. I think the most fun I had
with the 2600 was triggering it from two ARP Sequencers (in serial or parallel).
But even then, I found the white-faced ARP Odyssey could make a lot of the same basic sounds and for the money 2600's are
going for these days ($2500+), the Odyssey was a much better bargain and much more compact.
Over time I found the best use for this synth was for filtering other sounds. Eventually
I'd like to find one of the earlier grey Tonus models, as I hear they sound better, but for now...my white Odyssey will have to do.
ARP Sequencer - Probably the best feature-laden hands-on analog sequencer I've ever had the pleasure of using, if it wasn't
for the sliders and jacks that were so poorly constructed. They are brittle and small and
tend to fill with dust over time, and before you know it one or two sliders aren't working 100%. I've owned three of these sequencers
over the years but don't regret selling any of them. They worked best with ARP equipment and I'm not a fan of ARP's quality and construction.
I wish someone would make a modern analog sequencer with the gating feature of the ARP, rackmountable, inputs/outputs on each channel, and without
any syncing issues. I'd probably buy one in a heartbeat.
Korg Mono/Poly - I keep buying Mono/Poly's and thinking that I'm going to use them,
only to sell them again. I've owned
four or five of them over the years. I think the best thing going for it is the filter and the arpeggiator running
through 4 separate VCO's. But that gets old pretty fast, and once you realize how difficult the synth is to control from CV/GATE, it ends up
getting used very little. The Mono/Poly has an identity problem. It's really bad at being a polysynth, and it's not a
very good monosynth. It fails to be good at any one thing because it lacks focus. The build-quality is extremely cheap,
with really ugly fake-vinyl clad particle board construction that tends to disintegrate over time. I prefer the MiniKorg's simplicity and sound.
Korg MS-20 - Often called the poor man's 2600, the MS-20 is a semi-modular synth that looks a lot
cooler than it actually is. The patching
is extremely limited, and the HZ/VOLT triggering makes it difficult to control in a MIDI setup. Once again, the best thing going
for it is the filter, which has been cloned and released in a small pedal format called the Frostwave Resonator. I don't think the
Resonator sounds as gritty as the MS-20, but it's close, and you have CV control over everything. I've owned three MS-20's over the years
and sold them all. It looked cool, but was basically a modular MiniKorg
and not worth the high price-tag for the limited modular features. Even so, it's probably one of the synths I wish I had kept.
Korg MS-50 - I bought my MS-50 from Rogue Music and it never worked, so back it went. Wish I could have tried it out.
Linn LM-1 Drum Computer - Probably the nicest-sounding and looking digital drum machine ever.
Nothing can prepare
you for the size of the LM-1 when you first see one in real life! It's literally 2 feet square and built like a tank.
The first LM-1 I owned I bought from a studio in Boston.
It was #121 and was owned by Ric Ocasek who referred to it as Miss Linn on his Beatitude album.
It was an extremely rare Rev. 2 model with engraved buttons,
sync input, and shuffle LED's. But I had problems syncing it
up to other equipment as a slave; in chain mode the machine would experience micro-delays
between patterns which eventually lengthened until the LM-1 was no longer in sync with the master signal.
I sold it but regretted it later. I didn't realize how rare the machine was. There were only 500 LM-1's made,
and likely less than 25 Rev. 2 machines
with engraved buttons in the world (over the past 12 years I've only seen two for sale). If I
could have resolved the syncing issue at the time, I would never have sold it.
A friend of mine eventually found out how to resolve the syncing
issues using a Roland SBX-10 sync box. I eventually bought a later model LM-1 in better condition but
without the engraved buttons (#443).
One usability flaw on the LM-1 is the location of the tuning pots. They're in the back of the machine,
underneath the individual output jacks. In order to tune the sounds you have to reach around behind the machine under all of the individual output cables,
and most of the time you end up turning the wrong tuning pot.
To fix this, I replaced the panning toggles on the front of the machine with smaller tuning pots and added 13 small
metal knobs similar to the stock LM-1 knobs. I installed the hihat decay adjustment above the click volume slider. It took me about 8 hours to desolder all of the toggles and pots and install the new pots on the front. I also installed
some alternate sounds from Forat Electronics with toggles to switch between the various sounds in
real time. I sold it in mid-2006 thinking I would just install some LM-1 chips in my LinnDrum which would give me the same sounds
under MIDI control. A photo of this customized LM-1 eventually appeared in Remix Magazine in late 2006. But the LM-1 chips in the LinnDrum just
didn't sound the same and I couldn't tune all of the individual sounds in the Linndrum. So my search for another LM-1 with engraved buttons began.
Eventually I bought another Rev. 2 LM-1 (#93) with engraved
buttons, sync input, and shuffle LED's. It was owned by Phil Collins and used on the Genesis Abacab and self-titled albums.
Once again I brought all of the tuning pots to the front in place of the panning toggles and had custom walnut end panels made
for it with easy access to toggle switches for dual-sound chips at the lower right. I added the following chips, custom made for me by Forat Electronics: 1) Rev. 1 LM-1 claptrap type sound as used on John Carpenter's Escape from New York soundtrack or later LM-1 clap; 2) Rev. 1 LM-1
clave sound or LM-1 rimshot; 3) 4 toms or 2 toms/2 congas 4) 4 congas or 2 congas/2 toms 5) LM-1 or Linndrum snare 6) LM-1 or Linndrum kick;
7) LM-1 cowbell or LM-1
rimshot. Bruce at Forat Electronics also made me a sync switch which I added to the front of the machine that allowed the sync jack in the back
to be bypassed when a cable was plugged in.
That way the input sync signal could be turned off while programming the machine using its own tempo knob and start/stop button. This was one of
the most useful mods and I'm really glad I had it added. Unfortunately I sold this machine as well when a Genesis fan contacted me and offered
me a price I couldn't refuse.
I recently bought another LM-1 on eBay from Tom Moravansky (serial #37X). Tom was the guy who performed the original LM-1 tuning pot mod.
It is a later Rev. with black buttons and the same mods I mentioned above. It's a bit beat up, so I'll probably make new wood panels
for it and get some better looking knobs for the front tuning pots.
I sync the LM-1 to my other gear using a Roland SBX-10 and
Innerclock Systems Sync-Shift MKI. The SBX-10 keeps the timing rock-solid in chain mode and the Sync-Shift allows me to move the
sync signal back or forward in time.
MemoryMoog - This synth came out after Bob Moog left Moog Music, and was supposed to be a
polyphonic Minimoog - 6 Minimoogs in one. And that was the problem. It dominated the mix, and
sounded too huge for it's own good. I loved the interface on it though. This is the synth that was used
all over Heartbeat City by the Cars, and was responsible for all the arpeggiated/sequenced stuff on ZZ Top's Eliminator album
(not the Jupiter-6 as some have stated).
It was the kind of synth you didn't move once it was in a certain place in your studio or you'd have to
send it off to the tech to be repaired. I'll certainly miss it, I'm sure, but the fear of it breaking down for
good brings some relief.
Moog (Realistic) MG-1 - Probably the cheapest Moog you can buy. It had some unique endearing features, but space
constraints forced me to let it go. It was too limited for the amount of space it took up and the outputs were very noisy.
Moog Polymoog - Was broken when I bought it, got it fixed and it sounded very weedy, then it broke again
in shipping once I sold it. The best part about it was the resonator section. But the cheap build quality made it not worth owning. It
was an accident waiting to happen.
Moog Prodigy - I've owned two of these little synths and sold them both. It sounded like a cheap Moog
and rarely stayed in tune. Used by Depeche Mode and Howard Jones.
Moog Source - Moog Music were the first to add knobs to a synth, and the first to remove them - on
this synth. Not the best claim to fame as it signaled a move away from the more ergonomic, utilitarian control surfaces used on synths
in the 70's, towards preset patches that nobody bothered to change. I remember Guy Fletcher from Depeche Mode claiming in Keyboard Magazine that he had this synth
for a year before realizing he could modify the sounds on it. Even though the famous bass sound from New Order's Blue Monday was
made using this synth, and
Rational Youth used it on a lot of their tracks, and ZZ Top used it for bass on the Eliminator album, I still think
the Minimoog and MIDImini sound far superior. It took me years to track one down in mint condition,
and after owning it for a year or so I added an Encore MIDI kit for more patch locations and better external control. But the MIDI kit ended up wiping out all of my cool patches,
and in the end I realized that the interface just wasn't immediate enough and hindered sound creation. So I eBayed it.
MultiMoog - I've owned 3 Multimoogs over the years and sold 2 of them and am about to sell my third. The Multimoog is probably the most
expressive monosynth from the early days, a really expressive
synth that is best played by hand to get the most out of it. I have yet to figure out how to trigger the expression circuit externally.
It uses a really strange 1.2 volt/octave keyboard scaling but most high-end CV converters can be adjusted to compensate (Kenton Pro-4).
The sound is typical Moog, though the oscillators and filter are not as pure (I notice that the filter gets grainier/dirtier as you
play higher notes). I think it's best for expressive basslines and touch sensitive sound effects. I keep selling and buying these
and keep wishing the sound was as good as the Minimoog. Check out the Saga basslines on World's Apart and Heads or Tales. Classic Multimoog.
Oberheim Matrix-12 - Thought by many to be the ultimate analog synth but I beg to differ. It's a nice-sounding
synth with a lot of modulation possibilities, but poor interface. It sounds very 1985 to me with a slightly digital sound and mushy
envelopes. It's a good synth for pads, strings, and evolving textures. Pretty much everything is software-controlled which expands its sonic potential,
but limits its ease-of-use. All the parameters are hidden behind multiple pages - a "matrix" menu structure with only 6 knobs that are prone to failure and
nearly impossible to replace. The LED screens are essential to knowing where you are at any given point, but they are also prone
to burning out and are not currently replaceable. I think you get the point. The early Oberheim synths (OBX and SEM for example) have much more character, sound a lot nicer, and have a much better interface than the Matrix-12 and Xpander.
Tom Oberheim agrees.
Oberheim 4-Voice - This synth was too huge for my studio. Each voice was very limited, and it took way too much
time to program the same sound four times. Once I got the OBX, which had a very similar sound, I sold the 4-voice.
Oberheim OB-8 - I've owned three OB-8's, and have yet to find one that didn't constantly need
servicing, or didn't have issues with random missing notes or voices that were out of tune. I think the 2nd page matrix
had a lot to do with the instability of this synth. It sounded great, but what a pain! I A/B'd it next to my OB-X, and found that
in many ways the OB-X beat it for weird sounds, and definitely sounded thicker than the OB-8, so I sold the OB-8 and didn't look back.
Oberheim SEM - A great little module (with an excellent bandpass filter mode) made to compliment an
Odyssey or Minimoog, but I sold it for $1000 and didn't regret it in the least. No noise source, limited functionality. Like the 2600, I think the best application for it
was as a filter for other sounds.
Oberheim Xpander - Half a Matrix-12, with CV/GATE inputs for each voice and MIDI too. I've owned two of them, and would probably buy another
one were it not for the hard-to-find spare parts. As on the Matrix-12, the LED displays tend to burn out (and are no longer made)
and the 6 main rotary encoder knobs wear out sooner than traditional pots. You'd better have some spare parts lying around if you have one of these synths in your studio.
Octave CAT - A clone of the Odyssey, with a few additional features, and lacking a few features. It was a noisy beast (I mean it hissed even
when no sound was coming out and required a noise gate if you wanted to use it in a recording) but it did have a really nice growly filter sound. Supposedly one voice of the Voyetra-8, but
I think the V8 sounds so much better. I found the Odyssey covered most of the sonic territory of
the CAT, so I sold it and kept the Odyssey. No regrets.
PPG Wave 2.3 - Big, blue, digital synth with a little grey LCD screen. Sounded really great and gritty,
but prone to breaking down and had a poor programming interface. I sold it because it
didn't fit the kind of music I wanted to make (I really don't care for that mid-80's New Wave sound, or the later Numan sound), and the Waldorf Microwave sounded similar, although not as gritty and in-your-face.
Roland D-50 - I sold this and bought the rack version, the D-550. I still like the look of this synth, and if you
get into programming it with a PG-1000, you can come up with some really neat evolving textures with it. I think the main reason I still have the
D-550 is because it was used to great effect all over Sleeps With the Fishes by Pieter Nooten and Michael Brook and they sell for so cheap it's not worth selling it for the sounds you can get out of it.
Roland Juno-106 - Basically a more clinical, thinner-sounding version of the Juno-60 without the arpeggiator. A nice synth, but the
voices tend to go out...and the parts required to fix it are no longer available from Roland. I think the Juno-60 sounds much warmer, looks nicer,
and has better-quality sliders and pots.
Roland Jupiter-6 - I never really liked this synth that much except for one sound I was able to get out of it that sounded very close to a Polymoog,
which isn't saying much since the Polymoog was a very weedy sounding synth. I think the JP-6 is to the JP-8 what the
Juno-106 is to the Juno-60 - a scaled-down cheaper version that sounds thinner. True the JP-6 has a band-pass mode, and some additional features,
but overall it seems to have a more brittle sound than the JP-8. I put a Europa upgrade kit in mine, which added many over-the-top features
to the synth that I never used. Overall, the Jupiter-8 blows it away.
Roland Jupiter-8 - This is my all-time favorite synth for its wonderful textures, sheer power, usability, reliability,
and sonic palette. I really don't think the Jupiter-8 can be beat by any other synth out there, except a CS-80 in mint, fully-functioning
condition, which is getting to be quite a rarity. The two are often compared, and it looks as though Roland took quite a few design cues from
the CS-80 (2 layered synths, slotted heat vents, colored buttons, etc.) All things considered, the Jupiter-8 has the edge. I've owned 4 Jupiter-8's over the
years - two 14-bit, and two 12-bit. There were pros and cons to each model, but overall I preferred the 12-bit models. The 12-bit models looked much nicer, a darker black gunmetal compared
to the lighter charcoal gray plastic look of the 14-bit models. The 12-bit models also had a fuller, richer sound - possibly due to the slightly
detuned oscillators - I'm not sure. I compared identical patches between models and there was a noticeable difference. I never had any tuning issues
with any of them. My first JP-8 was a 14-bit model. It was absolutely mint and I used it on pretty much every track on the AUTO:MATIC album
- actually, I think I used it on every
track I've ever recorded! It's probably the only
synth I've owned that I never had any issues with or had in the shop for repair. I bought it from a Russian ballet dancer in Los Angeles
in 1996. He had bought it in Japan, brought it with him to the USA, and had an Encore MIDI kit installed in it, which disabled the DCB port. I'll
never forget opening the huge wooden crate and looking at a mint Jupiter-8 for the first time. But playing and hearing it was sheer bliss.
It quickly became my favorite synth. I bought a second 12-bit model from Robert Lamm of the band Chicago around 1997. It was a very early model with J.L. Cooper
DCB retrofit kit installed. Before he shipped it to me he decided to clean it up with some caustic cleaner
which melted the front panel and took all of the gloss off the keys. Needless to say, I was
disappointed with the condition and sold it within a few months.
My second 14-bit JP-8 had an integrated Ultimate Support aluminum stand and looked absolutely stunning...but I couldn't afford to keep
two Jupiters at the time so I sold it. In early 2007 I sold my first 14-bit JP-8 for twice the going rate and no sooner had I shipped it out and I
immediately regretted it. It was shipped FEDEX overnight and despite packing it for battle, FEDEX managed to dent it in transit.
Soon afterwards the market dried up and the prices started to climb. It took me several months to find another but it
was worth the wait. I ended up buying it off a fellow Alphaville fan who had it since the late 80's. It's a 12-bit model and it sounds
better than any I've owned in the past. It looks stunning in dark black with Encore
MIDI installed. What's interesting is the filter self-oscillates, which wasn't the case with my previous 3 Jupiters. This one's a keeper!
Roland MC-202 - Another of those thin-sounding Rolands from the mid-80's. Basically two sequencers, a synth, and chiclet
keyboard in a small plastic box. Cute! I bought it thinking I would use it as the core of a portable studio. But you can't save your sequences
in the 202, and if you turn it off, you lose them for good. What was Roland thinking? A nice toy, but I prefer an MC-4 triggering an
SH-101 or CMU-810. Some have claimed that the 202 is basically a CMU-810 in a plastic box with a sequencer and keyboard. But the MC-202
sounds much thinner than the CMU-810, as the SH-101 sounds thinner than the early Roland SH synths, and lacks a noise source.
Roland MC-8 - Huge, ancient, digital sequencer with limited memory - it took about 20 minutes to back up a typical sequencer
to cassette tape. And you could never be sure if you had really saved your sequence. It did allow you to trigger either a Roland or Moog modular (via
global switch) - but it was a shame you couldn't do that per channel. Very time consuming to program, I don't miss it one bit!
Roland MKS-80 and MPG-80 - I've owned three of these, both the early and later revisions, and thought
they basically sounded like a slightly beefed up Jupiter-6 in a rack, with aftertouch and velocity. Sounds like a lot of the
synths of the late 80's, slightly digital. The Jupiter-8 blows it away.
Roland SH-101 - Another of those thin-sounding Rolands from the mid-80's. I think the SH-1
is a much nicer sounding synth overall. The SH-101 looks like a toy in comparison. However, it is capable of a lot of cool sound effects.
I only sold mine because I own a CMU-810, which is basically an SH-101 in a little metal box without the keyboard and sequencer, but with the
addition of a delay on the LFO. But the CMU-810 sounds better for some reason.
I'll probably pick up another SH-101 some day, and add the Kenton filter input mod to it again.
Roland System-100 (complete) - I used to own a complete System-100, boxes, manuals, speakers and all.
It was basically two basic one-oscillator SH synths combined with a really poorly-designed sequencer, a basic mixer with spring reverb,
and two cheap speakers. It took up way too much space for what it could actually do, with too many cables to connect everything
resulting in loss of sound quality. It's modular capabilities were very poor...actually, it wasn't a modular
at all, but a basic semi-modular design with jacks where you could patch in to hear how your sound was evolving up to that point. It was mainly
designed to teach young kids the art of synthesis (which is quite evident from the childlike manual drawings), and despite looking
like a spaceship's console, it was really a very simple synth design. Once I
bought my SH-5, which has the exact same filter circuitry, many more modulation options, and a wicked bypass filter, at one third of
the typical System-100 selling price, I realized it was time for it to go.
Roland System-100m (5 module system) - A basic modular synth with an inflated pricetag.
Sounds like a (very limited) modular SH-101. The one I owned tended towards the noisy side (poor signal/noise ratio) with really cheap jacks
and slider caps. The System-100 and 700 look and sound much better.
Roland System-700 (7 block modular system) - This was an impressive looking and sounding modular system that filled up an
entire wall of my studio. Roland basically copied the look of the ARP 2600 and Moog Modular, and made the interface more user-friendly. It took me years to find every block and put together the complete system, and then I
turned around and sold it for $18000. The wing cabinets contained a lot of filler modules that just took up space. I guess Roland
ran out of ideas and had to make their modular look larger-than-life. The sound was huge, the interface was great, and the
oscillators were extremely stable, but some of the components (the little chrome switches) were prone to failure, and it was difficult
to work on due to the design of the modules. When I really got
into the synth, I found that the main block and sequencer was all I really needed or used. With the full system, I spent so much time making patches, that
once I had them created, I didn't want to change them! When triggered from a MIDI sequencer, I'd have to run across the room
to make adjustments to the sounds. I should have just kept the main cabinet and sequencer and
called it good. It was simply worth too much as a complete system to split it back up. For the money, you'd be better off with a System 100m or MOTM modular which fits nicely in a
rack. Hopefully one day they'll come out with a System-700 filter module.
Roland System-700 (lab series) - Smaller version of the above, but lacking many of the better features of the main block (bandpass filter, more
inputs, phaser, etc.). Many of my favorite sounds and textures could be duplicated on the similar sounding SH-1, so I sold it.
Roland TB-303 Bassline - Over-rated bass machine with a cool but complicated sequencer. I've owned 4 of these
over the years and always ended up selling them because, for what it could do, I couldn't justify keeping it for the
amount of money I could get for them. These days you can buy a Minimoog for the same amount of money. I'd probably buy
one if I saw one for $500, but then someone would probably offer me $1000 for it and I'd end up selling it again. :-(
Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer - Digital/Analog hybrid drum machine Sort of a souped up TR-707 with the addition of
some analog sounds.
I've owned three of them over the years and always end up selling them. Nice programming interface and integrated MIDI, but in my opinion the TR-808 blows it away.
Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 (Rev. 3) - I've owned three Rev. 3 Prophets over the years, but sold them all. I preferred
the sound of the Rev. 2. The Rev. 3 was a bit easier to program than the Rev. 2, since you didn't have
to hit the edit button every time you modified a sound, but overall, the Rev. 2 just has that brash organic quality to it that
the Rev. 3 seems to lack. The Rev. 3 is like driving an automatic Miata vs. a manual FIAT Spider, more reliable and easier to maintain, but less gutsy and less fun. :-)
Sequential Circuits Prophet-600 - A cool beginner's synth for the money, but when you have a P-5, it's a waste of space.
Sequential Circuits Prophet-10 - Too big for my studio, and the sound of 20 oscillators beating against each other was really overkill. At some point it begins
to sound like mush; a nice, big, huge mush, but are you going to use that in a song? The factory MIDI was very basic and always suffered from stuck notes. Better off with two Prophet-5's.
Looked cool though. The little LED's that told you which voice was playing (and the programmable EQ) were really great features!
Sequential Circuits SixTrak - A cool little multi-timbral synth with 6 voices and extensive MIDI control based on a Bally video game chip - and
it sounded like a video game too...that was the problem....I never used it.
Studio Electronics MidiMini - Basically a Minimoog in a rack, but it sounds quite different.
It's especially good at making percussive sounds and I found I used it more than the
System-700 for bass/percussive sounds at a fraction of the price. The glide is more like the glide
on an ARP synth, and the sound is more percussive and punchy, with a less organic sound than a real Minimoog. I prefer the sound
of the Minimoog, but I like the added velocity/aftertouch control and oscillator sync in the Midimini.
I sold my first one on eBay for $2500, and immediately regretted it after I had boxed it up. One showed up
a week later so I bought it. Glad I did! It actually looked and sounded much better than the one I had just sold.
Apparently not all Minimoogs are alike, and that includes Midimini's too.
Waldorf Microwave w/Programmer - Punchy digital wavetable synth with analog filters. Unfortunately the envelopes had
this annoying clicky sound that was nearly impossible to remove without getting rid of the sharp attack. It was a nightmare to program,
even with the optional programmer. I rarely used it and when I did it frustrated me. Good riddance.
Yamaha CS80 - What can I say? Probably the most expressive synth ever made. Also the heaviest at
225 pounds. I simply couldn't justify keeping it once I was offered 3 times what I paid for it. I was worried about it one day
breaking down and not being able to find anyone within 300 miles who could fix it. I'll miss it, no doubt, but a double-tracked
CS-50 through a delay and Lexicon 224 can get close enough for most applications...but actually, in some respects (tuning stability and
note attack) the CS-50 clearly beats the CS-80, if you can believe it!
Yamaha DX1 - Very pretty synth. Basically two DX7's in a huge wooden shell with lots of LED's and an awesome
keyboard with polyphonic aftertouch. This was the next evolution of the massive (and awesome) CS-80. I sort of regret letting this one slip
through my fingers, although I probably would never have used it in a song. It was too big for my studio, the programming
was still extremely difficult, and it still sounded like a....well....a DX7. Good for clangy mid-80's type sounds
(if you like that sort of thing).
Yamaha DX7 - One of my first synths. It was very difficult to program and had that digital mid-80's sound.
No regrets letting this one go, although apparently Eno swears by his. :-)
Yamaha RS7000 Music Production Station - I bought this sequencer thinking it would be great
for coming up with ideas while on the road that I could later incorporate into my studio (triggering real synths). Although it offered a lot in a small package (MIDI sequencer,
sampler, sounds, drum kits, etc.), it was not quite small enough to carry in a suitcase, and the build quality was poor. But my main problem with the RS7000 was not its size,
but the fact that it lacked an easy way to erase a phrase or portion of a phrase. My MPC3000 and MPC60 both offer
this feature as a button on the face of the unit, as you hold down keys in real time, for instant erasing of any notes, tracks,
or sections of a pattern. On the RS7000, you have to dig deep into a menu, twist a knob, press select, and that's just to get to the erase screen.
To their credit, the Yamaha engineers really packed a lot into a fairly small
package. There are many synth sounds and drum kits to choose from, but they are a little too dance oriented for my taste, and
difficult to implement and modify, making the experience of setting up a simple bassline cumbersome.
The grid and step mode programming are probably the best I've seen on any sequencer, but even the step mode is frustrating in that if you pass the
end of a bar you can't go back again without scrolling all the way to the end. It really is a shame Yamaha didn't
spend more time thinking about how musicians actually work. I guess this experiment just confirmed that the MPC3000 (and MPC60) still reign in my studio as the
most intuitive, utilitarian, practical, user-friendly, hands-on, MIDI sequencers ever made.
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