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Forums - Music techology
Subject: Old Gear, New Gear.....
Original Message 1/18 19-Aug-98 @ 02:23 PM - Old Gear, New Gear.....
buggo
Posts: 8
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I'm looking for another synth. I hate to ask the ubiquitous "what should I buy" question, but I do sort of have some fundamental concerns about what the fuck to do......
I have a juno106 and will probably get an s20 for drums. I want another synth to get more variety. I'm totally unsure which way to go; oldish and cheapish or newish and NOT cheapish....The an1x seems to have come down in price quite a ways....but some cheaper/older synths like the basstation are very appealing too. Aside from POLYPHONY, what can you get out of newer gear like the AN1X (or others in the price range...not expensive jp8k's and whatnot) that you can't get out of cheaper things like the basstation, in terms of practical usage...I know the Juno was totally slammed by people because the presets were lame, the chorus was noisy, there weren't enough editing parameters, the MIDI interface blew, etc. But now I have one and although it has its limitations, they are what make it unique and provide the inspiration for making new sounds and tracks.
So bottom line: There is always a lot of negative shit that gets said about all kinds of gear. In the case of the Juno, uppity whiners with huge studios full of gear complained about nitpicky little items....is all the shit i hear about most of the gear that exists (and yeh, there is a lot of it; someone always has to slag on whatever synth is at hand for some little flaw) actually true, or is it just more whining by the priveleged minority of rich studio guys?
More importantly, WHAT FUCKING SYNTH SHOULD I BUY?????
hehehe..
I have a juno106 and will probably get an s20 for drums. I want another synth to get more variety. I'm totally unsure which way to go; oldish and cheapish or newish and NOT cheapish....The an1x seems to have come down in price quite a ways....but some cheaper/older synths like the basstation are very appealing too. Aside from POLYPHONY, what can you get out of newer gear like the AN1X (or others in the price range...not expensive jp8k's and whatnot) that you can't get out of cheaper things like the basstation, in terms of practical usage...I know the Juno was totally slammed by people because the presets were lame, the chorus was noisy, there weren't enough editing parameters, the MIDI interface blew, etc. But now I have one and although it has its limitations, they are what make it unique and provide the inspiration for making new sounds and tracks.
So bottom line: There is always a lot of negative shit that gets said about all kinds of gear. In the case of the Juno, uppity whiners with huge studios full of gear complained about nitpicky little items....is all the shit i hear about most of the gear that exists (and yeh, there is a lot of it; someone always has to slag on whatever synth is at hand for some little flaw) actually true, or is it just more whining by the priveleged minority of rich studio guys?
More importantly, WHAT FUCKING SYNTH SHOULD I BUY?????
hehehe..
Message 2/18 19-Aug-98 @ 02:39 PM - RE: Old Gear, New Gear.....
buying an an1x for polyphony's a bit of a joke anyway - i think it's 10voice max but that's more like 5 if you put it in dual mode - but then seeing as it was you that was slagging polyphony and multitimbrality anyway, i guess that doesn't matter....
...what it does offer is just a great variety of sounds - i mean a huge huge variety - from pure analog-y bubbly synths to some limited fm-style stuff to weird atmospheric stuff - and loads of fx - three blocks VARI/delay/reverb (vari has compressor/flange/chorus/phaser/overdrive/enhancer/distortion/leslie sim/wah and others). what this means is that even just using the fx you can make lots of variations on one sound....
but i reckon the real advantage of the an1x is how easy it is to program and control. using just the synth is fine but there's also a wicked editor for it on the pc/mac - so even if you don't have a clue what the functions do you can work it all out really quick. and because the editor has its own bank format .an1 or something, there's alredy loads of banks on the web - lots of them are quite good too.
and control - not only can you control the internal stuff realtime easily from the knobs, but you can do external stuff like rebirth (wasn't it you that was trying to do that??).
but still, it's fairly expensive. you could get 3 or 4 other budget synths for that - say an fb01 for fm stuff, the basstation for, well, bass stuff, and something like a d110 or u110 from roland for those other sounds to fill out your mix. having said that, i've never used any of them for very long - and i get by with just the an1x, an sr16 and an emax - connected to cake. if your pc can handle a reasonable amount of audio you can just midi-up a line in the an1x and record it into the pc or sampler as a loop and do another line - and so on and so on....
...what it does offer is just a great variety of sounds - i mean a huge huge variety - from pure analog-y bubbly synths to some limited fm-style stuff to weird atmospheric stuff - and loads of fx - three blocks VARI/delay/reverb (vari has compressor/flange/chorus/phaser/overdrive/enhancer/distortion/leslie sim/wah and others). what this means is that even just using the fx you can make lots of variations on one sound....
but i reckon the real advantage of the an1x is how easy it is to program and control. using just the synth is fine but there's also a wicked editor for it on the pc/mac - so even if you don't have a clue what the functions do you can work it all out really quick. and because the editor has its own bank format .an1 or something, there's alredy loads of banks on the web - lots of them are quite good too.
and control - not only can you control the internal stuff realtime easily from the knobs, but you can do external stuff like rebirth (wasn't it you that was trying to do that??).
but still, it's fairly expensive. you could get 3 or 4 other budget synths for that - say an fb01 for fm stuff, the basstation for, well, bass stuff, and something like a d110 or u110 from roland for those other sounds to fill out your mix. having said that, i've never used any of them for very long - and i get by with just the an1x, an sr16 and an emax - connected to cake. if your pc can handle a reasonable amount of audio you can just midi-up a line in the an1x and record it into the pc or sampler as a loop and do another line - and so on and so on....
Message 3/18 19-Aug-98 @ 04:31 PM - RE: Old Gear, New Gear.....
buggo
Posts: 8
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yeah, I was slagging off excessive multitimbrality/polyphony to the point of ridiculousness...but 8 voice ain't bad....(thats what the an1x is i think??)
that said, however, I want to get the most flexibility and live playability for my buck. For the most part, huge multitimbral workstations give you less actual value than separate units, in terms of variety and musical "flavor."
I think in fact I will go with separate units....one thing that bugs me about the basstation is that I really want the features on the rack version but then I'd have to buy a controller...I HATE MODULES! I HATE MODULES! I DO NOT LIKE THEM SAM I AM. I WILL NOT USE THEM ON A TRAIN. I WILL NOT....err....you get it. Anyway I suppose just getting a bunch of cheap old modules and a pc1600 (or whatever it's called) for cheap cheap, but...
And I object to hard disk audio by tracks/overdubbing parts from the same synth etc on principle....although I use a lot of it now, I find it kind of limiting in terms of creating a really cohesive mix.
thanks for the tips; I think tho I'm gonna go for the basstation, s20, maybe a few FM modules, maybe a banjo or sitar, maybe a grand piano, maybe a new saxophone (tenor this time), maybe a celtic harp, maybe a zither, maybe an african goat-skin drum, maybe a goat to make my own drum out of......the possibilities are endless. (the finances, in stark contrast, are not. damn.)
that said, however, I want to get the most flexibility and live playability for my buck. For the most part, huge multitimbral workstations give you less actual value than separate units, in terms of variety and musical "flavor."
I think in fact I will go with separate units....one thing that bugs me about the basstation is that I really want the features on the rack version but then I'd have to buy a controller...I HATE MODULES! I HATE MODULES! I DO NOT LIKE THEM SAM I AM. I WILL NOT USE THEM ON A TRAIN. I WILL NOT....err....you get it. Anyway I suppose just getting a bunch of cheap old modules and a pc1600 (or whatever it's called) for cheap cheap, but...
And I object to hard disk audio by tracks/overdubbing parts from the same synth etc on principle....although I use a lot of it now, I find it kind of limiting in terms of creating a really cohesive mix.
thanks for the tips; I think tho I'm gonna go for the basstation, s20, maybe a few FM modules, maybe a banjo or sitar, maybe a grand piano, maybe a new saxophone (tenor this time), maybe a celtic harp, maybe a zither, maybe an african goat-skin drum, maybe a goat to make my own drum out of......the possibilities are endless. (the finances, in stark contrast, are not. damn.)
Message 4/18 19-Aug-98 @ 04:45 PM - RE: Old Gear, New Gear.....
I'd agree with Bill about all the things he's said about the AN1x but to add my own comment, I've had mine for nearly two weeks now and it's going to be a very long time before I'm ready to buy another synth. Ok it's only got a polyphony of 10 but that just forces you to get the biggest sound you can because you'll probably only be using it for one sound at a time anyway. I'm suprised by the amount of variation in sounds you can get, from cheesy bells to full blown acid belches. As for the bass station, whats wrong with it not having a keyboard? The main thing is it's got plenty of control knobs that all send control messages.
PS The Super Bass Station rocks compared to the standard rack version. I have the keyboard and it's not even in the picture compare to the rack version, (tho it's still good).
PS The Super Bass Station rocks compared to the standard rack version. I have the keyboard and it's not even in the picture compare to the rack version, (tho it's still good).
Message 5/18 19-Aug-98 @ 05:42 PM - RE: Old Gear, New Gear.....
I've had the AN1X for just about a year. I've only got to grips with exploiting it properly and for the money it is now you cant really go wrong.
The only pisser as far as I can see is the lack of presets and user slots to store your sounds. (not everyone has a nice PC to save shit off on to).
The only pisser as far as I can see is the lack of presets and user slots to store your sounds. (not everyone has a nice PC to save shit off on to).
Message 6/18 19-Aug-98 @ 10:45 PM - RE: Old Gear, New Gear.....
buggo
Posts: 8
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how many user slots does it have?
i know on my juno what I did (with the whopping 128 save positions) is just make some template sounds; like #14 is a standard organ, and from there I can fuck with it to tailor it to the specific track...works well....
i know on my juno what I did (with the whopping 128 save positions) is just make some template sounds; like #14 is a standard organ, and from there I can fuck with it to tailor it to the specific track...works well....
Message 7/18 19-Aug-98 @ 10:46 PM - RE: Old Gear, New Gear.....
buggo
Posts: 8
Link?: No link
File?: No file
how many user slots does it have?
i know on my juno what I did (with the whopping 128 save positions) is just make some template sounds; like #14 is a standard organ, and from there I can fuck with it to tailor it to the specific track...works well....
oh.....sorry this will post twice....what exactly IS the an1x going for these days?
i know on my juno what I did (with the whopping 128 save positions) is just make some template sounds; like #14 is a standard organ, and from there I can fuck with it to tailor it to the specific track...works well....
oh.....sorry this will post twice....what exactly IS the an1x going for these days?
Message 8/18 19-Aug-98 @ 11:00 PM - RE: Old Gear, New Gear.....
I say go for something sterile and digital.. Now yall know I like FM... But, whatevr, get something that will complement your already analoguey shit.. There is such a thing as too much analog.. SO get something that contrasts it in a pleasing way..
Message 9/18 20-Aug-98 @ 05:40 AM - RE: Old Gear, New Gear.....
Buggo-theres a tx81 at auction soup right now for, I think, $70, and it closes tomorrow. Maybe youre interested? check it out.
Message 10/18 20-Aug-98 @ 05:42 AM - RE: Old Gear, New Gear.....
buggo
Posts: 8
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File?: No file
holy shit!
well that would be cool, but i'm goin for a mixer now...and if I have to get it by tomorrow then i can't; no money...GGRRRRR!!
well that would be cool, but i'm goin for a mixer now...and if I have to get it by tomorrow then i can't; no money...GGRRRRR!!
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