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Forums - Synths & synthesis
Subject: A brief review of the Q rack
Original Message Date: 04-Jun-00 @ 11:02 AM - A brief review of the Q rack
Okay, kiddies. I know you've been waitng for this one, so I'll try to do this as best I can. I'm no pro at reviews, so please bare with me if I jump around a bit.
Shipping:
the box came in fine condition,with a cable and the manual, but the manual is still for the keyboard version, and I was a bit disappointed to find that it's for the original operating system (1.09), while my unit shipped with os 2.04; big difference, and I figured the least they could do was print a hard copy of an appendix on new features and tips on using them. They didn't, but offer it all on the web, for those of us so inclined. Otherwise, the unit came in fine condition. Don't know what happened to folks who complain of shaky packaging. Bad luck I guess.
Powering up:
You just plug the unit in and it's on. Anywhere, no voltage convertor required. This is cool because it means a lot less hassle for folks who travel a lot, like me. However, it makes me a bit nervous that the thing powers up like that, as some of you, like me may often run into power problems like fluctuating voltages, and occasional to frequent cuts, and frequent cuts and surges are not the best for your unit. I know you're saying 'power conditioner' but this isn't always an option, and a manual startup just gives one a bit more security. It does remember where you were, and what you were working on when you shut the unit down, so this is convenient, although any unsaved edits are lost.
The OS:
It works quite nicely, and is typically arranged in a German style. For those of you not familiar with German synths and engineering, it's very well organized, very practical, and extremely logical. If you want to find something, for example some modulation, it may be lay in more than one place, but no mysteries. If you logically deduce what is happening, you'll very quickly find exactly what you are looking for.
The architecture of this piece is very modular and flexible, with an oscillator bank, an lfo bank, a filter routing section (which you will find is so very cool), a filter bank, amp section, arpeggiator, envelope bank, and 2 f/x banks. Then there is the Master window, where more magic takes place.
OSC:
each voice has 3 very flexible osc's. These things are amazing. In talking to one of the designers, I found that these things are designed with a bit of randomness in the algorithms that generate the wave forms, thus simulating the inconsistencies and imperfections of true analog oscillators, giving them a nice, slightly warm and greasy sound, however still very teutonic and precision. All three oscillators are capable of generating the basic wave forms (sine, tri, saw, pwm w/+-pw). Osc's 1&2 are are also capable of generating altenate waveform, arranged in the form of WAVETABLES. That's right, this thing does some MW style synthesis too, although not with nearly as many wavetables. Osc's 1&2 each have é wavetables of 127 wave forms each, and osc 1's tables are different from Osc 2's. Controlls are pretty standard for detuning and mixing into the filter, with the addition on being able to adjust the balance of which filter you want each oscillator routed to. Did I mention that the Osc's are cross-modulteable? Did someone say FM? Yes, this thing does FM too, and quite nicely. FM'd wavetable voices can sound pretty amazing. I could go on for days about each section, but I must cut this short, so let say that with this section we're off to a very good start for creating some amazing sounds. Next is the ring modulator, noise, and external input mixing, simple, effective; that's about all to say on that one.
LFO's:
3 Lfo's per voice, also cross modulatable, and capable of generating high enough fequencies to do FM as well. Standard shapes, MIDI synchable, resetable, delay optional, fade ins, fade outs, all kinds of good stuff here.
Filter Routing:
This is only one knob, but it determines whether filter 1 runs into filter 2, serially, or if they run to the amp and f/x in paralell, or in any blend of the two. This is modulatable. Nice!!!
Filters:
2 multimode filters, standard types as well as Comb filters. Gotta spit this out: comb filters are wierd but cool. They work like a chorus or a flanger, but one where you can control the oscillation. These things sound crazy when you get them self-oscillating; wierd, etherial, spaced out sounds. I've cooked up a FEW alien lullabyes with the help of these. Otherwise the filters work like most hi/lo/bp/notch filters work.
Amp:
Simple: it works. You turn it up, and the soud gets louder, and the opposite also works.
f/x
flanger, chorus, overdrive, phaser, delay, and multi f/x. It sounds okay, clean, and simple, not too complex, but okay, probably the weakest part of this unit, and still decent.
Envelopes:
4 of them. Very flexible, looping if you want, multi stage. Good stuff.
Master Window:
Okay folks this the the kicker. You have 16 virtual patch cables and almost everything is patcheable. Osc's to the filter? Sure, no problem. Env3 to the filter routing? Yep. Env 4 to to lfo 3's rate to the filter panning, as well as the amount of ring mod to filter 1, as well as f/x 2's mix, sure. Yikes.
Almosst forgot the Arpeggiator and Sequencer.
The Arp is slck, tight, very flexible, user editable, synchable, powerful.
The Sequencer is a step sequncer and controlls all kinds of params, as well as the note info. Haven't really gotten into this thing too much yet, so more on this one later. Very powerful, and use ful.
The only thing I'm really not to happy about with this thing is the pots. They are optical, and still a teensy buit buggy. I'm sure this will be fixed with later OS's, but for now, they can jump a bit or not enough sometimes. Even with it's imperfections, I'm completely sold on this unit. I hope that you all can check one of these things out some time. BTW, the sound is thick, full, and tight. On a loud system, this thing can punch, growl, bang, sing, moan, and just get plain wierd, all with extreme clarity, yet still fairly warm. Not going to review the presets. There's plenty of them, and they sound nice, but they are just ideas, scratching the surface of this beast.
So, hope this tells you a little about this thing.
Ape
Shipping:
the box came in fine condition,with a cable and the manual, but the manual is still for the keyboard version, and I was a bit disappointed to find that it's for the original operating system (1.09), while my unit shipped with os 2.04; big difference, and I figured the least they could do was print a hard copy of an appendix on new features and tips on using them. They didn't, but offer it all on the web, for those of us so inclined. Otherwise, the unit came in fine condition. Don't know what happened to folks who complain of shaky packaging. Bad luck I guess.
Powering up:
You just plug the unit in and it's on. Anywhere, no voltage convertor required. This is cool because it means a lot less hassle for folks who travel a lot, like me. However, it makes me a bit nervous that the thing powers up like that, as some of you, like me may often run into power problems like fluctuating voltages, and occasional to frequent cuts, and frequent cuts and surges are not the best for your unit. I know you're saying 'power conditioner' but this isn't always an option, and a manual startup just gives one a bit more security. It does remember where you were, and what you were working on when you shut the unit down, so this is convenient, although any unsaved edits are lost.
The OS:
It works quite nicely, and is typically arranged in a German style. For those of you not familiar with German synths and engineering, it's very well organized, very practical, and extremely logical. If you want to find something, for example some modulation, it may be lay in more than one place, but no mysteries. If you logically deduce what is happening, you'll very quickly find exactly what you are looking for.
The architecture of this piece is very modular and flexible, with an oscillator bank, an lfo bank, a filter routing section (which you will find is so very cool), a filter bank, amp section, arpeggiator, envelope bank, and 2 f/x banks. Then there is the Master window, where more magic takes place.
OSC:
each voice has 3 very flexible osc's. These things are amazing. In talking to one of the designers, I found that these things are designed with a bit of randomness in the algorithms that generate the wave forms, thus simulating the inconsistencies and imperfections of true analog oscillators, giving them a nice, slightly warm and greasy sound, however still very teutonic and precision. All three oscillators are capable of generating the basic wave forms (sine, tri, saw, pwm w/+-pw). Osc's 1&2 are are also capable of generating altenate waveform, arranged in the form of WAVETABLES. That's right, this thing does some MW style synthesis too, although not with nearly as many wavetables. Osc's 1&2 each have é wavetables of 127 wave forms each, and osc 1's tables are different from Osc 2's. Controlls are pretty standard for detuning and mixing into the filter, with the addition on being able to adjust the balance of which filter you want each oscillator routed to. Did I mention that the Osc's are cross-modulteable? Did someone say FM? Yes, this thing does FM too, and quite nicely. FM'd wavetable voices can sound pretty amazing. I could go on for days about each section, but I must cut this short, so let say that with this section we're off to a very good start for creating some amazing sounds. Next is the ring modulator, noise, and external input mixing, simple, effective; that's about all to say on that one.
LFO's:
3 Lfo's per voice, also cross modulatable, and capable of generating high enough fequencies to do FM as well. Standard shapes, MIDI synchable, resetable, delay optional, fade ins, fade outs, all kinds of good stuff here.
Filter Routing:
This is only one knob, but it determines whether filter 1 runs into filter 2, serially, or if they run to the amp and f/x in paralell, or in any blend of the two. This is modulatable. Nice!!!
Filters:
2 multimode filters, standard types as well as Comb filters. Gotta spit this out: comb filters are wierd but cool. They work like a chorus or a flanger, but one where you can control the oscillation. These things sound crazy when you get them self-oscillating; wierd, etherial, spaced out sounds. I've cooked up a FEW alien lullabyes with the help of these. Otherwise the filters work like most hi/lo/bp/notch filters work.
Amp:
Simple: it works. You turn it up, and the soud gets louder, and the opposite also works.
f/x
flanger, chorus, overdrive, phaser, delay, and multi f/x. It sounds okay, clean, and simple, not too complex, but okay, probably the weakest part of this unit, and still decent.
Envelopes:
4 of them. Very flexible, looping if you want, multi stage. Good stuff.
Master Window:
Okay folks this the the kicker. You have 16 virtual patch cables and almost everything is patcheable. Osc's to the filter? Sure, no problem. Env3 to the filter routing? Yep. Env 4 to to lfo 3's rate to the filter panning, as well as the amount of ring mod to filter 1, as well as f/x 2's mix, sure. Yikes.
Almosst forgot the Arpeggiator and Sequencer.
The Arp is slck, tight, very flexible, user editable, synchable, powerful.
The Sequencer is a step sequncer and controlls all kinds of params, as well as the note info. Haven't really gotten into this thing too much yet, so more on this one later. Very powerful, and use ful.
The only thing I'm really not to happy about with this thing is the pots. They are optical, and still a teensy buit buggy. I'm sure this will be fixed with later OS's, but for now, they can jump a bit or not enough sometimes. Even with it's imperfections, I'm completely sold on this unit. I hope that you all can check one of these things out some time. BTW, the sound is thick, full, and tight. On a loud system, this thing can punch, growl, bang, sing, moan, and just get plain wierd, all with extreme clarity, yet still fairly warm. Not going to review the presets. There's plenty of them, and they sound nice, but they are just ideas, scratching the surface of this beast.
So, hope this tells you a little about this thing.
Ape
Message 21/33 12-Jun-00 @ 07:04 AM - RE: A brief review of the Q rack
BTW, just found the fuly user-editable drum maps in this thing, not covered in the original manual at all, and whoa nelly! Do these things open up the possibilities for this box. Found in the multi section, I believe. Fun shit. Check it out.
Ape
Ape
Message 22/33 19-Jun-00 @ 01:20 PM - RE: A brief review of the Q rack
I'd just like to say, that whenever someone already has a couple of V/A (minimum standard thus being Korg Prophecy), is wondering what to get next and spends all his time in fucking chatroom drooling over the newest gear, he deserves to be shot, for he is not a real musician but just some fucked up lamer with too rich parents, and a pathetic dream to sound like his heroes. At most he will sound like Prodigy anno 1991, he will turned down by record labels, and evetually he will be too depressed to continue, sell it all and get a boring 9-5 job.
Message 23/33 19-Jun-00 @ 02:38 PM - RE: A brief review of the Q rack
Interesting take on life. Sounds like a person experience. I took a lovely shit this morning but you don't hear me writing a paragraph about do you. So Pongoid how did you avoid vat tax ect.. I ordered my Q rack 2 days ago and of course would like to pay the minim import fees.
Message 24/33 19-Jun-00 @ 06:56 PM - RE: A brief review of the Q rack
vat is excluded when shipped to usa
Message 25/33 19-Jun-00 @ 07:41 PM - RE: A brief review of the Q rack
Thanks man, so is that it? Do I just pay the strait poop?
Message 26/33 20-Jun-00 @ 07:42 PM - RE: A brief review of the Q rack
No, you'll still have to pay a 65$ COD for duty, but it's still less than VAT, so....
Message 27/33 20-Jun-00 @ 08:45 PM - RE: A brief review of the Q rack
So I guess I should have the money on hand then right??? Man I'm seriously confused (Not a new thing) it cost $1600 for my Q rack 32 voice. Where the fuck did the extra $200 come from. Is that shipping + the unit, is it paying vat then having it credited back to me. What!?!? I just ordered it and I really haven't the slightest clue when I should expect to see it. All I know is that time is slowing down since I ordered it.
Pongoid questions for you- where can I find your music in stores. It seems that you're a very knowledgeable guy and you've been around for a while. It also seems that you do this for a living. I'd like to see what it all adds up to in your music. I saw that you said that Autechre is one of the good things that spawned from the U.K. Interesting, do some of your trax fall in the same vein? My music is somewhere in that category. What ever category that is. Not saying I sound like Autechre. I sound like Alex. But I am saying it's somewhere in the same genre. Not like there really is a genre. I guess the term IDM. But I have noticed that that term makes peoples hair stand on end. To arrogant of a term I guess- Alex
Pongoid questions for you- where can I find your music in stores. It seems that you're a very knowledgeable guy and you've been around for a while. It also seems that you do this for a living. I'd like to see what it all adds up to in your music. I saw that you said that Autechre is one of the good things that spawned from the U.K. Interesting, do some of your trax fall in the same vein? My music is somewhere in that category. What ever category that is. Not saying I sound like Autechre. I sound like Alex. But I am saying it's somewhere in the same genre. Not like there really is a genre. I guess the term IDM. But I have noticed that that term makes peoples hair stand on end. To arrogant of a term I guess- Alex
Message 28/33 20-Jun-00 @ 11:08 PM - RE: A brief review of the Q rack
"I hope K sticks this review somewhere good"
granted... check the frontpage.. heh heh
granted... check the frontpage.. heh heh
Message 29/33 21-Jun-00 @ 12:35 AM - RE: A brief review of the Q rack
I saw. Awww....K...you shouldn't have 
, but I'm honored that ya did.
Diamond, My music is not in stores right now. Some older stuff can be had on the web, and I've just scored a deal with a very reputable independent label for as many records as I can sell, so you should see another release on vinyl in about 3-4 months. As for what style it is? I don't know what to tell you. It's wierd, some stuff people dance to, some stuff, people sit around and have deeply psychedelic experiences to, in the right settings. People say I have my own sound in whatever I do, but I couldn't tell you what that is. You just have to hear it I guess.
check out the Monkey Morcel thread.
$1600 for the 32 voice? Still cheaper than here. Did you check to see if that was the price without VAT? Yes, have $65 cash in hand, ready for that synth. Be prepared to be devastated. It's nothing in the stores. You just sit and tweak a,d then do it some more, and you realize that you're out floating past the asteroid belt, but it's cool cuz you have the helm. You'll see. Don't forget to keep something soft nearby to wipe up drool. Congrats and good luck.
Ape
, but I'm honored that ya did.Diamond, My music is not in stores right now. Some older stuff can be had on the web, and I've just scored a deal with a very reputable independent label for as many records as I can sell, so you should see another release on vinyl in about 3-4 months. As for what style it is? I don't know what to tell you. It's wierd, some stuff people dance to, some stuff, people sit around and have deeply psychedelic experiences to, in the right settings. People say I have my own sound in whatever I do, but I couldn't tell you what that is. You just have to hear it I guess.
check out the Monkey Morcel thread.
$1600 for the 32 voice? Still cheaper than here. Did you check to see if that was the price without VAT? Yes, have $65 cash in hand, ready for that synth. Be prepared to be devastated. It's nothing in the stores. You just sit and tweak a,d then do it some more, and you realize that you're out floating past the asteroid belt, but it's cool cuz you have the helm. You'll see. Don't forget to keep something soft nearby to wipe up drool. Congrats and good luck.
Ape
Message 30/33 21-Jun-00 @ 12:04 PM - RE: A brief review of the Q rack
it uses digital wavetables right still?, like the microwaves series?
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