16 replies to this topic

[Jester_Fu]

Yes... another spin off thread from those that shall not be spoken of

When i started out, the first two synths i had were a Yamaha SW60XG and a Novation Drum Station. I new nothing about synthesis, or midi or sequencing or mixing. Fuck, i just wanted to try and make some noise with my mates and see where it went. Lots of idea's, and no knowledge where to start.

The SW60XG was a ISA bus card for PC, and it was the shit! I really miss having it. I could implement up to 16 synths on it at one time, i had a GUI to rung the thing from Windows '95 and it had knobs and ADSR and and and. To me, it was like the first version of a VST, which Cubase didn't support back in '96.

The Drum Station was bought because, well, the SW60 had pretty average drum sounds... until you ran them through the internal effects on the SW60.

Anyway, the SW60 gave me an intro into what you could do with different synth functions, and put some meaning to most of the words. Would i change what i did? Hmmm... i liked it, but i think there would have been much quicker results from some older analogue synth. That said, i'd have regreted getting anything without midi, and the fact the SW60 was actually a couple of synths in one made production so easy. These days with the VSTi's about, not so much of a big deal... but when all you had 10 years ago was hardware synths, you were talking big bucks to get enough to start making a track, and the SW60 put me there straight up.

[Spectrum]

Ah, the good ol' Yammy soundcards. Didn't the SW1000XG (I think it was) prove popular.

For me, putting aside the years of nutting out Whitney Houston's "The Greatest Love of All" circa 1985 on a Yamaha DX7 (putting it to good use, eh?!!), my respectable fascination for analogues kicked in with Roland's HS-60 (the domesticated Juno 106), following a tip-off of what lay waiting at the Ashfield (Sydney) Cash Converters by good friend Null Object.

Loved this thing, and it's all I had for a couple of years, borrowing a simple analogue sequencer at one point for a bit of fun. Certainly taught me subtractive synthesis: filters, envelopes, resonance, LFOs. And sounded amazing (over)driving its onboard speakers (hey, this was the domesticated version, remember?!). Even headphones sounded great, only a little dissapointing through a hi-fi. Nothing a bit of post production processing couldn't have fixed.

Shame the key contacts were filthy, and notes would drop out - even while the prospective buyer was on his way over to see it - so was happy to let it go (and replaced by the Yamaha AN1x).

Still, much fun was had with it.

What would I change? Kinda wished I'd snapped up a couple more classics from the day. Nothing really stands out, just would have liked to have gotten to know a few different sounds and layouts.

Well actually, Korg's MS20 has always grabbed my attention.

Cool thread idea from the site we no longer speak of... maybe this time my well-meaning posts won't be deleted and then find the thread locked?

[Jester_Fu]

Pfft... post reported :pissingmonkey:

The whole XG concept was ahead of it's time. I never owned an SW1000XG, but yes, it seemed to prove popular out there - which begs the question, why did Yamaha ever stop producing them? It seems that whole era came to an end, and Yamaha decided the bulk of their market was 'domestic' users and not semi pro's and pro's. I mean, the whole Motif concept is awesome, but they've just neglected what they were really good at - IMO.

[Spectrum]

Quote

Pfft... post reported :pissingmonkey:

[Spectrum]

Quote

The whole XG concept was ahead of it's time. I never owned an SW1000XG, but yes, it seemed to prove popular out there - which begs the question, why did Yamaha ever stop producing them? It seems that whole era came to an end, and Yamaha decided the bulk of their market was 'domestic' users and not semi pro's and pro's. I mean, the whole Motif concept is awesome, but they've just neglected what they were really good at - IMO.

Yeah, sad they didn't run with it. There was even an AN1x-inspired add-on board for it. Just release a FireWire for the laptop punks, more processing power for VSTs, competively price it (which Yamaha are already good at) and they'd have a winner.



Foolish company direction (or perhaps very smart?).

[Jester_Fu]

Hey - they're making money... WTF would i know about their core business? Just disappointing as a Yammy fan boy to have them abandon us and leave us living in the past... for now. Crap, did i just sound like Mungo?

[Cheyne]

Quote

Crap, did i just sound like Mungo?

;D  yes .yes you did ...  *jaded*   


I suppose im too new school here ,  I dowt own any vintage , I learned primarily from reading books like  "The Dance Music Manual"  and using soft synths ..

I tought my self subtractive before I even layed hands on a synthesizer .. which was  needlessly confusing at the time ...


iv often thought of buying some nice vintage gear , but always canned it and decided that ill just save up and buying something hectic that Ill get plenty of use out of .. like  a TI or something similar ...
I almost bought a TR303 for $450 last year , but the prick pulled out at the last minute  

[PaulyQ]

I learnt synths mainly by trial and error, similar to Cheyne via soft synths. I "get" the concepts of subtractive and tend to use that type of "interface" but i do dabble with other stuff.... FM just confuses the hell outta me so I tend to be a preset boy for that type of thing.

Basically... everything I've ever done on a synth/sequencer etc.... is self taught or tutorial taught.

[SilverStreak]

TR505 and a JX3P, none of which I own today then after that it was a SH09 and a TR606 and a Poly 800.

I had no sequencer so I used to trigg from 606 to Jx3p and sh09, or midi clock from 505 to jx3p to poly 800, and if I had them all going at once I would ride the tempo on the 606 to keep the trigg stuff in time with the midi stuff, cause I didn't have a midi/sync converter either.

I learnt some habits that stuck back then with the midi clock live sync mute thing cause I'll still run one sometimes.

[no-fi]

my first synth was an MKS-7. I had to program it from my amiga.

it was really flexible and great sounding, but such a pain to learn on.


I guess I learned the most about practical synthesis when Ed went away on holidays for 2 weeks once, and leant me his "new" SH-2. I'd used it before at his place, of course.. but just having one sitting around to much about and play with the sliders and switchs and press keys, I learned a lot!

[PaulyQ]

aaaah! The Amiga.... a cracking little "module" in it's own right when played with properly. I used to have mine working as a simple sampler at one point, and one advantage it had over PC's was that you could use it as a basic FX module i.e. Delay/Reverb/Chorus as it could do that in real time (was great for Karaoke parties). I also built a simple MIDI unit for mine as well at one point.

[elektronz]

my first serious setup and my first taste of  synthesizers was 2 roland sh101`s linked from the tr909 by the rim shot clock out .used to program the rim shot as a bassline which would be sent to the 101 then use the other 101 for the arpegs .
still have a 101 and a now a tr626 which has same clock out as 909 ,so im gonna feed it into new hardware setup and get some nice analogue retro sounds with the new digital stuff

[Luka]

101

is an amazing unit, i wish i had one

[Luko]

^^ yeah the first synth i bought was an sh101, still have it - will never sell, its mint!

[Luka]

did you mod it?

[hps909]

i sort of missed the 80's analog revolution as i was into sampling moreso but i learnt midi and mixing on a korg m1 a roland r8 and a studiomaster 16/2 and a tascam 8 track..in 1990 i bought myself an akai s01 sampler with a massive 4 mb of ram and a mono out .  i didn't get a computer untill 1994 so i learnt hands on about signal flow and gain structure .. but using the onboard sequencer of the m1 made sequencing by todays standards medievil

[Jay Parker]

Oldskool....