Commodore Remix

Yay! ... just got meself one of these, and she's comming home on wednesday! ... It feels almost like Cristmas!

and the tip or idear on musik creation you say? (since this is the idear of this forum) must be; GET ONE! ... you will not regret it

And by the way, if you're into hardware gear and want some nice demo's of different gear, try out this page:

http://www.deepsonic.ch/deep/htm/index.php

He's got quite a bit of audio demo's for a lot of gear

mmmm, i want one!

Come on guys!... there must be more of you that wants this thing!? ... can't ALL be hardwired softsynth users eh? ...

On my list of MOST WANTED is this fucker:

http://www.deepsonic.ch/deep/audio/jd303_2.mp3

There is something about that rubbery sound I like!!!

Mmmmm, the JD800... I loved this synth, sold it a couple of years ago.

The distortion unit + resonance on this piece was able to absolutely SCREAM and not like the soft, thin dist you find on almost every other synth I've tried (both soft and hardware). And scream in a good way, not "ouch my ears"-scream.
I'm not sure what it is, but you were able to push the sound much further than you usually can due to design-restrictions (e.g synth designers limiting parameters so you don't end up with too much of anything). There was also other nice effects to enhace the sound like the spectralizer (I think) to make sounds crispy and fresh. Excellent for pads.

The sound in the demo is quite 303-ish, but it was capable of even more aggressive sounds. I liked it because it doesn't sound EXACTLY like a 303 but close and with it's own caracter.
The guy in the musicstore told me Prodigy used a JD for the sounds in Voodoo People.

Also had a Virus b but never liked it that much, not as raw as the JD, but nice analogy-smooth sound otherwise. Too much menu-stepping.

Damn, I miss this synth now... all those sliders... like a spaceship.
But they are pretty cheap if I want one again.

I used it in a couple of songs on my CD for kind of screamish 303-sounds.

Instant Remedy:

Yeah! sure this thing sounds sweet! ... I've never had one, but the demos on that page is more than enough for me... though, I'm not the kind of knob-guy, so If I get one, I'll go for the JD-990 to be honest... It also saves me plenty of space, and as the Z1, ESQ-1 and DSS-1 take up a lot of space already, this is the way to go (DSS-1 is probably the biggest keyboard I've seen so far!)

The JD-800 is digital though.... which is kind of strange compared to the sound it makes... In fact, some hardware didital synths sound much better in my ears compared to softsynths, and I'm still a little puzzled as to why this ism but I think it has to do with the fact that these older synths use custom chips for sound generation, that is just much faster in operation than DSP chips running at 48khz. The sound just seems more tight, and I actually just sold my Waldorf Micro Q Omega, just to get the Z1... I did not really like the sound of it.... too thin... Good sounding hardsynths in my opinion are those of a little older like Yamaha AN1X, Roland JP-8000 etc. but another one I like and that I'll get soon is the Alesis Micron... that machine is incredible, and also use custom chips.

but still, nothing has yet beaten my Waldorf Pulse when it comes to bass... this machine just simple has THAT bass sound, and I'm still to be convinced of anything digital that will rival it... period!

Yes, today I would have chosen a 990. The 800 is a hog and using a synth-librarian you will work it quite efficiently.
The downsides were SYSEX and it was only usable in solo mode.

What synth is on the first post?
I'm totally off nowadays when it comes to synths. Haven't looked around for hardwarestuff for maybe 5 years, only softsynths.

Instant Remedy:

I'm not familiar with the JD-990 and it's MIDIimplementation, but as I've got so many synths these days, I'm actually using them all in Single-mode, exept for my E-Mu E5000 Ultra sampler, so using the JD-990 in single mode, would be just fine ... it gives a lot af advantages this way, since build in effects can be used on an instrument level instead of a global level, which I hate... also, I'm mixing on a Mackie LM3204 Stereo Line mixer, where I want to have EQ on seperate instruments, so using in multi-mode is not very useable unless I gor more outputs on the synths... and unfortunately the 16 stereo channels are almost filled up, so there is no room to use extra outputs ... in fact I've decided to leave the PC out of the sound stage alltogether.... everything I mix on the analog mixer, and only the final mixed output signal goes to the PC, for final Mastering.... yes... I've decided to go totaly oldschool with my studio

The synth in the picture of the first post is a Korg Z1 multioscillator synth .. and it's commin this very evening! ... I think I'm now close to my goal of having a hardware synth setup with as wide a range of synthesis methods I can... I only need three more: Alesis Micron, Clavia Nord Modular G2 and then the MIDI Box SID, that I've not yet completely finished building...

So today my studio has these mashines hooked up:

E-Mu E5000 Ultra (sampler)

E-Mu Xtreme Lead-1 (ROMpler, but I managed to get a Flash-RAM for my own samples from E-mu, free of charge still in shock!)

Waldorf Pulse (Analog Monosynth)

Waldorf Microwave 1 (analog hybrid wavetable synth, 2nd revision)

Waldorf Microwave 2 (digital wavetable synth)

Waldorf Rack Attack (Programable drummachine/leadsynth)

Yamaha TG77 (SY77 in rack version... FM and hybrid FM/Sample synthesis)

Yamaha EX5R (Sampler, VA synth(an1x), physical modeling, FDSP synthesis)

Yamaha FS1R (Formant synthesis and FM synthesis)

Roland MKS-50 (Analog polysynth)

Ensoniq ESQ-1 (Digital/analog hybrid synth)

Korg DSS-1 (Digital sampler w. analog filters)

Korg Z1 (multioscillator synth w. 13 different synthesis methods incl. polyphonic physical modeling, VA synthesis, FM synthesis, yeah well... a whole lot I cannot remember... 13 diferent ones)



Pretty much, and ouch, it has hurt my wallet ... I use two Emagic AMT interfaces to control the lot, and use a TC Electronics M-One for global Reverb... and hope to find a D-Two also for delays....

Yeah... It's crazy I know

I sold my Z1 when I was going through a difficult patch, but I didn't miss it that much: the sound seemed kind of tinny in a strange way. Maybe I was just using it for the wrong kind of patch

Chris

My first guess was actually something Korg. I had a friend who owned a Z1 which was very expensive at the time and I fiddled a little with it and the X-Y pad (I think it was called). A really nice synth it seemed.
Impressive bunch of synths! You can't have much room left in your room.

Chris Abbot:

I think it's a matter of preference and the style you do with it... in fact I once had the Z1 myself, and liked it very much... then I thought I'd go softsynth... the BIGGEST mistake I ever did... selling almost all of my machines... have had to rebuy them, some being pretty hard to get again (FS1R etc.)...

Actually the best reason for me to get the Z1 is it's physical modelling... it's the only machine out there in hardware that has polyphonic physical modelling... I dislike multisampled accoustic instrument because it's so bad in transitions between notes in most cases, so I try to get machines that will synthesize as accurately as possible, and the Yamaha VL tone generator simply kicks ass in the wind and string department... the problem is the guitars and other plucked instruments... they can only play monophonically and is totally useless on guitars... that prob. will be solved using the Z1...

Also the many other oscillators it has are cool, and the way in which they can be connected are amazing... the OSC with 5 bandpass filters kan be used for great formant synthesis.... though The Yamaha FS1R still will kick it's butt in that department... the FS1R simply has the most gorgeous vocal choir sounds!... love them!

So... I know what I'm getting today, and are looking foreward to using it both for sounds and as my master keyboard...

Instant Remedy:

Well, I live in a two-room flat... the single room being more a studio with a bed, than a bedroom with a studio ... Got carpets on the walls for damping, so it's darn cosy here, with black background, and brown leaves as the main pattern on the carpets... hehe! ... hard to describe, looks weird, but works quite well ... just a little hard to explain the usefulness of it when I have dates visiting ... I think it's cosy... they don't! ... but then I say... HEY THAT'S ME! IT'S MY LITTLE DUNGEON HERE! ACCEPT OR GET OUT! .... wondering if it's because the bed is only a 1½ person wide they complain?

But no... there is not much room left here, and as I wrote in another topic, I'm about to strap the next one to my back, since this is most likely the only place that is still free here