Music Setup
One idea I like to fool around with is the concept that at some point I might
develop some sort of musical talent for creating original compositions. In
pursuit of this goal I have amassed a sizable amount of musical equipment such
as the following:
Roland MC-303:
a MC-303 groove-box. an odd synth, it was one of the first of the current trend
towards dance oriented machines. It feels a little like some sort of
Frankenstein to play with, on the inside it is a standard sample based synth
engine, but piped through analog modeled filters and with stuff like sequencers
and arpeggiators and phrases and random buzzwords thrown in. It was almost as if
Roland was not quite sure what people wanted but knew that they were unhappy
with current offerings so they added everything they could hoping to hit upon
something good. This makes for an interesting interface and a lot of unrealized
potential. It does have a rather strong percussion sample bank and its filters
and effects are pretty nice, you can get some cool sounds by tweaking it but you
will have to look further than the simple resonance and cutoff knobs which seem
to be quite over-hyped.
Casio CZ101:
A Casio CZ-101 synth. an older synth but so nice sounding. Casio has been known
for putting out cheap consumer products (at least in the synth market) but
actually created a quality line of unique synthesizers with their CZ models.
Casio also pioneered phase distortion synthesis which is similar to FM-style
digital synthesis but much easier to program and not as far removed from analog
subtractive syntheses as pure FM, it can sound a lot like these new virtual
analog synths that are coming out but at a fraction of the price. One of the
unique features is the unprecedented 8 stage envelope generators plus sustain!
extremely useful for Pads which evolve over time which is where the CZ shines.
also has a lot of good FM type noises but for short sounds which don't take
advantage of the amazing envelopes the CZ doesn't have nearly as much sonic
freedom as a DX7 so many patches can sound similar. of course the CZ series does
have its quirks, the main one being the odd MIDI implementation which uses two
way handshaking protocols making it not always play nice with other gear.
For more info on the CZ's and some patches you can go to
The Temple of CZ.
Yamaha DX7:
What can I say? its a classic.
For more info on the DX7 go to this
dx7 page.
Korg ER1:
The Korg electribe is everything I wanted out of the MC-303 and
didn't get. it really is a wonderful machine. The design is really something I
would like to see more, do one thing and do it very well and don't complicate the
interface. It sounds really sweet too. Although it is sold as an 'analog
modeling synth' (which it does well) I think they really hit on something more.
the nice thing about analogs is not the sound but the interface, the
programability. they didn't just slap a bunch of knobs and a few filters on a
standard synth interface but designed the entire thing around realtime control
and composition.
Yamaha QY22: A very surprisingly useful piece of equipment. I originally
bought this secondhand to use as a simple sequencer but it ended up being one of
my most used pieces of equipment. The reason being is that it is darn
convenient, this is a sequencer and General MIDI tone generator in a single
battery-powered portable box. Although the sounds are not great (plain old GM,
comparable to a decent wavetable computer soundcard) the convenience more than
makes up for it, I can sequence up something interesting laying in bed and then
simply play it through my DX7 or CZ for the final sounds. where my other
equipment is conducive to timbre and effect exploration I find the QY22 is just
as inspiring for harmonic and melodic experimentation. if Yamaha is reading
this, make a QY0 style form factor and just add velocity sensitive pads and a
couple DX7 fm-style tone generators with a nice on-screen editor and a single
data slide and you would have an AWESOME tool, I know the DSP can handle it (FM
is dirt-cheap DSP-wise today) and a slider and velocipads would only add a
couple bucks to the price and it would truly make the QY a truly powerful
composition tool.
Korg SQD-8: The Korg SQD-8
is a simple 8-track sequencer that does everything you would expect from a
sequencer and works rather well. it is simple to use, just like a tape recorder
and saves stuff to disks, quite convenient when away from the computer. I
usually hook it up to my DX7 or CZ101 to give them basic sequencing capability.
Yamaha fs1r: this thing rocks. will write a more in depth review later.
My homepage -> Music Page