all things SYNTH & KEYBOARD thread

[jibberish]

A 1 minute persuasive argument for:
1) eyeprod that a synth can make a fine organ sound
2) nice reverbs make anything sound awesome

this was just bach style big church riffs with huge pauses between each bit to listen to the reverb. this would fuck some people up running it through the subs too.

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/doktordeath/reverbdemolargechurch16bit[/soundcloud]

[eyeprod]

yeah sounded good man. Heavy church organ.

I'm convinced. Just lately been thinking a lot about my options for poly keys that will do what I want for the right price. I'm using a cheap casio and it's not half bad on a few settings with some effects and decent amp. It's bulky and has no place in a stage or studio rig. Good for getting an idea of what I want tho, and that is just some vintage type organs and pianos with a bend and -expression wheel.

I suppose that I'll have to accept some "multi-purpose" kind of keyboard/module. I kind of wish for more dedicated units that don't try to be everything in one box. The Waldorf Streichfett is pretty cool, but for the price I am considering picking up an ensoniq esq-1 again, or some other older cheap, but acceptable synth with a good keyboard. All related to organ and piano tones of course. I can get good enough for me pad sounds with a 2 osc monosynth I already have.

It's tempting to go deep into modern pad tones, but I still want to keep my music sounding like it came from the 70's. So it's a fine line when you start playing with modern equipment that sounds modern. Stepping into electronic music territory also tends to keep you walking a fine line between interesting musical expression and some stale flavor of EDM. That' why I generally lean towards old vs newer equipment, but they make some cool stuff nowadays. Gotta shop around

[jibberish]

I just have a korg x50.  you can get those for $300-$400 now. this thing is a 9 pound beast.
check this factory korg demo out. the combi mode and the dual arpeggiators are great.
you can make a bunch of sound all by yourself in realtime with it.
(haha 5yr old video)

edit: the korg krome is what replaced the x50. the krome has the dual arps and tweak knobs plus a shitton more performance sounds
these synths are in the middle of pure performance and pure synth.
a used 61 key probably is $600-$700 or so. the power in this thing is staggering, especially for the money. insane.

[eyeprod]

That's cool. Out of my range tho. No way am I spending more than 400 on anything. No amount of bells nor whistles can allure me into it. I just want a couple of traditional type tones. I use my analogs for performance tweaking so this purchase that I'm considering only needs to play and sound good. After writing that last post, I tthought about it and just don't want or need any fancy pads unless I can get some vintage polysynth for a price that I can't refuse. I will check out those videos tonight tho.

I guess that I am sort of hoping /waiting for arturia to release the maxi brute. Ya know, the 3 oscillator polysynth they should make available for 700-800

[jibberish]

i'm trying to figure out what one thing could help you. it seems that you need a wavetable synth for 'real" sounding normal instrument patches.

I was incorrect saying the krome was the replacement for the x50. korg says it is the Kross.   these names are killing me.
the Kross is their cheapest real keyboard right now. I didn't think the Kross was the x50 replacement because it doesn't have the tweak knobs like the Krome.
but it  has the twin arps and even a step sequencer, plus a shitton of wave sounds. these are $699 NEW(61 key Kross)

the other thing that I think is a sleeper is the Yamaha psr keyboards. these are really cheap like $250 and really nice. check this demo of the psr 433 ($250)

this is sick..out of a $250 keyboard..sick

[eyeprod]

that thing sounds pretty good. Still not what I consider a pro rig tho. Too bulky, like the one I'm using atm (which is a yamaha psr240, not a casio like I thought.) It's the plastic build, big dumb screen and speakers which make these things more of a bedroom instrument, imo. I do love a sleeper tho, so keep em coming man. I also like cheap, so I will be keeping my eye out for cl scores of interest. $500 is a more realistic limit.

[eyeprod]

just checking ebay...there's a farfisa louvre for $50 but local pickup only. Wow. What I wouldn't give to be near oklahoma or wherever it is located. I checked this video demo....holy shit, this thing is like analog heaven. $50, as if it was some low end casio. Clearly a monster, just looking at the pics.

[jibberish]

ok so no bulky bedroom keyboards.
a used x50 would work unless it is too big. all the little synths are synths. I think only korg has nice mid prices wavetable synths.
about the most compact decent sounding thing I can think of would be a sound module and controller keyboard. you mentioned the streichfett before.  that could be used like that, except it is only a string module I believe.

boss DS-330
I have had one of these since the dawn of time. it is an old General MIDI module, but nicer than soundcard sounds. I actually found a demo video where someone played it from a DAW in single mode(a single patch per MIDI channel). I play it from keyboards to fatten the sound. they are probably <$50

[RAGER]

There's something about those PSR's I don't like.  Idk.  The sleeper synth I've been looking for is the Yamaha TG33/SY22.  Vector synths.

http://www.vintagesynth.com/yamaha/tg33.php

Or maybe a Roland Alpha Juno 1

Like I need anything else

[jibberish]

those Yamaha psr's are cheap plastic construction. they also have no MIDI out, but I was just thinking of what makes the nicest sampled sounds for the cheapest and that's it heh.
if Yamaha had that in a module with MIDI for $99 that would be hawt. when Yamaha came out with the dx series like in 1981 or so, they also made these little rack mount dx-7/5/21 whatever, cant remember. but you could put like 16 of them in  a rack for a big orchestra of DX modules all at once. one DX-7 makes a lot of noise. 16 would be huge.
the DX-21 I think was awesome and awesome expensive.

more recently I saw a DX-21 in CL. maybe 2 years ago I saw a rack of 8 of those dx modules. the keyboard is the nice part of the dx-7/21, so meh on the modules.
who wants a whole rack of FM synth modules. the dx-7 makes sweet sin wave sounds like violins and organs and also bell sounds. the electronics are clean as hell, but fm synthesis has its limits so I passed both times. one DX-7 is good enough for the keyboard as a controller and the occasional use of that type of sound. I would only get another for the keyboard like ideally , if something was screwed up in the sounds of one but the MIDI worked and it was $50. THAT's what I want heh.

if you are wondering wtf fm synthesis is, here is a nice video where a guy makes a sound with one of the raw tone generator combos and what the effect of applying the various different oscillators as the frequency modulators of the original tone carrier sin wave. he plays some bells too. the bells are freaky awesome on this keyboard.

edit:
this guy shows off the stock dx-7 sounds really nicely. It was a $2000 keyboard new, so it better have been one of the best* out there at the time. maybe Kurzweil was the best at that time.

*by "best" I mean the ones actively trying to mimic or sample real instruments. the prophet 5 and the moogs and the rolands/korgs and those little samplers like ensoniq and emu were all expensive too. some off the hook expensive.  but you don't buy a prophet 5 to try and sound like a piano. you bought a Kurzweil if you wanted to sound like a piano.

[eyeprod]

I'm pretty sure that I'm set on either a) the waldorf streichfett, for instant gratification, b) a roland vk series, or something 70s-80's from them since there seem to be several interesting possible scores to be had, or c) saving up and getting the real deal. That being a farfisa compact series of some type.

I'm still open to some device that delivers what I want and includes some modern features. An organ with a filter of some sort, the ability to sound close to an electric piano and strings would be cool, and modulation & pitch control is what I am essentially after.

[jibberish]

cool. Except now I want a korg krome that I sold myself on heh. 

[mortlock]

do you guys dig sun ra??

[eyeprod]

yeah, duh.

[jibberish]

IDK yet. I have to check them out.

[RAGER]

^^For realz?  I'll answer for him.  Yeah we dig Sun Ra

[mortlock]

yeah, i figured. i have a pretty good size pile of sun ra vinyl. my fav being a bootleg from a live concert in paris. some sweet synth freakouts on that one..

[jibberish]

heh. ok. my evening's music has been picked out. i will soak up some sun ra.

I am tazmania in the evolution of musical geography.   I was way out of touch for a long time just finding things on my own.
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I think I want to email arturia. 

my old alesis drum machine has a pattern you can make(like the 16 note beatstep sequence) and store.
once you stored up the patterns you need for a song, you then can make a song out of a sequence of patterns, and store those.

16 events in a sequence isn't enough. I want to suggest they make a way to string multiple saved sequences together.
I want to suggest that they put multicolored ring LED's around the 16 encoders.
then in sequence mode, once you have a sequence made, you press one of those unused buttons to activate "store sequence" and place it in one of the 16 pads you touch, and it lights up the corresponding ring LED to show a sequence was saved in one of the 16 locations. you can play sequences from this mode just by hitting one pad to trigger the sequence and it times on to the prior sequence like alesis drum patterns do when you switch in realtime.

then there is another level: song mode. this is where you can select one of the 16 saved sequences and assign it to each of the 16 sequence slots. you can use 1 slot, or leave one blank for an entire 16 steps of silence from that device if you then put another sequence after the blank, or have all 16 different sequences. have a setting that repeats song or ends song. you then can save up to 16 songs out of your 16 sequences.

im thinking that they could basically leave the hardware alone except for the LED's and maybe some more memory. then reprogram the processor and sell it for $199.

[RAGER]

I can create soundtracks for any genre of motion picture with these two things.

[eyeprod]

Just bought the sampler that I wanted. Akai mpx16. Then I bought an old casio synth for cheap. Casiotone 1000p.Only has very basicsine wave ssynthesis based on preset envelopes and whatnot. Has an interesting arpeggiator too. Seems to be good for organ sounds and is a ddefinite sleeper if not down right laughable to some. Pre midi. Just what I want to be using. Looking forward to putting these in my rig. Almost went for a farfisa mini compact but I have decided to use the sampler to emulate one until I get myself a yamaha yc20. 

[RAGER]

Sounds like a solid base for some effects.  Run anything through that Big Sky in my above pic and it will sound good.  That Arp is kinda weird in how you program it.  Found this you might be interested in.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/neilvance/2261691336/sizes/l/in/photostream/

[eyeprod]

interesting. thanks man. I watched several demos of this thing and I feel like I am going to enjoy it. Just really wanted something with minimal bells and whistles, so I don't get lost in programming it. My first synth was a casio cz101 and it was a bitch to program. I still got some fun sounds out of it. I'll post an old recording sometime. Also had a cz1000 once that I got for practically free. should have kept it maybe, but I can't justify hoarding things unless I am using them.

[eyeprod]

just bought a roland jx-3p, freshly refurbed for $450 shipped. Looking forward to delving into it! I used to own a juno 60, so this should get me back into that territory again. analog yay!

[RAGER]

There's one of those 1000p's here local for a Hundo. Just saw it on cl.

[eyeprod]

cool. yeah I paid 75 for it on ebay. just over $100 shipped.