bob_kerns's Reviews

Better than a DX-7 (except no keyboard)

My poor 36-year-old DX-7 gathers dust, but its sound lives on.

Amazing—you forget you have headphones on.

I literally end up pulling off my headphones because I think my speakers are on. I use it with the device that attaches to the headphones to monitor head position, which works flawlessly. The camera tracking isn't quite as good, but still impressive.

Fun. Weird.

It makes nice evolving noises. I like that. But the sound doesn't always integrate well musically. I mean, it makes sounds that are tempting, but don't necessarily evolve according to need. It works better the other way—building out from the evolving Kinetic Metal sounds.

Very flexible

Originally picked up a temporary free version via a Berklee course, but ended up buying the full version. This is my go-to analog synth.

Great chaos!

I love the sounds; it just makes me wish there were even more of them.

Hands-down my favorite piano sound

The detail, down to the sympathetic resonances and the key sounds, is stunningly captured.

Great! Free!

This is what I use when I need to directly manipulate with audio.

My go-to sampler

Very capable, but the scripting language sucks damp tritones. And you have to have an in with NI to package anything nicely. The new debugging tools are inadequate. But mostly, it gets the job done and is a platform that is widely adapted.

Very nice touch, good sound, limited function.

I dunno what they were thinking with their MIDI implementation, but whatever. I use it as a straight keyboard, or as a standalone piano (string, vibe, organ patches are OK), and ignore the rest. But my daughter enjoyed all the built-in songs when she was young.

Not as rugged as I'd like

I had to replace the keyboard a while back after some keys failed (long out of warranty). It turned out to be fairly easy to do, and their support was very responsive.

I've never really gotten the hang of configuring it from the panel, but with the software it's reasonable. The touch is pretty consistent, tho I prefer using the Casio PX-110 for general use for the weighted keys. I use it for the controls, for aftertouch and for stuff where a lighter touch works well.

My first synth back in the day

An obvious classic, but now sits idle; I have the DX-7 plugin from Arturia to take its place. Back in the day I had a rack of TX-7 modules to go with it, but they were stolen. After 36 years, I still use the sounds, if not the hardware.