Casio FZ Samplers: last of the hidden gems?

Also, do you feel like you'll eventually need a sub for the new 6" JBLs (yay, I always really like Harman's JBL offerings), or are they covering enough of the sub bass range as-is?

I'm cool with 6.5 to 7 inch, ns10 and pbm 6.5 man but I also have a 4 sytem setup with 3 way yamahas, 10" woofers, 4 inch mids, no porting on a good amp :-) I dislike subs

Glad to hear you're staying financially buoyant in these rough waters.

hope you are too, I had roughpatch in june but made it through

a nd yeah, I'm a 40yearold studio rat turned social worker.... I've worked in some nice joints back in the day and on a couple major label records as the house engineer/assistant

https://postimg.cc/fSD2JTYK

1st wave

Some long time gear

I'm cool with 6.5 to 7 inch, ns10 and pbm 6.5 man but I also have a 4 sytem setup with 3 way yamahas, 10" woofers, 4 inch mids, no porting on a good amp :-) I dislike subs

Nice! I'm for any solution that lets you get down low enough without a sub, but only for simplicity's sake, that's not job-earned wisdom.

I'm using a sub in my current setup, because I just wasn't hearing or feeling the last 20-30Hz of my 808's kick decay after I switched to my latest set of 6.5" monitors, and that freaked me out... but for the most part, I keep the sub bypassed via footswitch because I'm in an untreated apartment and a sub likely just adds to the chaoss and deception.

https://postimg.cc/fSD2JTYK

1st wave

Some long time gear

drool!

Those Roland MA-8s take me back. The late 90s/early 00s... you were there Jim... making it happen... this is proof.

HA! the Tannoys are from the same era, those are 90s k1 PBMs, not the 00's mk2s

they haven't improved on music a whole lot since the heady days of techno and EBM and stuff. And only SOME gear has been improved, MA8s can't be improved, the better edirol version sounds too good, the 90s ones are whats pup, if you make it sound good on them they sound good on ANYTHING

I think I bought both the tannoys and edirols new around 98... or scratch that I got the tannoys from someone I worked with, second hand

HA! the Tannoys are from the same era, those are 90s k1 PBMs, not the 00's mk2s MA8s can't be improved, the better edirol version sounds too good, the 90s ones are whats (up), if you make it sound good on them they sound good on ANYTHING

Passive studio monitors not improving much since the 90s makes a lot of sense, and that's been my (limited) experience too, be it old Tannoys or even something like old Alesis Monitor Ones... shocked at how good those still sounded recently powered by one of those old Samson amps... but you couldn't get a sweet pair of 5 or 6" self-powered JBLs or Yamahas for $400 shipped in the 90s... the self-powered market is where all the growth has come, and I love it.

Re: MA-8s being the NS-10s of 90s self-powered computer monitors... that is awesome. I'm impressed they still work, and that you're still using them.

they haven't improved on music a whole lot since the heady days of techno and EBM and stuff. And only SOME gear has been improved,

Re: only some gear improving: I'd have killed for something like Ableton Live 10, FL Studio, any of the affordable Roland ARIA gear, Korg, Arturia, or Dave Smith analog gear, etc back when I started trying to make electronic music as a broke teen in the 90s. The gear market for making electronic music with software or hardware in the the 2020s had never been better. I'd agree that most offerings don't sound any better than what was available in the 80s (Serum and other forward-looking offerings notwithstanding), but it's all a hell of a lot more accessible/affordable, and that's important.

Re: the music itself. as we all know, most gear of the 70s, 80s, and 90s wasn't designed for creating genre-specific electronic music... and things like the 808, 909, and 303 weren't designed for making what we'd call electronic music at all, but for musicians to record rock and pop demos to 4-track without a drummer or bass player. Making dance music in the 80s and 90s meant taking a bunch of secondhand gear with extreme technical limitations and subverting thier limitations and intended usage to some degree to make something new and oftentimes transgressive.

Lifting those limitations, and flooding the market with gear and VSTs designed to make genre-specific music didn't necessarily result in an amazing new world of shocking, mind-blowing tracks... but it didn't totally ruin things eitehr... music is still marching forward... great music and awful music seems to get produced at about the same clip regardless what changes happen in the world at large.

The greatest time to be alive and making the greatest music ever is always right now.

you make a point, its a golden age of gear in a way but I meant more that the majority of gear is looking backward.... got the modal yesterday and its pretty unique sounding but it still takes tried and true ideas and takes them to strange new places. The last time I played a really new and exciting isntrument it was software and it was a while ago. We're going through a greatest hits period with wavetable and FM finally making hardware comebacks... but what's next? When are they going to do something really innovative and make it a real isntrument I can hold in my hand?

I think the lack of limits and subversion is kind suppressing youngsters' creativity. I was a lot more creative when i was younger trying to do what I wanted with limited resources.... tape machines, ADATs etc. I got FL studio to replace a sampling drum machine because I couldn't afford one. It was fruity loops then. I manually cycled trough the 9 playlist patterns as needed while recording out of my wim95 PC to tape or adat (and briefly high density mini disc. Its so much easier and 'better' now. My workflow is so streamlined now that I seldom need to create a workaround and then I seldom do anything really weird with my gear like the way I would make workarounds as a teen.

on the argon8, its very much like a hardware serum or massive wih a few limits due to being hardware but really nice sound quality fitlerwise... and fun to work with.... there's just no satisfaction twiddling with massive or serum despite their sound quality. And while NIs filters tend to sound decent, I find serum's to be just tolerable. Not wet farts and angry robotic bees likefreeware, Helm for isntance, but as digital fitlers go its not a knock on UHe's or like a virus or this fella. Hell I think my 90s yamaha boards have better sounding filters than serum. It would be cool WITHOUT the filter honestly. That said I'm still figuring out how to change the fitler models in the argon, its pretty complicated even with a knob laden front panel.

s... but what's next? When are they going to do something really innovative and make it a real isntrument I can hold in my hand?

Is innovation what a majority of the synth market in 2020 wants? These companies are still businesses, making something brand new is a much bigger risk than repackaging familiar concepts into the latest/trendiest form factors. Look at the guitar market; how many guitarists in 2020 are essentially the musical equivalent of a Civil War reenactment enthusiasts?✗✗ ... The synth market isn't quite THAT obsessed with the past, yet, but it's ultimately going to end up as obsessed with products of the 70s and 80s as the guitar world is with products of the 50s and 60s.

I'm all for innovation, but we don't have to wait for manufacturers to take a huge risk and serve that up for us. There are still endless ways to use what's already out there in new ways.

✗✗*A friend of a friend came up with that Civil War Reenactment analogy, not me... but I love it.

I am a guitarist as well as a synthesist and yeah, I resemble that remark. I'm the reenactor with the actual 19th century springfield musket.

I am a guitarist as well as a synthesist and yeah, I resemble that remark. I'm the reenactor with the actual 19th century springfield musket.

I started with electric guitar in the early 90s, i've been there. Give me a nice thin nitro finish over glossy new poly anyday.

nice... I started in '90 or 91 I think. Maybe 91? Anyway, give me a crusty old amp over even a vintage sinspired boutique. They don't make them like they used to. although a few british manufacturers get close if you want to overpay.

Add Joey Beltram to the list:

Can you talk about the Casio FZ-1, and what you did with it?

The FZ-1 had some of the absolute best sounding filters built into it. We modified the LFO and DCF during the recording using the slider. You can hear the “Mentasm” riff buzzing and snarling at you as the filter parameters changed. The slap delay on the changing frequency also made the filters stand out even more. The monster low pass frequency you hear during the drop in “Mentasm” was also the FZ-1 cutoff filter. Its capabilities fit this project perfectly. Awesome sampler.

(https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2014/05/key-tracks-mundo-muzique-on-mentasm)

whoa, mr energy flash

relistening to mentasm I want one now... sounds nothing like my p2k

relistening to mentasm I want one now... sounds nothing like my p2k

I mean, you already have the MKS-50... might as well, right? ::devil horns::