jimmarchi1's Reviews

this is why I am afraid to try a sattelite appollo

duende plugs are now all native.... the hardware is unsupported. I really liked it when i had it but its a paperweight now. This is what i hate most about computer recording.

Groundbreaking

This used to be sitting unloved in a lot if studios under the lexicon and 2290 units and maybe a korg. Yes its old and quirky but its early digital delay lines hold up today. Wh er n its gotta sound like joy division? Yup.

Still a top dog.

This guy and the TC electronic 2290 are the epitome of perfect standalone 1ru digital delay. Period.

an early affordable sampler that still ahs an analog filter.... but hexadecimal?

This lofi, low memory sampler with a curtis filter should be great for unnatural 80s stretched out gritty fitlery sounds.... BUT its a bear to program due to tis computer hacker hex programming system for envelopes and loop points. Kills the whole thing. Very difficult to sample with it, more of a sample library player TBH. Glad my experience was with my best friend's and not one I paid for myself. For the same basic money the eps delivers on the promise of the mirage with a weird 13bit sampling engine, low memory for enforced crap sample rates, easy editing and a digital filter that actually sounds pretty damned good. Get an EPS with a USB adapter in the floppy spot, it'll get you sampling and making music faster than the flawed mirage and you won't really miss the curtis chips.

basically an odyssey in a suitcase!

this is a slightly stripped down late model odyssey, the darker one.... it has some differences in response in some routings and the ring mod is different but if you select the type III filter from the korg RI it's pretty damned close in sound. External audio can be modded by vco1. Its whacky and cool. No S&H gen, but how often do you really use that? Has the knob for pitch bend, blech. No high gain XLR output. It's very heavy compared to the RI due to the case but not too heavy. Eminently giggable, heavy but sturdy, it's a suitcase, yo. Great addition to modular or semi modular rigs needing some Odyssizing.

the sound but the interface... or lack thereof ARGH

If the wavestation keyboard was hard to program? whoa. Rich sounds via wavesequencing a sort of uber wavetable vector system... amazing idea combining the d50 and prophet VS and then some but in a 1ru it becomes a rompler. Source of infinite frustration even for the tech savvy. Needs an external editor. Being all digital the korg vsti version nails it with easy to understand graphics laden multi page GUI. Don't bother. Use the software or try the wavestate.

I think Yamaha owned korg at this time (and at the same time acquired sequential circuits) and you see their influence here.

worth the buy in

This is like a jx3p if korg made it. Same filter and sweet but hissy chorus as the later DW6000. Same fun joystick for switling through pitch bend and LFO mod. If you like that sound and can deal with the amateur grade keybed (even by 80s standards), 2 digit parameter selection and data slider interface but want regular DCOs with regular shapes? Bingo. Highly recommended. Get an M with MIDI if possible. Limited implementation but usually the upcharge for an M is less than a MIDI retrofit and how many features do you need anyway?

This is not anything to do with the polysix.... just 6 voices and a similar name. DCOs, no SSM filter chip (I think the korg filter has more character anyway, SSs were ubiquitous in the 70s like CEMs in the 80s anyway)... 2 oscillators, more robust architecture. Its really a DCO DW6000. The enxt evolution was wave memory oscillators and the the DW8000 with digital delay and 2 more voices.

YES YES YES

very tedious to program, but truly unique additive engine. I'll only get rid of this once I obtain the fabled k5000 with the macro controller.... timbrality is in the dx7 camp but is totally its own thing. its really capable of a lot of dx7 signature sounds but goes about them a different way, not by modulation but by collecting partials at different intervals to create those metallic overtones. As a result it can make sounds a dx7 never could. I dock 1 star for the awful itnerface. You can tell that Yamaha and Kawai were once the same company, really, when you try to deal with like aK5 or EX5, what are these guys thinking? I'm a smart guy but the time spent programming these monsters, even once proficient, is a total inspiration killer. The secret of these digital synths is to build patches for their own sake for days n on end, save everything and then use it as a rompler of your own signature sounds later.

yeah, must have

if you've got a jx3p or mks30 you need one of these.

this should be the greatest

This thing is a 90s/00s type of workstation with a great keyboard. It has all of yamaha's best digital synth engines from the SY77/99 workstations (AWM plus a full DX7II and a decent digital filter and nice spx90 type fx), the VL1 physical modelling engine, decent little poly sampler, a crazy next gen (for the time) fx suite on top of the 90s fx to morph patches further.... I mean, there's some cool fx in here like tornado.... AND the ability to mix match and modulate between timbral layers vector style or to use it as its own standalone work environment to make whole chunks of tunes. The keyboard is great! I want to love this as the sound engines are better than anything yamaha did before or since.

This thing weighs a ton. I had to get mine local pickup and I wish i had brought help with me to load it into my car. It has the most impenetrable user interface ever. I'm just starting to really decipher it and I can program a dx7 front panel no problem or handle a sy77 adequately.... but the 77 and 99 are better off with a software midi editor and so the more complex ex5 would benefit from one to unlock its full majesty.... but alas no. Can't find one. It does things no other synth can really do on paper and has stunning sound even by modern digital synth standards.... but I can often achieve close enough results with all manner of other synths. The next level features are tedious to access.

Further this thing suffers from periodic midi timing issues as slave! It wants to be your master clock source and master controller and while its a great keybed I don't want it as my master clock. AT home that's my DAW. Live performance that's from the drummer, synth percussionist whatever. At this point I'm patching and performing it by hand all the time. Patch loading on mine is SLOWER than an SY series. Haven't figured the sampler out yet..... I don't want to give it a bad review because its a really cool idea and I should spend more time with it just for sound design stuff, but the price ain't exactly low in the used market. I bought one with a broken high B and drove across town for it.

Way cooler than a motif or montage in the workstation game because its a REAL synthesizer (well, 3 or 4 real synths) made for serious sound designers. Skip if you want something plug n play and fun. And don't overpay. I don't know if my midi and patch/sample loading issues are inherent to the ex series or if I have a bad one (I mean, broken key).... but at this level of buy in for a minty one I would hesitate to do it over again.

Damn is this thing cool, even the presets really shine and few are dated, much like the 77 and 99 but deeper and sweeter.... and..... its a pain in my ass though and I swear its so heavy that if it spills off the stand it'll break through the 2nd floor into the living room!

This synth is a source of joy as well as frustration much like the SY workstations can be but with greater joy and deeper frustrations.

bets portable controller

full size key backpack controller.... USBm can use bus power, DIN midi.... needs dedicated pwoer supply for DIN only use OR DOES IT?! it can run off an older usb2 phone charger and it thinks its getting bus power. Yup. Pretty cool. Decent wheels and easy to use. Action is adequate. Feels a bit chintzy but its portable and light!

meh

not a scaled down spx90, but has a few tricks of its own,

good line mixer

nice line mixer for synths, have 2.... weird power supply and ground scheme geared to pro studios.... otherwise stellar.

get a pg200

I dock 1 star beause you must, MUST have a pg200 as another MIDI controller soaks up the sole MIDI input (ok with like a stereoping with thru) and may have limited functionality. Much safer to just get a pg200 as a good box of knobs that maps correctly and has thru will cost almost as much. Just get the real controller.

A jx3p in rack, but not quite, ahs some juno106 components in there and sounds a bit juno-ey too. Let me just say this synth sounds great, the chorus is great. Its squelchier and more inviting than the 8p I had briefly and it fits in a 19" rack so I'm somewhat less burried in keyboards :LOL! If you know the poly61 this mks30/jx3p is basically the same synth with a different tonal character.Beware the juno106 red goo of death. get one that's been serviced or elave budget to preemptively clean or replace the red voice chips.

A fine synthesizer with a bright and squelchy roland DCO sound and some real lushnesswith both socillators going and the chorus engaged.

a really big aLex on crack

see my review of the MX200, this is twice as powerful, same great Lexicon sound with modern ad/da of the smaller unit

a super aLex

This is like the old Alex budget multi effector with more engines, ins and outs and better conversion.... the aLex still sounds great in its own way though and I recommend both. For the price they are worth having even if you're a bedroom producer who never plays out. I have multiple aLexes and MX00s at this point. I scoop them up left and right for peanuts. Better sounding than comparable TC multi effects racks, particularly for reverbs. Although TC has interesting plates (gold, tin etc) thata re diffferent than the lexicon plates. If you want blade runner halls and plates look here though.Good to have both.

the MMT was the be all end all for decades

This was the easiest to use, most powerful loop sequencer on the planet and the used prices continue to be great. Loading up a song was time consuming but not as bad as an old sampler LOL Rock solid timing. All in all an excellent piece with a great itnerface. Just stellar. Overly large and ehavy even for the time but way cheaper than similar roland gear of its days.

the old workhorse

I have at long last retired the phatboy 2. It served me well. It was an excellently made controller though could be a bit finicky assigning CC parameters to synths like the mks50. Once you had it was great. For DAW work there's better stuff now with faders and recall. But at the time I got this it was sweet.

for what it is, its pretty cool.... and what is it? a curiosity from the 80s

This semi programmable home keyboard utilizes Casio's dual variable pulse synthesis and adds a (I think paraphonic) filter and some other user controls taking it beyond any other square wave analog board of my childhood. Nothing else sounds quite like this, the filter goes way bbeyond the preset fitler controls or variable tone knobs of other casios and the square waves have that atari console type sound. Nothing else can make these noises. Highly limited in capabilities and programmable parameters but great at its niche, the casio/atari thing at which it is the undisputed king (though there aren't a lot of contenders that have full size keys and programmability that I'm aware of). The keyboard is suprisingly good, as good as professional 80s synthesizers. These are rare but worth very little when they turn up in working condition. I think this was casio's attempt at a 'prosumer' board (like the HS60 version of the ju106 or the notorious hs80) but it leans more towards consumer than professional, still its a serviceable instument with a unique mix of sound engine and user control and if you see one you shoud snatch it up. At the least its a great home studio covnersation piece.

nothing beats a straight mexi p-bass for the casual bassist at this price point

acquired another used P-Bass awhile ago. mexican, late 90s I think based onthe serial... totally fine instrument stock. Great compliment to my candy apple red squier j bass which is really not such a bad j bass for having been a present from a client. I've played better basses but you can't beat low end fenders fr off the shelf, cost effective performance. Only a legit bassist needs more. Me? I'm guitar and keys and just need some stuff around to record. This works a treat.