Sounds like loads of fun deciphering the old EVS-1 sysex and parameter formats. Its always so good when these are documented well!
. o O ( cough cough )
May I suggest that you leave that slot in your setup open for a while? Instead just use what you got and make notes whenever you are making music what you miss having in your setup. You may call it your dream slot. In this way you actually try out your setup in practice and gain hands on experience with how it work for your musical goals.
Such an approach is not new. Digital's good old System Research Center did just that. Well, except that they build full operating systems or large components thereof to determine how they were to work with. Pretty cool place!
With the patience in place its worth considering two additional approaches: (1) rolling studio updates and (2) multiple synthesizers on the shelf to pick whenever their particular sound are needed. I can easily see multiple smaller machines that could be useful in some cases for your projects. Why not keep them and simply bring them into your setup when they are needed?
Good points... I've had like thoughts myself from time to time... I actually have two slots left, since I decided to get rid of my Pulse 2 again... the problem is not the sound (definitely not!), but that it's a monosynth... these can be used in Ambient music for sure, but they are not as useful as polyphonic ones, ESPECIALLY because I've decided to record MIDI live, and not do harddisk recording... the reason for this is, that for every layer you HD record, you record the same amount of noise from the mixer, and it all add up to a point, where quiet passages has clear noise in them... I HATE that to be honest, and Ambient does have quiet passages from time to time... it is especially the reverb unit that is the culprit, since it takes the noise, and reverberates it making it even worse... if I do live MIDI recording, the noise is only present ONCE, no matter haw many channels I use, and even lower when I mute channels I do NOT use.
So because of this, I need the eight synths stereo channels I decided to have (max), synths that are as flexible as possible, and preferably ones that can do more than one trick, and play polyphonic (because if only ONE synth does drums for example, then that particular synth will do that every single time, ind will not be used for other types of sounds, which is a waste I think)... but still be unique enough to warrant my interest, and have plenty of free presets for my Ambient genre... yes! ... I am VERY demanding, I know!
So I get your point.... wait... which is not my biggest skill I admit
... the point here is, as you say; what I need... instead of what I want. the two need not be the same you know
... so I've had the thought of just letting them two channels be open, and start making music... then I'll certainly find out what I fell that I NEED, rather than what I want.
But one thing is pretty clear now, that I need... I need something that will allow me to take in samples of strange vocals, sound effects etc. especially for the Dark Ambient style I also want to create... and that means I will have to find a sampler of sorts... the V-Synth XT that I got is not very much geared for multi-timbral use, and the management of samples is cumbersome to work with... not at all intuitive enough for me... so I guess I'm having thoughts about getting an E-MU E5000/6400 again soon, to take care of all things vocal, effects, percussion etc... this machine is the only one I've ever had that has the intuitiveness I need of a sampler... I hate the SCSI connectivity, but I'll just have to live with that... now is the problem of finding one at a good price
The last slot in my mixer will just stay open for whatever will tickle my GAS later on.... I know DSI will produce something at some point... Waldorf most likely too...