Razmo's Gear Rant Thread...

[chysn]

The drums has to be a flexible drummachine, because the thing needs to be entirely selfcontained, as it will be on an AUX return on the mixer...

You should totally get a Volca Beats because it's the Best Drum Machine Ever Made*. If you need stereo, get two, they're cheap, and you can pan each voice with the part level controls.

I still need to find one more synth for my last two mixer slots, one mono, one stereo.

If you want my advice--which, why would you, I just advised you to get two Volcas Beats--just sit on those slots until something moves you. You've got a pretty good variety of stuff now.

* As long as you open it up and solder in a capacitor for the snare. If you don't do that, it's the Crappiest Drum Machine Ever Made.

[Paul Dither]

You should totally get a Volca Beats because it's the Best Drum Machine Ever Made*. If you need stereo, get two, they're cheap, and you can pan each voice with the part level controls.

* As long as you open it up and solder in a capacitor for the snare. If you don't do that, it's the Crappiest Drum Machine Ever Made.

Well, I'd say even without the snare mod. What doesn't make it crappy either way are the automations you can simply record with the step sequencer.

[chysn]

Well, I'd say even without the snare mod. What doesn't make it crappy either way are the automations you can simply record with the step sequencer.

Yeah, the "Crappiest" comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but with a modded snare it's just killer. Also, it plays nicely with everything. DAW? Evolver? MicroBrute? Mother-32? Eurorack? Beats is all, "Yeah, I'll talk to that thing."

[Paul Dither]

Well, I'd say even without the snare mod. What doesn't make it crappy either way are the automations you can simply record with the step sequencer.

Yeah, the "Crappiest" comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but with a modded snare it's just killer. Also, it plays nicely with everything. DAW? Evolver? MicroBrute? Mother-32? Eurorack? Beats is all, "Yeah, I'll talk to that thing."

That's true. I've made a drum rack for mine in Ableton and usually play it via Push 2. I think the best sounding part of it is in fact the bass drum.

[Razmo]

Thanks for the tip, but the Beats is not flexible enough... I'm going to do Ambient percussion (even if it's rare), and thus needs lots of weird sounds, and reverb is the absolute critical part of this, as well as delay FX... if I did not need that, I'd actually be looking into the Tempest again, now that DSI has finally moved their asses to get it fixed, though I'd never get one until 100% sure the bugs is fixed.

And yes... I am sitting on those last two slots until something pop up... the only machine I'm hot on at the moment, is a Yamaha TX-802 for getting some serious FM going in my arsenal, and with more than 15.000 free sounds, it would fit my criteria well... but I really would like and see, if Yamaha release a Montage Rack before taking that decission... also I know Dave will come up with something I'll crave at some point, and want to save it for that... I've got this crazy feeling he might pop up some day with a new Wavestation like synth ,maybe even with sample capabilities, and I'd REALLY like to see this 

When it comes to that last mono-slot... well... not many options if you want polyphony or full MIDI specs... it has to be MOOG I guess... Maybe an Ambika (or Tubika as they're called now)... Maybe it will even be something modular... Don't know yet.

[chysn]

the only machine I'm hot on at the moment, is a Yamaha TX-802 for getting some serious FM going in my arsenal, and with more than 15.000 free sounds, it would fit my criteria well...

TX-802 was one of the first synths I ever used; my college had a TX-802 and an M1. The TX-802 is great. 8-part multi-timbral (configurable in groups of two voices, if I remember right), very clean.

When it comes to that last mono-slot... well... not many options if you want polyphony or full MIDI specs... it has to be MOOG I guess... Maybe an Ambika (or Tubika as they're called now)... Maybe it will even be something modular... Don't know yet.

I wasn't going to mention modular, as I know of your strong preference for tons of MIDI control. If you're willing to give up some of that, it can be very rewarding. A lot of unexpected things happen.

[Razmo]

the only machine I'm hot on at the moment, is a Yamaha TX-802 for getting some serious FM going in my arsenal, and with more than 15.000 free sounds, it would fit my criteria well...

TX-802 was one of the first synths I ever used; my college had a TX-802 and an M1. The TX-802 is great. 8-part multi-timbral (configurable in groups of two voices, if I remember right), very clean.

When it comes to that last mono-slot... well... not many options if you want polyphony or full MIDI specs... it has to be MOOG I guess... Maybe an Ambika (or Tubika as they're called now)... Maybe it will even be something modular... Don't know yet.

I wasn't going to mention modular, as I know of your strong preference for tons of MIDI control. If you're willing to give up some of that, it can be very rewarding. A lot of unexpected things happen.

Yeah... I had the 802 a loooong time ago... also had the TX7 and DX7 make II... 802 is basicaly a DX7 mkII in rack format, and the difference and reason it sounds so clean is that it use 16 bit converters, instead of 12bit as the DX/TX7 does... it's a nice box, but the free patches is where it really shines because FM synthesis is a pain to program... even with editors. I'll see what will end up on that last stereo slot in my mixer... will probably want to wait for something completely different and new from DSI, as my Nord Modular is more than capable of doing serious sounding FM sounds.

About the modular thing... I actualy do not care for the MIDI specs missing, if it's just ONE synth we're talking about... the problem is if ALL synths had no memories and MIDI specs because then I'd have to meticulously edit every darn sound from scratch every time, which is too counter intuitive for my liking... I love to sit and tweak a non-midi analog synth to begin with in a project, but when I have dialed something nice up, I want to be able to quickly add other sounds to this, and then having to dial in a new analog would make me crazy

So a single modular would not be bad, or just another single-analog-synth maybe... but I would never end up with a wall of modular gear... don't have the money, don't have the space, don't have the patience for huge loads of wire spaghetti either

I actualy just decided to not get a looper anyway as I talked about earlier... I think I've found what I'm looking for, for sample manipulation: Roland VP-9000 .. .basicaly the sample part of the V-synth I'd say, without all the unnecessary VA synthesis and other gimmicks... will be perfect for loading in strange voices, acoustic sounds sources, rain, thunder and other nature FX... drones etc... now I just have to find one

[BobTheDog]

Theres one on eBay now: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/roland-vp-9000-/112010132702?hash=item1a1452fcde:g:XpcAAOSwt7pXM0uq

230 quid, seems like a bargain.

[Razmo]

Theres one on eBay now: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/roland-vp-9000-/112010132702?hash=item1a1452fcde:g:XpcAAOSwt7pXM0uq

230 quid, seems like a bargain.

Yes, I already saw this, and will buy it tomorrow if it's still there

[Razmo]

Well... I bought it today anyway, so that VP-9000 is now on it's way... 

Looking forward to messing with that sampler... I absolutely hate setting up multisamples, so I'm happy with this.

[BobTheDog]

Good Move, I was going to have it if you didn't go for it.

[Razmo]

Good Move, I was going to have it if you didn't go for it.

There are two more on sale, but from Japan, and 110volts... and the freight alone is rather expensive... I hope another pops up for you someday ... it seems like an awesome machine, as long as you are aware of it's weaknesses:

1. only 6 voice polyphony... only 3 when using stereo samples!
2. it has no envelopes at all, only a crude "fade in/out" parameter for the samples

this makes it a bit less useful for creating "instruments"... I don't even think it has any filters either... so you are 100% dependent on "what's in the sample itself".... I guess it's best described as a phrase sampler, but that is exactly what I need, and JUST that! ... it has full MIDI specs, so I'm able to create an editor for it in SoundDiver as well (though I cannot handle the samples themselves, but that's ok).

It will primarily be used for vocals, acoustic sound stuff anyway, so this is perfect... only two units high, compared to the V-Synth XT with 3U.

It is a niche instrument for sure... but it does what I need... now I'm off to see, if my box with old SIMMs should perhaps hold four 32MB RAM modules to get it expanded to 136MB

[BobTheDog]

Really the only reason I wanted it was that you posted here and I had a look which led to the "mmm I could get that" idea.

The Varios is another one I would be interested in, nearly got one of those off eBay more than once.

The main thing that keeps me away from old roland gear is that they stop talking to computers after a while and keeping around an old Machine/OS or using a VM just gets in the way for me.

Still I do like the Varios/Variphase stuff so who knows...

[Razmo]

Really the only reason I wanted it was that you posted here and I had a look which led to the "mmm I could get that" idea.

The Varios is another one I would be interested in, nearly got one of those off eBay more than once.

The main thing that keeps me away from old roland gear is that they stop talking to computers after a while and keeping around an old Machine/OS or using a VM just gets in the way for me.

Still I do like the Varios/Variphase stuff so who knows...

I looked at the VariOS as well... but as you say, it's pretty much mingled up in software, and I do not want to go down that route with old gear as well, so I fully understand you. Also, it's very important to me, that the machine can actualy sample from both digital and analog inputs... VariOS cannot sample as far as I've understood, and is more geared towards sequencing, though it CAN be used standalone I've read.

VP-9000 has both analog inputs, a mic input on the front and both optical and coaxial inputs as well... the VP-9000 is simply just a more hardware packaged thing than VariOS in my opinion.

Yes... there is two programes called V Producer, and V Trainer ... that could prove useful, but they are not needed in my case... I'll be sampling the sounds I need directly from either analog or digital inputs as I go along with a project... this allow me to create a sample library on the computer, and just play them back thru my soundcard's digital output, and thus record them on the VP-9000... then everything can be saved to either ZIP or external SCSI harddisk as a single performance.

One thing I do NOT want to start with, is incorporating SCSI to my PC again... that was what I hated with my E-MU sampler... VP-9000 must work stand alone completely...

[BobTheDog]

SCSI, enough to make me shiver!

I have an E6400 Ultra here that I failed to get working with a SCSI/USB solution so I installed an Icy Dock removable hard disk into it, then I have another dock via usb to the computer that the removable drive fixes into. I spent ages getting it all working and still don't use the bloody thing as programming it from the front panel is as much fun as bashing my head against the wall!

[chysn]

I used to have a bank of SCSI drives when I had a Kurzweil K2000. The drives were third-party drives made for original Macintosh computer, so they stacked up nicely and looked cool. For an early-90s setup, it seemed pretty fast.

[Razmo]

SCSI, enough to make me shiver!

I have an E6400 Ultra here that I failed to get working with a SCSI/USB solution so I installed an Icy Dock removable hard disk into it, then I have another dock via usb to the computer that the removable drive fixes into. I spent ages getting it all working and still don't use the bloody thing as programming it from the front panel is as much fun as bashing my head against the wall!

Yeah... just getting it to send samples via SCSI was a nightmare when I had my E6400 Ultra... strange old drivers, snatched from some obscure older XP version was needed, along with ATAPI drivers and other strange things... hated it to be honest.

It's funny though, because actualy the ultra's display interface is the only one on any synth/sampler I have ever liked to use because I find it very intuitive and easy to use... knew it very very well since I have had that sampler since 1998 and until recently... pretty many years... but the SCSI communication was horrible... that is also why the VP-9000 will NOT be connected directly to my PC...

[Paul Dither]

Thanks for the tip, but the Beats is not flexible enough... I'm going to do Ambient percussion (even if it's rare), and thus needs lots of weird sounds, and reverb is the absolute critical part of this, as well as delay FX... if I did not need that, I'd actually be looking into the Tempest again, now that DSI has finally moved their asses to get it fixed, though I'd never get one until 100% sure the bugs is fixed.

What about this one? http://www.waldorf-music.info/en/hardware-archive/rack-attack

[Razmo]

Thanks for the tip, but the Beats is not flexible enough... I'm going to do Ambient percussion (even if it's rare), and thus needs lots of weird sounds, and reverb is the absolute critical part of this, as well as delay FX... if I did not need that, I'd actually be looking into the Tempest again, now that DSI has finally moved their asses to get it fixed, though I'd never get one until 100% sure the bugs is fixed.

What about this one? http://www.waldorf-music.info/en/hardware-archive/rack-attack

Had that one twice before 

It's certainly capable, has full MIDI specs that work, and sound quite allright actualy... yes... it could be that again... If I will ever find one... they are not very often for sale here in Denmark.

But honestly... the type of percussion I need for Ambient music is quite different to what I'm used to... many of the synths I need is, which I'm beginning to realize, and thus I'm changing what I use... I actualy think, that the percussion I'll be using in the future, will be more acoustic/organic sounding... I've decided to go for both samples and loops, heavily processed and mangled beyond recognition... I really don't think that neither Tempest or Rack Attack would be the best choice... rather samples, mangled in VP-9000, and maybe a KORG Wavedrum Global or something similar..

In other words... I'm not fully certain yet, and I think I'll wait getting a drummachine until I'm a bit more certain about what I really need.

[Paul Dither]

Thanks for the tip, but the Beats is not flexible enough... I'm going to do Ambient percussion (even if it's rare), and thus needs lots of weird sounds, and reverb is the absolute critical part of this, as well as delay FX... if I did not need that, I'd actually be looking into the Tempest again, now that DSI has finally moved their asses to get it fixed, though I'd never get one until 100% sure the bugs is fixed.

What about this one? http://www.waldorf-music.info/en/hardware-archive/rack-attack

Had that one twice before 

It's certainly capable, has full MIDI specs that work, and sound quite allright actualy... yes... it could be that again... If I will ever find one... they are not very often for sale here in Denmark.

But honestly... the type of percussion I need for Ambient music is quite different to what I'm used to... many of the synths I need is, which I'm beginning to realize, and thus I'm changing what I use... I actualy think, that the percussion I'll be using in the future, will be more acoustic/organic sounding... I've decided to go for both samples and loops, heavily processed and mangled beyond recognition... I really don't think that neither Tempest or Rack Attack would be the best choice... rather samples, mangled in VP-9000, and maybe a KORG Wavedrum Global or something similar..

In other words... I'm not fully certain yet, and I think I'll wait getting a drummachine until I'm a bit more certain about what I really need.

I see. The Korg Wavedrum would have been the next one on my mind too.