Re: Thinking about buying my first synth...

glimmertwin · Post by **glimmertwin** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:40 am

dain wrote: that's kinda what i was thinking. the JX3 is an OK synth, but for that kinda money you have some options. the Juno 106 would IMHO sound a bit thicker but still give you midi and savable sounds and the JUNO60 would loose the midi but give you an even fatter sound. not necessarily "moog like" but definetly thicker than the JX3. the microkorg is a great synth but packed into a tiny space, and in the 400$ range you should be able to find an old MS2000 which will give you WAY more knobs, control and a full keyboard which is pretty nice. I'd still think pretty seriously about the junos though. other great poly synths in that range (or maybe a bit more) would be sequential circuits prophet 600, Korg Polysix, and i just saw a Korg MonoPoly go for 600$ which is an AMAZING synth.

don't get me wrong, the JX3p would be a great first synth, but for that much money you've got a LOT of options, especially if you wait around for good prices.

All good advice here - pretty much what I would advise too. I was watching that Mono/Poly auction too - have MAJOR G.A.S. for one. I have a feeling the prices on these start climbing soon - kinda surprised they haven't already. I had a bit of money to get a new synth but ended up buying a backstock Nord Wave so I would have the sampled instruments(including the Mellotrons) to use live in addition to the Nord Lead side of it. I came this close to saying screw the Wave, get a bunch of cheaper character synths and a mellotron sample set for the computer....in the end though my practical side got the better of me as I now can use the wave to serve as a synth, loop sampler, and provide decent EPs. I'm still looking around for things to sell to get a Korg Mono/Poly though...anyone want a DBA Octave Clang or a Kaoss Pad KP3?

jgs61 · Post by **jgs61** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:46 am

Thanks for the good tips! I've actually been looking for a decent drum machine to get... any ideas? I'm tempted to get the old analog stuff like a Hammond AV 64, Univox SR-120 and a Maestro. But I think I might get a BOSS DR-110... it seems a little more usable for now. I don't know much about triggering, but I've read the DR-110 has a dedicated output for triggering.

dain · Post by **dain** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:12 am

the trigger input on the roland can take audio too so you don't need anything specific.

these days your computer is probably the best drum machine ever built. i still love hardware synths but for sample playback nothing beats a cheapo computer with a maudio card these days. i just built the sound library for the new Akai preset drummachine and all i used was propellerheads reason, so even the hardware stuff is technically software!

here's a collection of vintage drum machine samples, pretty much every vintage piece has been sampled and archived to you should be able to find any sound you want these days...
http://hexawe.net/mess/200.Drum.Machines/

BenHagerty · Post by **BenHagerty** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:15 am

dain wrote: the trigger input on the roland can take audio too so you don't need anything specific.

these days your computer is probably the best drum machine ever built. i still love hardware synths but for sample playback nothing beats a cheapo computer with a maudio card these days. i just built the sound library for the new Akai preset drummachine and all i used was propellerheads reason, so even the hardware stuff is technically software!

here's a collection of vintage drum machine samples, pretty much every vintage piece has been sampled and archived to you should be able to find any sound you want these days...
http://hexawe.net/mess/200.Drum.Machines/

Thanks! I have been wanting to play around in reason again

jgs61 · Post by **jgs61** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:11 pm

dain wrote: the trigger input on the roland can take audio too so you don't need anything specific.

these days your computer is probably the best drum machine ever built. i still love hardware synths but for sample playback nothing beats a cheapo computer with a maudio card these days. i just built the sound library for the new Akai preset drummachine and all i used was propellerheads reason, so even the hardware stuff is technically software!

here's a collection of vintage drum machine samples, pretty much every vintage piece has been sampled and archived to you should be able to find any sound you want these days...
http://hexawe.net/mess/200.Drum.Machines/

Cool. I'll look into some software... that's a good idea. Reason seems to have a ton of stuff besides the drum machine. Is there any software that is just drum machines?

dain · Post by **dain** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:19 pm

there's tons of software out there, i just recommended reason because it seems to be the most "readily" available

here's one of my favorite versions of the 808 sounds pressed to tape.. and the 606 is pretty fun too if you'r looking for the old grungy machines
http://www.goldbaby.co.nz/freestuff.html

there's probably a freeware thing that just plays back samples.

Pingu · Post by **Pingu** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:19 pm

jgs61 wrote:
dain wrote: the trigger input on the roland can take audio too so you don't need anything specific.

these days your computer is probably the best drum machine ever built. i still love hardware synths but for sample playback nothing beats a cheapo computer with a maudio card these days. i just built the sound library for the new Akai preset drummachine and all i used was propellerheads reason, so even the hardware stuff is technically software!

here's a collection of vintage drum machine samples, pretty much every vintage piece has been sampled and archived to you should be able to find any sound you want these days...
http://hexawe.net/mess/200.Drum.Machines/
Cool. I'll look into some software... that's a good idea. Reason seems to have a ton of stuff besides the drum machine. Is there any software that is just drum machines?

Battery is pretty amazing. http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=battery

Pingu · Post by **Pingu** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:20 pm

And +1 on the goldbaby samples.

glimmertwin · Post by **glimmertwin** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:55 pm

Alternatively, if you don't want to deal with a computer much you can snag a used Electribe ESX drum machine of the bay or craigslist for a reasonable price. It has a slew of old drum machine samples on it and for what it doesn't have, you easily fly in whatever samples you want. I find it's a great all around hardware step/pattern drum machine.

jgs61 · Post by **jgs61** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 2:20 pm

glimmertwin wrote: Alternatively, if you don't want to deal with a computer much you can snag a used Electribe ESX drum machine of the bay or craigslist for a reasonable price. It has a slew of old drum machine samples on it and for what it doesn't have, you easily fly in whatever samples you want. I find it's a great all around hardware step/pattern drum machine.

The ones on ebay right now are out of my price range, but I'll be on the lookout. I'm leaning towards hardware... I'm not very computer literate and have had bad experiences with music software in the past. I can barely operate GarageBand.

I'm kind of digging the DR-110... small, cheap, simple.

We'll see... I'm still going to look at some more software.

shadowplay · Post by **shadowplay** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 2:42 pm

jgs61 wrote: What are some other cool, old analog synths that are cheap and simple? Some of the Juno's seem to fit this bill. Anything else?

Jens are a bargain and being Italian they are the Maserati of the synth world or is that Fiat! Mine only cost me ten or 15 quid plus a rubbish RAK pedal in the late DX7 period (with a wasp thrown in for free) but I doubt they are that cheap these days

Annoying man making annoying sounds

info

They come with card overlays which have preset sound indications for incredibly realistic brass, hammond, string and guitar simulation

glimmertwin · Post by **glimmertwin** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 3:00 pm

shadowplay wrote:
jgs61 wrote: What are some other cool, old analog synths that are cheap and simple? Some of the Juno's seem to fit this bill. Anything else?
Jens are a bargain and being Italian they are the Maserati of the synth world or is that Fiat! Mine only cost me ten or 15 quid plus a rubbish RAK pedal in the late DX7 period (with a wasp thrown in for free) but I doubt they are that cheap these days

Annoying man making annoying sounds

info

They come with card overlays which have preset sound indications for incredibly realistic brass, hammond, string and guitar simulation

...Dan Snaith(aka the band "Caribou") used a Jenn quite a bit on Andorra which is a pretty fantastic sounding album.

http://remixmag.com/artists/electronic/snaith_caribou/

mjet · Post by **mjet** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 3:30 pm

Good choice - with the PG-200 (pretty much essential) there is a lot of cool stuff to eek out of those.

There's a Polish guy who puts all kinds of cool demos on youtube - here's a few of his JX-3P offerings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgTyT_7neAs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9rAkqeBKGE

The guy's got quite a collection...

glimmertwin · Post by **glimmertwin** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 3:39 pm

Oh ya - that guy has crazy videos. I like the circuit board on the bottom right on the floor with the fan pointing at it. Tweaking is cool.

jgs61 · Post by **jgs61** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 3:45 pm

mjet wrote: Good choice - with the PG-200 (pretty much essential) there is a lot of cool stuff to eek out of those.

There's a Polish guy who puts all kinds of cool demos on youtube - here's a few of his JX-3P offerings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgTyT_7neAs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9rAkqeBKGE

I lost the casing hahaha

Those are good demos. I had only seen the second one before. Thanks!