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As of 2005 August, you can see no hardware synths left around as I record album "Desert Green".
Current Instruments (2007): Software:// Spectrasonics:
Stylus RMX, Atmosphere, Trilogy; Hardware:// Access: Virus TI Polar, Korg MicroKontrol & Prophecy,
I really like this controller very much. Probably it is the best compact midi controller yet, with convincing synth action keys, nice feeling knobs and sliders, extended height Roland style Mod lever. It has USB connector so that you don't need midi cable to connect to computer, it is also powered from computer when connected via USB, no need for a power adapter. (although a power supply is included in the package.) --- Keys started to die after two years of moderate use.
This is a peculiar, really awesome module! The history is hidden in this guy, and some future as well ;-) Very wide range of beautiful waveforms! Like a goldmine of core waveforms from vintage analog synths to wavetable, granular to vector synthesis to work with. Everything is here, Mellotron, beautiful real acoustic strings sections, K5000 sparklings, my favorite PPG and VS bells, many JP-8, CS80, Indigo etc sounds, stock choir samples, strings machines and many unheard sounds and ambiances! And the synth section is cool too, thanks to the engine by UVI. Lovely filter quality and lots of modulation possibilities. The ability to offset sample start time is a big bonus for dynamic sound variations. And CPU efficiency... People say that it equals to Absynth. On my system it spends the less CPU power with the same polyphony, maybe closer to Pro53, which means it is really economic on CPU. *Spectrasonic instruments are based on a custom UVI engine which is great! Forthcoming sampler (Mach5) from MOTU will also use a similar engine from UVI. I bet that it will be a real winner!
Stylus is both a drum module and groove module which comes with many drum loops with sliced waveforms and midi data. I've never worked with preprogrammed loops so far but there is a huge set of single drum sounds for creating your loops from scratch. Sliced loop sets are also great for custom loops. Easy on CPU.
And an other WOW! Note that I'm an electronica musician, Acoustic Bass patches sound to me nothing less than real! I can't ever point out that these sounds are not performed by a real bass player in a musical context. Electric Basses are also super real and there is a great variety. And Synth Basses: There is a great number of patches and source waveforms from wide range of analog and digital synths, including CS80, Minimoog, OSCar, Juno106, SH101, Arp2600, etc. And the filter is great so that you can shape the sound with great flexibility. Stir in some chorus/flangers, you can create killer analog leads, seq sounds, etc as well. Legato mode is great and glide is very smooth and authentic. It surpasses VA in some areas, especially having so many different oscilator sounds from many analog legends in one synth module with very good filters is cool! A single monophonic patch spends 1% of my CPU! The only thing that I missed here is the ability to assign velocity or an lfo to sample start offset, so that especially the simple analog waves would sound more dynamic when two oscilators are detuned. Anyway you can currently control it with a knob from your controller keyboard.
Wonderland for the synth freakheads. I use it only for designing my own simple analog synth models and I couldn't feel more comfortable with any of the non-modular analog modeling VSTi's around. The truth is, the sound and design possibilities are endless with this software, but I recommend you not to dive too much inside, or you will probably get lost! :)
I use Prophecy mainly as a keyboard controller for more expressive parts. Yet it can synthesize some cool sounds a la Korg Z1 in monophonic and good for sampling. Check the Z1 review below for more info about the sound and MOSS.
Triton is like a Porche without an engine. It has been built with many luxury specs. like giant touch-screen, lots of knobs, ribbon pad, lots of EFX processors, good sequencer, etc.... But it can't seriosly synthesize a sound. It is more like a tone player. It supports only a lo-pass type filter with resonance and its character is quite artifical and unpretty. At high reso settings, it can self-oscilate, theorically. But it sounds more like a second sinus oscilator that fakes self oscilation and there is no resonance that can be heard at high cutoff settings. Quite dull and dark! And what drives me crazy that it only have two oscilators on each program! You can't even create two oscilator + a sub oscilator sounds without layering programs. It has no exciting synth resources like Ring Mod, Cross Mod, etc, like the Roland JV line has. IMO, Triton even can't synthesize good pad sounds, it just plays some good pad samples. Beside this Triton is quite good in more Rock, Jazz and R&B type sounds. You can create very satisfying guitars, epianos, brasses, basses, organs etc with it. And the luxury EFX processor adds much to the sound. But I prefer a real sampler for this type of work. Probably Triton is better for the stage than it is in the studio. Anyway, if you look for a synth for creating your own warm, evolving, bold, rough, etc. sounds don't make the mistake I'd done... Even having the Vintage Archive and Studio Essentials boards didn't help.
A unique sound from a slow interface. What I like about the Z1 was the dynamic metalic bells, evolving spectrum-like noises/pads and funky clavi/guitar like sounds that it could synthesize. Its analog modeling sounds have a bit cold metallic feeling with them, which I didn't like much. Anyway, I would keep the Z1 as it could synthesize sounds that no other synth could, its user interface was very slow and too much complicated with lots of menus and submenus.... It would be nice to get lost in it while creating good sounds, but it is not easy to create goods sounds with it as there are too many parameters. It is not fun to use! And it is so slow that when you change a program, you have to wait about 2 seconds to have Z1 ready for the next program. You wonder the acoustic modelling sounds? The brasses and guitars can be very expressive if you learn to play them the correct way. The winds are OK and the bowed strings oscilators are a joke! Anyway, Z1 has one of the most powerful synthesizer engines coming in a single box, as well as the monophonic Prophecy from Korg. It is a bit shame that both didn't evolve into something new and both are discontinued but they still live in MOSS board for Triton. MOSS still has great sound creation potential for future.
Almost everybody knows what JV can do... I'll tell why I sold it. Definitely JV's synthesizing capabilities are much better than Triton, it is not as good as a JD when it comes to the filter character. And just one reverb, one chorus and one insert EFX is not enough on a workhorse synth! The small LCD screen is too unpractical to work with when you got used to the bigger ones on the JD and Z1. And JD has individal 3 band EQs on each patch, and you don't lose them in multi-mode which means you have 8 EQs on multi mode. Which is very important, IMO. You can dramatically change and polish a sound with an EQ. JV is not as good as a Triton when it comes to acoustic simulations, though (without help from the Expansion Board). Perhaps I'd keep the JV if it was a 2080. My main reason to sell it was the small LCD that makes it two to three times longer to program it.
I had used it as a controller and a sound source until 1998. And that funny mouse controller was made of two knobs plugged directly into the two pedal inputs of the JV. It really worked! :)
Midi controller of emergency times. Very handy to have one in every studio.
Fun toy. Battery eater.
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