Nothing much to say here. My trusty MIDI interface until it broke down. Usually worked like a charm, but occasionally it would lock up. But nothing a reboot wouldn’t fix.
The original virtual analog Virus became my wet dream having used the Modular for a few years and wanting analog sounds and multitimbrality in the same box. This is a seriously capable machine, and the guys at Access keep making it better all the time. Getting this one pretty much set me up in the VA department; several other VA’s I had considered just don’t interest me anymore. This is also a synth for which you find excellent patches on the net, which is both a blessing and a curse. Much of my time was spent auditioning and playing around with others patches, instead of creating my own. This is something I must consciously try to avoid.
I ended up selling this (and other digital gear) to finance an analogue modular synthesizer.
I needed a small mixer to combine synths and computer outputs for normal non-music making use, and this one fit the bill perfectly. Quite noisy, but that doesn’t really matter, as I don’t record through it.
This one replaced my Akai S2000 as a “sample-based instrument”. It is not strictly speaking a sampler, as I don’t have the sampling option installed, but it imports wav files, which makes all the difference. The V.A.S.T. synthesis is extremely flexible, but it’s also a very non-analog editing process. The Nord Modular got me into knobs and real-time editing, so in contrast, editing the Kurz is far from inspiring. The editing interface itself is very good, but it’s just another menu-based, enter-parameter-value-kind of interface with endlessamounts of parameters. Getting Sound Diver, however, has me programming this one much more than I used to. I like this machine a lot, and apart from the very digital nature of it, it is quite irreplacable in my rack. I’d say it’s the “sampler equivalent” of the Nord Modular, slightly exaggerated. Internally, it has loads of samples, ranging from standard analog-ish sine & square waves and the like, to straight sampled acoustic instruments. These building blocks combined with the V.A.S.T. modular approach and layering makes it one powerful mutha which can basically sound like anything. I find the sound to be a bit sterile, though, but all in all, this one is a keeper. And it should be, as it cost an arm and a leg. My only regret is that I didn’t get the 88-key version, which in comparison would only have cost a few extra fingers or so. Technically, it runs a risk of begin replaced by software some day, but given the amount of usable sounds I’ve got for it, I don’t think that will happen too soon. Internal hard drive installed for extra convenience, as a result of my Zip disk breaking down taking a bunch of sounds with it. And I thought I had learned something about the importance of backing up data.
My first real analog (DCO as opposed to VCO) I ever did anything with (the Korg really doesn’t count). Monophonic. Very simple Waldorfian interface, which all things considered is rather ok. As most people, I would prefer a knob for each parameter, but given the sound and price, the 6-knob UI can be forgiven. Making sounds with this is really easy: twist a knob and hear the sound change. Repeat until satisfied. Very different editing than on, say, the Kurz. Excellent machine. At some point I considered getting another one, but that would have been a bit silly. The bass on this one is, and the output is quite hot. This one moves walls, unless you’re careful.
Of course, selling the Octapad gave rise to a need for something else to kick the hit out of. In early 2002, I scraped together a bunch of old stuff I I didn’t need (CD’s, DVD’s, a PC, and the Akai S2000), sold them, and got the money to buy the DTXpress drum set. I had barely touched a drum set before, so the incentive was more learning than anything else. For that purpose, the set is quite adequate. The rubber pads are a bit noisy (I’ve moved to a house since, so it’s not a real problem this time), and so is the sound module itself. I didn’t really use the sounds, but just the pads to trigger my other synths, mainly the K2600 and the Machinedrum.
Although I think hardware interfaces in general are keepers, I got rid of the set mostly due to the space it occupied in relation to the time spent playing with it. I will most likely get a smaller pad thing to replace it at a later point.
I have mixed feelings about this one. The user interface is the best so far; the beforementioned one knob for each parameter pretty much sums it up. Truly inspiring. But there was something about the sound which just didn’t do it for me. Having fiddled with it for almost a year, I came to the conclusion that it didn’t do much that I couldn’t accomplish with my other gear. That, and the fact that I never recorded anything with it, lead me to trade it for a Roland JD-800. Time will tell if I will regret getting rid of it (Time has now told me I don’t).
As a side note, Obie and the Pulse contain similar sets of, well, synth circuitry (Obie’s being virtual, naturally), and as Obie has one slider or knob per relevant function, it was dead easy to set it up to control the Pulse. Never before, or after, has my Pulse been that easy to use. I’d almost go on record saying that this one was worth it’s price even if you never used it as anything else than a dedicated MIDI controller. Doing this, obviously, felt like a waste of potential, so I still got rid of it. Would be interesting to gut the thing, and install the Pulse into it somehow. That would be a killer synth!
When the EZ-drive broke down I didn’t really feel like buying more of the same. when something breaks down on you, you tend to get a bit careful. But I needed a SCSI-Drive for my samples, and Zip-drives seemed to be all the rage. So I got one. And when that broke down, I got another one. And when that one broke down, still another one. Apart from it breaking down constantly, it was a real joy.
My hands and feet are constantly drumming. My ex-next-desk neighbour at the office constantly used to tell my leg to shut up, as his monitor kept jumping up and down. The logical thing for me to do was to get something that, when drummed, actually would result in something useful. The Octapad is a nice concept, but I didn’t keep this for the simple fact that it was very noisy; drumming it sounded like drumming a plastic bucket, and considering I lived in a block of flats at the time I got this, I just didn’t feel comfortable using it.
The first external effect I ever bought. Also turned out to be the last external effect I ever bought, as effects turned out to work pretty well inside the box. Really great sound, this one has. At one time I used its S/PDIF connection as a digital recording interface to my SoundBlaster card: I would route the audio to be recorded into the MPX and it would be transferred digitally to the computer. Or, later, the Akai S-2000.
Later, it became part of my modular rig, but as I never really used it, I sold it.