My first real active monitors. Served me well for their entire stay. Except both of them broke. First one happened under warranty, which really never happens in real life, and the other one was fixed by my colleague and neighbour.
A really nice and full sound, when they work, don’t really need a subwoofer with theses ones. Sold them after Judgment Day
Originally bought only to function as a MIDI-to-CV-converter for the MS-20, with the added convenience of having an in-built monophonic analog synth with sound memories. I really don’t need this for the sounds, but it was cheaper than a Kenton Pro-Solo, so…
I ended up selling this to finance an analogue modular synthesizer.
Just when I thought I was going soft, I got the feeling that going all (or mostly) analog is probably the way I really want to go. At least for a while. I have to admit that there simply just is a totally different aura about a real analog synth, whether you can actually hear the difference compared to a virtual analog/soft synth or not. Just take my word for it.
OK, so this one is a definite winner. 16-part multitimbral, 16-voice polyphonic analog synth, combined with digital control: looping 7-stage envelopes, a modulation matrix where most things can control most other things (not everything, but close enough), and more details than you can master in quite some time. Pure love straight from the box, well, at least after a 10-15 minute warming up period. I tried it out by making a thick pad sound, and tried stacking 16 of them on top of each other, and I almost dislocated my ears from smiling so broadly. The user interface is absolutely great. Well laid-out, and you can get quite far with just the knobs and buttons, plus the sheer amount of parameters you can get to tweak in the menus is just so…big.
I feel very strongly for the Andromeda. I feel the same enthusiasm that I felt in 1998 when I got the Nord Modular. That’s a good thing. I like to think of the Andromeda as an investment for life. Ended up selling it to my friend, because I only used 5% of its capabilities, and that just felt so wrong. Still, a truly genius synth.
Obie was my only keyboard since I sold the Emax. I had planned to trade the K2600R for a 88-key version, but no-one seemed interested. So I got this one second-hand and pretty cheap. It has rather nice controller abilities, and I have configured the sliders to send the most relevant cc’s to my both my Virus and Pulse for added convenience. I planned to do this for all my synths, but the K2600, which really needs a more immediate interface, is a slight problem, as it does not have a standard set of cc’s for specific parameters, meaning I would have to go through my programs and do a lot of assigning, but I just can’t be bothered. Likewise, I was thinking of standardizing my Modular patches, but that also takes a lot of time. When the NM G2 comes out, it will most likely have a standard way of using cc’s on its factory patches, so I’ll just wait for that one and see what I can and will do. Meanwhile, this is a great keyboard with a good piano touch, and I see no reason to not keep it forever. It weighs a lot, but I don’t gig, so it’s of no concern. It even inspired me to take piano lessons. 30 years too late, but hey…I’ve attended regularly, twice now, one year apart. I’m a bit late from my third lesson…
I always wanted a drum machine. Took me 10 years to get one. I bought this during a period of newly found interest in pure analog sounding music (new John Foxx & Louis Gordon material, mostly), and boy was it worth the money! Extremely easy to use, wide range of possible sounds, and it’s just quite simply very inspiring and a load of fun to use.
Still, I ended up selling this (and other digital gear) to finance an analogue modular synthesizer. I have missed it already, and I will most likely buy another drum machine at some point. Not necessarily an MD, though.
I traded my Obie for this one, and the sample based layered architecture with the more-complex-than-average envelopes give me a first impression that this one excels as a pad machine for those long evolving Vangel-ish background pads. The factory sounds are so digital it almost makes me smile. Some sounds are very similar to the ones I had in my JX-1, so I almost feel like we’re old pals. Time will tell how much use it will see. The user interface is excellent, it almost feels analog in spirit. Every relevant parameter has a dedicated slider or button.
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.