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KORG MS-20 [2004 – ]

I saw one for sale in my own home town. I haven’t previously even seen one for sale in my home country, so I thought this would be a great chance to get a real classic analog synth and actually get to test it before buying, instead of having to wait for the postman for two weeks while wondering what he actually might be bringing. Of course, when I contacted the seller, it was already sold. I happened to chek out the German eBay, only to notice there were a bunch of these up for grabs. The one I gave the winning bid on (and which was located in Switzerland) was almost 300 euro cheaper than the one for sale locally, plus I got a friend of mine to bring it to me along with the rest of his stuff when he moved back to Finland. 

It’s a “half-modular” synth, meaning that there’s the standard hardwired signal path, which you control with knobs, and then there are patch points in the signal path where you can insert physical cords to redirect the signal, just like in a modular system. This makes it really versatile and a fun sound creating tool. The patch points obviously allow you to patch in signals from other sound sources as well. This one appears to be a real screamer. I expect to have a lot of fun with it. Haha.

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SEQUENTIAL CIRCUITS PRO-ONE [2004 – ]

This kind of sneaked up on me. It somehow “just happened”. I completely fell for it. I just had to have it. So here it is. eBay is dangerous.

In search for pure simplicity, this one isn’t quite there yet, as it has an analog modulation matrix-y thingie which kind of makes it “advanced”. It’s a monophonic analog synth, said to be the little brother of the Mighty Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, as in its one voice is exactly the same as one voice of the Prophet-5, but being monophonic, it’s obviously very different from the Prophet-5. This feels very straightforward; Vince used it (and reportedly nothing else) for Only You, and that’s precisely how it sounds. Extremely good for those warm bass synth sounds as well as leads and arpeggios. Really solid stuff.

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STUDIO ELECTRONICS SE-1 [2004 – 2006]

Hardware bundles are so much more fun than software bundles. This one “came with” the BassStation, as in I bought it on eBay from the same guy during the same day. According to the documentation on the Net, it was originally built to “emulate” the Minimoog, so I figured this was a great way to get to know the Minimoog, as it were, without actually having one. Being a modern digitally controlled synth with an analog signal path (in that sense much like the Pulse or the Andromeda), this one sounds great (obviously), and it has some nice digital advantages in the form of memories and quite decent signal routing options: assignable envelopes, LFO’s and so on. 

I did have some weird problems with it; it just stopped working for a couple of weeks, and then after a while it just stopped not working. Now it’s fine. My only gripe with it now is that its output levels are quite low compared to the rest of my gear. Other than that, a really nice and simple machine.

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NOVATION BASSSTATION [2004 – 2005]

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. 

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ALESIS A6 ANDROMEDA [2004 – 2019]

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.

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ROLAND JD-800 [2003 – 2013]

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.

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ACCESS VIRUS C [2002 – 2005]

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. 

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KURZWEIL K2600R [2001 – ]

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.

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WALDORF PULSE [2002 – ]

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.

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OBERHEIM OB-12 [2002 – 2003]

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!

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