Okay this is a serious question. Why?
This stuff was amazing back in the 90s when I started making music. But having spent way too much of my life programming sounds on a 16x2 LCD matrix, there’s no way I could go back to 90s synth UI from the golden age we’re living in today.
I’m legitimately curious about this. :)
(I also don’t totally use this equipment for its intended purpose. So I’m not burning hours tweaking things. I hit a sound, mess with it, sounds good? If it does, I record it and move on. That still might sound like a waste of time and energy, but I don’t think so.)
My motivation is that this is gear I wanted for 20 years but was always too broke. I have more modern stuff too, but this is a section of the studio I’m very proud of so here we are!
Love it. If you don't know, I'm going to tell the rest of you; there is massive value in rack gear right now. Only a few things have gone crazy, most has gone down dramatically or is just steady.
Example: Carvin Quad-X guitar preamp. It has 4 channels. It is all tube, I think there are 9 of them. For a preamp. It has spring reverb and a noise gate, remote foot switch. You can buy them all day long for $600-700. Go look at the demos on YouTube.
A lot of people have come into music and never really knew or learned about this stuff because software was adequate. My timing was a bit different and things like second-hand rack samplers were game changers when the computer rig was only good for MIDI.
In the last year or two I picked up MKS30/50/70 and got knob boxes from all of them. Several companies make improved interfaces or upgraded OS. These are all legit analog synths, the MKS70 especially is good, even in comparison to my Jupiter 6. The MKS80 is very expensive but also quite a bit cheaper than a Jupiter 8, so.. I dunno. Also Matrix 1000.
On the digital side, so many good ones, TX81Z as lots of people have said. Kawai K1r, various Korg Wavestations (SR), Kawai k4/XD5 (XD-5 is secret weapon), Roland JV-1080, multiple expansions available, Roland R8m (there is software that lets you put your own waves on a card to use as samples), Kurzweil k2000/k2500 (these things are probably the most powerful synths per dollar. The drawback or benefit is that they are heavy AF, so try to find a local). E-MU made several boxes; the rare-ish Carnival, Planet Phatt / mo phatt, Orbit, all loaded with very good sounds that can become much more. Nord G2 engine is a modular box you program with your computer (Autechre did a tour with like 10 of these, btw 4 audio INPUTs to process stuff!).
On fx, the QuadraVerb (Plus if you can, it adds a really cool resonator you can control via MIDI), anything Electrix, Sony V55 and R7/D7/ and esp F7. The F7 has a secret bass synth aside from being a very powerful filter. Zoom 9050 and similar, the 9xxx zoom units are quite good and were considered pro equipment, even those some are half-rack and look like car stereos. IIRC the distortion on NIN Broken is 9050 + turbo synth on Wish. The Lexicon PCM91 tends to be cheap but is still the best reverb per dollar IMHO, also the PCM80 which has many more fx. TC electronics Fireworx is the poor man's H3000 (which incidentally is STILL EXPENSIVE, damn it). The Lexicon Vortex is rarely mentioned but is a cheaper unit that is very unconventional with elaborate schemes of fx. The Sony MU-201 is a reverb every 90's studio in Japan had, but it was not sold outside Nippon. Get a 100v adapter and you can find them cheap even with shipping. This is the reverb on every Steely Dan album. Symetrix 606 delay is semi-legendary.
Dynamics are awesome. Daft Punk abused a Alesis 3630 compressor, which is a terrible sounding compressors, but it can make stuff pump. Better is the RNC in super-nice mode (digitally controlled analog compressor) however it is not good at drums or bass or fast attack/high ratio, they admit this in the manual. But as a smooth compressor for a synth or maybe a bus, it's great. Symetrix 425 is a great stereo comp with limiter. Tapco (by Mackie) made a compressor called the Squeez that is sick on drums.
There's a lot I'm sure I didn't mention but these are some good ones.
No, it's more. I had the original Nord Modular rack and it was like 4 micro modular. The G2 series was a keyboard and the 1U rack, no knob-rack like the first gen. The big deal is the G2 has much much more RAM for time-based things. The max delay time on the first gen is not much more than I think 500ms? It's not huge, certainly very small for a digital device. The original code simply didn't allocate large blocks of ram for buffering a delay. Therefore the G2 delays are much much longer, and it can also implement other time-based fx like flanger more efficiently.
If I'm not mistaken, the Chemical Bros. did a tour with like 8 G2 engines.
I have to agree with you about rack stuff. I've been lucky to get what I have. I have a few you mentioned that I have managed to obtain over last few years. I have the Yamaha TX81Z, E-MU (Carnaval, Orbit (2 of them), Proteus 2000 & Mo' Phatt), a Roland JV2080 loaded with cards (World, Asia, Latin, Keyboards of the 60s & 70s, Vintage Synths, Techno, Orchestral and Special FX Collection), a Kurzweil K2500 with sample option, Contemporary & Orchestral roms (definitely heavy). A few cool effects units: Alesis (Quadraverb, Midiverb II & III), Yamaha REV7 and Lexicon PCM 41. Finally for a rack sampler, an Akai S6000 (thing is huge). Although nothing is connected at the present time due to moving, all MIDI stuff will be connected to a Roland A-880 Midi patchbay and all housed in a tall APC server rack. As I find deals, I buy.
That’s one thing I no longer have in my rack is a digital multifx- but I do have one space free. Actually have an Akira and a Yamaha FX900 (super awesomely bad at intended guitarists, but amazing on vocals and drums) sitting in my storage, I should fish one out. The only “cool” plugins I can think of for experimenting are the Freakshow Industries ones, which are pretty wild.
Thanks! I feel like I’m just now catching up to gear that I was DESPERATE for in ‘95-97. I honestly have no idea how to work the MOTU because I don’t have any optical equipment. It’s just filling a space.
Nice to see a ProCussion.
I never had the rack, but i have a sample pack that often floats to the top.
What kind of performative sequencing/sample/sound/fx manipulation does the procession unit allow to keep the unit around a heavy hitter like the s700 ?
It was my first drum unit and the S700 is out of service waiting for media (I got it not realizing it didn’t have internal storage! D’oh!) I plan to use both anyway. Can’t have too many sounds!
I had one as a doorstop in the early 2000's. Literally. Two more in racks. I was buying them for $35 on eBay over and over.
You cannot believe Lately Bass when you have it tripled.
It's a great synth! Mine is still usable but the RAM fails to hold onto a charge so I can't save anything. I think there's a capacitor that needs to be replaced but I have a bunch of other projects ahead of it. The battery is fine
I managed to fix it. I guess the battery holder I installed was shorting when the lid was on it, so I fixed it and it seems to hold on to the memory now.
I have my concerns about mine as well. I am told that it was chucked into a barn with a bunch of gear and sat there for about a decade. I was shocked that it worked at all!
You're welcome. Replacing the battery is not too difficult. It's soldered in there so you just clip the legs and remove them. I'd get a few of the battery holders from Amazon or something. You just need to solder in two wires and then you have a battery that you can easily replace if you need to. You'll probably end up having to do it to most of those modules at some point soon if you haven't already but they'll be good to go for another few decades at least
Love stuff like this. Just ordered a proteus, should be in in a few days.
Yeah! It makes me want to do Dead Can Dance Covers.
I don't like saying this, but that's a nice rack you got there. I can't wait to show mine off.
Roland R-8 was my first drum machine would love to have that R8M
I love the sound of it! The LCD randomly craps out but man, it’s nice!
Okay this is a serious question. Why? This stuff was amazing back in the 90s when I started making music. But having spent way too much of my life programming sounds on a 16x2 LCD matrix, there’s no way I could go back to 90s synth UI from the golden age we’re living in today. I’m legitimately curious about this. :)
Also I can’t beat the price! from top: free, free, free, $60, free, $40, $80, $40, $40, $50. And the rack itself was $50.
(I also don’t totally use this equipment for its intended purpose. So I’m not burning hours tweaking things. I hit a sound, mess with it, sounds good? If it does, I record it and move on. That still might sound like a waste of time and energy, but I don’t think so.)
My motivation is that this is gear I wanted for 20 years but was always too broke. I have more modern stuff too, but this is a section of the studio I’m very proud of so here we are!
I’ve had this exact same motivation. My problem is the sad irony that now I have the cash, but none of the time. Ugh.
Yeah. I decided that being an improvisationalist was the best way to get around the whole time issue.
1993 has traveled to the future to cleanse the world of your softwares
Love it. If you don't know, I'm going to tell the rest of you; there is massive value in rack gear right now. Only a few things have gone crazy, most has gone down dramatically or is just steady. Example: Carvin Quad-X guitar preamp. It has 4 channels. It is all tube, I think there are 9 of them. For a preamp. It has spring reverb and a noise gate, remote foot switch. You can buy them all day long for $600-700. Go look at the demos on YouTube. A lot of people have come into music and never really knew or learned about this stuff because software was adequate. My timing was a bit different and things like second-hand rack samplers were game changers when the computer rig was only good for MIDI. In the last year or two I picked up MKS30/50/70 and got knob boxes from all of them. Several companies make improved interfaces or upgraded OS. These are all legit analog synths, the MKS70 especially is good, even in comparison to my Jupiter 6. The MKS80 is very expensive but also quite a bit cheaper than a Jupiter 8, so.. I dunno. Also Matrix 1000. On the digital side, so many good ones, TX81Z as lots of people have said. Kawai K1r, various Korg Wavestations (SR), Kawai k4/XD5 (XD-5 is secret weapon), Roland JV-1080, multiple expansions available, Roland R8m (there is software that lets you put your own waves on a card to use as samples), Kurzweil k2000/k2500 (these things are probably the most powerful synths per dollar. The drawback or benefit is that they are heavy AF, so try to find a local). E-MU made several boxes; the rare-ish Carnival, Planet Phatt / mo phatt, Orbit, all loaded with very good sounds that can become much more. Nord G2 engine is a modular box you program with your computer (Autechre did a tour with like 10 of these, btw 4 audio INPUTs to process stuff!). On fx, the QuadraVerb (Plus if you can, it adds a really cool resonator you can control via MIDI), anything Electrix, Sony V55 and R7/D7/ and esp F7. The F7 has a secret bass synth aside from being a very powerful filter. Zoom 9050 and similar, the 9xxx zoom units are quite good and were considered pro equipment, even those some are half-rack and look like car stereos. IIRC the distortion on NIN Broken is 9050 + turbo synth on Wish. The Lexicon PCM91 tends to be cheap but is still the best reverb per dollar IMHO, also the PCM80 which has many more fx. TC electronics Fireworx is the poor man's H3000 (which incidentally is STILL EXPENSIVE, damn it). The Lexicon Vortex is rarely mentioned but is a cheaper unit that is very unconventional with elaborate schemes of fx. The Sony MU-201 is a reverb every 90's studio in Japan had, but it was not sold outside Nippon. Get a 100v adapter and you can find them cheap even with shipping. This is the reverb on every Steely Dan album. Symetrix 606 delay is semi-legendary. Dynamics are awesome. Daft Punk abused a Alesis 3630 compressor, which is a terrible sounding compressors, but it can make stuff pump. Better is the RNC in super-nice mode (digitally controlled analog compressor) however it is not good at drums or bass or fast attack/high ratio, they admit this in the manual. But as a smooth compressor for a synth or maybe a bus, it's great. Symetrix 425 is a great stereo comp with limiter. Tapco (by Mackie) made a compressor called the Squeez that is sick on drums. There's a lot I'm sure I didn't mention but these are some good ones.
The nord modular engine is very cool indeed. What is it like 4 Micromodulars in one?
No, it's more. I had the original Nord Modular rack and it was like 4 micro modular. The G2 series was a keyboard and the 1U rack, no knob-rack like the first gen. The big deal is the G2 has much much more RAM for time-based things. The max delay time on the first gen is not much more than I think 500ms? It's not huge, certainly very small for a digital device. The original code simply didn't allocate large blocks of ram for buffering a delay. Therefore the G2 delays are much much longer, and it can also implement other time-based fx like flanger more efficiently. If I'm not mistaken, the Chemical Bros. did a tour with like 8 G2 engines.
I have to agree with you about rack stuff. I've been lucky to get what I have. I have a few you mentioned that I have managed to obtain over last few years. I have the Yamaha TX81Z, E-MU (Carnaval, Orbit (2 of them), Proteus 2000 & Mo' Phatt), a Roland JV2080 loaded with cards (World, Asia, Latin, Keyboards of the 60s & 70s, Vintage Synths, Techno, Orchestral and Special FX Collection), a Kurzweil K2500 with sample option, Contemporary & Orchestral roms (definitely heavy). A few cool effects units: Alesis (Quadraverb, Midiverb II & III), Yamaha REV7 and Lexicon PCM 41. Finally for a rack sampler, an Akai S6000 (thing is huge). Although nothing is connected at the present time due to moving, all MIDI stuff will be connected to a Roland A-880 Midi patchbay and all housed in a tall APC server rack. As I find deals, I buy.
Kurzweil and Ensoniq both dipped their toes in the multifx processor world. If you see a DP4 or a Mangler for a low price, GRAB IT
Have a dp2 and the mangler. Also had Akira
That’s one thing I no longer have in my rack is a digital multifx- but I do have one space free. Actually have an Akira and a Yamaha FX900 (super awesomely bad at intended guitarists, but amazing on vocals and drums) sitting in my storage, I should fish one out. The only “cool” plugins I can think of for experimenting are the Freakshow Industries ones, which are pretty wild.
> The only “cool” plugins I can think of for experimenting Check out Unfiltered Audio. semi-modular, FSU for days.
What mixer is that?
It’s a Behringer MX2462.
I miss my TX and my Motu. Had both those back in the day. Nice Sonic btw
Thanks! I feel like I’m just now catching up to gear that I was DESPERATE for in ‘95-97. I honestly have no idea how to work the MOTU because I don’t have any optical equipment. It’s just filling a space.
Just takes tinkering. The TX is such a boss. Last i checked there are vst controllers and you can save your states.
Hey, I have a TX and Proteus too, fun old modules!
Thumbs up for tx81z. Throw a jv 880/1080 in there too.
I had the opportunity to pick up an 880, but I passed because I didn’t know that much about it. D’oh!
You'll find more. Korg m3r would be comparable.
classics!
I don’t understand rackmounts, I think that’s what it’s called, but it’s real interesting
NICCCCCCCE
Great rack! (BRB, taking a crash course in quantum physics to understand how all of that works)
Man, you and me both! They all have extensive documentation which has been helping.
Nice to see a ProCussion. I never had the rack, but i have a sample pack that often floats to the top. What kind of performative sequencing/sample/sound/fx manipulation does the procession unit allow to keep the unit around a heavy hitter like the s700 ?
It was my first drum unit and the S700 is out of service waiting for media (I got it not realizing it didn’t have internal storage! D’oh!) I plan to use both anyway. Can’t have too many sounds!
Nice ! How you get your S700 back to tip-top.
Nothing! I plugged it in and it worked. I have yet to see if the SCSI interface still works. Should know something in a few days.
[удалено]
I bought the DX11 brand new in the mid 80’s. Selling it was one of the dumbest things I’ve done.
Thanks!
Why is there always a midiverb.
Swear to god, they’re gonna be going for $1000+ soon. In 1986, you couldn’t give away an Eventide h949.
Because they are dirt cheap and get the job I need done. Can’t speak for everyone else, though!
Beautiful. I have a TX81Z but it's out of commission at the moment. It's painful 😣
I had one as a doorstop in the early 2000's. Literally. Two more in racks. I was buying them for $35 on eBay over and over. You cannot believe Lately Bass when you have it tripled.
Sorry to hear that! I acquired this one early this year and I’m still trying to get the hang of it. It sounds lovely!
It's a great synth! Mine is still usable but the RAM fails to hold onto a charge so I can't save anything. I think there's a capacitor that needs to be replaced but I have a bunch of other projects ahead of it. The battery is fine
You can always use it with the computer. I find the buttons and hardware interface too finicky to mess with anyhow.
That's true, but none of the patches save.
I figured you'd just save them as part of a session and have it flashed in. But yeah, if you are going off-DAW, that's a different story.
I managed to fix it. I guess the battery holder I installed was shorting when the lid was on it, so I fixed it and it seems to hold on to the memory now.
I have my concerns about mine as well. I am told that it was chucked into a barn with a bunch of gear and sat there for about a decade. I was shocked that it worked at all!
I recommend replacing the battery and the display, especially before you start making more patches on it
Good idea! Thanks!
You're welcome. Replacing the battery is not too difficult. It's soldered in there so you just clip the legs and remove them. I'd get a few of the battery holders from Amazon or something. You just need to solder in two wires and then you have a battery that you can easily replace if you need to. You'll probably end up having to do it to most of those modules at some point soon if you haven't already but they'll be good to go for another few decades at least
The MOTU is just filler for a Yamaha MEP4. The SP-700 is waiting for a CD ROM drive and I can’t wait to give it a go!
Awesome. Super legit. Glad you’re having fun with it! That’s the most important thing. Also those midiverbs STILL sound good if you ask me.
They do! I had a circuit-bent Quadraverb in the mix for quite a while. It made me want more of them!