Old computers

My Enterprise 128 has spent the day flaking out randomly.

This is annoying.

Waiting for post. I am waiting for plants, a mesh drum pad and a laserdisc.

Korg appear to be implying that my T1 can be restored; new end cheeks, new button panels, new joystick unit and maybe repairs to the keyboard. This would make it a rather desireable bit of kit should I ever have to sell it, and would make it rather nicer to use when A3# stops sticking down.

Bah-ness

My Enterprise 128 is dead. This is really annoying, it's practically impossible to replace for a sane amount of money, it wasn't earmarked for eBaying on account of being one of the few '80s home computers I really liked, and it has a disk interface and so forth. There's no good reason for it to have died, I suspect (sadly) that the custom Nick chip has failed which handles video and memory access; it runs a memory test then fails on Bootstrap or goes into a reset loop.

Considering a new studio toy to work with the electric cello, but I dare not mention it for fear of people going after it before I can decide if I can afford it. I think someone I know had one.

I want Kettle drum samples. Today I reorganised my kit a little so I've moved the hi-hat pad to a 3rd Tom position, allowing the right Simmons cascading sequence to be played. In isolation I love this sound, I've been unable to write a bassline or tune I can make use of it in though. I know I could just grab a sample of it, but I like being able to play it myself. My PD80R is on the way, so the snare pad will be given over to hi-hat duties. The acquisitive side of me has noticed a: the existence of a proper virtual hi-hat, and b: two crash cymbal inputs, allowing for a second crash cymbal in addition to the existing one plus ride. That would make for a very fully featured electronic drum kit, limited brain be damned. As it is, I am enjoying that the Simmons-esque kit offers clap on the snare's rim trigger... (boom-tish-boom-tish-boom-tish-tish-boom-clapclapclap).

So again. Kettle drum samples, please please pretty please? EXS24 would be perfect, I think it can take Akai too. I should burn all my Akai sample disks (I hung onto them, because I thought I might get an S5000/6000 when I sold my S1000) onto CD-ROM.

I think that unless the EP128 has an obvious failure, such as a capacitor, then I'll list it on eBay as a broken system but with the box, manuals, spare (cannibalised for parts so probably Fubar) Flan-era motherboard, EXDOS disk interface and dual disk drive. Such a shame. If I'd wanted to sell it and it hadn't died, it would probably have fetched £200+.

Oh, remember I mentioned my drum kit's price? I managed with my eBaying to raise enough so far to just about pay for the kit, if not the PD80R yet. I found I had a rather lovely 1:43 scale Delorean in a presentation box, so it'll be going on - if I have forgotten I own it, then I don't need it is my new logic for eBaying things.