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An easy decision
Dec. 11th, 2007 02:05 pmI now have committed to adding a Roland XV3080 to the studio. Historically, Roland's synthesizer line goes something like:
D-50 - small waveforms, first sample+synthesis unit. Harsh, crude DACs, certain sound
D-class to D70 including early JV models - expansion of D-50, better DACs, more waves, more polyphony. D70 is JV, Four Partials.
JD - tangent to JV/D70 evolution providing editing and advanced waveforms and filters - what I just sold.
JV - classic four partials per patch, expandable waveforms, 64-voice polyphony. 2080 models still heavily used today.
XV - 128 voice poly, new effects, evolution of filters, "recent".
Given that the JV 1080/2080 models are now up to 15 years old and selling for £150-400 depending on condition, optimism of the seller, and expansions fitted, the appearance of used XV 3080s for £250 and £329 respectively seemed to suggest that the JV might be wilfully retro. And moreso, the XV includes the JV sounds, so I get to keep my strings and sharp pianos, whilst gaining new ones.
Seller 1: Studio in London. Closing down. Synth has stickers on the front declaring the existence of removed expansion boards and is "sold as seen", £250 - but the listing says "Plus VAT"; I can reclaim VAT if need be, but I'm never comfortable with sellers asking you to add VAT. Ask for their credentials.
"We are neither of these [assumption that either they don't know the rules, or are adding VAT whilst not VAT registered], and not wishing to be rude, but it is clear that you have formed the oppinion that we fall into one of these catagories.
I suggest you speak to hm customs 0845 010 9000 regarding the rules governing a vat registered company selling second hand goods. Needless to say all buyers of our goods and services receive Vat invoices."
Seller 2: The same seller that was also "ripped off" (unpaid, no real loss of course) by the dodgy "spanishlopez" buyer for a JD800. £329 Buy it Now, he's in Wigan (on the M6), and the synth is mint, still has screen protector on. Also has "full refund policy".
Guess which one I got ;) Sure, it is £30 more, but I don't need to pay shipping, can collect in person, and I feel that adding VAT is at best some way of avoiding eBay fees (given how few buyers will be VAT registered or even understand VAT on second hand items), and at worst just a 'bit' dishonest as it allows the item appear cheaper and could well be someone just claiming to add it, when in fact they're just asking for another 17.5%.
Mostly, though, I just didn't like their tone!
Yes - the appearance of another module indicates the sale of the Juno, the decision to not get a V-Synth XT but instead swap the D-50 for a rackmount D550, the sale of ALL OF THE CARDS for the JD800, and the decision to sell the VZ-10M for £80. Oh, and a nice clarification of "who owns what" which sees me exchanging my JV-50 with my dad for the second 20" Apple Cinema Display on my G5 (which I borrowed from him when he suggested selling his G5, intending to buy it, but then he decided to keep the G5 using my old 20" display, which was the plastic-cased one).
This brings the studio down to:
Trinity - keys, provides sampled/M1-esque sounds plus Z1-style synthesis.
SuperNova II - keys, provides virtual analgue, Vocoder/filter, effects, arpeggiators and tricks.
Pulse Plus - module, analogue, provides filter and bass which breaks things.
Wavestation - module, provides sample-based vector synth blends. "Textures".
D50/550 - module hopefully, keys currently, 80s pop synth noises.
XV3080 - module, should provide classic Roland strings, probably 80s pop noises plus 90s dance noises.
SX1000 - keys, makes noises like a gnat farting into a compressor. Actually does some neat tricks.
JX10 - HUGE keys, but not really of any benefit over the SuperNova.
VZ-10M - module, failed to sell on eBay so I'll relist. Sounds like several DX7s that have been castrated; clever, but a bit lost.
CD3000XL - module (sampler). Tin. On it. Does it.
Plus a few toys and drum-machine type things as usual. Now, personally I think that is a very balanced and capable mixture of devices. I can't find any reason why a £1000+ V-Synth XT would be any improvement over an XV and a real D-50 at 1/3rd, nearly, of the price - given that the V-Synth cannot be used "as the modern thingy" when in D-50 mode it almost seems like a backward step.
The JX10 really is just blown away by the SuperNova - hell, the Novation is good enough that I'm considering whether or not I need the Pulse - so that goes in the next round of eBay items.
Wow. This room looks empty with only three keyboards in it...
Now, am I missing anything here? I felt pretty much "fully subscribed" in terms of sound generation; it could be argued that I'm missing a true analogue polysynth if the inscrutable JX10 goes (one reason I don't get on with it is the editing mechanism) - which I'm thinking is either "redundant" because of the Supernova, or can be fulfilled with the Alesis Andromeda A6 (a real beast, though, 16 voice polyphony and VERY big if the pictures are any indicator. New, so it should be reliable and not need the ongoing maintenance of older synths, and cheaper than a Super Jupiter MKS 80 or similar). When I looked at the A6, GAK also said "what about the Nord Wave" - has anyone had a play with one of these? They're allegedly a "new" synthesis method, blending samples and analogue modelling. I've always been curious about the Nords, but not having had time to get right into synth programming beyond the basics of simple analogue ones, I can only imagine I'd just use the presets/available patches with slight edits, and frankly, it seems to me that these ALL SOUND THE SAME. No matter what flavour of modern synth, from MS2000 to Supernova II Pro X, they all make the same basic noises - just how you get there is different each time, and the quality of the noise, or ease of use of MIDI and sequencing, changes.
A 303 patch sounds pretty much like a 303 whether it's made by a JD800, Nova or... a 303. The Nova does it better purely by virtue of performance controls that allow programmed slides, sweeps and "that progressive sort of filter change that sounds like the first crying of a newborn rave just before it was given a dummy and an E and thrown into the harsh light of Industrial Britain".
Off to Bummingham in a bit, for the, er, bumming. "This Delica will be leaving Carlisle at around 5pm, stopping at Tebay, Preston, and with an unscheduled 20 minute break at Junction 10 for the regular M6 formation car parking display".
D-50 - small waveforms, first sample+synthesis unit. Harsh, crude DACs, certain sound
D-class to D70 including early JV models - expansion of D-50, better DACs, more waves, more polyphony. D70 is JV, Four Partials.
JD - tangent to JV/D70 evolution providing editing and advanced waveforms and filters - what I just sold.
JV - classic four partials per patch, expandable waveforms, 64-voice polyphony. 2080 models still heavily used today.
XV - 128 voice poly, new effects, evolution of filters, "recent".
Given that the JV 1080/2080 models are now up to 15 years old and selling for £150-400 depending on condition, optimism of the seller, and expansions fitted, the appearance of used XV 3080s for £250 and £329 respectively seemed to suggest that the JV might be wilfully retro. And moreso, the XV includes the JV sounds, so I get to keep my strings and sharp pianos, whilst gaining new ones.
Seller 1: Studio in London. Closing down. Synth has stickers on the front declaring the existence of removed expansion boards and is "sold as seen", £250 - but the listing says "Plus VAT"; I can reclaim VAT if need be, but I'm never comfortable with sellers asking you to add VAT. Ask for their credentials.
"We are neither of these [assumption that either they don't know the rules, or are adding VAT whilst not VAT registered], and not wishing to be rude, but it is clear that you have formed the oppinion that we fall into one of these catagories.
I suggest you speak to hm customs 0845 010 9000 regarding the rules governing a vat registered company selling second hand goods. Needless to say all buyers of our goods and services receive Vat invoices."
Seller 2: The same seller that was also "ripped off" (unpaid, no real loss of course) by the dodgy "spanishlopez" buyer for a JD800. £329 Buy it Now, he's in Wigan (on the M6), and the synth is mint, still has screen protector on. Also has "full refund policy".
Guess which one I got ;) Sure, it is £30 more, but I don't need to pay shipping, can collect in person, and I feel that adding VAT is at best some way of avoiding eBay fees (given how few buyers will be VAT registered or even understand VAT on second hand items), and at worst just a 'bit' dishonest as it allows the item appear cheaper and could well be someone just claiming to add it, when in fact they're just asking for another 17.5%.
Mostly, though, I just didn't like their tone!
Yes - the appearance of another module indicates the sale of the Juno, the decision to not get a V-Synth XT but instead swap the D-50 for a rackmount D550, the sale of ALL OF THE CARDS for the JD800, and the decision to sell the VZ-10M for £80. Oh, and a nice clarification of "who owns what" which sees me exchanging my JV-50 with my dad for the second 20" Apple Cinema Display on my G5 (which I borrowed from him when he suggested selling his G5, intending to buy it, but then he decided to keep the G5 using my old 20" display, which was the plastic-cased one).
This brings the studio down to:
Trinity - keys, provides sampled/M1-esque sounds plus Z1-style synthesis.
SuperNova II - keys, provides virtual analgue, Vocoder/filter, effects, arpeggiators and tricks.
Pulse Plus - module, analogue, provides filter and bass which breaks things.
Wavestation - module, provides sample-based vector synth blends. "Textures".
D50/550 - module hopefully, keys currently, 80s pop synth noises.
XV3080 - module, should provide classic Roland strings, probably 80s pop noises plus 90s dance noises.
SX1000 - keys, makes noises like a gnat farting into a compressor. Actually does some neat tricks.
JX10 - HUGE keys, but not really of any benefit over the SuperNova.
VZ-10M - module, failed to sell on eBay so I'll relist. Sounds like several DX7s that have been castrated; clever, but a bit lost.
CD3000XL - module (sampler). Tin. On it. Does it.
Plus a few toys and drum-machine type things as usual. Now, personally I think that is a very balanced and capable mixture of devices. I can't find any reason why a £1000+ V-Synth XT would be any improvement over an XV and a real D-50 at 1/3rd, nearly, of the price - given that the V-Synth cannot be used "as the modern thingy" when in D-50 mode it almost seems like a backward step.
The JX10 really is just blown away by the SuperNova - hell, the Novation is good enough that I'm considering whether or not I need the Pulse - so that goes in the next round of eBay items.
Wow. This room looks empty with only three keyboards in it...
Now, am I missing anything here? I felt pretty much "fully subscribed" in terms of sound generation; it could be argued that I'm missing a true analogue polysynth if the inscrutable JX10 goes (one reason I don't get on with it is the editing mechanism) - which I'm thinking is either "redundant" because of the Supernova, or can be fulfilled with the Alesis Andromeda A6 (a real beast, though, 16 voice polyphony and VERY big if the pictures are any indicator. New, so it should be reliable and not need the ongoing maintenance of older synths, and cheaper than a Super Jupiter MKS 80 or similar). When I looked at the A6, GAK also said "what about the Nord Wave" - has anyone had a play with one of these? They're allegedly a "new" synthesis method, blending samples and analogue modelling. I've always been curious about the Nords, but not having had time to get right into synth programming beyond the basics of simple analogue ones, I can only imagine I'd just use the presets/available patches with slight edits, and frankly, it seems to me that these ALL SOUND THE SAME. No matter what flavour of modern synth, from MS2000 to Supernova II Pro X, they all make the same basic noises - just how you get there is different each time, and the quality of the noise, or ease of use of MIDI and sequencing, changes.
A 303 patch sounds pretty much like a 303 whether it's made by a JD800, Nova or... a 303. The Nova does it better purely by virtue of performance controls that allow programmed slides, sweeps and "that progressive sort of filter change that sounds like the first crying of a newborn rave just before it was given a dummy and an E and thrown into the harsh light of Industrial Britain".
Off to Bummingham in a bit, for the, er, bumming. "This Delica will be leaving Carlisle at around 5pm, stopping at Tebay, Preston, and with an unscheduled 20 minute break at Junction 10 for the regular M6 formation car parking display".
