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OT gear that died before it's time.


DJ RAZZ

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We all not what pieces they are and why. I will start the ball rolling. We suffer buy being brave enough to drink the Kool-aid.

 

Roland V-synth version 1 with cards.

Roland Varios

Roland MC-909

Alesis ION

Alesis Fusion

Kurzweil PC1ce

Kurzweil VA-1

Korg Oasis

Ensoniq FIZMO and the company as a whole.

Moog Voyager OS, coolest moog yet.

Finally Fantom G, half baked OS and no new AXR cards. Soon to be gone, I AM SURE OF IT.

 

RAZZ

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Yamaha FS1R -- A wonderfully robust FM synth ....... in a single rack unit with a difficult-to-use interface.

 

Yamaha EX-5 -- Way ahead of its time. Multiple engines in one workstation. It still actually sounds very good. Just woefully underpowered as a workstation.

 

Yamaha RS7000 -- In some ways, one of my favorite sampling drum machines to sit and play. If they had just gone one more generation, and added multi-sampling capability and PLG support (basically a groovebox equivalent of the Motif ES), people would STILL be clamoring for one.

 

Yamaha AN/DX-200 -- sort of a postscript to their PLG line. Lots of potential. No follow-through.

 

Basically, these were Yamaha's final acts of vision before they stopped making real synths altogether.

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I don't see how the following can be considered short lived since four or more years is a good life span for a synth.

 

Roland V-Synth - 4 years w/ upgraded replacement

Roland MC-909 - 4 years w/ smaller replacement

Alesis ION - 4 years w/ smaller replacement

Korg Oasys - 4 years w/ smaller replacement

 

The Yamaha FS1R was short lived since it was only out for 2 years and never had a replacement. I bought mine when Mars Music blew them out for $249. :thu:

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I don't see how the following can be considered short lived since four or more years is a good life span for a synth.


Roland V-Synth - 4 years w/ upgraded replacement

Roland MC-909 - 4 years w/ smaller replacement

Alesis ION - 4 years w/ smaller replacement

Korg Oasys - 4 years w/ smaller replacement


The Yamaha FS1R was short lived since it was only out for 2 years and never had a replacement. I bought mine when Mars Music blew them out for $249.
:thu:

 

I guess I don't feel as though they were properly replaced.

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Korg Prophecy..although it later morphed into the Z1, I've heard many owners say it's not quite the same.

I recently sold mine in the big studio clearout of 0-ll, but I sampled a few of the presets and damn I kinda miss it.

 

The Yamaha AN1X had fantastic sound but it's front layout drove me crazy. Yes I know there's an editor available, but for me it's all about using the hardware itself. Again, this is another synth that later morphed into the EX5.

IMO, the Yamaha AN modeling has some of the best analog modellng available.

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yeah, the AN1x was killed in the market by the jp8000 on the interface front - but, I still haven't found a VA that is as good sound-wise as the AN1x - it's just that good in my opinion.

It did evolve, or I should say de-volve, into the AN200 and the PLG-AN cards for the motif but it didn't get a proper, much called for, follow up. :(

I foolishly have my fingers crossed every namme/musik messe for Yamaha to announce that they are back in the VA game...

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Yamaha CS6x.... very affordable synth for its time, with two PLG slots and good editability, though the two-line LCD display was a bit of a challenge and integrating PLG with other sounds was harder than it need to have been. Still, a very solid and appealing effort.

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+1 on all Yamaha... RS7000, AN/DX200, EX5, CS6x, FS1r, even A-series samplers though the hardware sampler was about to die anyway ...they made so much cool stuff in the late 90s and early 00s and suddenly got boring. A new Yamaha VA or an RS7000 sequel would have been so nice.

 

Prophecy and Z1 seems another one

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Romplers are synths!!!

 

They just use different ways to get sounds. just because something is not additive, subtractive, analog, or FM, does not mean it does not have the ability to change OCS's, LFO's, filters, envelopes, VA's, Amps, effects, ect...

 

Take a synth style tone and break it down and mess with it, then talk about how it is not a synth. My Juno Gi is used in a 70's--80's classic-prog-dance band. Once I put my signature magic on the sounds it very close to a proper synth in a live mix, especially Moog, Oberheim, and DX type sounds.

 

I guess VA's are not synths either.

 

I guess neither was the D-50 the first rompler out there. LA was the conception of the sampled structure/tone with synthesis processing.

 

What about VAST?

 

Sorry Gordonwiebe, just had to get that off my chest. Now back to point.

 

 

RAZZ

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Here's a rare synth from the 80's that arrived on the scene and didn't last--the Crumar Bit One.

 

 

bitoneb.jpg

 

And don't forget the Chroma Polaris as well.

 

 

orig4.jpg

 

(somehow my original pix vanished, which is quite illogical)

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Oberheim OB-12

Kawai K5000

MC-909

Voyager Old School

 

Never cared too much for Yamaha after the Motif's I owned. The OB-12 and MC-909 were just shy of total greatness had there been more OS updates. The K-5000 needed an OS update that simplified things a little more not necessarily an improvement or fix OS update though, and the VOS's run just wasn't long enough but given the Slimphatty, I understand why they stopped production of it.

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I always wanted a collection of those ModFX pedals, shoulda bought them when they were discontinued. I got the Ineko and really liked it.

 

What about Elektrix effects. Or all of Waldorf? (thie first time around)

 

The Roland MC09 or SH-32 (though that one lives on in the Gaia somewhat).

 

Always thought they should have made a DR-303 to go along with the SP-303. DR-202 was pretty cool but if they'd addressed some of its limitations - 1/4 outs, made the pads light up, added a grid display, improved the "synth" sounds and added more drum samples for good measure.

 

Also stuff like the R8 and R-70 and the Kord DDD-1 and S3.

 

E-mu Command Stations.

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Oberheim OB-12

Kawai K5000

MC-909


Never cared too much for Yamaha after the Motif's I owned. The OB-12 and MC-909 were just shy of total greatness had there been more OS updates. The K-5000 needed an OS update that simplified things a little more not necessarily an improvement or fix OS update though,

 

 

 

I remember how highly anticipated the OB-12 was when it came out in 2000. It was to be the return of Oberheim. Mars Music had one on the floor for a few months, but nobody was buying them. I sat down and played with it a few times and liked it quite a bit, and couldn't see why people weren't going for it. Maybe the price point was just a little bit high. Before I knew it, it was discontinued. So much for that. It took me a while to track one down locally some years later. Glad I did, though. It's a fun and unique-sounding synth.

 

With the K5000S, the reasons for failure are a bit more obvious. Additive synthesis is just not an easy method to master.

 

The MC-909, OTOH, came pretty close to fulfilling the promise of the MC series. It just about ties the RS7000 for ease of use and fun, and unlike the RS, the 909 is built like a tank. I still can't believe they can be had for under $500. That's a LOT of sampling groovebox for the money. Another casualty of software and the laptop.

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Just take a look at my gear list as there's so many awesome stuff that never made any success... the definitely worst treated keyboards of mine studio:

 

Generalmusic S2/S3... one of the best synthesizers created in the 90's, superior synthesis, hardware and keyboard quality compared to its competitors at the time, but of course the brand name was not trusted at all for being "pro".

 

Technics WSA1... faced even worse fate than S2/S3. Very bad marketing (legend saying they gave WSA1 synths for organ salesmen to sell! Exactly same thing what happened for Elka Synthex!) and Technics was even worse brand for professional level.

 

Roland RS-505... Incredible string machine, but was not having the attention because it is sister/brother model to the similar string machine that was already being used everywhere; VP-330.

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