turn on suggestions Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.
Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.

About Etienne Rambert

Announcements

Special Announcement Update:


You asked, we listened! Please note that User Reviews are back! The Home page has returned to an editorial focus, with an emphasis on Articles and Industry News. The drop down menus are gone and simpler navigation has been implemented, and the forum landing page structure is going back to a more familiar layout. This transition is being performed "live", so some things may be moving around temporarily as we complete the process. Thanks for your patience as we implement these changes that our Community Members have asked for.


- Your Harmony Central Team
Recent Posts by Etienne Rambert
View All
My Recent Kudos Received
Subject Kudos Posted

Re: A visit to a Vietnamese Guitar factory

Message contains an image
Acoustic Guitars
1 ‎04-19-2009 05:20 AM
View All
Activity Feed for Etienne Rambert
Etienne Rambert's Reviews
Korg M3M Good composition tool, but unreliable
If you want KARMA - buy this. If you don't want KARMA, stay away from it.

‎10-24-2011 07:09 PM

Overall Rating: KARMA made this a good purchase. It has helped lift my music to a new level. The pads were an unexpected joy to use. But if it were not for KARMA, I would not have bought this synth. And the reliability is not very good.I have exper...
Overall Rating:

KARMA made this a good purchase.

It has helped lift my music to a new level.

The pads were an unexpected joy to use.

But if it were not for KARMA, I would not have bought this synth.

And the reliability is not very good.I have experienced many touch-screen failures on it.

I have kept it because of KARMA, the pads and the fact that

I can still record to DAW w/o bothering with the touch-screen.

KARMA was everything I wanted and hoped for.

But my M3m has not been reliable.

Bottom line: If you want a unique instrument that has KARMA built into it,

buy this synth. If you don't need KARMA, stay away. It has serious reliability issues.

Features:

I bought this unit only for KARMA. I was very happy with the Pads too.

I think Stephen Kay's KARMA (Kay Algorythmic Music Architecture),

is the most important music composition tool since MIDI.

The beautiful thing about this workstation is that KARMA is built into it.

There are buttons & sliders devoted to KARMA. So you really don't

need to go into deep screen menus to use it. 

There are problems with this unit. But it has the features I wanted --

KARMA & the pads. So I gave it a 10.

Sound Quality:

Some patches are amazingly good. Some are just so-so.

It has hundreds of different programs & combis.

EXB piano is fine. Organs are really nice. Wood-winds are pretty good.

There are a lot of third-party patches you can download also.

I think some of the orchestral combis are especially lovely.

This is a good synth for composing movie music on.

Reliability/Durability:

Be careful here. A lot of people have problems.

I have had problems with my touch-screen.

The way the module is designed, you cannot sequence, load or save

without using the top-right portion of the touch-screen.

You don't need the touch-screen to play & record music to a DAW.

You don't need the touch-screen to use KARMA.

But be careful with these touch-screens. A lot of them are bad.

Ease of Use:

It's too complicated.

I give the panel a 10. It's very easy to use.

But once you get into the touch-screen menus,

I give it a 3. It's very difficult and if you have a screen

failure, it's impossible.

So overall, I give it a 6.5    

Reviewer Background: long-time composer, guitarist, keyboardist, lyricist, records to DAW
Purchased From: Guitar Factory NY (via EBay)
Price: $1100.00 USD
M-Audio 9900-41413-10 Axiom 61 61-Key USB MIDI Controller
Axiom 61 MIDI Controller

‎01-15-2011 02:10 AM

Reviewer Background: 30 yrs guitar, 20 yrs keys, MIDI, Dig.Audio
Purchased From: Roland dealer
Price: $300.00 USD
Korg M3m Korg M3m
Korg M3m & Karma Ge2: A breakthrough for composers

‎11-11-2010 07:37 AM

Overall Rating: No other company offers anything that resembles Karma. This is what I needed for my own music. That's why I bought it. Features: It is a synthesizer, sequencer, sampler and most importantly to me, has Karma Generation 2 on-board. I wi...
Overall Rating:

No other company offers anything that resembles Karma. This is what I needed for my own music.

That's why I bought it.

Features:

It is a synthesizer, sequencer, sampler and most importantly to me, has Karma Generation 2 on-board. I wish it had more banks filled up with programs & combis, instead of leaving so many user banks empty. But that is a small complaint compared to what this amazing piece of gear does.

It also has a touch screen & 2 USB ports.

Sound Quality:

I haven't heard any bad-sounding patches.

Reliability/Durability:

It's big, heavy, I've flown it across the Pacific once. It still lights up.

Ease of Use:

I'm giving this a 10 because Karma & the sequencer are easy to use. The touch-screen is easy to navigate. I had some familiarity with the Triton series. And this navigates basically the same way.

Customer Support:

I hope I never need customer support.    

Reviewer Background: Twenty years recording & MIDI experience. Currently use PC-based DAW. Play keys & guitar. Monitor with whatever.
Purchased From: EBay (Guitar Factory)
Price: $1099.00 USD
Guild D-60 Guild D60
A classic & rare acoustic dreadnought.

‎07-11-2010 04:54 AM

Overall Rating: I prefer my Guild F65ce to this guitar. The action is much faster & the tone is better, for my style of playing. I have a light touch. But this is a cannon. If I want to be heard unplugged -- I'm leaving the F65ce at home and taking ...
Overall Rating:

I prefer my Guild F65ce to this guitar. The action is much faster & the tone is better,

for my style of playing. I have a light touch.

But this is a cannon. If I want to be heard unplugged -- I'm leaving the F65ce at home and taking this baby along. It is a very loud guitar.

Features:

This guitar was designed by Dave Gruhn & Kim Walker for Guild in 1987. Mine was made in January, 1988. Guild only made a total of 308 D-60's like this.

This was a departure for Guild dreadnoughts. It was light-weight. It was a cannon. It was considered great for flat-picking.

The features were top-of-the-line at the time. Closed Grover tuners, 4A Sitka top, Indian Rosewood back & sides. It's a very lightweight & loud acoustic guitar. It's not like a D-55 at all. It's much lighter. It has a narrower headstock and a totally different feel.

Sound Quality:

This is the odd part. If you drive this guitar, it sounds incredible. Strum it, you feel the whole instrument vibrating. It's a rush. I've never played a guitar that I could feel vibrate through me like that.

This is a guitar for serious guitar players. It excels in loud strumming and flat-picking. It sounds good using finger-picks.  But OTOH, my playing style involves a soft-touch.And I rarely need to play this guitar. I have another guitar that sounds better at lower volumes.

This is my bed-side guitar. And it's the guitar I take with me if I need to be heard unplugged,

because it's a cannon.

Reliability/Durability:

Now that it's been restored from the wreck it was, it's like a new guitar.

Counting what I paid for it, I've put $2K in this guitar. It was built 22 years ago.

It's good to go for twenty-two more years, at least. And it's a rare guitar.

I'm not sure how many of the original 308 are still around. I doubt there are

many left that are in as good a condition as my fully-restored D-60..

Ease of Use:

It's an acoustic guitar. It's easy to use. You tune it. You play it. You change strings.

This guitar, like other Guilds I've owned, stays in tune forever.

Customer Support:

Doubtful.

Reviewer Background: Extensive recording experience to computer DAW.
Purchased From: Individual seller
Price: $1150.00 USD USED
Roland AC-60 AC-60 Acoustic Chorus Combo Amp
I want 2

‎06-07-2010 07:37 AM

Overall Rating: It's the best-sounding acoustic guitar amp on the market. It's beautiful & it's light-weight. Features: There are 3 things I don't like. 1. I plug in headphones & the speakers don't broadcast. There is no option to use both headphone...
Overall Rating:

It's the best-sounding acoustic guitar amp on the market.

It's beautiful & it's light-weight.

Features:

There are 3 things I don't like.

1. I plug in headphones & the speakers don't broadcast. There is no option to use both headphones & speakers.

2. Using the XLR outputs, the speakers also do not make noise. The sound comes out of the destination speaker I run them to.

3. The chorus & reverb are applied globally. You cannot set them differently for each channel.

Something I liked was the button that lets me choose between magnetic & piezo pick-ups.

Sound Quality:

It is by far the best-sounding, cleanest-sounding amp I have ever heard. That's why I bought it.

It blows away the older Roland & the Fender amps I've tried. Roland has made the next-generation amp with this one.

There is a built-in compressor that Roland calls 'shape'. It sounds great. The chorus, the reverb

are both beautiful & DSP clean-sounding.

Reliability/Durability:

I hope it's reliable.

Ease of Use:

Very easy to use & very light-weight. That's another reason I bought it.

It can be carried easily in 1 hand and it comes with a carrying case.

Customer Support:

Don't need it. I don't expect any.

Reviewer Background: I bought one
Purchased From: a dealer in SE Asia
Price: $470.00 USD
View All
Contact
Public Statistics
Date Registered ‎12-12-1998 12:00 AM
Date Last Visited
Total Messages Posted 10,934
Total Tags
Total Kudos Received 1
Recent Kudos to:
User Kudos Count
1
1
View All
Recent Kudos from:
User Kudos Count
1
View All