Members pighood Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 Not necessarily the first synth you owned, but the one wot caught your attention and drew you into the knobbly money pit in which you currently reside. When did it first happen for you, and which was it? For this Pig, it was a dark and stormy night in 1982 and a chance encounter with the Realistic MG-1 set up on display just inside the door of the Radio Shack in Laurel Mall, Maryland. I was sideways impressed it could make these choo-choo noises, unlike the Casiotones I'd owned (never more than one at a time). It cost a finking stortune ($499 is a flockton to a 2nd year psych student). I came to own one years later, and gave it to my cousin. I need psych help now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cygnus64 Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 Korg Poly 800. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members carbon111 Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 The thing that set me on the path was in fact my first synth. Moog Rogue...the envelope contoured sync sound on that beast was unreal. Bought it brand-new in 1983 with money that was supposed to be spent on schoolbooks and food ...I was able to talk the guy at Guitars Ecetera down to $350. I was twenty years old. Things have kind of snowballed since then At one point, it looked like this: ...but I sold a ton of stuff and have consolidated everything down to around seven synths now Hard to believe I'm sure but its a bit of a slippery slope down to the bottom of the pit you speak of Piggles - so its even more of a trecherous crawl back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pighood Posted April 22, 2007 Author Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 Rogue = Oasys of its day (ducks behind cake stand) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members carbon111 Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 Rogue = Oasys of its day (ducks behind cake stand) Well, I couldn't afford the OBXa Guitars Ecetera had next to the rogue...they wanted eight grand or somesuch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ed A. Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 I built a PAiA 2720 modular synth in 1974, a little while after that I graduated to a Minimoog and an ARP 2600. That was the start of the money pit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cl516 Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 my answer is much lamer: an ms2000. it had just come out, and i was just getting into all this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members braincandy Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 It was a Juno-60 in 1985. I was 12 at the time and into bands like Duran Duran and Tears for Fears, so I would hang out at a friend's house that contained his dad's studio. I got to fiddle around with the Juno-60 (which had long been neglected in favor of the DX-7 & TX-816). It sold me on getting something that could make pads, sweeps, and strings vs. marimbas, Rhodes, and slap-bass sounds. It wasn't a JP-8, but closer to one than a DX would be (in my mind). I then begged the parentals for a Juno-60 or 106, but received a DX-21 due to the insistence of said friend's father of how FM was superior. I was bummed it wasn't a Juno, but also felt lucky just to have a synth when I was 13. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mate_stubb Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 An electronic music professor from the local University brought an early synthesizer to my mom's piano studio to demonstrate to all the local piano teachers. It was 1969 and I was looking at a Synthi VCS-3. Switched On Bach came out later that year and I was hopelessly hooked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members skunk3 Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 My first "synth" was a Yamaha CS1X. Hahah. Incredibly cryptic and hard-to-understand for a 16 year-old newbie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members zoink Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 It actually started with cheesy console organs in the 70s. As a kid I'd sit in the keyboard/organ store at the mall and play for hours with headphones on while my mother did her shopping. Also in the 70s I had an old Magnus organ that a friend of my mother gave me, and I'd play it and imagine it was a real synth. But the first real synth that I fell in love with was the Poly 800. I bought it used in perfect shape from a guy that had two of them (!!) set up alongside a yamaha drum machine. This was in 1986. When I drove over to look at it he demoed it for me and was able to play a live version of The Cars' "Drive". I was hooked. I bought the poly 800 and programmed the hell out of that thing. It's funny, I still have it, though it sits in the closet and hasn't been used in 17 years. It just brings back too many good memories. That same year (86), I was at the now-defunct 'Only Guitar Shop' in Clifton Park, NY, and heard the Ensoniq Mirage and the Roland TR 707. That pretty much did it. Later that year I bought a 707 and an alpha juno 1, and within two years got a D50 and an EPS. But the moment that the seed was planted was probably while watching the old Captain and Tenille show in the 70s. I remember on one episode the "Captain" was sitting at this huge synth and taking requests from the audience. They would name an instrument or a sound, and he would twiddle the knobs and make that sound. Then one guy stood up and said, "Can you make a snowstorm." The Captain twiddled the knobs a bit, attenuated a few sliders, and after probably a minute or two, he pressed the keys. Out came a snowstorm!! The audience went wild. I was sitting there, about 8 years old, and I couldn't believe it!!! This was in 1975 or 76. He even explained to the audience what a synthesizer was, and the basics of how it worked. That was the day I learned what a synth was. I'll never forget that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members carbon111 Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 The Captain (Daryl Dragon) is an unsung synth hero...pretty damn good chops on that guy, regardless of what people think of the music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members syncretism Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 That same year (86), I was at the now-defunct 'Only Guitar Shop' in Clifton Park, NY I guess I knew that would happen eventually, but it's a shame, anyway. It was a cool store, and one of the only things I liked about my short time with the Shenendehowans in the early nineties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rockin*Gio Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 In 1984, our local music store got in a Sequential Circuits Six-Trak and that was it for me!! I had a Rhodes Suitcase 73 at the time (which I purchased from former heavyweight boxing champ, Larry Holmes) but it was difficult to transport without some kind of assistance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fuzzlabs Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 I remember going into the local guitar stores in the mid-late 70's, after I started playing guitar, and checking out the synths as well as the guitars. I guess the first one to really make me drool and dream about it was the Roland Gr300 guitar synth - but there was no way I could afford 3000$ for something like that. Eventually acquired a CZ101 and an Arp Axxe as the 80's wound down, but the lust really hit again after I bought a Roland GR30 guitar synth and could control stuff from a guitar - thus resulting in the room full of stuff I have now. Thanks to Ebay, I have been able to score an old GR300 as well - and it rocks just like i remembered Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rainbird Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 Roland SH-5. Bought for half-price from a bunch of gee-tardsrunning a music shop in Yokohama - they had it set to somesort of random sample & hold patch and didn't know how to makeit stop (!) so they were glad to get rid of it. It took me about6 weeks to get my hands on an english-language instructionmanual for it after bringing it home. Big fun. And I thought thefront panel was as close to the front panel of a spaceshipas I was ever likely to see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ElectricPuppy Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 DX7, believe it or not. There was one in the local music shop, and I just couldn't get over how "real" it sounded. (haha!) The airwaves were filled with it at the time, too, so that only added to the GAS. I lusted after that for some time, but couldn't afford it. When I could finally afford a synth of any kind, it was a Juno-106, which I still have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flattop Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 My first synth was a Minimoog which the original owner dropped down a flight of step. I paid $600 for it in the autumn of '73. The only real casulty of the fall was a broked D key. It, unbeknownst to me, was also owned by AJP ( my co-duoist) at one point, after I sold it in 1985 for $300. Wes TaggartAnalogicshttp://www.analogics.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BillyWa Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 My local store had a Synergy I used to sit and play, then an OB-Xa in 1981 or so? I worked all summer to buy one but all I was able to afford was a CS-15. No regrets! Finally got an OB-8 as my Obie fix just last year (after tons of other stuff)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mook Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MuzikB Posted April 22, 2007 Members Share Posted April 22, 2007 The Roland XP-60. I had the JV-1000 and XP-80 before it but this is the unit I began to build a studio around. Power and portability of its' time. Later, a loan was taken and an Akai S2800 Sampler and a JD-990 were added along with a PC running Sonic Foundry's Acid Music and Sound Forge. Got a lot out of my head with this bit of kit. Although I've been through a lot of kit since the above, my studio now mirrors the same concept. Honorable Mention Roland's MC-505 I had SO much fun using this unit that it started me on the path of the groovebox. I've come to realize that I cannot do without a workstation and a groovebox in my setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members flat earth Posted April 23, 2007 Members Share Posted April 23, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Don Solaris Posted April 23, 2007 Members Share Posted April 23, 2007 First synth love? JV-1080 - Friend gave me one for a week. (back there in 1995) I couldn't believe this thing was real!! I hat to slap my face 4-5 times.... next thing i know, few months later i bought one and spent endless hours with it (couldn't afford a sampler, so had to do everything on JV). In fact, spent so much time with it, i no longer need to actually sit in front of it to build a patch. Moving into JD-990 was breeze due to same programming interface. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members robfosters Posted April 23, 2007 Members Share Posted April 23, 2007 Started a lot later than a few of you. My first real synth was a Yamaha CS6X that my mum bought for me with the proceeds of a nice lottery win. Terribly fiddly to program, but had some great sounds on it and is still used today, although the MOSS on my Triton seems to be taking over more and more now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mildbill Posted April 23, 2007 Members Share Posted April 23, 2007 Oberheim Matrix 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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