Members Unfed Posted June 20, 2011 Members Share Posted June 20, 2011 such wasted potential (though it's great as it is). rest in peace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MuzikB Posted June 20, 2011 Members Share Posted June 20, 2011 such wasted potential (though it's great as it is). rest in peace. Forgot about that one. Man, that would be perfect for me right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MuzikB Posted June 20, 2011 Members Share Posted June 20, 2011 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. I tried to do a lot of networking to get the OB-12 and MC-909 improved. At least Viscount listened and brought the matter to accounting and discussed it in a meeting. Roland listens to no one unless they have a gold record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members burster Posted June 20, 2011 Members Share Posted June 20, 2011 Here's one that died at the prototype stage. What a concept. A rack synth with a controller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EJ2 Posted June 20, 2011 Members Share Posted June 20, 2011 I don't disagree, but I like their synths. Their M8000 88 key piano weighted controller is considered by some (of the few who've actually seen one) to be the best.They still make very good pianos. I still have my M8000. Best keyboard controller in my books, far superior to the KX88 on all counts. Really underrated. Just try to get one in pristine condition now...LOL. Mine is and it ain't going anywhere out of my studio. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Etienne Rambert Posted June 21, 2011 Members Share Posted June 21, 2011 So Crumar Bit One eh? What a name for a synth. It was doomed from the start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Conbrio Posted June 21, 2011 Members Share Posted June 21, 2011 There was also a rack mount version called the Bit 01. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJ RAZZ Posted June 21, 2011 Author Members Share Posted June 21, 2011 Forgot about that one. Man, that would be perfect for me right now. The G2X was even sweeter. 61 KEYS, GREAT KEYBOARD ACTION AND AFTERTOUCH. This was Nord's only 61 key synth. It could be programmed on board or with the modular editor. It also has a great vocoder and mic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ElectricPuppy Posted June 21, 2011 Members Share Posted June 21, 2011 What a name for a synth. It was doomed from the start. True, it bit the dust quickly. It was one of a kind, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MuzikB Posted June 21, 2011 Members Share Posted June 21, 2011 The G2X was even sweeter. 61 KEYS, GREAT KEYBOARD ACTION AND AFTERTOUCH. This was Nord's only 61 key synth. It could be programmed on board or with the modular editor. It also has a great vocoder and mic. You could edit the "synths" you built on the hardware but you couldn't build synths from the hardware. I used to own a G2X and got rid of it for this reason and the bad keybed. Wish I kept it now though or traded it for a memory expanded G2 keyboard. This would work great for me and college right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members musiclvr Posted June 22, 2011 Members Share Posted June 22, 2011 True, it bit the dust quickly. It was one of a kind, though. There was a Bit 99 successor, which seems to add more memories and maybe fixed early BitOne MIDI issues mentioned on Vintage Synth... http://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/bit99.php http://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/bitone.php This page also suggests it was an expanded BitOne. Maybe someone's Italian is better than this Google translation: "...after two revised versions of the ONE BIT (01 BIT and BIT expander 99), the company was sold to the LEM (Laboratory for Electro Music). ... Bit 99 and Bit 01 are children of the BitOne..." http://www.enricobassi.it/crumar.htm The Kawai K5000s/w was an upgrade to the earlier K5. So they did at least try the idea out a couple of times before giving up on Additive Synthesis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TropicThink Posted June 22, 2011 Members Share Posted June 22, 2011 I wouldn't blame the difficulty of using additive synthesis alone for the K5000's demise. The DX7 was a bitch to program, but that didn't stop people from buying them. Rather, I think Kawai had a very hard time getting the right people to take them seriously. My local store owner told me that no serious musician of the kind that would be interested in something like the K5000 wanted to be seen with a Kawai synth, as Kawai was considered to be a brand that made more "family" oriented instruments. Customers wanted stuff from Roland, Yamaha, Korg and so on. Kawai had an obvious image problem, and eventually just decided it was time to stop losing money in the synth market and quit that stuff altogether. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Purity_Control Posted June 22, 2011 Members Share Posted June 22, 2011 True, it bit the dust quickly. It was one of a kind, though. Whereas the Bit 01 was one of 3, Unless the Bit One was one of two in which case the Bit 01 was one of four. Demos of it usually sound pretty goof, it's a pity it had a daft name and looked like ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TropicThink Posted June 22, 2011 Members Share Posted June 22, 2011 Italians suck the big one when it comes to naming gear. I mean, I have a stage piano from GEM called ProMega 3, what kind of retarded fucking name is that?!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members seamonkey Posted June 22, 2011 Members Share Posted June 22, 2011 Italians suck the big one when it comes to naming gear. I mean, I have a stage piano from GEM called ProMega 3, what kind of retarded fucking name is that?!! Sounds like a vitamin to me:lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundwave106 Posted June 22, 2011 Members Share Posted June 22, 2011 Sounds like a vitamin to me:lol: Keyboard? Or fish oil? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members seamonkey Posted June 22, 2011 Members Share Posted June 22, 2011 This:thu: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mpegsucks Posted June 23, 2011 Members Share Posted June 23, 2011 ChromaOasysVoyetra 8Kawai K5Yamaha DX-7Roland S-series samplersClavinetNord ModularWaldorf Q Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Unfed Posted June 23, 2011 Members Share Posted June 23, 2011 Yamaha DX-7 huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gaul Posted June 23, 2011 Members Share Posted June 23, 2011 Anything Kawai. This. Look at their catalog from 1989, 1990, they were ahead of their time in most apartments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mpegsucks Posted June 23, 2011 Members Share Posted June 23, 2011 huh? absolutely, very little was improved. Maybe the converter cleaned up a bit in the II, and some functionality added. But as far as FM goes, its really a very basic system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RonJoseph Posted June 24, 2011 Members Share Posted June 24, 2011 The bit one was first generation. Bit 99 and bit 01 were second generation and used a differnt chip set. The bit 99 and 01were rebadged by several differnt companies/ music stores : Lem, Unique and another store in england whose name I forget. Same synth, differnt cosmetics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members zoink Posted June 24, 2011 Members Share Posted June 24, 2011 ChromaOasysVoyetra 8Kawai K5Yamaha DX-7Roland S-series samplersClavinetNord ModularWaldorf Q I'd say the DX-7 died right about on time. It ushered in the digital age, killed off everything with knobs, and had a sound that was all over the radio for the rest of the decade. Some might say the 'electric stab piano' sound lived a little too long as it was. The Roland S series samplers were somewhat ahead of their time. You could connect it to a CRT monitor and even use a digital tablet to draw waveforms. But since it had very little memory and was only 12 bit, it was about ready to go. Samplers like the EPS were on the way in with 16 bit playback capacity and more RAM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJ RAZZ Posted June 24, 2011 Author Members Share Posted June 24, 2011 You could edit the "synths" you built on the hardware but you couldn't build synths from the hardware. I used to own a G2X and got rid of it for this reason and the bad keybed. Wish I kept it now though or traded it for a memory expanded G2 keyboard. This would work great for me and college right now. Really you thought the keybed was bad or was it just yours. I thought it was one of Nords best synth action boards to date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DJ RAZZ Posted June 24, 2011 Author Members Share Posted June 24, 2011 I'd say the DX-7 died right about on time. It ushered in the digital age, killed off everything with knobs, and had a sound that was all over the radio for the rest of the decade. Some might say the 'electric stab piano' sound lived a little too long as it was.The Roland S series samplers were somewhat ahead of their time. You could connect it to a CRT monitor and even use a digital tablet to draw waveforms. But since it had very little memory and was only 12 bit, it was about ready to go. Samplers like the EPS were on the way in with 16 bit playback capacity and more RAM. I read the story behind the failure of the S-50. It was a missed opportunity by Roland yet again. Akai beat them to the punch by bringing out the first commercial sampler for the masses then Roland came out and then Ensoniq crushed everyone in the affordable bang for the buck category. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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