Coldplay Studio clearout !!

Risking yet another deluge of idiots asking me if *I* still have these itmes for sale, I noticed that Coldplay are having a bit of a spring clean. Items include...

Emu SP1200



Roland SH-101



Pearl Syncussion SY1



Korg PolySix



Roland Jupiter6



LinnDrum LM-2



Oberheim Stretch DX



Korg MonoPoly



eBay Link Here

And just to remind anyone thinking of emailing me asking about these items and whether I still have them for sale or if I can ship to some Aussie backwater hick town, population 5, where the father is also the mother's brother, I WILL hunt you down and rape you !! ;o)

New toys from NAMM 08

Sorry for the long hiatus. My day job is all consuming now and I get little time to search the net for new tit bits for our consumption, let alone post my witty, inciteful comments for you all to roll around laughing at ;o)

Anyway, January brings with it the NAMM show and so far, here are the toys I'm either chuffed to see or have been involved with in some fashion....

Akai MPC5000





Akai XR20





Akai MPD32





Alesis SR18





Alesis DM5 Pro with SURGE Cymbals



Other than these, there's little else to excite me this year. Roland released the Fantom G...



....proving yet again that dead horses can truly be flogged.

Never judge a book by it's cover...

I've always had a thing for the Roland Jupiter 8. I think it's because it looked so big and complex, with all those lovely multi coloured buttons. Maybe it was also because it was on the cover of Howard Jones' New Song single back in 84..




..but when I heard it, it sounded so big and lush, it soon became an "I want" item that I have still yet to acquire. So, imagine my glee when Arturia announced the Jupiter-8v soft synth. Firstly, I was surprised that Roland allowed them to do it, having always been very restrictive in what people do in terms of recreating their gear in the virtual world.

So when the demo came out, I jumped on it straight away, especially as it looked so feckin' nice !!

Oh dear.

Oh dear oh dear.

Not what I was expecting.

Arturia have often come in for grief about how their emulations actually sound nothing like the synths they are trying to emulate. I kind of agreed with that on the CS-80v, disagreed on the Minimoog. I guess that unless you have an original sat beside you to A/B test, then it's all subjective anyway.

But the Jupiter-8v disappointed me. Not only because of the sound, but because it's a god awful CPU hog, and the best latency I could achieve was about 10ms which is more than double what I normally get on every other soft synth I have. My PC is no slouch either (AMD 64/1GB RAM). It was also impossible to assign an external keyboard controller !

If Arturia are hoping to generate sales with the demo, they need to sort it out. If the full product replicates the shortcomings of the demo, they've got problems.

Try it for yourself HERE

EDIT: It appears these issues have now been fixed in version 1.02 which came out on Thursday. I've tried it and most problems seem to be rectified, but it still uses an inordinate amount of CPU :o(

At last, a proper Roland soft synth

Via MatrixSynth

Arturia announces Jupiter 8V, the software recreation of Roland’s famous Jupiter 8 which was in production from 1981 to 1984. The Jupiter 8 was a synth that not only inspired a generation of musicians ranging from Prince to Howard Jones, from Depeche Mode to Moby, it was also a unique machine that offered a sharp and crystalline sound while being uniquely phat.

The Jupiter-8V is the latest born in the Arturia family of analog synthesizer recreations. Offering the unique sound palette of the Roland Jupiter 8 with a bass that can bring down the house.

Based on the latest version of TAE®, the Jupiter 8 V also brings to you an advanced step sequencer, a new line of dynamic effects and a module combining LFO’s called Galaxy. All in one, the Jupiter 8 V comes with a perfect blend of classicism and modernity.

MAIN FEATURES:

* More than 400 high quality and innovative sounding presets
* Up to 32 voices of polyphony, and a Unison mode
* A unique audio structure featuring 2 oscillators per voice (16 oscillators in total), 2 LFO’s, 2 filters and 2 envelopes.
* Keyboard split and layer
* A set of Analog Sounding Effects: Dual Delay, Phaser, Flanger, all three being largely modulable by any audio source in the synth.
* 2 digital effects, X and Y.
* Additional Live-oriented Step-sequencer, additional Galaxy module for advanced modulations
* Set to Control with your external MIDI keyboard in just a few clicks.
* Full compatibility with major formats and hosts on Mac OS X and Windows XP (VST, AU, RTAS)

Curse their dongle protection. I'd buy this otherwise. But I hate dongles.

Most expensive Juno 60 ever !!!

Found This auction via the VSE Forums and spat my tea out !!!

£5000 Buy It Now on a Roland Juno 60 !!!!

He's had 6 "offers" but I'm bamboozled by his stupidly high BIN price. I can only imagine that he's either a) not the brightest star in the sky when it comes to synths or b) set it high on purpose to encourage the best offer. Surely he should have put a more sensible price up so as not to come across as a fruit loop !! If he felt it was worth £500 (for arguments sake) then stick a Buy It Now price of £600 on it. At least people would know what he's expecting to be offered.

Strange person !

Curse these people who put stuff on eBay when I can't afford it !!

When I first saw these in the very early 80's I knew straight away that if I owned one I'd become a rich and famous pop star.

I still don't own one and I still say that when I do, I will become a rich and famous pop star.

Right now though, my budget won't allow this, and so, unless someone buys it for me, and then lets me pay them back when I achieve pop stardom, I'll be destined to spend my life as an undiscovered talent.

Take pity on me.....

Some lovely pictures....just because....

All shots from the EBoard Museum

Take a long look at these pictures and the synths contained within. Am I alone in thinking that these are beautiful objects ? Show me a Triton or Motif or whatever hardware synths are left nowadays (except the Alesis Fusion maybe) and they all look the same. These synths of old were all unique not only in sound but in looks too. If anybody wonders why people like me get moist around the gusset for old synths, here are some prime examples....

Emulator I


Prophet 10


Roland SH-101 Blue


Yamaha DX1


Sequential Circuits Prophet VS and Prophet 5


Elka Synthex


Yamaha CS-80