New gear - Technics SM-AC30 MIDI PCM Orchestra

Having had one on loan for a few days, I was very pleased to pick up a Technics SM-AC30 cheap from eBay. Basically it's an organ in a briefcase; just add MIDI keyboard/s. I think it was usually used as an accordion expander. Preset rhythms are a bit limited and are of the cha-cha-/rhumba/waltz variety, but there are some excellent PCM accompaniment sounds (particularly the strings) and a very complex chord sequencer. Interestingly, the Disco rhythms have some electro sounds which I don't think were present on the loan unit I had. 
I also picked up a Philip Rees V10 MIDI Thru box and a Doepfer Pocket Dial controller, so I'm now close to finishing off the studio refit.      

Loads of new gear - Roland MC-505, Simmons SDSV, Simmons Portakit, DrumKat DK10

I've been busy rebuilding the studio, and had just about finished when I picked up some new gear which will now have to be integrated into the limited space I have.

The Roland MC-505 was a slightly damaged bargain; it needs one knob replacing. Though I have a Yamaha RM1X and a Quasimidi Rave-o-Lution, the Roland has a lot of real-time controls which make it  useful groovebox.

The Simmons SDSV I got to replace my broken case, and because it has Kenton MIDI fitted. It's great to hear it triggering direct from an Alesis SR-16 MIDI drum machine. 

As a mate for the SDSV, I got a Simmons Portakit, stupidly cheap, and, uncommonly, in working order. It's a fabulous piece of gear, though I'll probably never use it to its full potential. I also have a DrumKat DK10 on the way, so it will be interesting to see if that offers anything over the Roland SPD8. And I got a memory enhancement for the Kawai K5000R, useful since I have several banks of sounds for it on floppies. 

     

New synth - Kawai K5000 and macro editor

I finally cracked and bought a Kawai K5000R, the last classic synth module I wanted. I paid far too much for it, and for the Macro Editor which I got separately. The K5000's additive synthesis sounds appear to be just as powerful and flexible as I thought, though the presets are uninspiring and I'll have to sort through some alternative patches to find the best ones. Interestingly, I was also prompted to power up the Kawai K5R and K3R, an additive synth and a digital waveform subtractive synth, and they both have some interesting sounds, but maybe not enough to justify the rack space they take up.

New synth - M-Audio Venom, came and went

I tried to get a demo of the M-Audio Venom some time ago, but the demonstrator from Avid didn't seem capable of explaining anything about it. I think the Venom has been a flop, and now I've discovered why. No wonder the company is now selling its M-Audio subsidiary. I bought one cheap from eBay on the principle that I could always re-sell it if I didn't like it, and that has proved to be the case, and I managed to re-sell it for roughly what I paid for it.

The trouble is that it's neither one thing nor another; it isn't a virtual analogue synth, it's based on samples of analogue instruments, yet it doesn't do as good a job as the Quasimidi instruments. The samples are few and gritty, the effects are grainy, and the presets are a boring assortment of acid sqeaks, belches, bloops and loops. Onboard editing is limited, and I wouldn't use the audio I/O features. So off it went. Now I've seen pics of the  Studiologic Sledge, obviously a more serious instrument at £700, though so far there don't seem to be any decent demos of it on the net.   

New synth - Red Sound Darkstar XP2

My latest eBay buy is a Red Sound Darkstar XP2, a desktop VA synth with a useful range of controls including a performance joystick. It's good for TB303-style basslines and reasonable for analogue pads (though it could do with a chorus unit). You can't fit Red Sound's vocoder conversion to this model - but I wouldn't be likely to do that even if I could find one, so that's not an issue. I found replacements for a couple of missing knobs, but not the joystick knob - Red Sound don't have them, so I wonder where I can find one of those?

New synth - Roland JD-990

Supposedly the rack equivalent of the JD-800 keyboard, what this lacks in real-time controls it makes up for in enhanced editing and effects functions. It certainly sounds great, and the fact that this came with the Vintage Synths add-on card means that it was almost worth the £300+ I gave for it. At least now I can sell my Vintage Synths module. The only synth I really want now is a Kawai K5000R, and the chances of finding one of those are pretty slim.

New synth - Casio VL-5

This couldn't have been more of a bargain - £2.50 from eBay. While the VL-1 (which I already have) seems to be very collectable, no-one seems much interested in its bigger cousin, the VL-5. The VL-5 is four-note polyphonic, and has a bar-code reader port for its monophonic sequencer. Unfortunately it doesn't have the sound synthesis features of the VL-1, just some preset tones. Never mind, it's nice to have, and this one's in lovely condition and came with a case.