NEW STUFF! Jen Synthetone SX-1000, Roland Pro-E Arranger, Edirol PC-500 MIDI controller

After months of working on the studio setup, I'm almost at the stage of beginning work on my next album, but having sworn not to buy any more equipment, I've been distracted by a few purchases.
The GEM S3 Turbo keyboard has been retired as it has some faulty keys, so to replace its polyphonic aftertouch function (which I need for the S2R module) I've bought an Edirol PC-500 keyboard.

I wasn't aware of it before I started researching keyboards with polyphonic aftertouch, and it is one of the few modern, affordable controllers with that function, as well as having loads of controller sliders and buttons. Just £70, and it came in a thumping great flightcase.


The Jen Synthetone SX-1000 was a great pickup for £25 'spares or repair' - seems to be nothing wrong with it except one snapped knob and a couple of missing coloured knob inserts. It's a nice basic Italian single-oscillator monosynth with stable tuning and a reasonably good filter, but it lacks connectivity and it's unfeasibly expensive to have it MIDIfied.

But it's a nice toy, as is the Roland Pro-E, a MIDI accompaniment keyboard based on the D110 with some funky controller features. A good buy at £40 which I spoiled by paying £45 for seven extra style cards, and how useful they are remains to be seen.

Right, now I really must get on with some recording.