Well, I finally scaled back to only top 5 synths out of all my crap...

[anppilot]

Yup. Space, clutter, electricity & organization. My wife walked in the studio one day and said: "Do you use half of this stuff?"

Immediatley like any men out there, I was instantly defending my gear.

But then I thought. Hmm, well, I dont use that planet phat anymore, or the S80. Then I went down the list of stuff to get rid of:

AKAI:
S2800
S3000

ALESIS:
qsr
dmpro

ENSONIQ:
mr-rack
mirage

ROLAND:
u-110
d-110
jv-880
jv-90
jv-1080
mc-303
xp-30
jw-50
s-330
dr-550
dr-660
r-8m

YAMAHA:
sy-77
tg-55
tg-500
s-80
tx802
tx81z

So after getting rid of stuff. I figure I save about $60 on the monthly electric bill (cause I never turn stuff off), free'd up space in racks, I kept the main essentials:

Romplers
Fantom XR rack, MOTIF ES rack, Triton

Analog Synth:
Virus TI rack

Digital Synths:
Korg M1 Rack
Roland JD-800

Sampler:
Gigastudio 32 DAW

Well, I guess it was my top 6 synths, not 5 like the title said ( you cant edit a title LOL)

Yeah, I miss stuff, like the JP-8080 but thats ok. I just wound up keeping my 7 most important items. Theres nothing (IMHO) like gigastudio. After pressing buttons on akai samplers, and my triton, theres something to be said for using a mouse when truncating samples

Besides, I sampled most all my drum sounds on the fantom, triton and motif on the gigastudio DAW. Makes things nice and easy.

It is actually more fun these days in the studio now things are streamlined.

Cheers

 

[dementedchord]

dont know if you are aaware of it but tascam announced recently no more support for any giga stuff... so if it does all you need as is then it's cool... but future is not bright ...

 

[anppilot]

dont know if you are aaware of it but tascam announced recently no more support for any giga stuff... so if it does all you need as is then it's cool... but future is not bright ...

Yes, I did read about that. Giga32 has/does wonders for me. Even when giga started upgrading to new versions than I have, I couldnt see the neew to upgrade. I love it. Load up a giga instrument (for me, it's only drums. I dont use it for any other sounds), put a little bit of reverb on it so it doesn't sound so dry, then I'll add later in the mix

The newer versions are processor taxing/heavy. Thats another reason I stuck with version 32.

I also use the giga DAW to host my Fantom XR software as well as VG-99 software. I wish I could put my MOTIF ES software on it, but it is only windows 2000 and you need xp minimum for that. If someone could tell me that if I put XP on the computer as an upgrade andit wouldnt mess up my giga, I'd do it!

So what do you think dmentedchord, good choise of synths to keep ?


Cheers

PS, I kinda wish I had a Yamaha FS1r although the TI does FM, you cant beat the real thing

I got rid of my M1R and JD-990 once, regreted it and bought it back.

But the 4 of them (990, m1r, ti and fs1r) make a perfect set of Analog modeling, Digital synthesis and FM systhesis. I do wish I kept my wavestation.

 

[ofajen]

Sounds like you've made some good changes.

Sounds vaguely familiar, too ...

About ten years ago, I had enough MIDI gear to feel cramped with just ONE 8x8 interface (still fairly modest compared to your collection). Then I got more into recording audio and decided to sell off the bigger MIDI gear. I used the same basic idea (keep one from each synthesis type), but I also mainly kept the gear I'd had longest and thus knew best. Thus, I still have the old, pre-MIDI Roland analog synths (SH-09 and Juno 6), a Casio CZ-1, a TX802, the lowly MU5 and my DrumKAT. The fun thing is that I know them all pretty well, so I can program them pretty well.

Here's the funny thing: I really miss Opcode!

I'm trying to figure out how to get a system under Mac OS 9 that will run all my old Opcode programs, use the old Studio 4 Opcode interface and conveniently run the old patch librarians, patch editors and open up the old MIDI sequences. If I can't find a PCI card to support RS-422 serial ports under Classic on my G4 Mac, I'll probably buy an old Powerbook G3 running OS 9.2.2 that has them built in and copy all my Opcode stuff into it.

I'm doing a lot of audio on the Yamaha standalone and it can sync to and control a MIDI sequencer to control the synths and to automate mixdown of everything on its own mixer. My old Mac is too wimpy to compete with the Yamaha on mixing or to do much in the way of software synths or processing.

Sounds like you're on the right track...enjoy the freedom of less!

Cheers,

Otto