What's your favorite piece of rack gear?

  • Thread starter Thread starter subtractor
  • Start date Start date
Speaking of subtractive...

Off topic, Subtractor, but can I assume from your name you are an ace synth programmer or player? (Is that a Nord in your avatar?).

If so, how about some recommendations for some of your favorite synths from your collection?
 
I don't know about "ace" but I do have an un natural preoccupation with synths. And yes that's a lead 3 as my avatar.
Right now I have the lead 3, korg ms2000, kurz k2500s, roland jupiter 4, emu proteus 2000, roland jv1010 and a roland sh-32.

They're like women to me. They all make their own special sound when you touch them in the right way, and I love em all. I especially like va synths though.

Recomendations... It kinda depends on what kind of sound your looking for. The ms 2000, jv1010 and sh32 are the winners in the best buy category. You can get any of em for under 500 these days, and they are all really great and packed full of cool sounds. The kurz wins the "most powerful" award. I don't think I'll ever master that thing. It's just so deep and complex, the possibilities for sound creation are literally endless. It's so good at "atmosphere" soundscapes and acoustic sounds. Then the nord kinda stands on it's own. Now that I've had it a while I would consider it more of an expert synth. Not that it's hard to use, it's just a bit harder to come up with nice sounds programming it from an init or fm sound. But if you like the screaming cheetah sex fed through an angry vocoder sound (which I do), it's real easy. But it holds sooo many sounds. It's got 1024 program slots and 256 performance slots. And the led dials are great. Not only is it the only synth that you can programm in the dark, but it's also the only synth that will allow you to turn knobs hands free. You can assign all 26 of the knobs to groups to be controlled with the wheel, velocity, after touch/ control pedal. That allows for an unprecedented amount of programming control while still playing the keys. In a performance you can control up to four programs simultaneously and have up to 4 morph groups on each program controlled by 1 or all 4 of the morph controllers. That theoretically will allow you to turn up to 104 (4 programs) x (26 knobs) knobs at once, 4 different ways. It's really crazy. And the sound quality is right there with the kurz.
On top of that it is also the only synth, because of the led knobs that shows you what every program looks like. On any conventional knob synth, when you go to a patch, the parameters for every knob are known to the computer inside, but obviosly the knobs can't turn to display the new parameters. The nord does do that.
I would reccomend any of the synths I own, and regularly do. Next is a virus. I want the indigo 2. I REALLY REALLY want that Hartmann neuron! And I'd also like to have a supernova II and a waldorf q +. But I just got the nord about 2-3 mo. ago so I guess I'll wait a while.
It's kinda funny because I never used a sequencer before, and I'm just getting into using cubase sx as a sequencer, so with all these synths you can imagine my renewed excitement at the possibilities. Now all I have to do is get better at playing and arranging and I can have my own orchestra!:D
 
I'd also reccomend absynth, fm7 and pro52, all synths from native instruments. They are supercool too and have great sound. And reason2 of course, the new maelstrom grain table synth in it is awesome, as well as the rest of the program.

I would really recommend those for someone with a controller that wants super cool new sounds without having to spend a fortune.
 
Angermeyer said:
Mackie 1202 mixer, my only piece:rolleyes: , so I suppose it wins by default.

Tecnically it's not a rack! so you're disqualified! ;):D
 
quote:
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Originally posted by drstawl
My Custom-Built Rackmount PC.
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Got any pics??

Scott
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Yeh,
http://www.feel-rock.com/2/RackZ3.jpg
 
...I would reccomend any of the synths I own, and regularly do
I want super cool authentic orchestral sounds.
Not some noise maker that doesn't sound like any recognizable instrument.
I currently use a Roland JV 2080 with an Orchestral Expansion Card.

Any other recommendations??
 
The jv series is really good for those kind of sounds. Other than that besides the kurzweil, the only thing I could reccomend from experience would be the proteus 2000. It comes with 32mb of sounds and has room for 3 more roms for a total of 128mb. It's got really clean sound, 128 voice polyphony, 32 midi channels, and is pretty cheap these days.
 
Thanks for the detailed response, Sub.

While I've been a keyboard player all my life, my synth programming has been limited to mostly minor preset tweaks, or via layering presets from multiple modules. I guess you could call it "Sound Design for Wimps"!

Maybe because my very first synth back in the 1980's was a DX7 - not the most progamming friendly.

I keep intending to get into it more, but there's only so many hours in the day (sigh).

(Of course if I stopped hanging out at homerec....)
 
Yeah, I know what your saying. This place will suck your day right out from under you.
DX7 is definitely not friendly, but the sounds are great. That's basically what the fm7 synth is. But va synths open up a whole new realm with all the lfo's filters, modulators and so on. I hardly ever actually get any recording done. Between hr and getting lost playing with knobs for hours at a time...
 
Roland SRV-330 Reverb, has some really good plates and warm halls!

Korg SDD-3000 and SDD-1200 delays, a bit noisy but the sound rocks!

Ensoniq DP/4+, great multifx!

Racked Siemens V376 micpre and W395 eq, old german gear rules!

Amund
 
I like my rackmount 30 gig Glyph Project X HD... Thats my favorite piece....

Joe
 
That's a pretty cool setup there scott. I recently downloaded one of those videos. It's really cool.
 
And that's a really nicely recorded sample on your bio page. Is that you on the bong?
 
Ok, since no one else said it, I'll be the juvinile. My favorite piece of rack gear......is........the over the shoulder boulder holder! :)
RD
 
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