Although I'm quite a ROLAND fan, I like the KORG Wavestation A/D a lot. Mainly because there is an amazing variety of possibilities to handle the sounds.
It was +/- 1980 when I bought my first musical instrument. It was a , Roland SH101 , and I chose it instead of the Syndrums that I first went for, because one could create virtually the same sounds with it and obviously a lot more...
Some years later I added a cheap rithmbox to this, of which I can't even remember the name, and which broke down for some reason (probably the use of a cheap unstable adaptor...) At the time it gave me the opportunity to link my SH101 with a Roland JX3P
, a synth that I first borrowed and bought later on. At that time I did not really spend a lot of time on music, as I had other things to do. But already since I was a kid, music was very important to me. I Xperienced it in a rather passive way, I guess...As a teenager, I Deejayed a lot in pubs and at parties. Later I started to become involved in a local radiostation. For the purpose of making radiojingles, I bought a TASCAM Porta Two. This one had a cheap tape mechanism, and a lot of hiss, just from the thing itself. It is now again in repair (It's still handy as a kind of notebook...). Slowly I started to use music that I made myself for the jingles. Later I dropped the jingles and started to make more and more music...
Years later, bands start to rehearse at my home, and after a while I start to jam along. First I play one gig with a group called The Soap, later there comes another guitarplayer, and Oortcloud is born. As Oortcloud grows, my equipement grows along...
I could buy a second SH101 for an amazing price, and I did not hesitate...Later I did a job for 2 and a halve years, I was able to buy the Wavestation.
As I felt that not all of my ideas where suitable for Oortcloud, and the 4track did not give me the results I wanted, I started to use an Amiga 500 computer as a sequencer, and sometimes sampler. This was a very cheap sollution once again, and quite effective. Later I powered up an Amiga 1200, and had the Music X2.0 software running. This gave me (with the use of an interface) 2 midi out, 1 midi in and one midi thru.
I added a Kenton pro 2 midi to cv box, to drive the SH101's. As a drummodule I used first an Alesis HR16 and recently an Alesis DM5 (which I use with 3 Roland PD7 pads, one ROLAND FD7 hihatcontroller, a YAMAHA KP80 kick, with a PEARL footpedal and some cheap YAMAHA cymbalpads) ,For sampling, a Roland JS30 with Zip drive ( to save the samples (and which caused a lot of problems first ; an eprom had to be changed in the JS30...).
I patch my midi equipement with a Roland A880 midi patcher/mixer. A Spirit Folio 12/2 mixer and a Boss SE 70 FX processor make the kit complete. For most bass sounds I use the Peavy Spectrum Bass II and sometimes an SH101.
Now, I use a Pentium II, 266Mhz, running CUBASE VST 3.5 as a complete solution for midi and audio recording. I use a Dman 2044 audiocard with 4 ins and outs, and a Portman 2x4 paralell midi-interface with 2 ins and 4 outs. Both are MIDIMAN computer extensions.
As microphones I use the Shure SM 58 , and to record the Tascam DA 20
Another addition to my kit is theMULTIVOX MX-57 a vintage syndrum...
Now I plan to buy a ROLAND JP8080 to add some newer sounds to my set.
I see the internet as a part of my equipement as well... It is a good source for info on musical soft and hardware. I also learnt a lot from reading Future Music Magazine
MORE LINKS