Hard-Core Gear Porn Friday!!!
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
If you were ever curious as to the studio that lives in my head, when I think about what my studio should be, instead of what it is, above is a picture of it. Of course, it doesn’t have Michael Hoenig in it, hardly ever. And I imagine I could probably come up with a better storage medium than the mass quantity of 5.25” floppies he has. And I almost certainly wouldn’t have a DX7 in it. But otherwise, yup, that’s it pretty much exactly.
For the full-size, click here. This is taken from the Santuarios site, which consists, by and large, exclusively of scans of semi-famous synth players sitting in front of their rigs from 80s-era Keyboard magazines. The early 80s were kind to neither fashion nor hairstyles, but there’s some pretty fly-ass synths to be had. All the usual suspects are well-represented, and you can easily spend an hour getting your monitor all sticky-like going through the photos. The rest of the site is in some language that isn’t English, and is thus completely oblique to an American such as myself.
24 comments
So what you're looking for is a maxed out studio of the pre DAW era- not a comp to be seen in any significant role, which is entertainingly ironic considering the business you're in...
though i think i feel you on that -.. to be honest
No DX7? But but but it's a CLASSIC!
Anyway, you'll need something to balance out all that analog fatness...
"Nowadays, there are people using the DX7 that are creating some sounds you swear comes from some abuse of a modular synth"
There's some truth to this. I've programmed sounds on a DX7 that fooled Steve Roach - he thought I was using a Matrix12. Of course the flipside of this is that it sounded good because it *didn't* sound like a DX7.
w00t! We got ourselves a Death Match going!
I never said in the above comments that FM sucks. I said, and most anyone who owns or has owned one would agree, that the DX7 itself has some major issues that take it out of consideration for any sort of "cool." And, no, there is really no way you can program a DX7 to sound anything resembling good, in my oh-so-humble opinion, assuming you'd want to take the time.
The Casio PD series are much better for that type of sound, and the FS1R is the bomb. I'm referring specifically to the DX7, not FM in general.
-CR
"...assuming you'd want to take the time"
I had to - the DX7 was all I had! I totally agree otherwise. It's biggest problems are the lack of lfos and flexible routing thereof, and the absence of a post oscillator audio processing. There are lots of synths available now that fix these problems.
"the DX7 itself has some major issues that take it out of consideration for any sort of 'cool.'" - CR
yeah. however, the DX5 is pretty damn sick. it has the interface the DX7 should have had and a better analogue output section.
here's an example of how the DX5 is an instrument you can _jam_ with:
http://suitandtieguy.com/sounds/stg_hinkley_button.mp3
it's mainly one take, DX5, some sub bass out of an alpha juno later on, and a couple other voices. all the DX5 twaking is in real-time.
here's the edit layout for reference:
http://suitandtieguy.com/sights/button_edit_window.jpg
Well, that bears a striking resemblance to Digital Native Dance, which brings the conversation full circle back to the D50. Congratulations.
-CR
I have DX21 that I picked up on the cheap. I've been able to get some Wumpscut-ish sounds out of it but that's about it. Complete pain in the ass to program on, I used it mostly as a controller until I got another 66-key synth that use for a controller now.
"anyone who uses a 303 today ... should be shot!"
..someone call sweetwater on this guy and tell them hes givin away freeware..after all the # is everywhere!!!!!
I like to think that there is no such thing as a bad synth.
However I do have 2 Yamaha FM boxes sitting here in front of me that I have never managed to get a good sound out of (FB-01, DX-100). Hmm, I can't really go too much farther into this thought without self-deprecation...
303's however are definitely overdone. Some people manage to do some interesting things with them (Ritchie Hawtin). But the majority that are doing overdriven high res bass lines are making me hate the 303 left and right.
No DX7? But but but it's a CLASSIC!
Anyway, you'll need something to balance out all that analog fatness...
dude, i'm pretty sure they are speaking mexican on that site. :o)
Wait, is that a D50 top of the rack on the left? I'd take a DX7 before a D50 - the Wham! of keyboards - any day.
I think the D50 is trumped by the Synclavier it is above. Besides, it makes a fine controller. As for the DX7, sorry, but it sounds like shit, weighs a fucking tonne, and has the World's Worst MIDI Implementation. I think people talk themselves in to liking it simply because there are so many.
-CR
The DX7 is capabile of some really amazing sounds if you spend the time to learn/program FM synthesis. Besides, there is something to be said for the sonic tension created between a nice warm fuzzy analog sound counter balanced by a nice crisp cold digital one.
-PBX
Yeah, sure. Except every sound it can make has been used to death.
Aside from that, that honkin' big Synclavier kind of obviates any other FM synths that might be lying about.
-CR
What's that between the minimoog and the four-voice? Is it a pro-soloist?
The DX7 is an amazing synth. The sounds you can get from it are totally unique. It has a far greater range of sounds than most analog / subtractive synthesis machines.
The trouble is, that it is so hard to program, that most people only used the presets (the old uban legend is that 99% of the DX7s that come in for repair only have the preset sounds in them). That is why people think "all the sounds have been used to death".
Nowadays, there are people using the DX7 that are creating some sounds you swear comes from some abuse of a modular synth, or some new wierd botique audio plugin.
If anything, I think the whole "analog" subtractive synthesis "square-wave with a filter sweep" sound is much more cliche than any FM sound. At some point "analog" synths (I use quotes, because so many people use virtual analog synths or plugins nowadays), became "cool" and mainstream, and everyone thinks analog (or facsimile) is the turkey bone nowadays.
The really cool cutting edge sounds I hear nowadays are coming from digital (FM synthesis, Phase Modulation, Additive Synthesis, or combinations of those) in those more glitchy experimental styles... my only fear is that eventually it will catch on in the main stream, and in 3 or 4 years the DX7 will be the overused "retro" technology that the 303 became back in '99. (and yeah, I didn't mind the 303 abuse back in '89 listening to Acid House or Detroit Techno... but by '99 it was all fatboy-slimified garbage... anyone who uses a 303 today, other than to play old-school funk guitar like the 303 was designed to do because that would be fresh, should be shot!)
Fortunatly, since the DX7 is completly digital, I don't need to own one. I can emulate one in CSound without any issues, and without spending any money.
"anyone who uses a 303 today ... should be shot!"
what a load of shit.
the differenced between the DX7 and the 303 is that the 303 is classic sound, and the DX7 is a dated sound.
the 303, the 909, and the Minimoog are in the _handful_ of vintage synths that have taken their rightful place alongside the Hammond organ, the harpsichord, the Rhodes, the Wurlitzer Electronic Piano, the clavinet, and the grand piano as classic instruments.
the DX7 will _never_ be in that lineup. ever.
btw, i'd rather hear my friend Distortech throw down old-school acid house live PA with his x0x boxes than most new music i've heard come out of these shambles of an electronic "scene" since 2000 or so.
"303's however are definitely overdone."
yeah i was just thinking there were way too many records with Hammond organ on them.
let's line all of the organists and the acid house live PA guys up and shoot them in sequence.
Hey, when I said that people using the 303 should be shot, it was a joke. I don't believe in the death penalty, let alone for making a poor choice in synth. I apologize to anyone who mistook my humor for a death threat.
But, speaking of the DX7 and 303... I remember back in 89, asking the guy in the music shop about the 303, and like all the people who were seriously into synthesizers back then, they would insist the 303 was a peice of crap. I have heard of people purchasing them for $20 back then. Now the same people despise the DX7, but love the 303. I seriously think that the DX7 will be the next 303.
The only thing that might not make this true, is that the DX7 or even more complex FM synthesis stuff is just so easy to do in a plugin (One of the reasons that FM became the first mass-produced digital synths is because the computation used is so little), and hopefully modern day plugin writers would know a little bit more about ergonomics than Yamaha in the 1980s. A DX7 plugin (or more complex FM - no reason to limit to 6 ops nowadays), but with every parameter as a slider or knob or something, would be awsome.
In that vein, I was wondering if we'd see something like a plugin version of the DX100, now that Yamaha owns Steinberg. I personally don't care for FM7, but it sure does make programming DX-style sounds easy. The DX100 is even easier, so it would stand to reason that it would translate to a plugin environment quite readily.
-CR
"In that vein, I was wondering if we'd see something like a plugin version of the DX100, now that Yamaha owns Steinberg. I personally don't care for FM7, but it sure does make programming DX-style sounds easy. The DX100 is even easier, so it would stand to reason that it would translate to a plugin environment quite readily."
Done already... check http://www.flstudio.com/documents/30.html The Fruity Loops DX-10 VSTi ... a little limited, but works fine
//r.
(A) That's not what I meant at all.
(B) See A.
There are about 450,000 FM synth plugins available. I'm talking specifically about Steinberg's purchase by Yamaha, and how we might see some interesting FM synths as a result, since Yamaha pwns that shit.
-CR
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