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Post by Shreddie on Jan 13, 2010 9:33:11 GMT
Otherwise known as my Acoustic Research and Sonic Experimentation Suite (A.R.S.E.S.)  It's a bit of a hovel so I thought I'd stick with a lights out shot for public consumption! Left to right... The Rack (top to bottom): E-Mu 1820m, Yamaha FS1R, Digital Music Corp MX-8 MIDI patchbay, ART SGX Nightbass SE, Yamaha A3000 V2. Kawai K5000s (with orange backlight), Yamaha MG 10/2 mixer, Alesis Fusion 8HD, Alesis A6 Andromeda. Not shown: Yamaha EX7 and PSS-480 synths. Vester clipper 5-string and highly modified (but unfinished) Encore basses. Crappy strat copy and Tanglewood elecro-acoustic guitars. |
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foosion
Full Member
"I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members." - Groucho Marx
Posts: 49
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Post by foosion on Jan 13, 2010 13:45:42 GMT
Sweet Shreddie!! I'm jellyous! Kick ass setup. I'd give my left nugget for a A6 and the right one for a K5000s. Hmmm on second thought that would leave me with no brains at all, guess i better start saving then. ;D
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Post by kpr on Jan 13, 2010 14:44:51 GMT
Ultracool pic!!!
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Post by Shreddie on Jan 13, 2010 14:47:30 GMT
I'd give my left nugget for a A6 and the right one for a K5000s. I'd rather have the A6 and the K5000s than your nuggets too! ;D Hehe! Cheers! Believe it or not, I only got most of this together over the past two or three years. Up until then I would've been a bit envious of someone with the same kind of set up. I only had one bass, the EX7, FS1R, PSS-480 and my PC up until 2/3 years back then I got the Fusion and everything kinda snowballed after that! I did have a list of other synths that I would have liked to have added to what I already have but the GAS seems to have (mostly) left me since I got the K5000s and the Andromeda as both are incredibly rewarding synths to use. Now I'm only really after stuff that can help me to make better use of what I have... Stuff like a dual screen set-up for my PC, a nice outboard EQ, ADAT interface to increase my I/O count, decent stands, maybe a top of the range effects/reverb unit etc. A V-Synth is still on my radar and an Akai S5/6000 is going to be a likely purchase sometime in the future but other than that I really don't think I need any more synths... Though I really do like the idea of building my own Paia modular synth! The thing is that I don't think my brain could really handle getting to grips with any more synths, at least not in the forseeable future. And as things stand, I have more than enough to keep me happy. When I eventually do decide to get more synths, I'll probably end up getting three or four older/cheaper synths... Probably a Casio CZ-1, an Ensoniq SQ or ESQ of some sort, a Yamaha AN1x and perhaps something else. An EX5R is probably on my list too, it's the rack mounted version of the Yamaha EX5, the far more poweful version of my EX7, that also has VL synthesis which the EX7 lacks. But before I do that, I need more room! And after reading that, I think I might still have a bit of GAS!  |
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Post by logan5 on Jan 13, 2010 14:48:14 GMT
Great.I love pics like this-reminds me of an aerial shot of some strange city...
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Post by psionic11 on Jan 13, 2010 16:49:55 GMT
Nice setup, Shreddie. Seems like you and me have quite a bit in common. I quit my last band a few years ago, and had no equipment. The music bug just wouldn't go away, esp with an old out of tune piano in the new place I was living in, and the must of Beethoven kept calling me. After practicing Mvt 3 of the Moonlight Sonata with a missing F key for a few months, I began my quest for GAS satisfaction.
It's been almost 2 years, but the Fusion forums is where I was reborn as a musician. After lots of research on the Big 3 and alternatives, I decided on a Fusion. Got the last 6HD from the Sam Ash music chain for $399. So happy, nice feel, the synth engines. I almost knew the board before I got it cuz I was so deep into the manual (check my early posts in Feb-Mar 2008, 2 months before I got the 6HD).
But I needed 88keys for that sonata. Fretting for lack of availability of an 8HD, I was actually deciding on which used model of digital piano I was going to get. Luck have it, I offhandedly mentioned to the salesman if he happened to hear of the Fusion, and they had an unopened 8HD in stock. Down payment, 2 weeks later, and I giddily brought home an 8HD for $799. Called Sweetwater to get the Alesis monitors and a keyboard stand...
Then came the Ebay fever -- Alesis AirSynth, AirFx, Yamaha DD65 drums, Ensoniq VFX-SD for the sequencer, wavetables and polypressure, WSA1r for the physical modelling. Months of watching, finally got an EX5r for low price, for the FDSP and built-in VL70m. Keyboard stands, tiers, Behringer BCF and FCB.. Alesis X guitar... finally a Micron, an ESP 5-string bass, a BCR for more knobs for Micron.
Most recent purchase is the MX8, which I see you have as well. Three days of MIDI logic, it's a nice unit, but I'm going to get a Midisport 8x8 for its MIDI THRU mode... everyone talks to everyone.
Hopefully the GAS is somewhat settled as I save for a year before I get an Andy, eh?
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Post by psionic11 on Jan 13, 2010 19:31:42 GMT
Very similar tastes there, Shreddie. We have this in common:
Fusion
bass guitar (long ago wanted that ART FX unit)
Alesis X guitar (my crappy strat copy)
nylon string (vs your steel strings)
EX5r vs EX7
Andromeda (although I have the ghetto version: Micron+BCF/BCR+Art tube preamp, lol)
MX8 MIDI patchbay (still not enough, going to get Midisport 8x8)
I also need to get a quality reverb/multiFX unit, currently using Boss VF1. You're interested in several synth engine types (K5000 for additive, FS1r for advanced FM), as I am. I may even put the K5000s on my GAS back burner. Wavetable is also on the radar, but the VFX-SD's transwaves are my temporary fix.
Like you, I've only been building studio for about 2 years. It all started in Mar 2008 with the Fusion 6HD =)
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Post by psionic11 on Jan 13, 2010 20:57:06 GMT
Haha, sorry about the "double post." I'm at work and thought I lost the first one. Apologies for the rambling x2...
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Post by psionic11 on Jan 14, 2010 0:13:08 GMT
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Post by Shreddie on Jan 14, 2010 11:27:54 GMT
Like you, I've only been building studio for about 2 years. It all started in Mar 2008 with the Fusion 6HD =) That's about the same time I got my 8HD! Though I had ordered it sometime previous to that and had to wait until the shop had got the memory expansions in. As I think I mentioned a couple of weeks back, the A3000 makes a half decent effects unit in it's own right. Personally though I keep drooling over stuff like the Lexicon MPX1 and Kurzweil KSP8... They're sort of modular you see... And I like flexible stuff! Oh mate... They're good... They're very good! A friend of mine hates it when I talk about mine since he tried it because he wishes that he'd got one... And he's got all the Line6 stuff you can shake a stick at! They're pretty reasonable on fleabay too. The only real downside to them is that patch changes can be rather slow... Though you can bypass effects within a patch (via MIDI) instantly. If you ever do get one here's a top tip for you... Change the standard valve for an EH/Sovtek one... It's made a whole world of difference to mine! I really can't see myself ever needing another bass/guitar effects unit now. It even makes my really shitty strat copy sound like something far more expensive... Something that all the software on my computer and other effects units always failed to do! Oh, and 'cos it takes line inputs too (though stereo signals are summed to mono before the effects) it makes a nice effects unit for your synths too... My Andromeda has one of it's aux outs permanently attached to it. That's another one I kinda fancy... And the Z1... And the VL1! Haha! Same here! Though as I have said, I don't think I could really handle more large synths right now. As far as wavetable synths go, I'd like either a Solaris or a Stromberg but I'm really beginning to doubt if either of those will ever see the light of day. A Blofeld would be a possibility but I like my synths to have knobs where possible, something that the Blofeld lacks. And as for being interested in different kinds of synthesis, that is very much true... I see each different kind of synthesis as something new to learn, an education if you will. And that's what has driven my choices of synths. The way I see it, if you want to learn a type of synthesis in depth then you might as well get the best synth for each kind of synthesis... The EX and the Fusion are (arguably) the most powerful s+s/workstations ever made with the added benefits of other kinds of synthesis. The Andromeda is (arguably) the most powerful and flexible true analogue ever made. The FS1R is (arguably) the most powerful FM synth ever made... Such a shame it's so bloody hard to use though! The K5000 series are the most powerful additive synths ever made. I simply went for the 's' model because it had plenty of hands on control... If I could I'd try and find the 'x' model but there were only a few prototypes of that made. So, there is method behind my madness! And we certainly do seem to have a few things in common! That's the multi output board for the A series samplers and a few other bits... It's not for the EX series... And I wouldn't need it for my A3000 either because I only ever use that for effects... A sampler like that without the SCSI board is like a runner without legs! |
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Post by Shreddie on Jan 14, 2010 11:29:59 GMT
Great.I love pics like this-reminds me of an aerial shot of some strange city... Cheers! I'm glad you both like it! And Logan, you may have just given me an idea for a piccie... Hmmm. |
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Post by djnorythm on Jan 14, 2010 19:20:10 GMT
great setup and awesome pic! I thought it was hilarious that you mentioned the ART SGX as a sampler, a while back. My old SGX 2000 had midi i/o and a few synth presets, so I guess it's a synth also.  They do rock and sound a lot better than a pod.. you had the same idea that I have been toying with.. use the SGX as a dedicated fx unit for the aux out on the a synth. |
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Post by Shreddie on Jan 15, 2010 11:23:34 GMT
great setup and awesome pic! Cheers! Well, it is! Albeit a very basic one. My Nightbass has about 2 seconds of sampling time... Those samples can be played back either via MIDI or can pitch track your playing, though the pitch tracking is flakey at best. It also has an envelope which can be used for a few different things. I should perhaps point out that my Nightbass is a prototype (a lucky fleabay find) so is a little different to other models even though it's in a bog standard Nightbass rackbox. It's more or less the same as the normal Nightbass SE before it but it has more memory locations, a different distortion circuit (loads more drive) and a couple of other minor features that aren't on other SGX models. They do sound great! And they do make a damned good synth effects unit... At one point I was actually looking for another one! |
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Post by om on Feb 6, 2010 20:35:29 GMT
Hey Shreddie,
Where did you get the Orange backlight for your K5000S? I have an S as well and orange looks really kewl.
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Post by Shreddie on Feb 7, 2010 9:20:02 GMT
Hey Shreddie, Where did you get the Orange backlight for your K5000S? I have an S as well and orange looks really kewl. Ah yes! The backlight was failing on mine (a common fault) so I decided to replace it. The backlight on the K5000 series is electro-luminescent sheet that you can get from a variety of electronics places such as RS electronics and Farnell. It's available in a variety of colours so I chose orange to complement the buttons. You can (or used to) be able to buy replacement backlights that were easy to fit as long as you had a screwdriver and a soldering iron as the old one would just slip out from under the display (after desoldering) then you could slip the new one in. However, I basically made my own backlight. This involves cutting the EL sheet to size, attaching conductors (not as easy as it sounds, you can't solder to plastic!) and insulating it ( very important as EL sheet requires a fairly high voltage which would fry your synth if there was a short) before placing it under the display. However, as mine was a little thicker and wider than the original, I had to remove the LCD display from the circuit board which is a delicate task as the display can break or crack if you do it wrong. So I wouldn't advise doing it this way unless you're pretty competent with electronics... However, I was incompetent in ordering the EL sheet, I got one that wasn't wide enough! So I have small dark strips at either side of the display. I'll be ordering a larger red EL sheet and replacing that in the future. I'll be having red next time as the orange colour is a bit pale. |
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They do rock and sound a lot better than a pod.. you had the same idea that I have been toying with.. use the SGX as a dedicated fx unit for the aux out on the a synth.