Commodore Remix

Sure... Here's a couple of Pictures of the studio in it's current state.

It takes up about 1/3 of my livingroom, and it's deliberately placed about a meter from the walls as this is best with the accoustics... and I plan on putting up some basstraps in the corners along with frequency absorbing pads on the walls at some point in the future.

The reason for the basstraps is that I've got a 340watt woofer beneath the studio table, so I need traps.

It takes a lot of Space, and that is also why I only collect rack and tabletop synths... exept for the Yamaha EX5 keyboard you can see on the lowest shelf underneath the table.

About MIDI thru... yes it could be used if really necessary, because I shun the use of MIDI thru... it means more data on the MIDI port, which Again means worse MIDI timing, and I'm a perfectionist when it comes to MIDI timing... I want one free I/O MIDI port for each and every single synth, it's that simple ... but it does not really matter... I've got what I need now... I might take another road at some point, which is finding 4 Edirol UM-880 MIDI interfaces and connect these for 32 MIDI ports... but they are darn hard to find these days. They are basically the same as the UM-3G I use now exept they have 8 MIDI I/O ports per 1U rack module.

...but if I ever do that, I'd need a larger Mixing console as well

Well obviously you're done, with all that's left being what you want. You've got a nice set there.

I've enjoyed plenty of synths when recording and there's still more to go before I've even begun to make a fraction of the mixtures. And for myself, a good beat from time to time goes without saying:




I wouldn't mind more of those. I suppose my question now is whether you really can have full, contemporary electronic music with good driving drums outside the usual dubstep, house, etc. Real, proper drums played in that human way. I know I do what I do, but that probably doesn't count.


.....And I suppose that goes for bass as well. Stuff like this helps a track move in a more organic way.

Here is a demo of the Yamaha FS1R's sounds... approx. 100 of them.

The Yamaha FS1R is the most comprehensive hardware FM synth avaiable out there, and is extremely flexible with it's FM and Formant Shaping synthesis combined with more than 70 FX algorithms.

It's particularly good at Chromatic and Metallic timbres, as well as Organs, EPs and not the least; Vocal sounds, talking and singing. There are software out there that will convert wav files to formant sequences for use with the FS1R, which is perfect for robotic talking sounds.

Oh that's the 'Yamaha sound' alright. It reminds me of a spread of equipment from across the years, from soundcards to keyboards and even the SFX Sound Expander. (Though that did use a Yamaha chip so no wonder.)

It even reminds me of the Super Nintendo. And no wonder it sounded like a 'classic era' FM, it pretty much was: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec98/a ... 1r.549.htm

It's nice, I like that.

Excellent thread guys. Razmo thanks for posting the studio photos, very nice setup.

Well... This one is on it's way into my studio very soon... it was actualy a bit unexpected, as I never heard of this rackmount effect before, but someone wanted to swap directly with a compressor I had for sale, and it looks interresting.

It's basically an overdrive effect in rack format, and the thing also has several pedal versions around... but I like rack gear, so I'm pretty happy with this.

The reason I wanted it is that it's analog, but not just that, it's also vacuum tube based which is kind of neat... on top of that it's the original version made by the developer (B.K. Butler)... only thing is that the rack ears have been bent, så it has quite some cosmetic damages... two buttons also do not Work, so I'll have to fix this.

But when it's up and runnin' I'll bet it'll heat up some of my mono synths for sure... maybe I'll even experiment with changing the tube as well...

Picture is of the machine in question, but one without damages, and not one of the original with B.K. Butler's signature...

I also recently purchesed this rackmount polyphonic version of the Dave Smith's Evolver synth... I've had the desktop version for many years, finding this to be one of the finest of newer synths made... always wanted a polyphonic version for my rack... and lucky me; I found one for sale extremely cheap recently... I was fast... and I got it, and it's now sitting in my rack in the studio.... very very pleased I am... indeed!

They were in fact discontinued not so long ago... a year or two back I believe... They are getting more rare these days, and I've not seen them for sale very often....

So now my desktop version is up for sale, and has already been reserved for someone who want to buy it at the end of this month.

I'll remember to post some demo's of it later... so stay tuned.

Allright... another direct swapping bid I got that I accepted.

I've long wanted a separate sample player machine for playing back loops, phrases, vocals, effects and drumsamples with the ability to make a large library af sounds... and preferably with a lot of FX options as well.

Mostly because playing FX via my synths takes op too many resources, so it's more convenient to sample them instead, and just fire them off at the right time.

Long I've been looking at the Roland SP404SX, but it lacks in features really... so I got the KORG ESX-1 instead, but that is rather limited RAM wise, and not the least in terms of communication with my PC and the ability to make huge libraries of sounds.

In the past I always used my trusty old E-MU E5000 Ultra sampler for this, but I'd really like to use this machines features as a single-mode sample-instrument synthesizer which it is very capable of, and not as a sample playback workhorse.

And now I got an offer I could not resist... a Roland MV-8000 in direct swap for my newly gotten Waldorf Blofeld synth... I've never really connected with the Blofeld, and it does not really inspire me, so it had to go for this MV-8000.



As in the Picture above, it comes with the VGA option and monitor as well for better navigation... that's really nice since I'm used to a DAW style workflow.

The MV-8000 has 64 voices, kan playback samples in "stretch mode" on the fly, kan play back sampled phrases and even control external devices too... it is more or less a full features sample player Workstation with DAW interface, and it seems so capable I might end up switching to this for arrangement instead of the PC... then I'll only use my PC for editing synth sounds, and playing back riffs that I'll record on the MV-8000 and sequence there.... I'll see where that leads me.

It has a lot of COSM effects built in, has mouse support, CDRW, floppy disk drive and a 40GB hardrive so that I can finaly make huge libraries of sounds... and best of all, it kan be USB hooked up to the PC for transfering of samples and backup of Projects.

I'm looking forward to messing with this thing for sure

That must be very secure and reliable, especially as an outboard sampler. Though I'm not sure you should sideline the PC as much quite yet. Perhaps if you sequence your projects on the Roland you could still use your PC for samples. I doubt Roland would run the likes of Kontakt or most plugins.

But you seem the kind of guy to run mostly from hardware, as I wanted to when I started, so I guess you're thinking a compact, simple system is all you need.

Commie_User wrote:That must be very secure and reliable, especially as an outboard sampler. Though I'm not sure you should sideline the PC as much quite yet. Perhaps if you sequence your projects on the Roland you could still use your PC for samples. I doubt Roland would run the likes of Kontakt or most plugins.

But you seem the kind of guy to run mostly from hardware, as I wanted to when I started, so I guess you're thinking a compact, simple system is all you need.

Actualy I'm unsure if I'll be able to make the shift to this machine as a 100% arranger of my Work... There are a few things that it will definitely not be able to replace on my PC which I find to be crucial... one is the sample editing software Soundforge which is irreplacebale for me as an editing Tool, along with a few plugins... the other is my trusted SoundDiver editing software that allow me to make editors for my synths, and make huge libraries that I can browse thru when composing, avoiding the need for limited patch storage in my synths... and third, the availability of enough MIDI I/O ports so that every synth can have it's own I/O MIDI port (this is crucial for SoundDiver communication and good MIDI timing).

There are sample editing functions on the MW-8000, but they cannot compete with Soundforge, it's that simple. But the most needed functions are there for use under arrangement, it's more that it cannot deliver the functions needed when fine-editing samples... this can be done prior to putting them in a library though on the MV-8000 harddrive, so it's no big deal... but it makes it impossible for me to totaly dismiss working partialy on my PC.

SoundDiver are Unique... and MV-8000 is pretty much out conquered in this area... editors for quickly editing a sound and browsing libraries can only be done in SoundDiver, so therefore I need the PC as a companion during composing, and as the synths are connected to the PC to be able to communicate with SoundDiver, that also requires that I use the PC sequencer for making the scores... the synths cannot be connected to both MV-8000 and the PC at the same time, and the MV-8000 has got only two MIDI outputs which is WAY too few for my use.

I really like the idear of going 100% away from a PC, but it's just not doable for me I'm afraid. But I'll try and do it in a semi-like way. I'll create small riff loops by scoring them on the PC sequencer, and route the audio to the MV-8000 from a bus on my hardware mixer... this way I can easily arrange these riffs on the MV-8000 for a Whole score, and at the same time use the MV-8000 library of FX, Drums, Vocals etc. directly. This Means that a project can be workwed on and stored completely on the MV-8000 without having to store anything on the PC, and that is what I'm after... then I can make total recall of Projects on the MV-8000 alone, and not have to make complicated storings of synths etc. on the PC, and further it allow me to record from the same synth over and over Again in a project if called for which gives a lot more fleksibility, plus I can use sound sources that need not even have MIDI connections (older analog gear for example, or accoustic sound sources) as I can just play them live, and record the output directly into the MV-8000 as riffs and effects and the like.

Don't know if this makes sense to you, but that's what I hope to accomplish and if the approach fail completely, the MV-8000 would still end up being a crucial companion as a "sound module" for playing back drums, FX, vocals, loops and atmospheres etc. It can still do what I need it to doo, which is holding gigabytes of sample libraries on it's harddrive, and leave my E-MU E5000 Ultra sampler for doing only sample instruments as I intend.

Maybe I'll even end up just slaving the MV-8000 via MIDI time code, and use it's sequencer as an extension of my PC sequencer. This way I'd be able to mix the best of both Worlds... if the timing is good, this may be the way I end up I think.

I understand what you're trying to do, yes. And it's a good idea to have a little unit made to do what it does very well and be more stable than a PC. But I am a PC man myself and remember looking at one of those and thinking they put too many whistles and bells in what looked like just a mixer-multitrack. I didn't know quite how to see it and so I focused on negatives like a lack of insert points and such. 'Look, is this a mixer or isn't it?'

There isn't actually that much on the back: http://www.musiciansbuy.com/mmMBCOM/ima ... 0_Rear.jpg


What you could do is use the Roland and a PC in equal partnership. If I had one I would certainly use it for basic tracking on the go and even mixing, transferring tracks between machines for effects and romplers. Though you are locked into 16 bit.

That does sound very appealing. Less so now than when it was made but you can still get things like the demon jitter and other artifacts if you work the PC too hard. So you can still use the PC to process just individual tracks and submixes a lot harder in realtime before they go back into the Roland for the final master.

One PC I had was better at analogue mastering than another more powerful one I used for tracking. The mastering PC's system noise was by far quieter than the sequencing one, whose outputs were noisy for some reason. And the sound interface was more faithful than the other, which was instead warmer. So I would say a spread of machines are more versatile.

Hmm......

No, the MV-8000 does not have many I/O's on the back, I'm aware of that... in fact it does not bother me at all, as the only role it will have as a mixer, is as a mixer for the sounds it creates itself internaly.

The Heart of my studio has and always will be my 24 channel analog Mackie mixer. All my synths are hooked up to this analog mixer on their individual channel. Every channel has inserts, EQ and AUX sends for reverb, delay and chorus. All mixing I do on this board as it's analog, and simply (to my ears) sound better than digital mixing.

All synths play "live"... they are not harddisk recorded... I usualy record the master output back into the PC when the mix is done, and then master the two track final result on the PC digitaly.

But I've never used harddisk recording from within my DAW in addition to this setup because of the load it put's on the PC, and because of stability issues... I don't like using a PC for this because it's not a 100% dedicated music DAW... it has to do hundreds of other tasks also which compromises Things, and I don't like that.

Therefor I'm looking forward to just syncronize the MV-8000 via MIDI Clock, and then use the MV-8000 for Audio recording as I would otherwise have done in the DAW sequencer on my PC. I find it convenient to be able to record some tracks in pure audio instead of MIDI all the time, especialy for accoustic stuff, and the occational vintage synth without MIDI.

Also... a hardwired system like the MV-8000 is solid now, as the machine has been discontinued... so no more updates to complicate Things... no plugins to update or PC hardware in the future... you've got what you've got, a bit like with the old C64 that could not be upgraded really.

Yes, there's much to be said for one of those. Between the age of 21 and 25 I recorded my friends. Given one of those Rolands, I could have instantly set up at a venue and felt a lot safer than I did with even just a basic mixer and outboard recorders. I daresay the Roland even runs its own realtime compressors and limiters without a trace of overload in tracking.

I had a Fostex D90. Being a fairly early amateur unit it ran the hard disks so hot that the units would ever so slightly cook. No wonder I lost data without rotating them between songs and leaving them on windowsills to cool. It's amazing what advanced in so short a time.

Though I'm still a PC man. Yup, there are many more issues to keep on top of but today you can get excellent, extremely powerful refurbished office PCs for peanuts. Delegate the work across them and you have access to whopping horsepower. But for you, it seems the Roland is ideal. Hope you enjoy the full use if it.

Oh dear... and in the last minute, the person who wanted to trade his MV-8000 decides to get cold feet ...

Well... I've decided that my E-Mu E5000 Ultra is more than capable to suit my needs in the sample department anyways, so I will not be searching for another MV-8000.

On the other hand, I've decided to get this thing for the last mono channel in my mixer... it's not exactly loaded with features, but for some strange reason, I tend to get inspired by few features... guess it's a left-over from my days as a coder on C64/AMIGA where I likes to optimize things and get the most out of very little.

It does have nice SysEx specs which I damn right require! ... so I'll be doing a SoundDiver editor early next week I guess.

It's a paraphonic synth (multiple oscillators, but only one VCF/VCA), and has a limited envelope... but still it's original, sounds really good, has analog VCF and VCA too with different filter modes.

Waldorf Rocket:

Lovely.

What does it sound like?