From: din@grad1.cis.upenn.edu (Clarence Din)
Newsgroups: rec.music.synth
Subject: NEED MORE REVIEWS!!!! update on synth list!
Date: 14 Apr 92 18:08:34 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

Okay, everyone.  Here's the synth list as it stands right now.
This is YOUR chance to add to the knowledge we have right now
about the current synths on the market and any old ones you
may have lying around.  As I had mentioned in an earlier
posting requesting these reviews, I'd like you to keep your
reviews in the same format as synths.nov87!!!

Here goes...

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                              SYNTHS 1992
     Compilation of new and used synths, samplers, and rack modules
                     Compiled by Clarence K. Din

If you would like to include a review of your synth or rack module, please
send your info to din@grad1.cis.upenn.edu.  I will try to update this list
as frequently as possible, such as once a month or once every two months,
but I make no guarantees!
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YOUR SUBMISSIONS should be in the following format:

# <name of gear>

<the review>

<your name and e-mail address>

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NOW, THE REVIEWS...

# Roland U-20 keyboard

	This unit is a PCM sample playback unit.  It has good effects
offering both chorus and reverb.  It has the ability to modify the
ASDR of the samples.  The unit has a combination pitch and modulation
"wheel".  You have to push back to use it for modulation and simultaneously
move it right and left.  It has a volume slider and two uncommitted sliders
that can be used to control about 15 parameters.  The keyboard is 61 keys.
The rackmount version is the U-220.
	The architecture is particularly hard to understand and
gives new owners fits.  The ROM PCM samples are called "tones"
that are assigned to "timbers" where various modifications can
be applied.  These "timbers" are then assigned to a "sound patch"
which has six slots for regular "timbers" and one slot for a
special "rhythm" set, for a total of seven slots each of which
can be a unique MIDI channel.  Here additional modifications can
be applied to change the final sound.  "Keyboard patches" determine how
the various transmitters of MIDI data perform as companions to
the "Sound patches" that determine how the various MIDI recievers
perform.  If you are now confused, you get the idea.
	There is excellent control over assigning splits and
layers using these six "timber" slots.  You can also use velocity
to switch or mix layers based on how fast you attack the keys.
The keyboard can be mapped onto any MIDI channel and it does
send aftertouch information.  There are two jacks on the back
for plugging in a sustain type pedal and an expression type
pedal.
	There is generally good controller programing, however,
the U-20 has not worked well with wind controllers due to an
obscure problem with how it is set up to use controller
information to control "timber level".  Thus it does not
follow controller #2 messages in real time.  A wind controller
would need to send either aftertouch or controller #7 messages
instead of the usual breath controller message #2.
	The PCM cards are unique and a very limited third
party offering exists.  However, the 15 cards that do exist are
good.  There are about five Roland synths that use these same
cards, so there is some motivation for Roland to issue new ones
occasionally.  The U-20 offers excellent sounds, especially of "real"
instruments.  It may be the best "real" sounding instrument
in its price range.
	The manual has excellent technical information, but
is of questionable use in understanding the architecture and
how to program the U-20.  There are two third-party manuals
available that, while lacking in technical data, do offer
chatty and readable descriptions of U-20 button pushing.
The programing of the unit with the buttons and the tiny
screen is still difficult.  Only one company, SoundQuest,
is known to make an editor for this machine.  It is extensively
buggy, but much better than nothing.  The ability to see the
architecture all together on a PC screen helps clear up how
things fit together to make the final sound.
	A RAM card slot and two PCM card slots are available.
Performance combinations are stored in "keyboard patches" all
of which are initially set the same.  There is one "keyboard
patch" for each of the  "sound patches".  "Sound patches"
are arranged in two 8x8 arrays, or a total of 128 internal and
another 128 on the RAM card.  There is room for four of the
special rhythm sets.  There are two definable chord sets
available at a time from a total set of eight defined chord
sets stored.   The U-20 does not support microtuning in hardware.
	PCM ROM cards are a problem if you want to use sounds
off more than two cards plus the internal tones.  There is no
way to copy the PCM ROM samples, so the way they come arranged
on the cards is what you are stuck with.  Due to the size of
good samples, a PCM card can have as few as eight to ten "tones"
on it.  It has a fairly good support for sound effects with some 
internal sounds and additional sound effects on PCM cards available. 

SUMMARY:  The Roland U-20 offers very good "realistic" sounds with
adequate control over their performance.
	It offers good external controllers and has stereo and mono out,
both before and after effects processing.  There is a limited but adequate
number of additional PCM cards available.
	The manual is OK, but a third party manual is recomended.  It is
a hard unit to intially understand.  It does not seem workable with a wind
controller.
	It does work very well with an external drum pad unit
like the Roland PAD-5 Controller or with BiaB.  The rhythm section
is particularly well done.
	It has good layering and split capability, including key velocity
switching and mixing.

NOTE:	Roland has perhaps the most widely hated and poorly regarded
customer support in the United States.  There are people who refuse to
consider Roland equipment for this reason alone, regardless of how good
the hardware is.

Mike Burger
mike@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu

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# Roland JX-3P

This is a hybrid DCO/VCF/VCA synth released in about 1985.  It was later
rereleased as the Planet-S MIDI module.  The architecture consists of two
DCOs (the second being tunable), two VCFs (one static high-pass and one
dynamic low-pass) and a VCA per voice.  Polyphony runs to six voices.  There is
only one EG and LFO per voice and this can be irksome.  Moreover, PWM is only
possible on the second DCO which is also used as a noise generator.  Hence it
is impossible to get PWM and noise in the one patch.

At first listen, I fell in love with this synth.  The sound was just so warm
and vibrant that I couldn't help but buy it.  Much of it relies upon the built-
in stereo chorus effect which is almost indispensable in my own patches.
The presets are competent but uninspired.  There are strings, some brass, 
organs (including a very good B3 but no Leslie), electric pianos and the usual
complement of analog synth sounds.  None of these were awesome, but gave me
plenty of scope to work with them.  The preset "Filter Flow", a standard
Moog-style filter sweep, was improved considerably after some minor tweaking.
Overall, if one isn't prepared to program this synth, they might as well
forget it.  This, of course, means the almost compulsory purchase of the PG200
programmer.  If a second-hand JX-3P doesn't have this then it might be a good
bargaining chip to get the price down, as programming is extremely painful
without it.  I mainly use mine for meaty synth basses, filter sweeps and other
analog synthetic textures.  It really fills out a mix, especially when I play
thick chords, and it complements most digital gear nicely.

MIDI implementation is atrocious (especially considering Yamaha's MIDI
implementations of about the same period).  The synth sends on channel 1 only
and receives on omni.  Reception can be changed to channel 1 by turning the
synth off, connecting MIDI IN to MIDI OUT, turning the synth on again and
playing a few notes.  The JX-3P does not seem to respond to an omni off command
sent over MIDI which is extremely irritating.  No sysex, of course, and there
is only a MIDI IN and MIDI OUT interface (no THRU).  The keyboard is 61-key
with no velocity or aftertouch although there was a ROM upgrade available that
allowed the JX to accept MIDI velocity data and respond to it.

There are only two modulation controls on the outside of the synth - a pitch
bend lever (like all roland ones) and a LFO trigger button.  This is indicative
of the rather limited modulation routings of the synthesis engine, as well.
The one EG can be routed to pitch of either oscillator, filter cutoff (LPF
only), VCA level and that's about it.  Likewise the LFO can be routed to all of
the above.  You end up stretching your rescources a hell of a lot when you want
a filter cutoff LFO acting on a voice using PWM with an EG controlled pitch
variation on one oscillator while that EG also controls filter cutoff and
VCA level...

Overall, I like my JX-3P.  I like its warmth and character.  I also like its
gaudy appearance and quirky nature (the idiosyncratic way that it is so
sensitive to power spikes and drops - try turning on/off an appliance in the
same powerpoint as a '3P if you want to see what I mean).  If I had the money
(and the synth had a somewhat less sparse MIDI implemenation and I could
program a decent choir sound) I'd buy ten of the things and a mixer and call it
quits as concerns buying any more gear ever...Or maybe I'd just buy a Prophet
T8 and be done with it.  Despite its limitations, the JX-3P would have to
rank in my "10 Greatest Synths of All-time" list.

Jon.
================================================================================
Jonathan Elliott		|	Why is an 01/W like a piece of string?
University of Tasmania		|
u894825@bruny.cc.utas.edu.au	|	Every yo-yo wants one.
================================================================================
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# Yamaha DX100

This was a 4-operator FM synth that appeared in about 1985.  I suspect that it
sould have better been seen as a rack mount module as it is a tacky little
thing with mini-keys, no velocity and a nasty, plastic case.

Like most 4-op FM synths, it has a lot of trouble with low-end response.  You
just can't produce any growly sounds down low.  While many basses sound OK, you
can never really produce a good, ambient droning sound.  The presets are fair
to middling.  There is a good variety with the only really obvious thing
missing being synth pads (although this is very difficult to do with 4-op
sine only FM with no effects).  Particularly excellent are the bells and
one or two of the basses.

MIDI implementation is sparse but adequate.  You can select omni on/off, send/
receive channel, channel info on/off (for patch changes), sys info on/off (for
sys-ex dumps).  Yes, there are bulk dump commands and this offers the chance
to get hold of lots of DX21 patches that are available in the public domain.

The synthesis engine is 4-operator, sine-only FM and the sound is all that that
implies.  You have a choice of 8 algorithms (operator/carrier combinations.  If
you don't know what I'm talking about then you should find a good book on FM
synthesis - there are hundreds available) with feedback on operator 4 only.
Each operator has its own EG but, for some bizarre reason (perhaps price),
Yamaha chose to have only one LFO per voice which can be routed to operator
output level, voice pitch and that's about all.  I think that this is also a
problem with the DX7.  I'd really like to see one LFO per operator, one for
pitch modulation and one for overall amplitude modulation, even if this meant
hardwiring them.  The other problem is that there is no fixed frequency option
on operators.  This causes problems when it comes to programming subtle
pads (which can be done on DX7s and even TX81Zs) and when I discovered the
feature on other machines I was in seventh heaven!  You can set the rate and
level scaling on each individual operator which is a real boon when it comes
down to programming acoustic instrument emulations.  Controller programming
is excellent with velocity response (over MIDI) for each individual operator
being controllable.  Breath controller and hold/portamento pedals are also
supported.

It is an 8 voice polyphonic, monotimbral synth.  On the back panel, there are
MIDI sockets (IN/OUT/THRU), Output and Headphone jacks, footswitch jack, breath
controller input and adapter input (9V).  The DX100 was designed as a strap
on unit and hence there is the option of powering the unit using batteries.

I like my DX100 a lot.  It has an important place in my synth setup and I
would never part with it, despite my frustrations with its synthesis engine.
It does some superb digital sounds (the hard-edged digital sound that was so
prominent in the mid 1980s) and a few passable acoustic instrument emulations
(the Sitar's an absolute killer and I programmed a reasonable pan-pipes patch).
If you can get one cheaply then it's most worthwhile.

Jon.
-- 
================================================================================
Jonathan Elliott		|	Why is an 01/W like a piece of string?
University of Tasmania		|
u894825@bruny.cc.utas.edu.au	|	Every yo-yo wants one.
================================================================================


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clarence K. Din                  
Programmer Analyst II, Language Analysis Center, University of Pennsylvania
din@grad1.cis.upenn.edu
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Newsgroups: rec.music.synth