From: eirikur@ranger.enet.dec.com (Eirikur Hallgrimsson)
Subject: Re: Team Metlay 1992: Screaming Into The Aether (part two) *LONG*
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 06:56:29 GMT


In article <9208271936.AA04748@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu>, metlay@PHYAST.PITT.EDU (metlay) writes...
>2. BETA TEST
>HALLGRIMSSON: Xk and Seiko DS-250 on stand. Three Rack Crates filled
>with weird old instruments, including a Kawai K1r, a Yamaha TX802, an
>Orla FM mosnter from Italy, a Simmons SDE, and a mess of Boss halfrack
>effects.

You are confused.  I brought no Boss effects to Beta Test.  All of my effecting
was done with the (get this) SPX-50D.  That was an enormous personal sacrifice,
by the way.  It is almost completely impossible to implement the Umbrella-Drink
Synthesis Architecture with only full-rack devices, they're just not small
enough.

>(We got a little silly
>toward the end: Eirikur bought a Casio SZ-1 sequencer box, and I was
>starting to look at Brother PDC100s....)

Uh, yeah, about the SZ sequencer.  Do not be sucked-in by this turkey.
It can't edit sequences entered in real time.  It only understands velocity in
real time.  I could go on.  The UI is an improvement on the MC-202 type
sequencer (in the same number of pixels) due to the note-value, as opposed to
time duration entry, and it has a lovely note-value keypad, but in general, it
is a real loser.  Suitable only for fooling around with a CZ-101.  Kudos for
Casio, they were able to get me an original manual (not photocopy) in about a
week.  

>The Kawai K1r is the second most frustrating synthesizer I have had to
>deal with in recent memory. The honor of MOST frustrating synthesizer
>goes to the Yamaha TX802, hands down. Bleah! (Sorry, Eirikur, but I'd
>almost have preferred having the Seiko there. ALMOST. I'm just glad
>you didn't bother with the VZ this time....)

If we had the Seiko, you would have wanted to re-cut a certain track. And no, I
don't want to take it out of the nitrogen-filled case.  Susan is sensitive to
nitrogen :-)  You always forget about the vanishingly rare DS-310 programmer
that is required for programming patches.  Mustn't have people going out and
buying DS-250's only to be left at the alter in terms of patch programming. 
Jarre must have had one, he just never mentioned it.  I'm more of a populist.

Gee, you must have tried to set up a Performance on the TX in my absence. In my
presence, this only takes about a half an hour :-) or 45 minutes if there are
several Phd's sitting (oops, make that jumping) around with their hands in their
pockets.

Almost all the sounds from my rig that drop jaws come from the TX--people are
so used to the FM cliches, that they do not, in general, recognize the
characteristic spectra and behavior of an FM machine when it is playing a good
patch.  I'm a bit too tuned-in to that problem (I probably need a
multi-waveform machine with AFM), but I wouldn't trade in the TX-802.  It will
probably never be surpassed as an FM box, at least until such things are done
in general-purpose computer-based systems.  You just have to remember when it
was made, and the user interfaces considered acceptable then.  The user
interface also has a steeper learning curve than most because the unit actually
does a lot more stuff than the typical box.  It's really too bad that noone
ever made a knob-based (or even page-oriented ala Xpander) FM machine other
than the Simmons SDE.  The SDE is fine, in it's way, but it's no TX-802, though
it might make a fine V.P. according to current standards.

You should have cut some teeth on the K5/m.  The K1r is much easier to use and
it supports lower case.  Some things in life are critical.

I would have brought the VZ, except that it is even harder to use than the
TX-802 (much harder due to seemingly haphazard menu structuring).  And, it's
character didn't really seem to be required.  Character?  Yes, Character.  Just
remember that as in people, personality defects add up to character. 

>dr. michael metlay          \ Metlay's Law: "A newly-announced, spiffy new
>atomic city                  \ piece of gear may look *great* on paper
>                              \ -- but you can't play paper."
>metlay@minerva.phyast.pitt.edu \ 


Eirikur Hallgrimsson   |    "Rhodes?  Where we're going, we don't need Rhodes!"
eh@ranger.enet.dec.com |     
PATHWORKS for Macintosh|  

Newsgroups: rec.music.synth