From: alteh@bnr.ca (Alwyn Teh)
Subject: re: REPOST: Ensoniq KS-32 (synth vs. dig.piano)
Organization: BNR Europe Ltd, Maidenhead, UK
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 15:13:43 GMT


Hi,
   After having  spent over 6 months  looking into synths in a number of
magazines,  I bought a Korg  O1/Wpro in the summer  sales last year from
Tom Lee Piano Co.  Ltd.  in Hong Kong for the price of an O1/W-FD in the
UK.

   The O1/Wpro has very clean and sophisticated sounds with full digital
processing,  hence  no  noticeable  noise.  It's  got  76  keys  and  is
therefore fairly  portable.  If it were an O1/WproX, 88 weighted keys, I
would have had trouble  checking it in on the plane, and besides, it was
too expensive, too heavy, and they didn't have one in stock.

   I like the large LCD and the soft  sliders  on the GUI.  The  samples
are great, the sequencer  flexible and  sophisticated, and AI2 synthesis
is there if you want to create your own sounds. I don't like a cluttered
front panel on synths but that's my taste.

   You can  write to your  Korg  distributor  and get a CD of  sequences
played on the O1/W-FD.

   However,  although it supports  standard  MIDI files on its  built-in
3.5" disk drive, it does not have MIDI  sample dump like the Yamaha SY99
but you would  only  need that if you were a  serious  programmer.  If I
were ever to get into  sampling  or  anything  else, I'd buy a  separate
rack-mount unit instead.

   In my  opinion,  the O1/W looks cool and is a great  workstation.  It
replaced  my Roland U20 and MC300  which got stolen  some time ago.  The
manual is quite  technical so novice  players may find it hard to use at
first.

   The  Ensoniq  KS-32  came out after I bought  the Korg so I  couldn't
evaluate  it.  However,  someone  at work has a  EPS-16+  and  found  it
difficult  to use.  (e.g.  having to load up the  operating  system  and
sounds from disk takes ages, the LED too small,...)

   It  really  depends  on what  sort of music  you want to make and how
expressive the synth is.  If you're into acoustic  sounds, the Emu range
is good (e.g.  MPS+).  The  Proformance is an excellent  piano module if
that's want you want (the best in my  opinion).  I did  consider  having
weighted keys but weighted master keyboards are expensive and they don't
produce any sound on their own.

   If you are going to change/upgrade  equipment  periodically, consider
buying second hand gear.  Here in the UK, there's a pretty good 2nd-hand
market to be found in the major music  magazines (e.g.  Sound-On-Sound).

   Anyway,  you'll have to weigh the options for  yourself  to decide on
what  would be your  best  buy.  As for  myself, I wanted a  workstation
because I didn't have anything  else.  So, this is a good  foundation to
build  on, say,  should  I  eventually  buy a  computer  and a  software
sequencer, and perhaps get into  sampling.  (I'm waiting for the cost of
PCs and music  software  to go down in the next few  years.)  Also, when
you go to your friends or have a party, you wouldn't  have to carry lots
of modules and a keyboard separately.

   Hope this helps.

Regards,

Alwyn Teh

===================================================================
 Alwyn Teh, Software Designer       |
 International Tools Development    |  Internet:  alteh@bnr.ca
 BNR Europe Ltd.                    |  Telephone: +44 628 770770
 Norreys Drive                      |  Fax:       +44 628 794053
 Maidenhead  SL6 4AG                |
 England                            |
 U.K.                               |
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