From: scott@bbx.basis.com (Scott Amspoker)
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.synth
Subject: Re: K2000R. You don't scare me. Nyah!
Date: 13 Dec 92 02:33:35 GMT
Organization: BASIS International, Ltd., Albuquerque NM USA

In article <9212111921.aa24344@gate.demon.co.uk> cassiel@cassiel.demon.co.uk (Nick Rothwell) writes:
>OK, so it has all this power in the voice architecture. But is it *useful*
>power? Have any of you K2000 owners found your creativity enhanced and your
>music improved by having one?

Absolutely.  The modulation routings alone make the K2000 a great
instrument.  However, I find the DSP capabilities cover a wide
variety of sonic applications.  Sure, it is missing some of the
more intense DSP algorithms such as vocoding, but it is hardly
a crippled box.

I don't know what kind of "distancing tools" are provided by the
Wavestation A/D to externally created signals, nor do I have
a menu of Peavey features.  However, I find that if I want
a particular performance behaviour, or "personality" in a K2000 patch,
I have no trouble getting what I want.   The architecture is well
thought out so I spend less time fussing than with my other synths.

>... I can't offhand think of what I would do with a K2000R.

Well, that's a good reason not to get one.

>                          ...It's just that I see lots of posturing right
>now, just like there was a few years ago when the Proteus was announced: so
>much chatter about how wonderful it was, when it is IMHO just a
>nice-sounding but boring sample player.

The Proteus was hyped as an affordable, nice-sounding sample player.
That's exactly what it turned out to be.  No more, no less.  I
would imagine that anyone who bought a Proteus (such as I) knew 
exactly what they were getting, how it fit into their setup, and
what to expect from it.  Even today, some of its sounds have
not been surpassed.  It might be boring all by itself, but it
makes its own legitimate contribution to a final mix.

The K2000 is at the very least, a great sounding synthesizer whose
"oscillators" happen to be complex samples rather than simple waves.
It provides a healthy collection of subtractive filters (which sound 
wonderful IMHO), tone shapers (more filters), wave shapers, and 
distorters.  The list of control sources and available modulation routings 
are unequaled by anything *I've* ever worked with (I started collecting
analog synths back in 1980).

Nick, I've been reading your posts for some time now and I find
it hard to believe that you have a creative block with the K2000.
Sure, there is nothing particularly *new* in the K2000.  It is
mostly the large collection of features (in one box) and a 
fundamental sonic richness that makes it a welcome addition to my 
studio.  No, I haven't personally created a *totally new* sound 
with the K2000.  I have done some very satisfying patches that my 
other synths couldn't touch.

As (I hope) you know by now, I'm always ready to create the patches 
I need to express my music.  I even get deep into my SY99 FM-engine 
on occasion.  However, I will confess that my originality stems more 
from my composing than from exotic synth timbres.  Perhaps you are
looking for something more unconventional.

-- 
Scott Amspoker                       |    
Basis International, Albuquerque, NM |  Too bad ignorance isn't really
                                     |  bliss.  Then it could be outlawed.
scott@bbx.basis.com                  |
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