bangs@h-sc1.UUCP (02/25/86)
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I have been shopping around for a good synth for a beginner. I have a
tiny bit of experience working with synths -- I played extensively with a
micromoog once, ~6 years ago. Now, I am looking for something that will
have lots of flexibility for interesting sounds, polyphonic, and a touch
sensitive keyboard. Two that I am looking at seriously are (1) Casio CZ5000,
and (2) Korg DW8000. Does anyone have anything to say about these? I'm
interested in something around $1000. I've also got a Mac, so I'm looking
for something Midi-able and something that might be able to use the Mac as
a patch librarian. I know I can do the latter with the Casio + Mac, but
can I do it with the Korg? Is the Casio's sequencer or Korg's digital delay
particularly advantageous?
Please mail me responses; If people are interested I can summarize to the
net. Thanks mucho in advance!!
--
Alex L. Bangs Harvard University net: bangs@h-sc4.UUCP
bangs@h-sc4.HARVARD.EDUknudsen@ihwpt.UUCP (mike knudsen) (02/27/86)
> I have been shopping around for a good synth for a beginner. I have a > tiny bit of experience working with synths -- I played extensively with a > micromoog once, ~6 years ago. Now, I am looking for something that will > have lots of flexibility for interesting sounds, polyphonic, and a TOUCH > SENSITIVE keyboard. Two that I am looking at seriously are (1) Casio CZ5000, > and (2) Korg DW8000. Does anyone have anything to say about these? I'm > interested in something around $1000. I've also got a Mac, so I'm looking > for something Midi-able and something that might be able to use the Mac as > a PATCH LIBRARIAN. I know I can do the latter with the Casio + Mac, but > can I do it with the Korg? Is the Casio's sequencer or Korg's DIGITAL DELAY > particularly advantageous? > > Alex L. Bangs Harvard University net: bangs@h-sc4.UUCP After much consulting on this newsgroup, I got a Korg DW8000 a couple months ago. I'm pretty happy with it overall. First, the Casio CZ line is NOT touch-sensitive. And TS is a VERY worthwhile feature -- it can control not just volume but also timbre of each note pressed. Don't waste $1000 on anything without it. Also the Korg has after-touch (pressure), which can be fed into volume, VCF, and/or vibrato in variable amounts. Nice for guitar and sax. The Korg is 100% capable under MIDI, and adapts well to patch librarians and programmers. The manual goes into full detail on these items. I haven't seen any such programs advertised in Keyboard yet, but they'll be here soon I think, judging by the several Korg Poly-800 programs for sale. Already there are at least three patches-on-cassette advertised. At first I sneered at my digital delay; after a couple days the sneers turned into wide grins. It's a winner. The digital delay is very handy for giving room ambiance, and also doubles as the stereo chorus generator (sometimes I wish for a separate chorus -- maybe I should buy a $50 pedal add-on box). The delay can move an instrument right up under your nose, backstage, or out into the alley. It's worth having two or three otherwise identical patches with different reverb setting. Also, the delay's clock freq can be LFO modulated to simulate Leslie speakers and flanging VERY WELL. I just solo at home so don't use the Korg arpeggiator much. It works well and in a group should be useful. The DW8000's outstanding feature is its bank of 16 digitally stored waveforms. The factory patches mix these together in subtle ways that are very effective and often ignore the "official" names of the waveforms given in the manual. You can play with patches for hours just trying different waveforms. Also the Korg's envelope generators have the extra Breakpoint and Slope parameters to give double attacks or double releases. My personal rating of various instruments on the DW-8000: Outstanding: Rhodes piano, string orchestra, Calypso steel drums, toy piano, Hammond organs, organ trumpets, traditional synth effects, vibes, marimba Good: acoustic guitar, brass chorus background, rock basses, bells, honky-tonk piano, chorus voices, accordion, alley cat chorus, jet planes, harpsichords, sax (soul, 50's rock) Okay: harmonica, video-game effects, pipe organs Also-ran: acoustic piano, tom-toms & other drums, solo brass [Can ANY synth do a decent solo trumpet or trombone, short of a sampler or Kurzweil?] Two other synths you should check out: the AKAI AX-80 (cheaper, but can't be patched via MIDI), and the Roland JX-8P (cost 40% more than Korg, more flexible patching, chorus but no digital delay, and only 6 voices). No one synth in our price range has all of each other's features. Decide which YOU want. The folks I know with Korgs and AKAIs are very happy. The one expert I know who had a JX8P sold his and now says he likes the Korg better. These are all personal opinions, of course mike k