rsk@pucc-k (Wombat) (09/09/85)
This is a reply to a bunch of things; it's all in one article for obscure and boring reasons involving local news reconfiguration. > From: hedger@ada-uts.UUCP > I did find your last statement a bit puzzling however.... > why is the akai a better investment than a mirage or an emulator????? > a mirage i can understand but surely you don't think that the akai sounds > betteror even as good as an emulator???!!! The Akai Sampler is about $1k with a disk drive around here; and it plays back with 6 voices. I just feel that rather than buying either the Mirage or the Emulator doesn't provide the same "bang for the buck". The unit I fiddled with was terrific; I thought the Akai AX80 with the sampler sounded as good as either one. If you've already got a MIDI keyboard, why buy another just for the sampler? As far as performance issues go, (flipping disks and all that), I don't think anybody's unit as ideally suited for live work. My criteria is that if patch-switching isn't instantaneous, it won't work in a live performance. Admittedly, this is a rather stringent statement; but if one uses this measure, then none of the sampling instruments are going to cut it for live work. This is why I don't own one...yet. Onwards. Brad (Srebnik), your copies of the reviews are in the mail. Be warned that this is backwards Hoosierstan, and mail moves at the speed of mud around here. I thought I'd answer some of your questions here because they might be interesting to other folks. The AX80 built-in patches aren't all that fantastic; the ones that my local music store did for it are much better. The small amount of experimentation that I've done with the box indicates that the factory programs don't come close to exploiting the capabilities of the instrument. However, try preset 8 for an approximation of the sound in "Sunset Grill". The keyboard feels like an organ keyboard; it's very fast, and hasn't been a problem for me even in extremely quick passages (say, the solo in "Bodhisattva"). You can use the velocity to control the attack, the volume, the envelope, and all sorts of stuff; to be honest, I haven't entirely figured out everything you can do with it yet. I do know that some other instruments just let you control the attack or volume and that's about it. The Korg you saw was probably the DW-6000; latest word on the DW-8000 around here is that it will materialize in early November; anybody else out there have different info? As far as the AX80 vs. the DX7, the Yamaha is a superior machine. It's got more voices, seems to me to produce more natural, more complex sounds; and it's been around long enough that there are a bazillion patches for it. On the other hand, it costs twice as much, at least in Indy. It's harder to program, since you have to work in the frequency domain, which isn't too natural for most folks. If you have the extra bucks, it might be worth the investment. On the other hand, you could always but the AX80 and add a DX7-in-a-box (don't know the model number offhand) later...I may end up doing this. As far as the AX80 vs. the Roland JX3P or JX8P, the Akai has the velocity sensitivity going for it; and it is 8-voice polyphonic, as opposed to 6. This is probably a religious issue, but I couldn't live without 8 voices; it's hard to play double-handed rolling chords with only 6. It's also hard to play some of the bluesy organ stuff that I do unless you can hold down a 4-5 note chord with 2-3 note leads on top of it. However, the piano preset for the JX3P is very nice (I haven't heard the JX8P's piano) and they're coming down in price. And again, the Roland's have been around for a while, and lots of goodies exist for them. In summary, I'm really impressed with the Akai AX80; I think it's one of the best values for the money out there. I've yet to find anything for close to the same price with similar features. By the way, try routing mail for me to ihnp4!pur-ee!rsk; local forwarding will take it from there. -- Rich Kulawiec rsk@pur-ee.uucp rsk@purdue.uucp rsk@purdue-asc.arpa
clelau@wateng.UUCP (Eric C.L. Lau) (09/12/85)
In article <1239@pucc-k> rsk@pucc-k.UUCP (Wombat) writes: > >... On the other hand, you could >always buy the AX80 and add a DX7-in-a-box (don't know the model number >offhand) later...I may end up doing this. > I can't remember the model number either (TX7 or something) but from what I recall you need a real DX7 or a MIDI-ed computer to program the thing. Otherwise you can only play the factory patches. Eric Lau ...!ihnp4!watmath!wateng!clelau
hedger@ada-uts.UUCP (09/20/85)
the box mentioned in the first response is the tx-216/816 and yes you do need a dx-7 to program them, but, Yamaha has now come out with the tx-7 which is a real dx-7 expander module.......hedger
ron@BRL.ARPA (Ron Natalie) (09/25/85)
The TX7 is exactly a DX-7 expander. It is difficult to use it without the DX7. I also has some extra keyboard splitting hooks for using it as an adjunct to a DX-7 rather than with a separate MIDIboard. -Ron