rosen@ucbvax.ARPA (Rob Rosen) (08/31/85)
I am considering purchasing either one of the abovementioned machines.
The DX-7 has gotten good reviews for its voices, but does not have digital
sampling capability. I'd like to know how any current Mirage owners feel
about their machines; is it worth purchasing over a DX-7 merely because of
the presence of its sampler? Is it easy to use? What's the sampling rate?
How do the factory disks sound? Is the on-board sequencer any good? Is
there any market for used instruments? How about factory support? Has
anyone MIDI'd a Mirage to a hardware sequencer such as the MSQ-700?
My idea is to purchase only three items and have hopefully enough
equipment to make quality recordings -- I think a good digital synth,
a good multitrack sequencer with a lot of memory, and a 4-track deck like
the Tascam would do the job. The idea is to use the sequencer to store
maybe 16 tracks of a song, and then dump it to one track of the tape.
Then I'd record the drums and cymbals on another 16 tracks of the seq.
and dump THAT to the second track of the tape, etc. Digital sampling
seems to be the way to go to get a really good drum sound, which is what
I consider to be pretty important.
Also, have any Mirage owners used any of the IBM PC software that's
availible? Is it worth a damn?
thanks for your input...
ps--- AKAI has apparently come out with a sampler that'll work with
a DX-7 but it runs about $1K. If it comes down to a DX-7 + AKAI,
MSQ-700 and Portastudio, I'll be out a good 5-6 thou or so, which is
a lot!!
--
--Rob Rosen
...ucbvax!rosen
rosen@ucb-vax.berkeley.eduhedger@ada-uts.UUCP (09/03/85)
rich, well here's my 2 cents worth: 1) regarding the mirage vs. dx-7...it seems to me that the biggest consideration regarding this question is 'what do you want to do?' you told me how you want to record, but you didn't say what your interests were as far as synthesis....are you interested in synthesis? will you be using sounds that are basically reproductions of existing instruments? remember the dx-7 is a SYNTHESIZER with it you can reproduce (synthesize) certain existing sounds and synthesize your own (sound effects etc). the mirage is a SAMPLER with it you sample existing sounds and then (in the case of the mirage) you can do a certain amount of resynthesis. if you are looking for reproductions of existing sounds, the mirage might be the way to go. just remember you'll have to either get all your sounds from ensoniq, or you'll need access to the real instruments to sample them yourself. if you are genuinely interested in synthesis as well as some existing sounds, then the dx-7 is probably the way to go. also remember that if you are interested in doing some genuine synthesis, you might want to consider some other synths than the dx-7. 2) regarding your comments about planned recording: I'm not sure which tascam deck you are referring to but if it uses 1/4" tape (and especially if you're talking about the mini/porta studios) be aware that running 16 tracks down to 1 track on 1/4" tape can get pretty messy.....I'm not saying that it can't be done, but to do it you would probably need some decent outboard processing gear, and even then I think that your recording would suffer.....I may get flamed for saying this, but that's my opinion....let me know what you decide keith hedger - intermetrics inhp4!inmet!ada-uts!hedger ps- I think you can get the equipment you mentioned for less than 5 or 6 thousand....be sure and shop around...take cash if you can, you'd be surprised how the prices plummet when you wave the green...
ach@pucc-h (Stephen Uitti) (09/04/85)
In article <10246@ucbvax.ARPA> rosen@ucbvax.ARPA (Rob Rosen) writes: > > > I am considering purchasing either one of the abovementioned machines. >The DX-7 has gotten good reviews for its voices, but does not have digital >sampling capability. I'd like to know how any current Mirage owners feel >about their machines; is it worth purchasing over a DX-7 merely because of >the presence of its sampler? Is it easy to use? What's the sampling rate? >How do the factory disks sound? Is the on-board sequencer any good? Is >there any market for used instruments? How about factory support? Has >anyone MIDI'd a Mirage to a hardware sequencer such as the MSQ-700? I just purchased a DX-7. I bought it to double with my Prophet T8. I'm not impressed with the Mirage. I've heard one reasonable sound on it: an "orchestral hit". The trouble with the mirage (in my humble opinion) is that the recording quality is that of a dirty 45 RPM record. The "orchestral hit" (a factory sound, I think) was OK mainly because there was so much going on in the sound, and it was over before you could hear any noise. The DX-7 does good with "bells and whistles". It also comes with a relatively awesome pipe organ and a few other sounds. The DX-7 lists for about 1/3 the Prophet T8, and is (to me) worth about that much, which is plenty. Being an FM machine, the DX-7 does things that are difficult for my T8 to do (which is analogue based). Conversly, there are many sounds that are easy to do on the T8 that are a pain on the DX-7 (such as really thick strings and brassy sounds). Incidently, I've played with a Yamaha TX-7 (DX-7 in a box - no keyboard). If you have a keyboard with MIDI, and the factory preset sounds are all you want, it should be ok. If you want to be able to create or modify sounds, you need a DX-7 (at present). > My idea is to purchase only three items and have hopefully enough >equipment to make quality recordings -- I think a good digital synth, >a good multitrack sequencer with a lot of memory, and a 4-track deck like >the Tascam would do the job. The idea is to use the sequencer to store >maybe 16 tracks of a song, and then dump it to one track of the tape. >Then I'd record the drums and cymbals on another 16 tracks of the seq. >and dump THAT to the second track of the tape, etc. Digital sampling >seems to be the way to go to get a really good drum sound, which is what >I consider to be pretty important. No comment on multi-track recording. If you want really good drum sounds, buy a drum machine! If you want truely awesome drum sounds (and are perhaps made of money), get a Lynn. The Lynn 9000 has one of the nicer MIDI sequencers available, and apparently has "multi-track" capabilities. Remember that most analogue synths are MUCH easier to program (sounds) than digital ones. My T8 has a knob for everything (which is getting rare these days), and, for example, changing an envelope to "just right" for a particular song can take as long as a minute. Often, I don't bother to save the edited sound, since I can always recreate it. On the DX-7 (which I've only had for a couple weeks), it still takes me up to a half hour to make such a mod. First step is usually to get out a pencil and paper. Analogue machines are much easier to learn to use. My T8 will ALWAYS sound richer than my DX7 (not for lack of trying on the DX-7). > > Also, have any Mirage owners used any of the IBM PC software that's >availible? Is it worth a damn? > > > thanks for your input... > > ps--- AKAI has apparently come out with a sampler that'll work with > a DX-7 but it runs about $1K. If it comes down to a DX-7 + AKAI, > MSQ-700 and Portastudio, I'll be out a good 5-6 thou or so, which is > a lot!! > > --Rob Rosen > > ...ucbvax!rosen > rosen@ucb-vax.berkeley.edu Steve Uitti, PUCC, pur-ee!pucc-h!ach, or ach@purdue-asc