Your Rig---but 20 Years Ago

[meatballfulton]

I came across this photograph while cleaning up the music room today.



This was my rig back in 1992. Not state of the art, but a decent hobby setup. The centerpiece is the SQ-80 of course, my first "real love" synth and main squeeze for over 15 years. Look at all the outboard gear needed at the time. The other synths are an Ensoniq SQ-R+, Roland MKS-50 (Juno) and Kawai K5m plus a TR-505 for drum duties. Even with all that the voice count was still only 29-51 voices (plus 505 drums) depending on the patches in use.

Only the SQ-R module had any built-in FX, so there are two Microverb IIs and a Yamaha SPX50D for reverbs, two delays (Digitech and Korg) plus a Korg KMX61 mixing it all down to a stereo send. Off in the lower left corner is the mouse for an Atari ST running the Master Tracks Pro sequencer. Missing from the photo is a Tascam 424 cassette 4-track wich was synched up with a JL Cooper PPS-1 (to the left of the Microverbs). The Ashly EQ was not used for anything With the 424 I could record 3 audio tracks for guitars, bass, vox, etc. and on mixdown the sequenced parts would be included. I thought I had died and gone to heaven

Even back then the used market was the way to go. The 424 was a demo, SPX was a $99 blowout and the rest was used...even the Atari I traded my whiteface Odyssey for the K5m though, what an idiot This was before web browsers and CL so I got most of this through rec.music.makers.synth on USENET.

Believe it or not, all of this was replaced in 2005 with just a Yamaha Motif ES6 and a Boss BR-864 8-track...I doubled my available voices, added four more FX processors, moved up to 8 audio tracks and ditched the computer

It's fun to look back at my old rig (I had forgotten about that Korg delay entirely)...but it's just nostalgia not something I'd like to own again...well that Odyssey would be nice to have back

Who's next?

[Alex E]

Well 20 years ago I had just turned one a few months prior, so here's my dad's setup he used for demos back then:


Alesis 1622
Lexicon LXP-1
Misc. rack gear I don't remember, including at least one ART effects box.
E-mu Proteus 1 & 2
Ensoniq EPS
Tannoy monitors powered by Alesis RA-100

MOTU Performer for sequencing
Tascam 122 mkII for recording on tape

He still has some of this stuff, but uses only software now.

[8bit9bot]

best i can do is 14 years ago - i had 4 keyboards and a computer running Win 95 then 98

Software:
Impulse Tracker, Sound Forge, and Cool Edit Pro

Hardware:
Gravis Ultrasound soundcard, Yamaha DX-21, Roland Alpha Juno 2, Korg DW-8000, and Roland SH-3a

[GuyaGuy]

1. Alto saxophone
2. That's it

[Z]

No photos of any "entire rigs" but here are some photos of my gear in the early years:

Here's my drum machine side in 1990:

For keys, I had Akai AX60, MemoryMoog, Roland U-20 and SH-2

In '92, I had sold the U-20 and bought a W-30 (not pictured) and sold most of the drum machines in favor of using samples. Also, still had AX60.

LinnDrum atop Siel Expander, Roland VP-330 and Oberheim OB-8 with Marving the Martian and Figment

Roland TR-808, rack mount power, JL Cooper MSB+ MIDI patchbay, Fostex line mixers, Peavey line mixer, Alesis MIDIVerb II, MicroVerb II, 2x Micro Gates, Ibanez SDE-1000+ 'verb/delay, QuardaVerb Plus, Boss SE-50, Casio protable DAT, Roland SVC-350 & Korg DVP-1

In '95, my boss let me use one of the spare offices to set up my gear for a while. This was my rig pretty much from '93 - '99. I still had the W-30 (not pirctured):


Alesis 3630, Tascam 238 Syncassette 8 track, same FX as before except DVP-1 gone and Roland Phaser added, I'm sure you can figure out the rest.

[phesago]

I am also a bit too young to go that far back, but 12 years ago my set up was a korg x2, jp8000, sp202 and a zoom rtk123. Pretty simple, and not really all that impressive. However, being 16 and only working a "McJob" it was pretty cool.

[b3groover]

Great idea for a thread. I'm stealing it on another board.

This was my rig circa '94 or so. I pretty much had the same set-up in 1992, but had a four-track Fostex cassette deck instead of the reel-to-reel.



We moved to a new house in '93 and I found that Teac reel-to-reel and the matching mixer up in the attic along with a box of parts for an analog synth DIY kit! The kit was incomplete however and I couldn't find all the documentation, so I eventually threw it out. I kinda wish I had hung on to it because I could probably figure out what it was with the help of the interwebs these days.

So, yeah... I only had the SY77 (which I still have), the Peavey amp/mixer was left over from my dad's gig days (he stopped gigging in the early 80's and became a piano technician) but I used it for reverb for my vocals... hey, use what you got, right? The nice AKAI cassette deck was my "mix down" deck. And that's pretty much it. Just two years later, I took out a loan in college and got a blackface ADAT, Mackie CR1604, Alesis EQ (the shitty 31 band one with the super tiny sliders), a DBX Project 1 compressor, and a Digitech Quad efx unit. I was living large! I also added a Hammond M3 and Leslie. I don't have a picture of that rig that I can find right now, though.

Oh, and I had this drum kit, which was technically my sister's, but I played it more than she did. Bow down before the Ludwig Rockers!!!



How about we set the way-back machine for 30 years ago? Here's my dad's rig in 1982. I was 5 years old at the time.



Totally bad-a*s!

[rhino]

Set time machine to circa 1989 - - - - - - -

Also started with an SQ-80.
MIDI'd to

Roland D-110
Mirage rack
TX-81z
Casio VZ10m
Kawai K5m

Digitech DSP128

[Cumulus]

I alrady posted this pic in the setup pics thread but here it is again:



You can see the Yamaha CS-50, Peavey bass amp and the Meinl bongoes. Behind the girl, beneath the drum throne is the Hofner in its case held together by a bungee cord.

Not pictured are the Korg DDD-1, Casio SK-1, Rims Headset drums, Ephiphone El Capitan acoustic bass, Ventura P-Bass copy, and red label Yamaha FG-180 acoustic guitar, and some Shure SM-58's. For effects I had a Korg flanger, a Zoom 9002, a Morley Wah, and some kind of multi-effects pedal (I can't remember the name of it). All of this stuff ran into a Yamaha MT-something cassette four track.

I don't know what's in the rectangular guitar case but I know it wasn't mine.

I still have everything in this picture except for that case, the bottles on the windowsill, and the girl.

I really had some fun with that stuff.

[Alex E]

LinnDrum atop Siel Expander, Roland VP-330 and Oberheim OB-8 and Figment

They are perfectly matched.
You are my new favorite person on the internet for putting Figment on your OB8.


Any chance you still have the figurine? :3

[Z]

You are my new favorite person on the internet for putting Figment on your OB8.

Any chance you still have the figurine? :3

Ha! Thanks! No idea what happened to Marvin & Figment. I used to sit a plush Max Rebo atop the disc drive of my W-30. Not sure of Max's whereabouts, either.

[cornutt]

At the beginning of 1992, I had a Juno-106 and a Yamaha CX5m, plus a JD-800 and S-750 sampler; I'd only had the latter two for a few months. I'd already had to repair the CX5m's power supply once, and it was a few months away from frying for good. The other three synths, I still have.

I was sequencing with a Mac IIcx running Dr. T's Beyond, and a 2x1 MIDI interface that came with the software. I was recording to a Fostex X-28 four-track cassette, and a TEAC cassette was my mastering deck. The IIcx and the TEAC are long gone; I still have the X-28 but I no longer use it. I had continued to use it as a mixer long after I quit using it for recording, but I finally retired it a few years ago.

[tekkentool]

Well s**t. Bit young for this one....

[Solderman]

erm, 20 years ago I was 19 in Air Force basic training, so I didn't own jack s**t for years.
14 years ago I had a Korg X5 rompler, an Akai S2800 sampler and Atari 1040st running Cubase.

[loungedumore]

best i can do is 14 years ago -
Software: Impulse Tracker

+1 Impulse Tracker was My first real "DAW" after a brief stint with Scream Tracker that is .
Not quite 20 years for me either , but close