It's the pedals. They will always make a synth sound slightly duller (or fatter, or warmer, depending on your taste) when in bypass. This is because they have a very high input impedance, which works great with guitar, but not really for synths.

You'll miss the weighted action. It's amazing how a good action brings a sound to life. I finally got myself an Akai MX1000 weighted keyboard, and it's made all my synths sound better because I play better. I thought I'd need to have a synth action keyboard too, but I've completely stopped using tha...

The shock issue you describe is a symptom of a voltage drop (caused be loose connections and corrosion) across your mains cables- that is what is giving you the shock. Taking your system apart and tidying up the wiring is an excellent recommendation, something you need to do ASAP. When you put it ba...

(I would say if you're really going to crack em open, why not make them truly modular and add patch points and stuff! :D ) The CS-5 has patch points on it actually, I got the kit from the Concussor guy, and it took out LFO to PWM :( OK, I'll just make a big shelf, I won't cut them up. Thanks guys! ...

Wow, I didn't think this would stir it up that much! What fun... If you just want a module, why not just buy an f-ing module? Because there's nothing else that sounds like a Yammy CS! Plus it would make all the controls more accessible, placed on the tier above my master keyboard. I always use them ...

So I have a Yamaha CS-5 and a CS-10, the sound of which I enjoy very much, but I hate the keyboards and the space they take up. I always play them from my MIDI master keyboard with a Pro Solo. I'm thinking of cutting the keyboards of both, bolt them together as an OB Expander type of instrument. Thi...

Or to quote Paia:
"rotational assignment of data from one midi channel"

http://www.paia.com/midi2cv.asp

The S5000 does not compare to an ES4000, better to compare it to the EOS or EIVXT Ultra. The big advantage for you with the S5000 is better connectivity to a PC/ Mac than the Emus.

The D50 has a certain warmth and "charm", of sounding more vintage and aiming for some realistic sounds, but missing the mark. This makes it a really unique synth to have because of *how* it misses the mark and sounds so "D50". Totally agree. I was playing the V-Synth XT in a shop on the weekend an...

Are we getting confused again?

No Yamaha, Emu or Akai sampler has loop point modulation, but they all have sample start mod.

The Emu audio interfaces are excellent and include MIDI. Reaper is a great app, probably better than Pro Tools, and it's small money. MIDI sequencing on it is quite basic, but audio is superb. It's free to check it out. Take a look at Cubase too, it seems to be back on form these days.

Agreed. Just a straight D50 is all that is required. It ain't broke, don't fix it!

Budget? Do you have a PC or a Mac, and what's the spec? How many harware synths do you have? Will you want to do sysex editing/ library on each of them also? You'll need more i/o than that if you want to keep using a well developed harware system. Do you have outboard reverb etc.? A high spec Mac ru...

ESI 2000/32/4000 all use the same OS chip, the last update was v3.0.2 so modulation sources and destinations are the same for all. Ya, lack of sysex is a pain, especially if you're trying to keep track of multiple layered zones that cross over keyzones... but a great sounding system and easy to use....

FYI, the ESI32, ESI4000 and ESI2000 are all the same machine. The ES32 might be the exception if it hasn't been updated to v3.02 firmware, and it's got 32 note polyphony and 64 Meg RAM limit, whereas the others have 64 notes and 128Meg RAM. You get the great Emu filters, it's an easy machine to use ...