Synth w/ MIDI, Unison, Filters, Velocity Sensitivity

[neurocrash]

Greetings,

My Crumar Bit One keyboard is dead, and no one within a few thousand miles is willing to repair it, so I'm looking for a suitable replacement. The features that I am looking for are:

MIDI - note and velocity
Analog Filters - previously using six (Curtis) CEM 3328 4 Pole Low-Pass VCF
Unison - the more oscillators that can be stacked, the better
Velocity - MIDI velocity control over VCF

I'm having a lot of trouble finding other instruments that have these capabilities, or where velocity response can be confirmed. I'm looking for a simple replacement for fat bass sounds. Your recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Z]

Only synths I can think of off the top of my head are:

Akai AX-73 & VX-90
Oberheim Matrix series (M-12 would need vel mod) and XP-1
Roland MKS-80
SCI Prophet T8 & VS

I can't remember if the Korg DW/EX series has unison mode or not.

[neurocrash]

There are definitely a few I haven't looked into. I should have mentioned I would like to keep the cost down to maybe $500 or less (what it would cost for me to ship the Crumar out for repair).

Some models I've been reading about include Roland JX-3p/MKS-30, Korg Poly 61m, Poly 800 - don't know if any of these respond to velocity.

Thanks very much for the suggestions!

[Z]

I know that the JX-3P/MKS-30 will respond to velocity, but don't think they have unison mode. I'm pretty sure the Poly 61m & Poly 800 do ot respond to velocity and not sure about unisopn mode. According to VSE, the Poly 800 has a DOUBLE mode to stack voices, reducing the polyphony to 4.

[neurocrash]

Okay so I think I have to rule out those as each seem to be missing one feature. JX - no unison, Poly - no velocity. Thanks again!

[Z]

With an under $500 budget, I think the Akia AX-73/VX-90 or Oberheim Matrix 6 / 6R / 1000 would be your best bet.

I think the Korg DW-8000 / EX-8000 does have unison. I have the EX, I remember it having some pretty thick basses - probably from unison mode. There are many DW owners here on VSE, hopefully one will chime in soon.

[neurocrash]

I have an EX-8000, although I haven't gotten comparable bass sounds out of it (yet, anyway - immediately after purchasing it, I managed to wipe the memory and lost the good sounds contained within). It may be that I have a preference for a specific filter type or something that I haven't been able to describe adequately - in any case the unison does not have quite the same effect that it does on the Bit. I think the Bit unison puts six oscillators per voice, remaining bi-phonic - octaves complete the effect quite nicely. I've often been curious about an Oberheim Matrix 1000, but would really like to hear what it can do.

Cheers

[Z]

I've got a M-6R (same engine as 1000). I never found it thick enough for basses, but it makes great pads and cool synth fx.

[Pro5]

JX-8P? DCO analog, Unison (and solo mode) and Unison II mode - unison detuning via 'master tune' button. Velocity and multi aftertouch response (prolly have to fix the aftertouch though).

JX-3P doesn't have what you need at all but the 8P seems to.

[paugui]

How about a Korg DSS-1?
It is a great synth and sounds quite analog, despite it uses samples or additive synthesis (with fix waveforms only) in place of regular DCO's or VCO's.
It can achieve a much wider spectrum than most of the ones refereed above, it has velocity, two oscillators which can be synched (unusual for a synth with samples - the V-Synth cannot do this if you choose two samples for it's oscillators, at least the original with the last OS).
I don't know that much about it as I only got it this monday and didn't have that much time to give it a proper test, other than testing some of the presets of its big library, but my first opinion is pretty positive.

Probably the Cheetah MS-6 would be good too, but I cannot give you a deeper view about those as my two got broken before I tested them properly, but the sound seemed really nice.
From what I saw it is similar to the Oberheim Matrix 1000. As a plus it is fully programable from its front panel and is multitimbral (however you have to specify the number of voices you want to use for each part), but it doesn't have a modulation matrix as flexible as the Matrix (if it has any... I cannot remember that right now...)


Hope this helps

Paugui

[madtheory]

The matrix 1000 would be the closest thing in my experience, but there's nothing like a Bit One, especially for your budget. Strictly speaking, sonically there's nothing like a Bit One

[neurocrash]

Great new options to consider... I actually have a JX-8p, although it has had a sticky voice problem, which I have not been able to repair, so it is currently not useable. The Bit One seems to be like some kind of vampire curse - once I heard it, I have since tried for many years to keep it going. I have two Bit Ones - one with CEM filters and one with SSM filters. Both are unuseable at present. The CEM model doesn't make any noise except for filter resonance, and the SSM is out of tune and the pitch knob and detune sliders don't work. So, with the loss of two Bits and the JX, I don't have my good bass sounds

[neurocrash]

PS - my great grandparents are from Cork!

[madtheory]

PS - my great grandparents are from Cork!

Ha! cool. Which part? What was their surname?