Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

I'm generally new to playing synths and especially clueless with the hardware side of them. I was wondering if you guys could recommend any particular types? I have had the JP8000, MS2000 or MicroKorg in mind. Polyphony would be nice. I'm looking to make electronic/minimal synth music with an 80s feel so analog sounds are a plus. My budget would probably be around $500.

As for hardware, what should I be looking for in a MIDI controller, or an audio interface in regards to these synths (JP8000,MS2000,MicroKorg)? What will I need hook up my synth to a PC? Any advice is appreciated.

Also, right now I've got my hands on an Emu E-max sampler, and I'm pretty lost with the hardware needed with this as well, any recommendations?

If you want an analog '80s feel, you can get a few actual '80s analog or hybrid synths in that price range. I just nabbed an Ensoniq SQ-80 (a very powerful hybrid synth) for $300, and I've seen Korg DW-8000s (another hybrid) for closer to $200. $500 won't get you a full-fledged knobby VCO analog, but there's some pretty accessible stuff in the parameter-access, DCO world - I've seen JX-8Ps and JX-10s in the $400 range without the programmer unit.

For hooking a synth to a PC, you'll need basically any MIDI adapter. If you can get a sound card with onboard MIDI and drivers for your OS of choice, that's a nice way to go about it, otherwise you can get USB MIDI adapters dirt-cheap.

kkraft wrote:I'm generally new to playing synths and especially clueless with the hardware side of them. I was wondering if you guys could recommend any particular types? I have had the JP8000, MS2000 or MicroKorg in mind. Polyphony would be nice. I'm looking to make electronic/minimal synth music with an 80s feel so analog sounds are a plus. My budget would probably be around $500.

As for hardware, what should I be looking for in a MIDI controller, or an audio interface in regards to these synths (JP8000,MS2000,MicroKorg)? What will I need hook up my synth to a PC? Any advice is appreciated.

Also, right now I've got my hands on an Emu E-max sampler, and I'm pretty lost with the hardware needed with this as well, any recommendations?

I'd suggest you stay within the VA field, especially given your desire for polyphony. The Alesis ION is a wonderful synth that does many things with amazing aplomb. I tend to have the opinion that it's also got a very intuitive interface, perfect for learning or just having a synth that will allow you to program quickly without many menu diving moments. Plus, it's sturdy and sounds great. You'll get quite a wide range of sounds with it that will surpass your desire for 80's-type sounds.

Depending on what you do end up buying, you'd need some sort of MIDI interface between it and your machine; there are numerous ones around, many will do the trick -- just make sure it has at least one midi in/out as well as audio inputs. Something like the Focusrite 2i4 has MIDI and Audio (that will do mic,line, and instrument), and is USB bus powered. Simple, has the interfaces you require, and is a decent interface. Note that you'd still need monitors (or at the very least headphones) to complete this. I'm assuming you understand that.

By no means is that an endorsement, but it's a good beginning to understand what one might look for in an interface that has all required I/O.

For the E-Max sampler, be prepared to have to think in terms of archaic computing terms. 3.5" floppies, SCSI hard drives, and things like that. Unless you have an idea about how to manage that sort of thing, it would likely be a little imposing. You're working with old digital technology that's not exactly the easiest to maintain or as intuitive as one would expect of modern systems.

You could, for example, take the output of your audio interface, connect it to the sample inputs of your sampler, and sample whatever sound you're aiming to get into it (mind the gain knob). Understand that it's got an unbelievably small (in todays terms) amount of memory on board, so you're looking at a very short amount of time (I think it's around a half minute or less total, based on whatever sample rate you use) to sample sounds in. Then you'll either have to have a SCSI hard drive / Zip drive connected to save off the information to, or a stack of floppies. Off hand, I believe it uses 720k 3.5" floppies (I don't remember if it can/does use high density media), so that's also a limiting factor in what you're able to save off. Even if it does use high density media, you're limited to 1.44MB per floppy. Hopefully you have at the very least, the Operating System disk? Is it the SE/HD version? The SE version?

Lastly, I believe the HxC floppy emulator will work in an Emax, but that also requires a fair bit of work to get working and usable.

Alot of this is from admittedly old recollection, so understand some of this could be at fault. Hope that's of some help.

silikon wrote:I'd suggest you stay within the VA field, especially given your desire for polyphony.

Yes,definitly. If you get something like a Korg Radias, you don't need a midi interface - you just hook the synth up via usb and it becomes an interface. You can even use it as an interface with your other gear. I forget if it does audio over usb... Either way, another plus is you usually get onboard fx with VA's, and again on the Radias you can use it as an fx unit to process other gear as well. If you add a jx-8p or something later, you can use the radias to sequence it and add fx, so you still don't have to buy a midi interface, etc. The Ion might do that too, I'm not sure.