#390913 - 02/23/00 12:05 AM
SOUND MODULE ADVICE
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Fred Hester
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Registered: 02/22/00
Posts: 17
Loc: Memphis, TN, USA
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I have a home audio/midi studio built around Cakewalk Pro Audio 9. Delta 1010 audio/MIDI interface, Mackie 1202 VLZ mixer, Alesis 3630 compressor, Rode NT2 and a couple of cheaper mics. My primary business at present is making demos for local songwriters. I need a good all around sound module right now. I'm considering the Roland JV 1010, Roland SC 8850, and the Proteus 2000. Any opinions on which of these would be the best choice for decent conventional sounds (pianos, bass, guitars, strings, etc)?
Fred
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#390914 - 02/23/00 05:21 PM
Re: SOUND MODULE ADVICE
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Roger Nichols
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Registered: 12/13/99
Posts: 1249
Loc: Miami, Florida
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Fred
Maybe someone else has some guidence, but I am at a loss. I look around at modules thinking "This one has a good piano, this one has a good synth pad sound but the piano is not as good... etc. etc.
That question to me is like asking "I need to do some guitar overdubs, which one should I buy"
Taste, what works best with what song, and tons of other reasons come into play.
Finally, what I hate most is listening to a song where yoou can tell that all of the sounds came from the same keyboard. It is like when one singer does all the vocals and harmony parts. Sometimes it sounds better with some variety.
Now that I haven't answered that question...
Roger
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#390915 - 02/23/00 07:52 PM
Re: SOUND MODULE ADVICE
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Mr. G
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Registered: 01/25/00
Posts: 191
Loc: Fort Wayne, IN
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Hi Fred,
Roger is certainly correct, choosing a module is very subjective. If budget allows, getting a couple of complementary boxes is usually preferable. But if you must choose one module to cover everything, any of the modules you listed, as well as several others, can do the job. If possible, sit down and do an A-B listening comparison to find out which one does the best job of covering the main sounds you’ll use.
Since the one module will have to cover a lot of bases, you might want to consider a few other aspects: For example, the JV-1010 has 64-voice polyphony over up to 16 MIDI channels, while the Proteus 2000 has 128-voice polyphony over up to 32 MIDI channels. If you’re doing dense orchestrations or arrangements, this may be an issue. (I don’t know much about the SC8850 off the top of my head, you’ll have to research that one….)
Also, since all your eggs will be in one basket, consider expandability: The JV-1010 has a built-in Session board (which is a popular studio sound source) and can accept one other SR-JV80-format expansion card (a variety of cool SR-JV80 boards are available). The Proteus has 32MB of onboard ROM, but can be expanded to a maximum of 128MB of ROM using 4 expansion slots; off the top of my head, I don’t know how many ROM boards have been released for the 2000 at this point.
As Roger states, if all your sounds are coming from one source, things can start sounding pretty homogeneous. A part of this is because everything is being processed through the same onboard effects. In this case, one trick is to dump some of your MIDI sounds to audio tracks without effects, then use plug-ins or other external effects to do your processing and to add some EQ variations.
Hope this helps!
------------------
Mitch Gallagher
Editor
EQ magazine
_________________________
the poster formerly known as MitchG formerly known as EQ_Editor
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#390916 - 02/24/00 01:23 AM
Re: SOUND MODULE ADVICE
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Jeff Franklin
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Registered: 02/22/00
Posts: 2
Loc: Hilton Head SC USA
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Depending on what kind of music you are doing, the Alesis QS series of synths are great all-purpose boxes. They have a ton of sounds, most of which are useful. Hope this helps.......Jeff
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#390917 - 02/26/00 12:43 AM
Re: SOUND MODULE ADVICE
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Fred Hester
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Registered: 02/22/00
Posts: 17
Loc: Memphis, TN, USA
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Maybe one of the Alesis keyboards and the JV 1010 would be a good combo? Instead of getting all sounds and polyphony from one box I could get the 1010 and a 64 voice keyboard and still have 128 voices. (I have a Yamaha PSR 510 that I'm planning to use to trigger the module). Thanks for the input, guys! I'm primarily a bass player and this is my first time shopping for a pro synth rig.
Fred
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#390918 - 02/28/00 09:57 PM
Re: SOUND MODULE ADVICE
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Dylan
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Registered: 02/28/00
Posts: 3671
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I personally use and enjoy my Yamaha CS1X. This baby has GM and XG sound engines, along with a nice set custom dance-oriented sounds that are native to this synth. One of the best features of this synth is that it has great real-time control right from the front panel. No computer/editor is required for tweaking. My only gripe about this synth is that the polyphony is only 32, but I hardly run into problems in this area. Also, the piano patches sound cheesy, but I use GigaSampler for my piano tracks, so it doesn't really matter for my use.
Some nice features on this baby are:
*Price. You can pick these up used for around $300.
*Kick ass controls! Plenty of knobs are available for tweaking that can also be assigned to controlling MIDI faders and such. You also have ASDR, Resonance, and Cutoff control for each patch.
*To host connection for hooking up directly to your Mac or PC. You won't have to eat up a MIDI port on your sound card and/or interface when using this.
*Tons of freeware editors and patches exist for this synth online. Plus, Cakewalk has both Studioware and Instrument definitions for this synth as well.
I'm sure that the Roland stuff has better piano sounds, but if you need a cheap controller/sound module, then you will be hard pressed to find anything else better at this price.
Good luck,
Dylan
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