Bucktunes

Don’t believe I’ve seen this one yet; 😁 How do you get a guitar player to turn down? Put a chart in front of him. How do you get him to stop playing? Put notes on it.

You're not wrong - it can easily tip backwards at low height positions. I have owned and used several of these stands in the last 20 years and on threads here I have cautioned about this concern. The way I've always alleviated the problem is to always have the heavier keyboard on the lower tier, and never put a keyboard on the top tier before putting the keyboard on the bottom tier. You could still push it over backwards if you tried, but don't do that! 😉 As far as stubbing your toes on the feet of it - For the stands at home I cut up pool noodles and tape them to the front of the feet. Not beautiful, but it's saved my toes many times! 😖

Well, wouldn't you know they would drop this just a few months after I finally pulled the trigger on upgrading to version 8. 🤪 The new synths in version 9 aren't so interesting to me, but the improvements to the CS80 and Prophet 5 are intriguing. The ones I use most often now are the virtual Oberheims and the CS80, although the updated Jupiter and Rhodes models are an impressive improvement. And that's if I don't go to Pigments first, which is an absolutely amazing synth. I keep that one up to the minute updated! 😎 Might have to see if they have any upgrade specials for long time customers...😉

^This^...And based on the YouTube link above I'd say it's confirmed wonderful sounding! I love that Tom not only regained the right to use his own name and logo, but was able to release one more killer synth to culminate his legacy. Yes it's pricey, but I expect it's worth every dollar. And as Jim mentioned, it will appreciate quickly after Tom has passed and the synth is no longer manufactured. Personally I'd love to have one if only for the investment value, let alone the joy of owning a bona fide Oberheim and making music with it. Would I gig with it? Of course not. It would sit under my Minimoog Model D reissue and neither would ever leave my home studio. And I expect that will be the case with most of the ones he sells. I applaud Tom for hitting a home run, and I hope he sells truckloads of these!

FWIW, the Motif XF has a patch called "Queens" that pretty much nails that sound. Another one called "Queen Of Pop" that's similar. The Queens patch is just 2 somewhat subdued PWM string sounds in stereo, layered with a digital bell waveform. The Queen of Pop patch is several layers of fairly bright PWM pads in octaves. I believe most any modern synth has some variation of that sound. If not it can be pretty easily constructed using the ingredients I mentioned.

Wow! I posted the link above mostly for a moment's amusement. I had no idea how much good information would flood in as a result. Thanks, guys!

Try it now, it's fixed.

Caution: Once you've heard it, you'll never un-hear it!

I almost ripped the pocket out of my jeans digging for my debit card until I found that out. I guess I'll have to hold on to my money a little longer.

Yep. Yamaha has been up to its eyeballs in Steinberg for a long time. The sound libary in Cubase sounds Yamaha-like. I'm just wondering if Yamaha will ever release a standalone Motif VST. I know it would sell like hotcakes in the Gospel community. The synth plug-ins included with Cubase surely come from Yamaha"s engineering camp. IIRC the sample ROM in the stock Halion plug-in includes wave data from the Motif series, so there"s some cross engineering there. The Retrologue and Padshop synths are stunning. There are several others, but I"ve not gotten past those two yet... It seems like previous versions of Cubase also included an FM synth, but not since the Reface or Montage synths came out. So Yamaha is definitely in the VST synths game, but apparently as Cubase plug-ins.

I don"t believe that the Hydrasynth really compares to the Virus, certainly not in sound or functions. The Hydrasynth is more of a different, boutique kind of synth with its ribbon and poly AT. It would be a cool controller for VST synths that can respond to those controls. Obviously the sound of the Hydrasynth is something you either like or not, but it definitely doesn"t sound like a Virus.

I would think Waldorf"s Kyra is more likely a direct competition for the Virus, based on voice count, multitimbrality, etc. It"s only available as a table top module though, so it doesn"t seem to be going for Access" throat. Also, Waldorf took a while to release it, and I haven"t heard too much fanfare about it...

Thanks for the replies, guys. I figured the Virus is one of those synths that people tend to treasure when they have it. And if they do need to sell it, it commands a respectable resale price. I"ve played a Virus KC and a TI in music stores and loved the sound of both, but somehow I"ve never gotten around to owning one. I really hope Access returns to developing and producing the Virus, if for no other reason than to drive down the prices of the previous models.

Obviously whether it ever was or not is a matter of opinion, although producers of electronic music seem to hold it in that high regard. I find it impressive that Access hasn"t felt the need to replace the Virus TI2 after over 10 years, and bargains on used ones are few and far between. Obviously many new and impressive synths have come out since then that could be considered comparable/competitive, but it seems that Access is pretty confident that the TI2 still holds its own today. Any Virus owners here still owning and loving it? If not, how much do you want for it?

Yeah, you might say so. Certainly expensive, but not unfair if it's truly restored to new condition. Back in the mid/late '70s they sold for $7K, about the price of a new large sedan. Converted to 2020 money that's about even.

Yep, and the knob settings are actually pretty close to where they'd be on a real Minimoog. Find a sound you like in the app, then recreate it on the real Mini. This will not only help you discover new sounds, but learn some less obvious tricks that the Mini is capable of. I have both the re-issued Model D and an iPad with the Model D app. Layering them together gives me kind of a "poor man's" Memorymoog on the polyphonic patches.

And while I'm on the subject of D-50 patches, George Michael's "Father Figure" and most of Paula Abdul's debut CD could have been used as demos for D-50 patches. The songs are full of them!

The first 8 bars of Foreigner's "Say You Will" was the D-50 Staccato Heaven, and the intro to Chicago's "Look Away" was the D-50 Fantasia patch. The producers might have muted the internal effects and replaced them with outboard effects, but the patches themselves sound untouched otherwise. And of course Enya's "Orinoco Flow" made the D-50's Pizzagogo patch famous. I have a D05, and it's nearly impossible to scroll through these patches without playing a few bars of those tunes just for nostalgia. Countless pop ballads used the DX7's signature EP patch, although many of them sound tweaked and/or processed. Can't bring myself to listen to them long enough to tell for sure... (BTW, I owned and loved the DX7. I think it's quite unfair that so many dog it for its cliche patches that were overused. It was capable of so much more. )

Similar product and price, similar market, anyway - I'm wondering how this will co-exist with Waldorf's own Kyra...Or replace it?

I also have and love Pigments. I'll have to try these suggestions as well. Thanks for the tip!

Pim, good to see you back here! I have the V Collection version 6, and the SEM V2 is one of my favorites! Never got a chance to play or hear a real SEM 8 Voice back in the day, but listening to records that used it makes me believe Arturia got really close with this. And I agree, being able to offset parameters like oscillator fine tuning, panning, VCF frequency, LFO speed, etc. really makes the sound much more organic and lively. Joe Zawinul or Lyle Mays would have loved this. Heck, I often prefer to leave the chorus either off or mixed very low, just so I can hear the natural chorusing of the voices. Thank you for the offset parameter settings. Can't wait to try them out!

I watched it last night, and might watch it again. Very comprehensive, and the interviews with past employees and their stories were very entertaining and interesting. I never knew there were so many revisions of the 2600, and iterations of the 2500. My first synth was a white faced Odyssey, so there was a bit of nostalgia when they covered the Odyssey series. I have the iOS version in my iPad, so naturally I opened it up and played with it for a while after watching the movie.

I bought it a few months ago, after I updated my PC to Windows 10. I upgraded from version 8, so it's not radically different. Some of the icons are different and took a little getting used to. Also default and global settings etc. took a little time to get set up. One of my main reasons for upgrading is because the Retrologue softsynth now has 3 oscillators per voice instead of 2, so it sounds much fatter. I understand there are advantages like being able to compare mix versions just like the "compare" functions in synth editing, but I haven't gotten as far as messing with that yet. I was chatting with Jim Alfredson at GearFest last year, and he recommended upgrading to version 10 (now 10.5). So I took his professional opinion and went for it without hesitation once my PC was up to Windows 10. No regrets, and lots of room to grow. If you get a good deal, go for it!

Happy Birthday, Herbie. - Definitely one of my heroes! The fact that he looks younger than me despite being 20 years older actually makes me a bit envious. Thanks for the music and inspiration, and for all yet to come!

Both CZV and SynthiV are fantastic too, so i believe it's worth... I also have the V6 of the collection. I've been somewhat indifferent about upgrading to V7, since none of the new synths offered have been all that attractive to me compared to the ones I already have. Of course, with all of you guys' enthusiasm for them I might just have to pull the trigger! Someone mentioned above that the SEM has been improved, which is one of my faves in V6. If so, what improvements have been made?