My first real synth...

[NewImprov]

Moog Satellite, early 70's. It didn't do much, lol. Don

 

Ha, me too! I was in middle school, and there was a music store a few blocks from my school. I'd hang out at the store after school a lot. At one point, they had a brand new Minimoog there, I must have spent every afternoon playing that thing and just generally lusting over it. I think they were asking $1500 for it, which might as well have been a million, given my financial status at the time.

 

So they also had a bulletin board at this shop, and one day, after I had been working on my parent's farm all summer and had a little cash in the bank, I saw an ad for a Moog Satellite for $300 in a nearby town. Hey, it said Moog on it, right? I played that synth in bands all through high school, after I joined the school stage band, they let me take the school's Rhodes home, that and the Moog was my classic setup.

 

Senior year, I bought an ARP AXXE on a rare trip to Portland, also for $300. That and a delay pedal were my true introduction to synthesis. After I got the Axxe, I tried to do a DIY mod to the Satellite and make it into a keytar, but it never worked after that. The Axxe is still in my garage, it needs a few sliders and a good cleaning.

[Sundown]

I have a D-10 I bought in early '89. It's essentially a D-20 without the sequencer or floppy drive. Like you, it was my first synth. It still works and still has its original battery (it helps that the unit is always plugged in). I too see no need to sell it (its not worth much if I did). There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of aftermarket patches out there that are MUCH better than what it originally came with.

 

Hey AlenK... I never thought of looking for third party patches for it. I don't have an editor/librarian for it, and the only one I can think of that still might be available is SoundQuest. I'm sure there are other ways to load the data, but I'd have to look into it.

 

If you know of any good sites with cheap/free content for D-20/D-10/D-110, please let me know.

 

I should share my best patches... I've got an analog brass patch that is my piece de resistance, and a synthetic choir that is pretty good as well.

[Synthoid]

http://www.fantasyjackpalance.com/fjp/sound/synth/002/sixtrak_1.jpg

[WillNeverPost]

Hey AlenK... I never thought of looking for third party patches for it. I don't have an editor/librarian for it, and the only one I can think of that still might be available is SoundQuest. I'm sure there are other ways to load the data, but I'd have to look into it.

 

If you know of any good sites with cheap/free content for D-20/D-10/D-110, please let me know.

Ask and you shall receive. Here is everything I could find. First, two of those YouTube videos I posted links to are demos of the patches the author of the videos created. I think you will agree his sounds are quite good and he provides a link where you can download some of them, along with a handy spreadsheet you can use to record your own settings (in lieu of a librarian).

 

Second, a few of the original factory patches are actually useable. You can still find them here:

http://www.roland.co.uk/Support/Downloads_Updates/eula.aspx?Asset=zip/factorypatches.zip

 

Of course, if you can't back up the patches currently in your D-20 to something you will lose them when you send the factory patches as a batch dump over MIDI.

 

The following sites have some good sounds for purchase but I am not endorsing the vendors or their products. The first and last seem reasonably priced and I think the sounds in the first link are especially good. Note that the CD in the last link is essentially a collection of public-domain sounds, many of which are probably the very ones I list in the "free" section below, along with very old librarians and editors. You might be able to get some of the latter working with an MS-DOS emulator or some such.

 

http://rolandsynths.jimdo.com/d-series-support-and-upgrades/

http://www.patchmanmusic.com/rolandd5d10d20.html

http://www.kidnepro.com/KN/Roland/D110-U220.html

http://www.manymidi.com/d110.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Roland-D-20-Sound-Library-Patches-MIDI-Software-Editors-Manual-CD-D20-D-20-/171052605256

 

And here are the free sounds:

 

http://roland.d.freeservers.com/

http://cd.textfiles.com/audio11000/MEDIA/PATCHES/D10/

http://www.synthzone.com/midi/roland/d10/

ftp://ftp.ucsd.edu/midi/patches/D10/

http://www.acidboxblues.com/2014/01/roland-d-110-patches.html

 

Also, Roland used to sell ROM cards for the D-10/20/110 that had some nice patches on them. They don't sell them anymore, of course, but some show up on eBay from time to time. They're not cheap! PG-10 hardware editors also show up there (as I write this, in fact):

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/roland-d-110

Roland really should make the data for the old ROM cards available on-line. There's no reason not to at this late date.

 

Editors:

On this page are links to an editor called Synthworks from Steinberg that runs on the Atari ST and to an ST emulator called STeem that is supposed to allow you to run everything on a PC. A roundabout approach but it might just work:

http://www.avtandil.narod.ru/atarie.html

 

This guy USED to post a free Windows-based D-5 editor that might work for the D-20 (the synth engines are identical).

http://mountainutilities.eu/miditools

[resigned]

Moog Satellite, early 70's. It didn't do much, lol. Don

Me too. It was sitting ontop of my Farfisa Professional. DIY stand. At that time I did own a Leslie 900.

 

I owned all of the above. The Satellite was a preset synth with a few (very few) synth controls. It was not very useful but it was my first synth and I had mine for about a week before I sold it and bought a Minimoog.

 

I sold my Farfisa and bought my first B3 in a custom case. Sold the Leslie that came with it and bought a Leslie 900. That B3, Leslie 900, Minimoog, and a Hohner Pianet T plus a Sun speaker system was my primary rig for the mid-to-late 70's.

[Daniel Heslop]

My first was a Roland SH1000.

I remember messing around with it for hours and then that night in bed I wondered if it was polyphonic. I didn't know enough to know the obvious answer, but to this day I find it cool that I spent hours playing it without ever trying a chord.

TBH I still don't pine for an analog polyphonic.

 

Anyway I loved it, but ended up trading it in for something or other. I know I had a MaxiKorg pretty early on too. I'd love to pick up another SH1000 some day though. Aside from no real functional pitch bender or mod controllers, it was a very cleverly designed synth and very fast to patch.

[JoJoB3]

Not the first, but one of the best...

I miss my Maxi Korg

 

http://www.synthfind.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/maxikorg.jpg

[Daniel Heslop]

Yep.

Mine sat on top of a Kustom organ I had....the one with the padded vinyl. (mine was white with silver trim...very space age!) The Maxikorg did a great job of that Modular Moog sound Emerson had at the beginning of Hoedown!

 

Half the time the Kustom wasn't working though so I spent many hours jamming with my 3 piece band (drums bass and me) just using the maxikorg. It was duophonic so I did lots of 5ths and 4ths as power chords.

[Sundown]

Ask and you shall receive.

 

AlenK: Thank you for taking the time to pull that together. I'm most grateful.

 

Todd

[Rustar]

I started out with a Roland RS-09 Organ/String ensemble, than bought a new Korg Poly 6. Wish I had kept them.

[WillNeverPost]

AlenK: Thank you for taking the time to pull that together. I'm most grateful.

No problem. BTW, one of the video links I posted was a repeat. I can't seem to edit the post to correct the mistake (post is too old?!?). Here's the correct one:

[video:youtube]

 

[johnchop]

Korg DW6000 I was young and stupid and convinced it was going to be awesome. I tired of those super-cheese waveforms pretty damn quick. Had I been clever enough to run it through some guitar effects, I might have gotten more creative with it. Meh.

 

That was followed by a Oberheim Matrix 6, which was warm and punchy, but horrendous to program, at least from the front panel. Not bad but hardly magical.

 

So, I think of my first REAL synth as the Kurzweil K2000, which was so incredibly deep, interesting, and insanely wonderful in countless ways. Aaaaaaand was promptly stolen.

 

Suffice it to say I find the present state of keyboard sounds and capabilities much more interesting.

[Steve Force]

My dad built me my first Synth-like components - Signal generator (oscillator), filter, and amplifier. Although it was crude it was fun, and drove the dogs CRAZY when I signal swept above 20Khz.

 

I am thinking: 1969 or so.

[Steve Force]

And I built my first bass speaker cabinet, using West Speaker cabinets as my guide. Why West, because two of my favorite local bands (Flint, Michigan) used then: The Frost and Grand Funk. I built two cabinets like what Mel (below) is playing.) Needless to say, my mom wasn't too pleased..

 

http://www.westlabs.com/Mel_Two.jpg

 

 

[Losendoskeys]

The DX7 was my first synth in 1983 bought from Rock City Music in Newcastle for £1400. Michael Jackson tracks were built on it and were what impressed me!

I sold it a couple of years ago for £500 so it was definitely a good investment.

[AnotherScott]

Not the first, but one of the best...

I miss my Maxi Korg

My first synth was a Mini-Korg, which I bought new shortly after it came out. I later sold it, and at some point bought a used Maxi-Korg, which was a great synth, though I was surprised that the filters were different, despite looking like it was built by basically merging two Mini-Korgs. I actually preferred the original Minik-Korg filter as a performance control, because no matter where you moved them, the sound never disappeared. Other than that, of course, the Maxi was much more capable overall. It was sadly stolen at some point, but some years later I replaced it. I don't know if I ever even used it since replacing it, but I like knowing it's there. ;-) BTW, it's one of the few synths that can do the proper "arpeggiation" effect for Baba O'Reily.

[Theo Verelst]

Hi.

Probably it was my own built digital waveform/analog signal path "square wave" organ/synth project, when I was like 16. I had invested in an organ-type keybed-unit, (a little bit like this: http://frank.gadgetland.net/images/sections/mti_auto_orch/Mti_04_thm.jpg ) fixed up my own 49 contacts, made a "fully polyphonic" oscillator digital divider bank with top octave synthesizer with a high frequency VCO I designed (with analog vibrato and pitch bend control), and hobby-ed together (I was pretty advanced in electronics DIY) a VCA, (single pole) VCF, filters, peak meter unit, envelope sense ("are notes on on the mix-rail") and envelope generator, spring reverb unit, and more. I had made a wooden enclosure with not much luxury but a nice shape, a little bit like this example (this and previous photos *not by me*): http://www.theover.org/Keybdmg/germankeyboardassexa.JPG , but four octaves, and less modular panel layout (and no colors).

 

If you want to count it, when I was way young (under 12) I played with these types of electronics (popular at the time):

http://www.theover.org/Keybdmg/philipskit.jpg

And I made an improvised keyboard out of iron-wire which would let me "play" an electronics "test" oscillator for one octave.

 

The first "synthesizer" in well known form that I didn't just see live but played (as far as I could at the time), was the well known Radio Shack Moog analog:

 

[video:youtube]

 

I went to England (from Holland) at some point in time in the early 80s, and peeking through a book store this magazine caught my attention:

 

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/ONE-TWO-TESTING-MAGAZINE-OCT-NOV-1982-1st-ISSUE-SYNTH-SPECIAL-DEPECHE-MODE-/00/s/OTAzWDcyMw==/z/ZdMAAOxyoA1RLOid/$%28KGrHqF,!qMFESIt+TtJBRLOicid7Q~~60_35.JPG

That, and a lot of music I know and liked with synthesizers fed my interest in owning a real synthesizer instrument, or maybe a digital one. I tried out and considered a brand new Casio at the time, that had a digital synthesizer core with waveforms, and a 1000 variation possibilities with the knobs on the front panel. Nice, but not strong enoug, at least I liked to have a more analog filter and stuff.

 

The first commercial synthesizer I owned for about a year was the digital (industrial Z80 processor variation with special generator chip and (*one*, arggh I hated that..) analog filter)

 

http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/korg_poly800_angle.jpg

 

The Korg Poly 800. Nobody would be able to testify in honestly I wouldn't have prefered that to be a Prophet-5, or at the time, a Jupiter-8 (or was it 10 ?) or another heavy analog polyphonic, but hey, I wasn't a millionaire, and this machine did have MIDI, as one of the very first cheap ones! So did the poly 61, and that had some less clean sounds.

 

Theo

[jimtheswede]

ARP Odyssey MkII 2810, bought new in late '75 or early '76.

 

Back then, there were 2 major music stores in town - one carried Moog and ARP, and the other had an assortment of other brands - they had a new Oberheim 2 voice. I hadn't heaard of Oberheim yet and thought it was a german company and hadn't heard anyone use it (yet). Really was attracted to that 2 voice, and spent quite a bit of time between the 2 stores comparing the Obie, Minimoog, and Ody. Picked the Ody due to it having S&H - and I thought the UI was easier.

 

Had the Ody completely restored by Kevin Lightner a couple years ago, and found an ARP "Little Brother" on Ebay to add to it. Have the Ody Midied with a Kenton USB Solo. I really don't think I could ever part with the Ody!

[Dave Bryce]

Well, my first electronic keyboard was a Roland RS101 string/brass machine, but it's not what I would call a "real synth".

 

http://media.soundonsound.com/sos/nov04/images/roland08.l.jpg

 

 

My first Real Synth was a MiniMoog, which I bought brand new...and I still have it.

 

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y172/davebryce/Mini.jpg

 

 

dB

[mate stubb]

 

My first synth was an EML-101. Lots of features, patch panel, and a pretty miserable tone.

 

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/attachments/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/107328d1232387469-electrocomp-eml-101-dsc_0223.jpg

 

Then I built a couple of synths with E-MU guts, but finally got my lovely baby:

 

http://www.rhodeschroma.com/content/gallery/chromaexpander.jpg

[hurricane hugo]

My 1st synth was a Casio CZ-101. No real story to it - I was doing a pawn shop trawling run when I saw one; went back a couple of weeks later and bought it.

 

Damn, I loved that thing. So easy to program sounds that were both powerful and usable. Played it lots until it literally fell apart. I still have a notebook with the settings for a couple of my fave patches written out in it. I might post them here in a bit.

[AnotherScott]

My first synth was an EML-101. Lots of features, patch panel, and a pretty miserable tone.

I lusted after that synth for a while... from the ads and specs it looked like just what I wanted... but then I finally got to play one, and yeah, sonically, umm, underwhelming.

[Piktor]

My first synth was an EML-101. Lots of features, patch panel, and a pretty miserable tone.

I lusted after that synth for a while... from the ads and specs it looked like just what I wanted... but then I finally got to play one, and yeah, sonically, umm, underwhelming.

Piktor: "...and the local music college that I attended had an EML ElectroComp Model 101 that sounded pretty good. "

 

 

 

Hmmm, could be that my memory is going.

[Synthoid]

My 1st synth was a Casio CZ-101.

 

Damn, I loved that thing. So easy to program sounds that were both powerful and usable.

 

Easy? Hmmm... I had a CZ-101 for awhile and really enjoyed it, but found programming a bit tedious.

 

 

[AnotherScott]

My first synth was an EML-101. Lots of features, patch panel, and a pretty miserable tone.

I lusted after that synth for a while... from the ads and specs it looked like just what I wanted... but then I finally got to play one, and yeah, sonically, umm, underwhelming.

Piktor: "...and the local music college that I attended had an EML ElectroComp Model 101 that sounded pretty good. "

 

 

 

Hmmm, could be that my memory is going.

Well, it could also depend on what you were looking for. I wanted something that sounded like a Moog! But the EML did have its own character... In a sense, I would say that it was an analog synth that kind of foreshadowed what digital synths would sound like.

 

[video:youtube]

[mate stubb]

Piktor: "...and the local music college that I attended had an EML ElectroComp Model 101 that sounded pretty good. "

 

 

 

Hmmm, could be that my memory is going.

 

Unfortunately, I have tapes to do my remembering for me...

[hurricane hugo]

My 1st synth was a Casio CZ-101.

 

Damn, I loved that thing. So easy to program sounds that were both powerful and usable.

 

Easy? Hmmm... I had a CZ-101 for awhile and really enjoyed it, but found programming a bit tedious.

 

 

Well, it did come with the manual, which is rare for a pawnshop instrument. It helped immensely. Same with my D-50, although its manual's...not the best I've ever read, to put it mildly.

[aellison62]

Arp Odyssey was my first.

 

I can still remember the band waiting for me to change filter/ADSR settings before starting the next song !!

[MoodyBluesKeys]

My first was Sequential Circuits Prophet 600, I bought it new in the early 80's. It broke down sometime between 1990 and 2000 (it was in the closet), and I disposed of it in the move in 2004.

 

Wish it still worked and I still had it. I have NI's Pro 52 soft synth, but it's not really the same. LOTS of knobbage (lots of drift in the first half hour or so too).

[TKN]

Started in 1985 with a Korg I do not remember the name of. It was black and made good ambulance sound! Then it quickly became a Korg Poly-61, then a Roland JX-8P and then in 1987 a Roland D-50.