Unpopular synths

[Markyboard]

Not sure they even made a working prototype which makes this maybe the most unpopular synth of all times

 

http://www.gearjunkies.com/wp-content/uploads/gj2/inximg/5265_gjimg.jpg

 

I saw it at NAMM 2000. Non functional prototype. Last time it appeared.

 

I'm still on the waiting list.

[Markyboard]

Peavey DPM synths and SP samplers

 

I don't now if these fall in the unpopular category or simply flops when put up against then current products. I had a DPM V3 rack and quite liked it.

 

 

I'm guessing they sold a lot more of those than these:

 

 

Weren't those additive synthesis? I'd put those in the unpopular, but very cool category. The loner at school with no friends, but has a '68 Mustang and a 36 year old girlfriend.

 

I should only be so unpopular.

[Synthoid]

That's the poster child for anyone bitching about these companies not putting out new synthesis types and bold, creative designs.

 

http://www.vintagesynth.com/sites/default/files/2017-05/hartmannneuron.jpg

 

 

Agreed, however, after reading the Sound on Sound review of the Hartmann Neuron back then... it had plenty of flaws:

 

"Some factory sounds have discontinuous, glitching models, and it's all too easy to recreate similar sounds yourself with Modelmaker.

The sounds are flat without the effects.

Polyphony is limited.

Modelmaker requires an external computer, and its communications system is overly complex.

The sound engine is not suited to deterministic programming, and users trying to fathom it will be frustrated by the esoteric terminology.

It's too noisy for a quiet studio.

At present, it's far from finished."

 

[MathOfInsects]

Behringer Carrot Top

[Rod S]

However, the Korg DS8 was garbage.

 

I had one. I actually have a pretty fond memory of it - it was multimbral, the effects weren't bad, the programming made sense and keyboard was touch sensitive. I remember the Keyboard magazine review was pretty favorable and weighed on my decision. It served me well at the time. Don't know what else I would have bought at the time that compared, but I had to make a quick purchasing decision at the time during a family trip to Europe.

 

It certainly didn't age well, but wasn't bad for the time IMHO.

[jerrythek]

Yes, that was certainly the case. The Trinity has a special fidelity that the Triton does not possess...

 

Jerry

 

Of all things, I remember the "Triton" being a little poo-pooh'd after the Trinity. I've owned neither, but I do remember many pros claiming the Triton's filters lacked some of the magic of the Trinity. Never-the-less, it's impossible to call the Triton "unpopular", they sold like hotcakes and were very well-liked, up until this new K generation.

[jerrythek]

Very true. And how are we defining popular? By units sold? By general opinion?

 

Here's an interesting and very true observation. Many synths that later became popular, or revered by true synth enthusiasts did not sell well during their main time on the market. Bold, different, and unique synths often don't sell well, and many now revered synths could be deemed "failures" by the manufacturers during their prime.

 

In my Casio years, I would certainly say the VZ-1 and AZ-1 were outright failures. For the AZ-1, Yamaha, Roland and Korg had released "keytars" and had satiated the small demand. And having the Casio name was not all that accepted for a pro piece (still), even though it was a great product. For the VZ, a little before we released it the D-50 was released, and then having effects became important. Then the M1 came out, and the birth of the ROMpler started. We didn't have a chance...

 

For Korg the Prophecy, the Z-1, the OASYS PCI card, and most of our signal processors were losers... and then later re-discovered and hailed by users. The Wavestation had a very difficult birth/life, and the later Wavestation A/D was revered, but it didn't sell all that well. Only the Wavestation-SR did well.

 

It may be price, it may be marketing; there are a lot of reasons a product doesn't do well/is unpopular, and unfortunately many bold/different products don't achieve the needed sales to continue.

 

Jerry

 

Why is unpopular bad? The Yamaha VL-1 never sold well. I still have mine. Isn't it better to have something that gives you, at least a somewhat, unique voice? Isn't that a big part of being a grown-up musician, i.e. to have your own voice?

 

The TR808 and TB303 were considered toys in their day and didn't sell. Later creative types discovered them cheap in pawn shops and they became the foundation for whole genres.

 

Busch.

[jerrythek]

Why is unpopular bad?

 

It's not, but this thread quickly evolved from unpopular synths to synths I don't like.

 

Exactly.

[Muad’Dib]

When I was trying to convey as unpopular, I wasn't saying bad. The U-20 was not popular, as the D-50.

 

Roland had a whole D-Line, but manufactured the U-20 as something different?

 

It would be best, too find out, how many units were sold? Then that could give a better idea of unpopular.

[Losendoskeys]

Why is unpopular bad? The Yamaha VL-1 never sold well. I still have mine. Isn't it better to have something that gives you, at least a somewhat, unique voice? Isn't that a big part of being a grown-up musician, i.e. to have your own voice?

 

The TR808 and TB303 were considered toys in their day and didn't sell. Later creative types discovered them cheap in pawn shops and they became the foundation for whole genres.

 

Busch.

 

Unpopular should not be bad - the Quadra was probably too expensive for it to be unpopular, come to think of it!

[piano39]

Casio VZ series- At one time or another, I owned all three versions, the VZ-1 keyboard, and the two modules, maybe they were called the VZ-8M and VZ-16M. I bought all of them very cheap. They sounded beautiful, and they had an ultra- pro look and feel about them.

 

The keyboard had three wheels- pitch bend, and two mod wheels.

 

However, they were impossible to program. The only sounds available were from the few cards that Casio sold. As I recall- there were six oscillators per voice. Each had an eight step EG to control it. Had to set the rate and level for each step of the EG.

 

The UI was horrible. I always though that the basic structure of the Casio CZ series was genius- layed out just like an analog synth. If they would have added more knobs to the thing, it would have been even better.

 

 

[ABECK]

Very

 

For Korg the Prophecy, the Z-1, the OASYS PCI card, and most of our signal processors were losers...

I loved both the Prophecy and Z1 - couldn't take my hands off them in Guitar Center..surprised they didn't sell that well. I remember the Prophecy was just ripping fast and expressive.

[J. Dan]

Casio VZ series- At one time or another, I owned all three versions, the VZ-1 keyboard, and the two modules, maybe they were called the VZ-8M and VZ-16M. I bought all of them very cheap. They sounded beautiful, and they had an ultra- pro look and feel about them.

 

The keyboard had three wheels- pitch bend, and two mod wheels.

 

However, they were impossible to program. The only sounds available were from the few cards that Casio sold. As I recall- there were six oscillators per voice. Each had an eight step EG to control it. Had to set the rate and level for each step of the EG.

 

The UI was horrible. I always though that the basic structure of the Casio CZ series was genius- layed out just like an analog synth. If they would have added more knobs to the thing, it would have been even better.

 

 

I still own a CZ-101 and a VZ-8M. While the VZ wasn't all that intuitive, it was still easier (IMHO) than the DX-7, which would be the closest thing of the time in terms of synthesis architecture.

[Delaware Dave]

Nord Lead

 

[Synthoid]

I only ever saw one of these:

 

 

http://www.rhodeschroma.com/content/polarisregistry/polaris.jpg

 

 

 

[MIDI2XS]

I only ever saw one of these:

 

 

http://www.rhodeschroma.com/content/polarisregistry/polaris.jpg

 

 

Check my signature line. My brother also has one. That makes at least three.

 

[Music Bird]

What I meant was they arent so popular in American music from the time (I honestly dont know though)... I seem to recall seeing a lot of Asian folk bands who gigged with Poly-800s and didnt seem that bad. Just trying to say to narrow down the list

Id say ROMplers were more popular than actual synths in the early 90s except for the DX7, D-50, M1 and Ensoniq stuff.

Now, gear from one period could be considered dated in another. Thats what I was trying to say.

The Multimoog didnt seem as popular compared to other synths in the late 70s, but Steve Winwoods playing made it popular because of the pitch ribbon. Also it sold well with synthpop bands in the late 70s early 80s.

[slg1013]

I had a Crumar Bit One for about a week; I may have been the only person to buy one... Depending on the sound chosen, only certain notes would trigger. Fortunately the sales guy at West LA music agreed to let me return it. I ended up with an Ensoniq Mirage, which was lots of fun...

[Rod S]

What I meant was they arent so popular in American music from the time (I honestly dont know though)... I seem to recall seeing a lot of Asian folk bands who gigged with Poly-800s and didnt seem that bad.

 

Can't say the case with Asia, but in Latin America you'd still see Poly 800 in cover bands a few years back, and the reason was the price. When all you can afford is old, cheap gear, one man's trash become another man's treasure, and the popularity endures longer.

 

 

[Piktor]

The Multimoog didnt seem as popular compared to other synths in the late 70s, but Steve Winwoods playing made it popular because of the pitch ribbon. Also it sold well with synthpop bands in the late 70s early 80s.

Legend (or Internet wisdom) has it that Moog made only one thousand Multimoogs. (That must mean that the existing ones are worth tens of thousands of dollars by now....Or at least the price of a Moog One. )

[Rusty Mike]

I had a Crumar Bit One for about a week; I may have been the only person to buy one... Depending on the sound chosen, only certain notes would trigger. Fortunately the sales guy at West LA music agreed to let me return it. I ended up with an Ensoniq Mirage, which was lots of fun...

 

Possibly the worst synth ever! We stocked three or four in the music store I worked at when they first came out. Didnt sell a single one!! Thankfully the distributor took them back.

 

Goodness they were awful. I dont distinctively recall the workflow, but I do remember them sounding terrible.

[Synthoid]

I had a Crumar Bit One for about a week; I may have been the only person to buy one...

 

No, I bought one too, and returned it the next day. One word... Yuck!

 

 

[LennyTunes]

Prophet 2000

My first sampler. I always said a prayer hoping to avoid ERR while loading from the floppy disk.

[NewImprov]

My first sampler was the Korg DSS-1, I later picked up the DSM rack-mount, and I used that combo for a number of years. Traded away the DSS somewhere along the line, but the DSM is still in my garage, though I think the disk drive is dead.

 

One cool feature of the DSS/DSM was that you could re-sample into a bank live, I did some experimental gigs where I set up a number of looped samples at a certain tempo, but with no audio content, and then sampled other players onstage into the banks, did a couple of interesting gigs this way.

 

A music store I worked at many years ago was a Kawai dealer, I got a couple of terrific deals on our demo K5 and K1m. The K5 was a very deep machine, but it had a tendency to blow up processor boards. I still have the K1, I should plug it in and give it a spin someday.

 

I actually played a Fizmo for the first time just a few months ago, and I was really surprised at what a cool-sounding synth it was.

[Muad’Dib]

I thought this was supposed to be about unpopular synths, not ones people don't like? Oh well? Makes for interesting conversation though!

 

Paul

[Dave Bryce]

Casio VZ series- At one time or another, I owned all three versions, the VZ-1 keyboard, and the two modules, maybe they were called the VZ-8M and VZ-16M.

VZ10M. I still have one.

 

They sounded beautiful, and they had an ultra- pro look and feel about them.

Agreed. If only they hadn't been called Casio.

 

Back when they came out, Casio was only really known as the watch guys in the US. They made great stuff...but it wasn't so easy to sell them over better known brands.

 

dB