The original is nice but ...

[RABid]

A lot of classic keyboards have been re-released by either the original company or third party manufacturers. A few of these are true to the original and some have really nice updates. And price range, wow. From $150 to $8000 or more. Do you have a re-release that you are especially fond of, and why?

 

For me it would be the Roland/Studio Electronics SE-02. It has a few nice additions that I could have really used when I was playing the original Mini in cover bands.

 

Oscillator 2 env combined with sync. The original never had sync and boy did I miss it when covering some songs. No only does the SE-02 have sync, they added an ENV1 control to oscillator two. You don't have to rely on a wheel to play the sync sound, you can program it to the ENV.

 

Feedback control in the mixer. Always nice.

 

A separate LFO. No longer have to use oscillator 3. A nice LFO with options like single cycle triggering and sync to MIDI.

 

Of course there are some obvious things like patch memory, delay and cross modulation. I just put 12 of my Boutiques up for sale. This one I am keeping.

[Outkaster]

That's cool often they are lacking ( Hammond Clones).  It's nice when something can improve on the original and be relevant. 

[marino]

I love the SE-02. I like the extra features, the patch memory, the built-in delay and the sound.

But I got the Behringer D instead, because I just can't tweak the SE-02 without bumping continuously into adjacent knobs. I tried, and it's infuriating. The idea of making a panel with that many knobs fit into the so-called "boutique" (ha ha) format is idiotic.

I wonder if anybody has tried to replace the panel with a bigger one... I know that in case Roland would make it, I'd buy it instantly. Maybe with a keyboard too. *And* internal power supply...

[Analogaddict]

Yes, I love the SE-02, I used to gig with an SE-1, (later an SE-1X) and the SE-02 beats the old guy in most areas!  
Having a complete JD-800 in my Jupiter X makes me very happy too. 

[RABid]

6 hours ago, Analogaddict said:

Having a complete JD-800 in my Jupiter X makes me very happy too. 

Ordered the Jupiter X today. It arrives Monday or Tuesday. I already have the Xm but am really looking forward to the full panel for programming.

[Analogaddict]

13 hours ago, RABid said:

Ordered the Jupiter X today. It arrives Monday or Tuesday. I already have the Xm but am really looking forward to the full panel for programming.

I bought mine to be able to work from home during the COVID lockdowns. Here in Sweden we were supposed to stay at home if any family member tested positive. I figured I’d sell it as soon as things went  back to more normal, instead it’s become my new favorite. 

[Nathanael_I]

I never had an original, but the Minimoog Model D is a delight.  I wish a new Oberheim X8. May sell OB-6 to get it… But the Ob-6 is wonderful in its own right….

[The Real MC]

Oberheim OB-X8.

 

As an owner of a vintage FVS, OB-X, and OB-SX they really went the distance to recreate that vintage Oberheim sound.  This re-release really does the job.

 

I have MIDI retrofits installed in my vintage Oberheims; but due to circuit limitations they will never have MIDI volume, velocity, pitch bend, mod wheel, monoAT, polyAT (the X8 receives it from an external controller), and many other MIDI features that the X8 has.

While the authenticity of the legacy models is great, it is really cool to mix OB-8 features (IE page 2 functions, arpeggiator) with the other models that never had those features.  All this without the headache of maintenance and calibration of the old models.

 

These are features that were valuable enough for me to acquire the OB-X8.

Am I selling the old models?  Nah - they're useful for extending the polyphony and multitimbrality of the 8 voice limit of the X8.

[Al Coda]

3 hours ago, The Real MC said:

As an owner of a vintage FVS, ...

 

I have MIDI retrofits installed in my vintage Oberheims; but due to circuit limitations they will never have MIDI volume, velocity, pitch bend, mod wheel, monoAT

 

AFAIK, for the Oberheim 4-voice (4 SEM modules), the vintage Roland MPU-101 4-voice MIDI/CV interface would give you exactly these mentioned above.

There should be enough CV and gate patchpoints on each of the SEMs circuit boards.

 

 

A.C.

 

 

[The Real MC]

10 hours ago, Al Coda said:

 

AFAIK, for the Oberheim 4-voice (4 SEM modules), the vintage Roland MPU-101 4-voice MIDI/CV interface would give you exactly these mentioned above.

There should be enough CV and gate patchpoints on each of the SEMs circuit boards.

 

Not bad... there's no V/C of volume anywhere on the FVS for dynamic CV, but dynamic CV could be routed to filter cutoff.  And while the MPU-101 is a cool box, the pitch CV and gate signals completely bypass the keyboard controller on the FVS, which is where the magic is.

I have a surplus Highly Liquid UMR2 I plan on retrofitting into my FVS - it converts MIDI to matrix control lines that hook right to the keyboard, allowing use of the FVS keyboard controller.  And it extends the range to 64 notes.  I'm just interested in note on/off for the FVS.

[CyberGene]

Behringer Model D is to me better than the original because it has CV inputs for many synth elements and I could thus make an aftertouch-driven filter from my Hydrasynth into the Model D. 

[uhoh7]

I'm waiting for the Alesis A6 clone....Multi-timbral Analog polysynth.. you all know. Prices up to near 5k now, though a few at 3.5 pop up. Very unique in many ways.

 

I only have 1 retro, the DM12, Juno "clone". Of course it's a Juno + as they threw the kitchen sink at it in the effects and the arp. I think I paid 550 new, during a strange price dip. I have not turned it on in quite a awhile as I'm in an acoustic + Hammond phase, but it was a great buy for me, as by then there were incredible tutorials on the DM12. I really learned the classic synth basics, in a fun, painless manner. Then when I found a Virus TI, it was much easier to get a handle on it. That thing is sick, and incredibly versatile. It's a great guitar amp, believe it or not. Well, since the maker is now called "Kemper" it's believable, though of course that beast is yet another species of synth. 

 

But Behringer does not seem to have hurt used prices too much....though they've been killed by the Chip shortages on a lot of their stuff. At some point the new variety in chip design options will come back in a good way....one can hope anyway. Those intel laptop chips were never optimal for DAWs as they are sequential operators, or so I read. The GPUs have far more potential apparently, and the new custom design options...well we might actually get a genuine workstation which samples, records, synths, sequences and takes in the rest of the band without dependencies on Apple etc. I use apple of course, but I have to keep all sorts of OSs so my faves like the Virus TI will still work right. Update? Run, hide.....G knows what'll stop working. 

 

I'm been sorely tempted by the model D, and the 2600....

[elsongs]

On 1/6/2023 at 8:23 AM, marino said:

I love the SE-02. I like the extra features, the patch memory, the built-in delay and the sound.

But I got the Behringer D instead, because I just can't tweak the SE-02 without bumping continuously into adjacent knobs. I tried, and it's infuriating. The idea of making a panel with that many knobs fit into the so-called "boutique" (ha ha) format is idiotic.

I wonder if anybody has tried to replace the panel with a bigger one... I know that in case Roland would make it, I'd buy it instantly. Maybe with a keyboard too. *And* internal power supply...

I have my SE-02 sitting here just a few inches from me. I was borrowing a friend's Minimoog for a number of years but I returned it to him last year because the SE-02 seemed to cover the bases, and took up far less studio real estate.

I DO wish Moog would come out with a streamlined version of the Minimoog but in a much smaller housing (and some modern components where practical) to make it more gig-friendly (The "Mini" in the name was in relative terms to those humongous room-sized modular systems they had at the time). Like, smaller than the Model D, but larger than the SE-02 (I do want them to retain the 44 full-size keys though). I was gigging with that friend's  Minimoog for a time, but at some point, I realized that it was both a huge pain to lug around, and a potential theft liability (fortunately that never happened), so it just stayed in my studio.

[Adam Burgess]

I loved the keyboard on my Juno 60. Wish someone would just make really nice feeling keybeds again!

The Kronos 61 comes close. The 'new' Jupiter looks like it should feel nice - but never seen one in the wild to try.