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My most read book in 1987 …


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Man alive, I devoured this brochure as a 12 year-old night after night. I hid it in my school textbooks and I would read it during class. I believed every claim in it about an instrument that could synthesize any sound and negate obsolescence. This was pre-internet by ten years and Roland knew how to sell an idea and an ideal.

 

I still want to get a used D-50 at some point, but I know now that most of the promises were hollow marketing. It was a remarkable instrument at the time, but it wasn’t capable of half of the things that the brochure advertised.

 

But the D-50 will always be one of those lifetime instruments that leaves an impression on you.

 

Todd

 

 

 

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Sundown

 

Finished: Gateway,  The Jupiter Bluff,  Condensation, Apogee

Working on: Driven Away, Eighties Crime Thriller

Main axes: Kawai MP11 and Kurz PC361

DAW Platform: Cubase

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That was the era of hype.  It started with the DX-7.  Once I laid my hands on one, I hated it (I'm in the minority).  The promotion was really hyped and I was pretty disappointed.  From then on, I didn't pay much attention to promotions.  I passed on most 80s keyboards like samplers, the DX-7, the D-50, the M1, et al.  There's a reason why my website is "analoguediehard.com".

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Around that time I was pouring over my D-10 Linear Arithmetic Synthesizer manual, figuring out the SysEx format and then sending data to it to change the Cutoff Frequency of the filter in real-time.

 

Also re-purposed its internal Drum Sequencer to lay down complete tracks inside of it.

 

Fun times.

Kurzweil K2500XS + KDFX, Roland: JX-3P, JX-8P, Korg: Polysix, DW-8000, Alesis Micron, DIY Analogue Modular

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7 hours ago, The Real MC said:

That was the era of hype.  It started with the DX-7.  Once I laid my hands on one, I hated it (I'm in the minority).  The promotion was really hyped and I was pretty disappointed.  From then on, I didn't pay much attention to promotions.  I passed on most 80s keyboards like samplers, the DX-7, the D-50, the M1, et al.  There's a reason why my website is "analoguediehard.com".

 

This makes me smile 😁... I have all three of them (and some more), bought three or four years ago, during a GAS period which lasted three years. They are now conveniently stored for future use (who knows, perhaps someday I will get rid of all the things which now prevent me of having a larger studio! 🙏🏻)

 

So, well, I bought the hype, even if decades later! 😅

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5 hours ago, Jose EB5AGV said:

 

They are now conveniently stored for future use (who knows, perhaps someday I will get rid of all the things which now prevent me of having a larger studio!

For me, it was getting the K2000 and re-doing my favourite D-10 Factory patches on it and then listening that made me send my D-10 to storage 😁

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Kurzweil K2500XS + KDFX, Roland: JX-3P, JX-8P, Korg: Polysix, DW-8000, Alesis Micron, DIY Analogue Modular

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I'm well-satisfied with the Cloud D-50, but when the synth was new and I was selling them, I must admit to having lemon-puss when I tried to use the PG-1000 controller. "Time-variant" was too alien for me, with only my all-analog prior experience, the Korg DW-8000 slightly excepted. Now, I'm almost as keen on it as I was when it was new. I've bought some 3rd-party sound sets that show off its powers to a high degree. The orchestral material is especially rich. I wouldn't use some patches because they have that 80s feel of straining too hard to hit the mark, but others rival Spitfire. Roland's juicy chorusing also makes it a Top 5 pad monster, even now.

 

I feel lucky that I had the hardware experience that makes the software work for me. Full circle. Even now, there are a few sounds that take me right back to the tingle of 1987. :keys2: 

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I just emptied out my swear jar and bought a CS-80.
Cussing really pays off!

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Can we call this the Golden Age of digital synths?  And does it extend all the way to the Virus?  The King Korg?  Or are we still in it with the Hydra?   Or maybe it’s migrated to VST.  

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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17 minutes ago, ElmerJFudd said:

Can we call this the Golden Age of digital synths?  And does it extend all the way to the Virus?  The King Korg?  Or are we still in it with the Hydra?   Or maybe it’s migrated to VST.  

 

I think it became the Titanium Age when Omnisphere appeared, or maybe the Vibranium Age. The Korg OASYS deserves a nod as the gorgeously overstuffed trigger for the KRONOS. I'm still as stunned as (bleep)-all that I can use WAV files as oscillator food or resynthesize whatever I like. That's not just Golden, that's magic. 

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I just emptied out my swear jar and bought a CS-80.
Cussing really pays off!

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The brochure for the Kurzweil K2500 had a similar effect (“my God, they’ve done everything”), but the 1987 brochure for the D-50 was special … There was no internet, and other than magazine reviews, the brochure was everything you had.

 

Todd

Sundown

 

Finished: Gateway,  The Jupiter Bluff,  Condensation, Apogee

Working on: Driven Away, Eighties Crime Thriller

Main axes: Kawai MP11 and Kurz PC361

DAW Platform: Cubase

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I was a HUGE brochure junkie in the '80s. Oh wow, what memories!

 

I used to get whatever I could find at the local music store, which if I remember correctly was a few Roland brochures such as Jupiter 8, JX-3P, JX-8P etc. 

 

Then I would send snail mail letters to all the companies asking them to send me brochures or catalogs. I have a three ring binder to this day with everything I collected back then. This included things like Yamaha's entire catalog with MSRP listings, a bunch of different Korg and Roland things, Invisible stands, and other things. I am pretty sure I stuck with the bigger companies, as I was just learning about synthesizers and keyboards in the early-mid '80s when I started doing this. I also have a few years of the Roland Users Group magazine and maybe a few related items.

 

I'll go find my binder and share a few pictures from it, while also reminiscing about this era well before the internet and those catalogs/brochures were like GOLD! 

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16 hours ago, eric said:

I was a HUGE brochure junkie in the '80s. Oh wow, what memories!

 

I used to get whatever I could find at the local music store, which if I remember correctly was a few Roland brochures such as Jupiter 8, JX-3P, JX-8P etc. 

 

Then I would send snail mail letters to all the companies asking them to send me brochures or catalogs. I have a three ring binder to this day with everything I collected back then. This included things like Yamaha's entire catalog with MSRP listings, a bunch of different Korg and Roland things, Invisible stands, and other things. I am pretty sure I stuck with the bigger companies, as I was just learning about synthesizers and keyboards in the early-mid '80s when I started doing this. I also have a few years of the Roland Users Group magazine and maybe a few related items.

 

I'll go find my binder and share a few pictures from it, while also reminiscing about this era well before the internet and those catalogs/brochures were like GOLD! 

I agree - I wore out many “wish books” and quite a few owner’s manuals in the late ‘80’s and 90’s.

 

I was a ‘90’s kid, so my early world was largely the second time around of the classics - Roland JV-1080, Yamaha V50, and for several years a Boss Dr. Synth was my traveling rig plugged into whatever old MIDI-capable board I could find. 

 

I don’t do nostalgic hardware. The new stuff is plenty good enough, and in many cases objectively far, far better than the originals. If I could pick up a Yamaha DX1 for $500 I might be tempted, but the combination of aging electronics and extreme collector pricing make them a “no for me, dawg.” I’ll just have to suffer with my multi-gigabyte internal sample libraries, 40 simultaneous effects processors and 400 notes of polyphony in my Montage M, and my 40lb Hammond clone wheel.

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On 8/17/2024 at 9:07 PM, Sundown said:

The brochure for the Kurzweil K2500 had a similar effect (“my God, they’ve done everything”),

Not sure if I saw that, but the first time I heard about the K2000 was from the review in Electronic Musician, with tables of specs, comparing with other synths IIRC. It was insane.

Kurzweil K2500XS + KDFX, Roland: JX-3P, JX-8P, Korg: Polysix, DW-8000, Alesis Micron, DIY Analogue Modular

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Back in those days, I traded a Kawai K3 and Korg Poly 800mkII towards a brand new Roland D-50.😁

 

Magazine articles, full color ads and brochures informed and motivated our gear purchases.  Fun times.😎

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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I remember considering -- and rejecting!  -- the D-50 a year or two after it came out.  My reasoning was "I can splice a sample attack onto a looped sawtooth just like Roland, and still get full sample-based tricks from an Ensoniq EPS. "  I guess I never knew what I was missing -- I was quite happy with the rig I had...

-Tom Williams

{First Name} {at} AirNetworking {dot} com

PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

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The D-50 combined with a DX or TX was great. Layered they were killer. 
 

Two Identical DXs on the same midi receive channel with one detuned about 4 cents was great. A single DX alone … sort of meh. 
 

PS - You all realize, I don’t know anything. I just post my bullshit opinions. 

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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