The January GAS is on the rise....

[zeronyne]

...but not for new stuff.

 

Well, let me rethink that...I just bought 5 Gs worth of spankin' new bass guitars, but in synth land? Well...

 

Like a lot of you, I always have a casual eye over at eBay. And just a few months ago I started sort of subconsciously buying gear from my youth that was just a tiny bit out of reach financially. TG77, RM50, Procussion, Wavestation EX, Microwave II, etc, etc. I realized that I was putting together my dream rig from the late 80s/early 90s. They even reside in a different setup altogether from my "work" rig...although I am slowly incorporating a few things.

 

But now I've decided to go whole hog...

 

I'm not a vintage kind of guy, and thank goodness I'm not. There's no way I could afford a Prophet 10, Matrix 12, DX-1, CS-80, etc.

 

But I think I'm going to get a CMI Series 3. Or maybe a Synclavier 9600. They're going cheap. I worked on Gloria Estefan's 9600 before she took delivery of it...it cost close to $180,000...she got a barebones one. It's wacky to me that I could buy one now for less than a Hammond XK-3, even though I know it has less functionality than a Trinity.

 

Am I nuts? Even as I write this, the GAS is passing...but if Tom gets the RMI...

[eric]

You know what? I'm with you on this lusting after items from yesteryear. I categorically sold off almost all the gear I owned, save for my JX8P. Lately (mainly out of partial boredom over the holidays), I have had this constant GAS eating at me and I did go on many a latenight walk down memory lane, courtesy of eBay.

 

I have not purchased anything yet, but looking at stuff I used to own, like the Juno 106, Juno 60, M1R, JV880, DX100, DX7IIFD, D50 (I had a D-550 for a brief period a few months ago)...also things that were released when I was not actively buying gear in the early-mid 90's, like the O1W and Wavestations. I always look at old Prophets, Oberheims, Jupiters, Moogs, etc. One night I stumbled upon a pretty Minimoog that had Buy It Now for like $1200 and I came THIS CLOSE to just grabbing it.

 

But I really have no business spending tons of cash on gear right now and besides, my GAS for 80's/90's gear is also balanced quite evenly with gas for NEW gear, like whatever comes out at NAMM! The hot item on my list is the Motif ES Rack and I also hope Yamaha surprises us with the 76-key weighted version of the S90 with Motif ES soundset and polyphony. S76ES. I would be on that in a heartbeat.

 

I have been spending a lot of time playing music as well. That seems to counteract the GAS to some degree.

 

Regards,

Eric

[Faruk]

Well, I would like to obtain one nice Waldorf synth (Q, Q with analogue filters, Q rack or Micro Q). I know they are not old too much old boards, but recently looking pictures on the web and here of Clusterchord's setup I've started to droole without ever hearing them in action. So if anybody can direct me to their demos I would really apriciate it.

 

Hey, I've totaly forgot to do some search of previous posts on Waldorf Q series here on this forum .

 

Faruk

[Dan South]

There's a real problem with value in the microprocessor-based "digital" world. Technology changes quickly, so almost anything that you can buy short of a high end SSL console is effectively disposable. Why spend big bucks on something that's going to be an antiquated relic in three or four years?

 

If you buy a Steinway or a Stratocaster or a well-built analog synth or a high quality microphone, you can bet that it will retain some of its value over time. But digital gear will be rendered obsolete by new gear in a few years. I'm finding it harder and harder to get GASsed up about gear that's not likely to hold its value.

 

That said, some digital stuff retains usable "value," even if it doesn't retain resale value. A K2000 built twelve years ago is still a powerful, good sounding instrument (provided that it still works). Can you buy a "better" synth today? Maybe, but maybe not. You can buy a "different" synth today that has a lot of improvements, but I'll bet that the old Kurz can do things that the new dream synth cannot. But chances are that the cutting edge digi toys that we'll learn about at NAMM will have been sold of will be lurking in your trash bin well before 2010.

[Pursuitboy]

There never seems to be enough old good working Jupiter 8's available to cure everybodys lust.

 

Gary

[DafDuc]

Mmm, budget gear lust. there's a crack whore joke in here somewhere...

 

I've had some fun in the past year buying gear, used mostly, that's not on anyone's short list:

 

blackface Arp Odyssey

Yam VL70-m (new)

QSR

DX-11

Digitech Studio 5000

A-33

RNC compressor

BC-3 (new, of course)

plus a Q-Card or two, and a few Patchman patchbanks.

 

Total cost: about $2350 US. Not a single item over $500.

 

Don't know if I'll do the same this coming year - may invest in fixing up the Rhodes, Clav, SE-4, and KX-88 that are in disuse partly because of their condition. Or upgrading my computer setup - Encore and Cubase 5 are getting a bit long in the tooth, and I bought GPO and Arturia's Moog Modular last year, which are too much for my cpu.

 

Nice thing about used gear is it mostly holds its resale - so my exercise in fiscal frivolity is really building the (admittedly illiquid) nest egg, should my day gig get exported to Bangalore...

 

Daf

[Mark Zeger]

The only vintage analog piece I'd love to have is an Oberheim SEM 4 voice, or dare I say it, an 8 voice. I've seen 4 voice Oberheims on eBay in the $2500-3000 range. It's worth it considering the old-school analog horsepower under the hood, but that's a little rich for me.

[resigned]

These are pretty decent posts compared to most GAS threads. I am pretty happy with my Motif ES 8 and I've maxed it out with all the PLG's and sample RAM I want, plus NAMM is close so I'm waiting to see what comes from that... but now is the best time of year to buy a new computer so I've just bought a new 3 Ghz computer and I may add a sweet new double-screen display from DoubleSight Displays. The bonus is that my wife will inherit my former 1.8Ghz studio computer to use as a photo editing workstation, so she's got a touch of GAS for an Epson RX500 so she can scan her slide collection and print family pics. Two birds with one stone!

 

The Motif ES has such a solid user base that I think it will continue to be the workstation of choice for years to come with Yamaha coming out with more upgrades and accessories for it. It's a "new classic" and won't be discarded anytime soon. The only GAS question is what to get to go with it, and a VA of some sort seems to be the answer. I've had many classic synths over the years and I don't share everyone elses lust for that stuff - I got my eye on the Access Virus TI as a potential acquisition but of course not until after I see what NAMM brings.

 

In reality what I need and may have to spring for is some sort of electronic music display for my live gigs. I've been looking at Freehand\'s Music Pad Pro and the comparable eStand . Again, NAMM will tell.

[RABid]

Every time I think about buying an old analog I reflect back to the days when I spent every Sunday tuning my rig after a week on the road. Those memories work better than a cold shower. Some day I will replace the Rhodes Chroma I lost in a fire.

 

I have considered going back and filling a gap in my hardware history. I missed out on the entire M1/D50 era. A few times I bid on a Roland D550 and I would like to have a Korg M1 if only for a few weeks. One thing I try to do is avoid synths with keys and get rack units instead. That helps a lot with maintenance issues.

 

Robert

[MikeT156]

Hey Pro, I agree that the Motif ES should be a mainstay for a few years to come. A lot of players complained that Yamaha deep six'ed them when they introduced a new model when the Motif was only out 2 years. But from what I read, Yamaha kept getting requests for new features that the Motif couldn't do with the engine it had, so they had to bring out a new one. That's always tough to handle after you shelled out a bunch of money.

 

You're fortunate that your still have a wife after all the gear you bought. What's you're secret? Or is she a gear head too? If so, does she have any sisters?

 

Rapid: I don't miss those days either. The Analog stuff was great, but you had to baby sit it a lot more than today's gear.

 

I'd like to get a USB-midi interface, a smart card reader and a 128MB smart media card for my Motif ES8 in the short term, and sample memory later, when I actually get some money again.

 

Long term gear lust: an Andromeda, and a DSI KB Evolver, not necessarily in that order. Its going to take getting a job before I can buy anything.

 

Mike T.

[coyote]

I had a wave of GAS in 2004. Not keys; I seem to be pretty set with them. But I play other instruments, and I like to be able to provide a great studio/live setup for the musicians I work with. Consequently, I purchased:

a double-bass drumset (in 2003-04)

a Musser xylophone/bell set

a 32-ch Yamaha mixer

a cheap plastic-body acoustic gtr for 'experimentation'

a Warwick Corvette Standard fretless bass

a Hartke 200w bass head

a Tune 5-string bass

and yesterday, a 1000w power amp for the PA.

 

All of it gets used regularly and I spent very little in real terms as I'm a good value-hunter. In addition I leveraged gift certificates and 0% financing, so I managed all that while making only a small dent in the household budget. I see people lay out more for a single keyboard or guitar than I spent on that whole list....

 

I think my GAS is over for awhile. I haven't even looked at Ebay in weeks

[marino]

The only thing I'm hoping for is that famous 76-key fully weighted controller which I've been asking around for the past 5 years.

 

Originally posted by zeronyne:

I'm not a vintage kind of guy, and thank goodness I'm not. There's no way I could afford a Prophet 10, Matrix 12, DX-1, CS-80, etc.

 

But I think I'm going to get a CMI Series 3. Or maybe a Synclavier 9600. They're going cheap. I worked on Gloria Estefan's 9600 before she took delivery of it...it cost close to $180,000...she got a barebones one. It's wacky to me that I could buy one now for less than a Hammond XK-3, even though I know it has less functionality than a Trinity.

 

Am I nuts? Even as I write this, the GAS is passing...but if Tom gets the RMI...

Yes, you're nuts. OR you must have a very large house. I understand the visual and status-symbol appeal of a Synclavier, but today, it would be good for absolutely nothing. Yes, it does sample at 100khz, but it has a nightmarish OS an it breaks easily. It FM is primitive if compared with, say, NI's FM7.

 

The same holds true for a CMI, and it doesn't even have a FM section.

 

A DX-1? While I agree that it's probably the most beautiful keyboard ever designed (I've played a couple), a DXII with an editor, or FM7, bring you more features at a fraction of the cost and of the trouble.

 

On the other hand, a Matrix-12, between $2000 and $3000 on those rare occasions you find one on ebay, is one of the finest instruments of all time, and it retains an high value because it has an unique voice. It rarely gives trouble, it has complete MIDI built-in, an elegant programming interface, and a voice channel which is a programmer's heaven.

 

A prophet-10... very good, but much more fragile.

 

So if you have the money to make a major vintage purchase, I would advice... um, guess what...

[Synthguy]

Oh no, if you want to be bold and daring, hold out for a PPG Wave 2.3 and a Waveterm B!

 

Which I'm hoping actually comes back to life in a year or two in a new synth, thanks to Korg's Cold Fusion Reactor that's about to appear and force everyone to up the ante. It did some nifty stuff.

[Dan South]

Originally posted by Mark Zeger:

The only vintage analog piece I'd love to have is an Oberheim SEM 4 voice, or dare I say it, an 8 voice. I've seen 4 voice Oberheims on eBay in the $2500-3000 range. It's worth it considering the old-school analog horsepower under the hood, but that's a little rich for me.

Hey Mark,

 

There's a company that makes new SEMs. This was discussed in a thread on modular synths, IIRC. You might want to check them out.

[Marzzz]

I lusted after a Yamaha CS-80 for decades, ever since I saw one in college (and heard Eddie Jobson, Vangelis, etc.). Finally, about 2-3 years ago, I found a decent one on eB*y and fulfilled my dream......which quickly turned into a nightmare! Tuning it was an absolute bitch (took me over 4 hrs- very frustrating), it was noisy as hell, and I needed three people to get it into my studio. I loved how it sounded, but realised that it needed to belong to someone with an EE degree who was also handy with a soldering iron. I sold it off to someone who could better take care of it, and have since gone for modern analogs: Andromeda, Voyager, and now the DSI PolyEvolver......ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! I love the old gear, but for me it isn't worth the maintenance/repair issues. I now make do with the CS-80V......

[resigned]

Originally posted by MikeT156:

Hey Pro, You're fortunate that your still have a wife after all the gear you bought. What's you're secret? Or is she a gear head too? If so, does she have any sisters?

 

Mike T.

Actually this is an interesting topic on it's own: keeping the wife happy while indulging in GAS. In my post above you'll note that when I bought a new studio computer I immediately "handed-down" my former computer (not a slacker either) and set it up for her to do photo work with... and her workstation was setup BEFORE I finished putting my studio computer together in a gesture of goodwill. Since I'm a full-time muso then I can buy whatever I need, and "need" is the operative word, as long as I can afford it, make it pay for itself, and deduct the cost from my taxes. Fortunately I was a full-time muso when my wife met and married me so, as she's fond of saying, she knew what she was getting into. I have said in the past that if I was a lumberjack then I'd own thousands of dollars worth of chainsaws so don't hold it against me because the tools of my trade are sexy-looking. My first wife didn't get that at all, hence I'm on Wife #2... and sorry, she has no sisters... but she does have two daughters of legal age...

[burningbusch]

The only vintage stuff that interests me is the electromechanicals. Some of it is the organic nature of the sound, but the playability and responsiveness is equally important. So I've got my trifecta now--Hammond, Rhodes and Clav and I'm really satisified. I'd take a Whurly but I'm running out of space.

 

The vintage synths don't grab my interest. I've had some but they've proved to be tempermental beasts. For the most part the keyboards are simply triggers so you don't connect in the same way as an electromechanical. I've got some quality new analogs that are more than sufficient for my needs.

 

Busch.

[burningbusch]

Originally posted by eric:

The hot item on my list is the Motif ES Rack and I also hope Yamaha surprises us with the 76-key weighted version of the S90 with Motif ES soundset and polyphony. S76ES. I would be on that in a heartbeat.

 

Regards,

Eric

My gut tells me the S76ES is a real possibility. I have nothing to base it other than Mike Martin's soliciting of users' opinions on the matter. It would be THRILLING to see this happen--one of the big three actually asking for user input and building a product based on it.

 

Busch.

[eric]

Originally posted by burningbusch

My gut tells me the S76ES is a real possibility. I have nothing to base it other than Mike Martin's soliciting of users' opinions on the matter. It would be THRILLING to see this happen--one of the big three actually asking for user input and building a product based on it.

My thoughts exactly. The desire for a 76-note piano-style keyboard has been out there for some time and Mike did seem to take a very active interest in confirming this need. I would be curious to know if the desire for a weighted 76 may outweigh the demand for unweighted 76? It is a bit of a conundrum for the flagship lines...would Yamaha be well served to add a FOURTH Motif ES to the series, so they would have the ES6 and ES7 (synth action) ES7W (same as ES7 with weighted keys) and of course the ES8? Or would it be better to eliminate the regular ES7 and replace it with the ES7W? There is probably not enough of a paradigm to support this much product, so my gut tells me it would be a one-off, performance-based instrument that would get updated every few years. I think that would be great. Just like the S80/S90 evolution. They just need to add an S76 to the mix.

 

What will confound the issue more for me is if they do happen to release an S76ES along with an S90ES! I have grown to love my S90 and would love it even more if it had the ES poly, sound engine and extra controllers. It would be a real killer to have some extra knobs and sliders. But I'll take the S76ES along with whatever design decisions were necessary to bring it to market!

 

Regards,

Eric

[ITGITC]

Originally posted by zeronyne:

Am I nuts? Even as I write this, the GAS is passing...but if Tom gets the RMI...

Sam - I'm not getting the RMI. It was just a trip down memory lane. I was 15... it was my first ummm, keyboard. What the other guys wrote about the action is true. Although it was fun to own at the time, the limitations of the action and the sound made it easy to dream about... something else.

 

However, I wish you luck with your collection of vintage synths. And I wish that I had the room in my house to keep some of these instruments. But instead of the RMI, I'm thinking that spot could be a lot neater with a B3 and Leslie 147 instead.

 

Thanks for the thought. Give me a shout if you get back my way!

 

Tom