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Synth comes home!


Dave Bryce

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So, after waiting patiently for the right unit at the right price, I just won an MKS70 that looks to be just about mint on eBay.

 

I had a JX8P in the 80's, and I played in a band that had a Super JX. I've always loved the sound of this engine, and I'm psyched to (re)add it to the arsenal. :thu:

 

How many of you have re-bought a synth you got rid of years ago (or it's equivalent engine) to your rig?

 

dB

:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

Professional Affiliations: Royer LabsMusic Player Network

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congrats :thu:

 

it's a true classic. i used to be nuts about that sound. learned analog programming on it. at one crazy point i had JX10 and two MKS70s. nowadays i have one MKS70 and its never leaving my rack. altough i don't use it as much as i did then..

How many of you have re-bought a synth you got rid of years ago (or it's equivalent engine) to your rig?
i ditched DX7 in late 80s, i finally bought it again in form of TX802 in '00.

 

 

Marzz, have you ever tried re-placing capacitors in the machine? that really did wonders for noise floor and clean sound in my MKS80. if not all caps at least those in the pwr supply.

http://www.babic.com - music for film/theatre, audio-post
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Bought an Obie Matrix 1000 brand new when they first came out, traded it for an analog board, got rid of the board, bought another Matrix1000. Still have it.

 

Also bought a new DX7 when they were switching over to the DX7II, sold that when we moved once, and bought a TX7 to replace it. Now I have FM7, so I may be getting rid of the TX since the softie is more powerful.

 

Jay

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Well, anyone that's paid close attention to my posts over the years knows that I was hunting for a Roland MKS-70 to replace my JX-8P.

 

Last year, I finally got my wish. I still haven't parted with the JX-8P yet. I will be selling it very soon though, I swear!

 

I also cut my teeth programming on the JX and over the past 20 years or so created no small arsenal of "can't live without" sounds. I've since transferred these to my MKS-70.

 

The only thing is, is that I need to upgrade one of the chips in it so that I can program from a PC. As of now, I can only dump.

 

The upgrade is free with a $35 labor cost, but it takes two weeks to get it done. I haven't been able to bring myself to part with my prize for a fortnight.

 

Carl

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Yeah, Dave, wifee made me sell my Axxe for $65 back in '88 or so. So I bought an Odyssey last year.

 

BTW, that was the last involuntary sale - every time she tries to get me to sell something now, I remind her about the Axxe...

 

Daf

I played in an 8 piece horn band. We would often get bored. So...three words:

"Tower of Polka." - Calumet

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Congrats, dB! The JX8P was my first synth that I bought in 1985 and I still have it! I'll never part with it. There are some great sounds in that machine and that's how I learned how to program synths, pecking in one parameter at a time. I'm not sure if I still have them or not, but I had a ton of patch sheets that I made with my favorite sounds documented - talk about a lot of work to write down each parameter.

 

I had an MKS70 and PG800 for a brief period in the late 80's. My electronic music professor in college sold me the pair for $275 and I promptly resold them at 3x that price. I wish I'd just kept the PG800, as that is one thing I am still lacking for my JX8P.

 

The sounds you can get from layering 2 JXs are very powerful. I used to love the percussive marimba and kalimba sounds layered with the fat pads. The only thing I wish the JX had is PWM. I do enjoy the Unison mode and there is an Octave Unison mode that stacks the sound one octave lower along with the fundamental. Incredibly huge on lead sounds with Unison detune cranked up a bit (I think +9 was my magic number).

 

My favorite JX presets include:

 

- Soundtrack (probably one of my all-time favorite synth presets)

- Touch Sync (can you say Burning Down the House?)

- High Strings

- Res Lead and Sync Lead

- Stab Brass and Poly Brass

- Syn Dulcimer

- Wave Aura

- Music Box (good for intro to U2's live version of "Bad" and also killer with Octave Unison)

 

Enjoy your new toy! It's a keeper for sure.

 

Regards,

Eric

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I keep buying, selling, and buying Juno 106's. I supposed the next one I buy I will keep. Too bad, too, the last one I sold was in near mint condition; I doubt I'll find one as nice as it was again.
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I sold a SonicSix, and a week later someone offered me one for thiry bucks less than I had sold mine for, so I bought it.

 

That was nearly six days without a favorite piece of gear. It was horrible. Never again.

 

God Bless Public Storage!

 

Frost -

"Doing things is how things get done"
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I forgot the original question in my first post!

 

I have bought and sold Juno 106 two times, JV1010 three times, Voce V5 three times, Voce MIDI Drawbars two times, did the DX7IIFD and later TX802 update. I've also owned 3 different Leslies and will keep my current 122 forever. The one synth I wish I never sold was my Jupiter 8.

 

Regards,

Eric

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The MKS-70 and MKS-80 systems have got to be the greatest things that ever happened to rackmounting....! They are built like tanks, sound great (except for the noise floor!) and are the only vintage pieces I would ever consider getting at this point, though after three go-rounds with the MKS-70, I will probably give it a rest! Too bad Roland never managed to rackmount the Jupiter 8 (the MKS-80 sounds more like the Jupiter 6).
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Originally posted by clusterchord:

 

Marzzz, have you ever tried re-placing capacitors in the machine? that really did wonders for noise floor and clean sound in my MKS80. if not all caps at least those in the pwr supply. [/QB]

I never tried that- but that makes a lot of sense. I am not good with a soldering iron, but if I ever wanted an MKS-70 again, I would probably have someone replace just about everything worth replacing. The noise floor of that synth used to drive me nuts....especially when I was living in apts and playing/mixing thru headphones.
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Items I have sold and bought again:

Juno-106

DX-7

JX-8P

Akai AX-73

Ensoniq ESQ-1

Casio CZ-5000 (only because I got it for $40.00)

Akai AX-80

Korg Poly-800

 

One keyboard I wish I had never sold:

Memorymoog

 

Erik

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My first was a Juno 60, which was great but I'm glad I sold it because the current owner still uses it frequently, and I wouldn't.

 

My third was a Super JX-10, which really did have killer sounds. I hated the feel of the keyboard though, being totally unweighted but with a dynamic response. Well, the keyboard was good for certain expressive lead sounds.

 

I got a great Rhodes sound from the JX-10 along with an SCI Prophet 2002 12-bit sampler. The samples were from my own Rhodes, low velocity samples with nice round bottom and clear bell-like overtones. The JX tone was a cross-mod "barking" tone, set to be more responsive (in loudness) to velocity. So, playing light I'd get the samples, and digging in I'd get the bark from the JX. Side by side with my actual Rhodes, it actually sounded pretty close -- good enough, anyway. (Not good enough to store the Rhodes away, though.)

 

Also, I got a great P-bass sound from the JX, one that I haven't been able to recreate since. Well, it didn't really sound quite like a P-bass, but it perfectly fit the role, and did sound more like a bass guitar than a synth bass.

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Originally posted by Dave Bryce:

So, after waiting patiently for the right unit at the right price, I just won an MKS70 that looks to be just about mint on eBay.

 

How many of you have re-bought a synth you got rid of years ago (or it's equivalent engine) to your rig?

 

dB

Congrats Dave!

I sold my Fender Rhodes 12 years ago and kicked myself in the arse ever since. I ran into the fellow I sold it to and told him if he EVER was considering settling it, to PLEASE call me first.

Three years later he's married with a second child on the way, and needs to clean out some of his gear including the Rhodes.....

Right now it sits proudly in my studio!

 

Good luck with the new axe!

 

Poly

SONIC MUSIC

http://sonicmusic.net

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Originally posted by Dave Bryce:

... How many of you have re-bought a synth you got rid of years ago (or it's equivalent engine) to your rig?

 

dB

For years I have wanted another Rhodes Chroma. I did not sell or trade mine. It burned in a fire. Someday, ...

 

Robert

This post edited for speling.

My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page

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I've never re-bought the *exact* same model of synth, but I did get rid of a few keyboard synths and bought the rack, or another version.

 

K2000: Sold, bought K2000RS

 

Wavestation: Sold, bought A/D, then SR

 

XP-50: Sold, bought XP-80

 

Xpander: Sold, bought the Matrix-12

 

DX7: Often used, but never owned. Later, I bought the TG77 when it came out.

 

Chroma: Don't get me started. Sold in a moment of madness, I almost re-bought it a number of times. Now I'm hoping for that TimeWARP thing to come out for the PC soon...

 

Anyway, I used to love the JX-10. It was in a studio where I used to work a lot, so I've played it quite a bit. I still prefer the MKS-80, but the 70/JX-10 has defitely a personality of its own.

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No, wait - there is one keyboard which I re-bought! My first Wurlitzer electric piano got stolen after a gig, so I had to buy another one. I was like 17, and I gave up my vacations to re-buy it... :mad:

 

Needless to say, as soon as I had the money, I got a Rhodes, and sold the Wurly to a Supertramp fan... :)

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Alright Dave! About to box up my MKS70, not because I'm getting rid of it, but because I'm moving. Its a great piece, mine was given to me. It was a great price!

-Mike Martin

 

Casio

Mike Martin Photography Instagram Facebook

The Big Picture Photography Forum on Music Player Network

 

The opinions I post here are my own and do not represent the company I work for.

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Things I've rebought:

 

Hohner Clavinet II (sold while broke)

Wurlitzer electric piano (sold while broke)

Chroma Expander (replaced stolen unit)

Hammond B-3 (replaced several of these)

E-MU modular mono CV/gate keyboard (replaced when I got back into modulars)

Moe

---

 

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I have rebought twice a Korg T3 and FOUR TIMES a Roland D 50 (or D 550). :eek:
Korg PA3X Pro 76 and Kronos 61, Roland G-70, Integra 7 and BK7-m, Casio PX-5S, Fender Stratocaster with Fralin pickups, Fender Stratocaster with Kinman pickups, 1965 Gibson SG Standard
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I still have my PG-800 programmer and some MC64 cartridges in anticipation of finding a good quality MKS-70 myself.

 

I sold a Kurzweil K2VXS fuly loaded. I can't even remember why now, but couldn't live without that sound and couldn't afford a K2600S so I bought a fully loaded K2000RS. I'm hoping some day to sell it in order to get the 2600.

This keyboard solo has obviously been tampered with!
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Originally posted by eric:

The only thing I wish the JX had is PWM.

Ahh but it (kindof) has! Soft sync the two waveforms and choose a square wave for DCO2, drop DCO1 out the mix and pitch modulate DCO1 for pseudo-PWM sounds.

 

That's the great thing about the JX-8P, you can coax so many different analog synth sounds out of it. The main things that are missing are fast envelopes and self oscillating filter.

 

The main thing I don't like about the JX-8P is that the oscillators start to sound plasticky up high.

 

I suppose the JX-8P is almost a poor mans Oberheim OB-X.

 

I'd love to get a MKS-70 for both space and 2x the synth power reasons but I have a feeling the MKS would be less intuitive due to the way you have to address the two different synths. They kinda missed a trick by not being able to have it 12 voice polyphonic but I suppose that would have bumped the cost up.

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Roland A80 twice. Also brought it back to life twice, from lots of coffee spills. This thing is still one of the best feeling keys around.

 

OB Matrix 6R twice, the keyboard once. Yamaha TX81Z twice, its keyboard counterpart DX11 twice.

Raul
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