The Synth Thread...

[eggwheat]

What about the Mono Poly from Korg? Did you also have one of those?

Best,
Elm.

No sorry Elm, no experience of that one. I've owned two Korgs, the MS-20 and the Poly 61.

[Elm]

Nevermind, thanks anyway.

[dantheman521]

Given to me by my music teacher.He said its on perment loan

[El Pr0n]

Hmm, I think this is the right place to ask...

Audio interfaces for people who use laptops on stage?

I play in a band and we do a lot of Ableton and Reason and a bit of Pure Data stuff when we're making demos and throwing ideas around, and we want to start using all that stuff live. Synthesisers, samplers, live signal processing, that sort of thing. My interface (half-broken Alesis iO14) is terrible, and my changing living conditions might mean I'll have a decent amount to spend on a new interface.

I don't know about the kind of conventions for using this sort of gear on a stage. TRS outputs? XLRs? Is laptop and interface all I need?

As for i/o options, I want maybe two inputs (guitar in from an effect loop box and a mic), and a few outputs... FOH, headphone mix for drummer, output back into guitar signal chain, maybe other headphones?

I'm looking at the MOTU ultralite most of all. MOTU seem to make pretty good stuff (Good enough for Christopher Willits!) and it seems to meet my requirements. I'd love to afford an Apogee or Metric Halo, which seem to be the best ones I can find, but not quite right now. My thinking is, buy a good one now 'cause I'll only have to buy a good one later again. Am I kidding myself by thinking that the MOTU is a pretty good piece of kit?

So I'm kinda cluless about the standards and conventions around this stuff. Am I thinking the right way?

[Bocheru75]

...
As for i/o options, I want maybe two inputs (guitar in from an effect loop box and a mic), and a few outputs... FOH, headphone mix for drummer, output back into guitar signal chain, maybe other headphones?
...

Headphones are very useful for drummers so they can hear the clicks and the beats of the music. They are also useful for other members after the music has been recorded so they can hear the better timing on how they will play with. I think most bands do their best so they can produce better sounds of music.



by: stereo headphones

[chase]

Are you on a Mac or a PC?

If you're on a Mac I'd say the Ultralite is the way to go, MotU writes their own drivers for the Mac and they're considered to be the most solid. On the PC, not so much, from what I gather.

The Ultralite is pretty tough to beat, in its price range. I have the 828mk3 (its big brother) myself and am pretty happy with it - mainly I wish it would let me mix with a MIDI controller.

[fibreman]

And as far as conventions go, i've found that TRS is good, XLR is better, two channels XLR out with your own DI box(es) is generally best. Just be prepared for sound engineers trying to lick your face.

[El Pr0n]

Thanks for the replies guys!

I'd heard about MOTU being very solid, but I heard they're not very transparent interfaces either, the director of the guitar orchestra I play in advised me against them. I was almost set until I'd heard that, and my composition professor advised me to look at PreSonus. Right now the PreSonus Firestudio Project seems like a winner... More XLR ins, apparently quite good AD/DA (a few I've heard say the best in the price range), cheaper than the MOTU, although no ADAT expandability. I figured if I ever needed more than 8 XLR channels, I'd need better AD/DA anyway, so I didn't think expandability would be much worth keeping in mind.

http://www.thomann.de/ie/presonus_fires ... roject.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anyone got anything to say on this?

Thanks again dudes

[fibreman]

That was one of my less well constructed sentences!

What I like to do, certainly in a band rig, is use my own DI boxes (thus negating the need to use house DI's), and feed these back into my own monitoring (4 channel keyboard amp). Mostly because I use multiple outs so being able to balance these myself is a massive boon.

It's nice to have everything patched so the option is there (more like 90-95% in mono in UK IMO as some smaller venues are shifting to active cabinets), it always sounds a cut above when it comes off and means I don't need two sets of patches, for studio/live. Makes a big difference when you come down to things like samplers. Although it sometimes takes some explaining to sound guys in venues rigged in mono why they need left and right outs!

[TheCurvedEarth]

Geddy Lee makes me want to get a synth

[gremlin03]

Anyone used a Korg MS2000 before or have an opinion on them?

[electric12]

Yeah- I've got one and it's great!

[Manmower]

I've got a Moog Rogue with the Taurus II pedals. They are both under restoration, but I'll post pics when they're back in action.

[soundhack]

anyone on MFB synths? the Kraftzwerg looks pretty cool. all analog, patchable, MIDI recieve, and under $1k.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gcgz_IXK ... r_embedded" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



i'm torn between this and the doepfer dark energy, which looks like a little better construction (and i already know doepfer is good quality)

[El Pr0n]

The Doepfer only has one oscillator? That'd make me pick the MFB straight away... I don't know much about them, but it's not like they're a really dodgy cheapo company.