OSCar....held together by pieces of black rubber...really !
Every time I plugged a midi lead into it, it would crash.( just by plugging the lead in)
Was recording at EMI australia...and that synth cost heaps of studio time.
I've had over a hundreds synths...but that was the worst.
Sound was a cross between cz101 and some akaI analog !
Also the K stations parameter edits, the CPU can't keep up .
( nice sound though)
if someone agress with you then it's an honest opinion.
yes this is what "honest opinion" means: "I am right and you agree with me, so you are a good guy"
No, now, seriously:
everything which is written here in form of qualitative judgement is open to refutation. This is why we sign our posts.
If anybody said "the minimoog is junk" and signed it "Benedict XVI", or claimed that that was revealed on the Mount Sinai, THAT would be somehow a problem.
Everything we say here is qualified and limited by our own reputation.
I think the OSCar is REALLY bad and overhyped, and I consider "honest" anybody who is brash enough to defy one of the silliest hypes I ever heard of.
Is this a personal opinion? Of course it is! This is a forum! (as is "meeting point for discussion", as opposed to "God's check-in desk at the Gates of Heaven").
We are "sluts", not priests.
I signed my opinion, and it was not disguised as some mystical truth.
Did I say that anybody who pays 2000 for an OSCar is "dishonest"? Of course not!
Ah yes, a GEM synth can't remember what model, that lasted for about 30 mins and was sold on eBay the same day. I remember thinking, poor sod whoever bought it. It sounded so bad you could use it in public toilets to make people leave quickly.
Waldorf Pulse - for the life of me I could never tame this or get a civilized sound out of it. Filter is way too brash for my tastes, had to be huge or nothing. Oscs always seem to phase horribly too. I dislike the matrix interface, and the fact params always instant jump to where the knob is.
I recently got the original bassstation rack and it is so much easier to get a usable sound...
yamaha DX-200 - I really dislike the interface on this also, it's too simplistic be be really useful. the noise osc does not even route through an ADSR envelope, it's a simple gate, what use is that? gah!
SY99 and EMU Sampler - but already sold since many years
Really? Yamaha's legendary and great SY-99 synth, which, apart from the FS1R synth module, was the best digital synth, Yamaha has ever produced to this day?
I still have one and it has much more to offer, than the bad factory presets would make you believe, which unfortunately cannot be deleted...
"Epater les bourgeois" seems more important than frankly assessing a misadventure.
EMU samplers, "worst synth one ever played"? Really? Which EMU sampler? A E64XT Ultra at the time of its release? Filters, effects, separate outputs and all? Was it bad, not to mention "worst"?
What? The Emulator II? At the time of its release? Was it not only "bad", but "the worst"?
Sy99? Really? As compared to which digital synth of the same era?
the Moog Voyager?!? "Worst synth I played"?
Korg M1 ?!? as in "Played by every single best keyboard player, from Joe Zawinul to Rick Wakeman and everybody in between"?!?
Come on... this thread was supposed to be about duds, lemons, half-backed experiments, wannabes...
... and ended listing some of the best synths ever produced.
Of course you can always compare a mid-90s digital synth with the most recent workstations, and state that the M1 has less samples than a Kronos,
I mostly agree with ozy, although i really don't like the M1. From the trilogy of 80's stars that were the DX7, D50 & M1, the M1 seems to have aged the worst, possibly because it used samples, and ROM samples seem to date worse than any other synthesis type, they sound pretty cringe to my aural pallette at least.
Though it could just be me, I've really explored and pushed both FM & LA synthesis to their extremes and come up with some really edgy, modern sounding stuff. I've yet to f**k up an M1, maybe i'll delve into the legacy version and see what i can do, it's got LFO's and multi effects so it'll have some potential at least.
And the SY99 is phenominal, whatever way you slice the pie
Monophonic + slow envelopes = useless. I have to agree with ozy in that the OSCar was a dud.
The M1, Proteus, and Roland U-series are the lowest class of "synthesizer" - the pure ROMpler, the "box of [bread and butter] sounds". Adding a good resonant filter makes all the difference - see the JD-800.
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I'm the vaccine for the Access Virus.
AX-60. i wanted to like it so bad, but just couldn't get a tone out of it that i liked. i wonder if things would be the same today as i am a much better programmer than i was when i owned that one.
Location: Somewhere between France and Absurdistan
Posts: 1,466
From memory , Ensoniq Fizmo. Everything about it ( from build to looks to sound ) makes you go "WTF ???"
__________________ "Most people are fools, most authority is malignant, God does not exist, and everything is wrong." Ted Nelson " Imagination is a quality given a man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humour was provided to console him for what he is." Oscar Wilde "99% of musicians are not business people, which is why everyone makes money off of them - except them." Sqye
Can I pick a groovebox, namely the MC-303? The filter was uninspiring to say the least. The samples were crude and aside for sequencing some drum samples or external synths, it was the beginning of the end for Roland, imho.
Along with the OSCar you guys are killing my synth collection. At least I have a JD-990 which seems most seem to people like.
I think this thread has gone the "hey look, I hate cool synths, I'm so awesome!!!" way; I mean people are throwing names like Minimoog, Sh-101, Nord Lead, etc. I mean if these are the worst synths some over here have played they must be accustomed to playing god's Pipe organ or something.
The worst synth I ever owned and played was the E-mu Xtreme Lead-1.
Although that it used all the quasi-cool filters and effects of the high end Emu samplers - everything about that synth was just so damn dull. Making sounds with it just made me want to do the dishes - or clean the windows. Horrible rompler.
The CASIO VL-1 was in fact my first synth as a kid (before I got my first "real" synth, the Juno-6), which I played through an old Dynacord Amp in my first school band. This was great and very loud fun! But it was factually of course the worst synth I've ever played:
The CASIO VL-1 meanwhile attained some kind of cult status and it was used e.g. by the German band "Trio" in their extremely successful 1982 summer hit "Da da da", even live on stage, like in this version:
Da, da, da! Was thinking of that song this week, as it 'appens!
As time goes on, I'm starting to think my BassStation Rack is the worst synth I've ever played.
It's 2 oscillators really pale in comparison to even the Dark Energy's single VCO.
It's not necessarily a bad synth- it's certainly got it's place in the history of the affordable, mainstream analogue synth revival in the 90's (alongside a plethora of 303 imitators) and I'm going to keep it and use it on stuff , but it sounds quite scratchy in comparison to the DE. Though scratchy can be good....
I hate to piss on the chips of the thread starter but...
"Best synths i've ever played" threads often take on a constructive direction of people asking about synths they're unfamiliar with, and spreading knowlege of those they know about.
-"worst synths I've played" threads often tend to end in tears of some sort.
From memory , Ensoniq Fizmo. Everything about it ( from build to looks to sound ) makes you go "WTF ???"
Don't forget the name. "Fizz Mo'" does not hint at an instrument that sounds good.
Quote:
Originally Posted by laikenf
I think this thread has gone the "hey look, I hate cool synths, I'm so awesome!!!" way; I mean people are throwing names like Minimoog, Sh-101, Nord Lead, etc. I mean if these are the worst synths some over here have played they must be accustomed to playing god's Pipe organ or something.
Or, it just doesn't fit them. I've had times where I've fallen hard out of love with my MKS-80 (usually precipitated by GAS or actual gear acquisition), and I'm sure I would never get along with something like a Fizmo.
Really? Yamaha's legendary and great SY-99 synth, which, apart from the FS1R synth module, was the best digital synth, Yamaha has ever produced to this day?
I still have one and it has much more to offer, than the bad factory presets would make you believe, which unfortunately cannot be deleted...
I'll agree with you on the SY MusicFan. Definitely the SY77/99 are the best digital synths Yamaha ever made all things considered.
Monophonic + slow envelopes = useless. I have to agree with ozy in that the OSCar was a dud.
The M1, Proteus, and Roland U-series are the lowest class of "synthesizer" - the pure ROMpler, the "box of [bread and butter] sounds". Adding a good resonant filter makes all the difference - see the JD-800.
Yes! exactly. The M1 in 2012 is horrible. I'm no fan of romplers in general (and the JD-800 isn't one in the strict sense due to how you can mangle the sound and how easy you can do it and the great filter - just an all round beautiful synthesizer) but the M1 takes the cake for lifeless and dull. Put a D-50 next to an M1 (D-50 in pure synth mode especially) and the difference in sound and texture is night and day (same with the JD-800/990 next to an M1). The only thing the M1 was good for was in it's day a load of pre-canned ready to play samples of 'decent' instruments (for 1988). M1 IS the worst synth I've played for one reason - sound.
Don't forget the name. "Fizz Mo'" does not hint at an instrument that sounds good.
Or, it just doesn't fit them. I've had times where I've fallen hard out of love with my MKS-80 (usually precipitated by GAS or actual gear acquisition), and I'm sure I would never get along with something like a Fizmo.
M1 IS the worst synth I've played for one reason - sound.
I don't believe I've ever played an M1 (), but if it sounds anything like the M1 Legacy Edition plug-in, which I've frequently used in my tracks, then it can't be that bad.
I don't believe I've ever played an M1 (), but if it sounds anything like the M1 Legacy Edition plug-in, which I've frequently used in my tracks, then it can't be that bad.
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), but if it sounds anything like the M1 Legacy Edition plug-in, which I've frequently used in my tracks, then it can't be that bad.
