Synth/Sample Modules: Please Help me Choose!

[undermind]

I know basically nothing about Keyboards and synth. But I need some decent sounds in my studio. I plan to use a controller and 2 rackmount modules, 1 for acoustic piano and 1 for VA and trippy atmospheric sounds; hopefully.

For the piano sound, I would like to be able to alter the sound a little bit. An example that comes to mind, NIN's Closer. Was that a synth sound, or a piano sample altered by effects?

The other module would hopefully make some trippy sounds, in addition to some analog synth emulation. Something like the Micron comes to mind, but I would like to have rackmount.

I don't want to spend a lot, I have too much else to buy. So I know I won't get the best. But buying stuff a few years old, and with your help, I hope to get both for less than $500.

[Elie]

Hi! Well, I got myself an e-mu E5000 ultra and all I can say is "wow, man, this sounds huge!" It smokes all the softsamplers, in both sound and functionality. The main limitation is the 128 megs ram limit, but don't let that lead you away from it, it is an incredible machine. To really get into this beast's possibilities though, reading the manual a few times is appropriate, its potential is so vast...

Anyway, I just made a piece with it this and I'm all excited about it... If you want sound examples pm me.

Take care,

Elie

[Dopamine]

A controller and 2 rack modules for under $500? That's pretty limited, even on the used market.

My recommendation at that price point would be a Alesis micron or Roland Juno 106, and a used Korg X5DR or possibly Emu Proteus2000.

[undermind]

Originally Posted by Elie

Hi! Well, I got myself an e-mu E5000 ultra and all I can say is "wow, man, this sounds huge!" It smokes all the softsamplers, in both sound and functionality. The main limitation is the 128 megs ram limit, but don't let that lead you away from it, it is an incredible machine. To really get into this beast's possibilities though, reading the manual a few times is appropriate, its potential is so vast...

Anyway, I just made a piece with it this and I'm all excited about it... If you want sound examples pm me.

Take care,

Elie

Can you tell me how the e5000 does with piano, virtual analog, and trippy sounds? I can read the spec's all day on it, but for a keyboard dummy it means very little. If I were to choose this unit, I could take the time to get to know it, but I would need to know it does what I need first. I don't want to spend too much time manipulating sounds because my music will not be heavy on synth, and my time would be better spent pulling up well-done presets. Are the presets good on their own without manipulation?

[Disco D]

i would say a used proteus 2000 would give you the best bang for the buck in that price range. ive used it on tons of records. if you could spend decent money a motif or triton extreme would be a good investment.

[undermind]

Well, I read a little on the Proteus 2000 and the Korg X5DR. They both look pretty good. Which one sounds more "dated"? I read that the piano is not very good on the Korg; how's the piano on the Proteus?

On the better units like the Motif and Triton do they have a good enough piano to be an all-in-one solution for me?

Are there any basic piano-only type modules? It seems like someone would make a module that just does piano quite well and nothing else. The sound of a good piano doesn't really get better over time, so it seems like if they got some good samples say 8 years ago, they would hold up now. But I'm probably missing something...

[biggator6]

va= access virus... hands down

[Dopamine]

You can find used EMU Proformance piano module for $50 (Check out Moby's recordings as he uses this for his main piano.)

Whomever recommend the Virus--it's way out of his price range and he need keys, which is why I recommend the micron.

[undermind]

After doing some more reading, the Yamaha MU100 also looks pretty good. And the Kurzweil Micro Piano looks pretty good for piano sounds.

Can anyone comment on the MU100's piano sounds vs the Kurzweil Micro Piano?

[kbjazzman]

For $500..............Second to Kurzweil Micro Piano as well

[the_nihilist]

Originally Posted by Elie

Hi! Well, I got myself an e-mu E5000 ultra and all I can say is "wow, man, this sounds huge!" It smokes all the softsamplers, in both sound and functionality.

I'm gonna have to disagree with that. I think software is the way to go for sampling, ROMpling and all that related stuff.

And on the subject of softsamplers, has anyone tried shortcircuit? It's a truly awesome softsampler that's geared towards the heavy manipulation of individual samples, rather than all the ROMpler type functionality that Kontakt is leaning towards these days.

And, if you want a really quality set of all-purpose instruments for any situation, it's hard to go wrong with Colossus from East-West.

[Donny]

JV 1080 and you can expand as your demands for sound increases...very cheap now days.

[undermind]

Man, I'm all over the place.. I keep changing my mind. I'll be getting Reason pretty soon, and will probably just work with that and see how the sounds are there.

Are serious musician's working on serious projects using Reason or other software based synth's? My music is not "electronic" at all. I'll be using 95% real recorded audio. The sounds I get from a module or software will need to be pretty analog sounding or trippy without being cheesy-synth. So good VA will be pretty important. Some of the VA audio samples I heard on the Propellerhead site sounded better than the keyboards I've been playing with at Guitar Center..

[Elie]

Sorry I sort of forgot about this thread...

If you go the e-mu road, then brace yourself for some serious and probably quite tedious tweaking, which in turn brings the reward of putting a lot of life and depth where most (soft)samplers would merely play back the samples. The quality of the filters and the vast possibilities of modulations paths and interactions is nothing short of outstanding. No softsampler gets even close to the depth of what an e-mu can achieve, but as I said, don't expect everything to sound brilliant without some effort. On a purely sonic point of view, I don't know how they did it, but this beast sounds incredible, the sound is like bigger than life, with a grain and color that is quite unique. Hard to put in words but easy to hear!

Well, the big deal with a sampler is that it will play back any sample you'll put into it, unlike romplers and other modules (which have a definite architecture), so the possibilities are truly endless and you can hardly outgrow it. To make trippy sounds, well, it is the ideal tool, but again, it ain't no atmosphere(the plug-in), you'll have to choose your samples, filters, connect the modulators, assign paths, enter levels, draw your envelopes and tweak, tweak, tweak! Much, MUCH more fun than your out of the box dumb rompler with fixed samples and architecture. These are (for the most part) toys while an e-mu is a real high quality building and sculpting tool! Download the manual and go over it if you want...

A project I'll be trying to do is to sample a juno-106 keyboard, I'll sample basic waveforms and various presets and use these to build e-mu patches. Should be fun!

Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience, if you want to hear examples, pm me! All the best,

Elie

[octatonic]

Originally Posted by undermind

I know basically nothing about Keyboards and synth. But I need some decent sounds in my studio. I plan to use a controller and 2 rackmount modules, 1 for acoustic piano and 1 for VA and trippy atmospheric sounds; hopefully.
For the piano sound, I would like to be able to alter the sound a little bit. An example that comes to mind, NIN's Closer. Was that a synth sound, or a piano sample altered by effects?
The other module would hopefully make some trippy sounds, in addition to some analog synth emulation. Something like the Micron comes to mind, but I would like to have rackmount.
I don't want to spend a lot, I have too much else to buy. So I know I won't get the best. But buying stuff a few years old, and with your help, I hope to get both for less than $500.

There are a lot of options- all of them second hand.
2 modules for $500 does limit you- I'd suggest one workhorse and one virtual analog.
JV1080 and Nord Lead 2 rack would push you over $500.
JV1080 and Quasimidi Polymorph would be a good option though.
A Novation A-Station is cheap as chips.

I use a Quasimidi Sirius as my master controller- it is compact, has some great sounds in it also- cost me about $300.

JR

[Dandruff]

Originally Posted by the_nihilist

And on the subject of softsamplers, has anyone tried shortcircuit?

bought it. i have some smaller issues with it, but version 2 already is in development ...