Wheres the next gen workstation?

[BSIDES88@gmail.c]

Hi,

first post here, but ive been a gearslut for years.

I do beats, I use an mpc 2000xl to sequence, and currently my 2 main hardware synths are the motif es6 and the fantom xr .

My problem is both of those synths are starting to show their age and i need new sounds. However, it seems like the era of big professional workstations is kinda over. Sure theres a few new ones. But i already bought and returned the m3, and the new motif sounds just like the old motif so no interest there.

Everything else seems to pretty much be a scaled back version of something that came out before.

Ive tried to work with software synths and honestly ive got a few of them, but i really like sequencing on the mpc, away from a computer and a mouse. I enjoy the live feel of making beats that way and its easy for me to step away from the machine and let my partner finish something.

Also ive found that most software synths are packed with wayyyy too many useless presets and they can take time to load between em. that is annoying if you are used to hardware. THeres also the issue with having enough instances of them open to give you the same versitility that a 16 midi channel hardware synth offers you.

Ive thought about all my options and right now the open labs keyboards look kinda nice. Mostly because i could use the touch screen and midi it very simply to the mpc. But if its just going to crash all the time and generally feel like a pc then i dont think its worth it.

On the other side i could just take my money and buy a voyager or something, but i feel like that wouldnt offer me the same variety.

can anyone offer any advice to a stubborn old mpc head?

thanks,
bsides.

[Darm]

Take a look at Dave Smiths Evolver Keyboard, or Prophet 8...
There's also Radias and V Synth...
You might want to check out the Keyboards with Karma technology in them...

[illynoise]

hardware is done. I can't imagine having anything like a motif in 10 years. 5 years ago, I was a stubborn outboard kinda guy. Now I couldn't live without Logic's VI's.

Remember in 98 when TB303's were selling for 2000 dollars? Keep your gear, maybe you can sell it to some suckers in a few years!

[Darm]

please don't turn this thread into another "hardware vs. software thread"...
I like my MP, and if you like softsynths- that's ok too!

[deuc647]

I dont like softsynths either but the proteus sound set from calkwalk has all the modules as they were in the hardware( samples loop based) as opposed to a long sample. The dimension plug is like 100 for the le version and the whole soundset is 299, im gonna get it really soon, although em wasnt the highest quality, they have some unusually good sounds, worth looking into. Im in your boat, ust hit power and get to scanning sounds instead of loading and waiting

[illynoise]

Originally Posted by Darm

please don't turn this thread into another "hardware vs. software thread"...
I like my MP, and if you like softsynths- that's ok too!

My bad! I've owned MPC's so I agree they have their strong points. I'm trying to help you guys out! 1

[kojo]

did you look into the SRX cards for the fantom or the 3rd party Voice Libraries for the Motif over at motifator.com? If you havent gotten those, they could probably tide you over until Roland makes their Fantom replacement announcement, but then again it could just be an advance that isnt far enough to really justify dumping the Fantom X for it...

as far as the miko goes, the Windows OS has been stripped and tailored for it and their support can remote right into the thing to work on it if you got problems. I played with one at the Washington Music center, its a very nice piece. just keep in mind, IMO youre really paying for the workflow with that thing as the included sounds you can get basically for free (wusikstation) or are easily available (sylenth, purity, plugsound, emu proteus, etc).

[scoob]

umm next gen .........neko or timbalan miko done. :)

[xabiton]

why not just sequence your soft synths on the mpc sounds like a problem solved there

[8th]

workstations have bread n butter jack of all trades soundbanks. So maybe you should start looking for gear or software that is sound specific. You need synth sounds? look into the virus ti, nord, DSI, andromeda etc. or similar plugins like sylenth and zebra which are pretty good preset wise. For natural sounds, you can look into those expansions for what you have or sample libraries whether for software samplers like kontakt or sample CDs for software or hardware. There are also sample converting software so you can take an akai sample CD for example and convert it to roland for use in you fantom or you could look into sample CDs they make for roland, the L- CDx series are very good. I can recommend specific CDs depending on what you are looking for.