Posted on 12/05/1984
Handling a new standard In 1983 a new technology swept across the musical landscape, and in very short time sent the CV/Gate based synthesizer gear to the corner. A common standard for exchange of musical data between electronic instruments, first agreed upon between Roland, Sequential and Yamaha. This new standard was called MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital […]
Posted on 02/05/1984
Let me say it quickly: This is a seriously well-designed little machine, that performs extremely well and is rock solid. The diminutive size aside, the MSQ-100 can sequence a complete MIDI arrangement (16 channels across a single MIDI wire). It is easy to grasp, and the work modes are quite intuitive and quickly gets in […]
Posted on 06/11/1983
After having used – and loved – the Roland MC-4B Microcomposer for quite a few years, I was looking for something similar, but with better editing facilities and file system. The arcane cassette interface for the MC-4B was slow and unreliable unless you had the dedicated hardware cassette unit, which was quite expensive. So when […]
Posted on 13/06/1983
A worthy substitute? In 1982 during rehearsals for the DeFilm project, my main synth -the notoriously flaky PPG Wave 2.0 – needed a break for firmware updates and fixes. I needed a poly synth, so I was offered to borrow the Yamaha CS-60 during the repair period. So I took the rather heavy unit to […]
Posted on 01/01/1983
Posted on 24/11/1982
Merging with the computer After using a combination of analog synthesizers and CV MicroComposers (see The Sequencers) for some time, a new semi-affordable digital product was launched that promised to deliver a combination of the two functions – much like the absurdly expensive NED Synclavier and Fairlight Series II systems. The synth was called The […]
Posted on 07/02/1982
When the Roland SH-5 suitcase synth was launched it was quite a different machine from the standard MiniMoogs, Micromoogs and Arp Odysseys of the days. It owned and used the SH-5 for a long period, and looking back I should never have parted with it. Expanded feature set The SH-5 builds on Roland first professional synth, the already […]
Posted on 01/01/1981
Posted on 10/05/1980
A sound innovator Wolfgang Palm is a leading synthesizer hardware designer from Germany, who started out building custom accessories and modular synthesizers under the name “PPG”. The product were originally custom made for professional users, like the German “Berlin-school” electronic band Tangerine Dream . The wavetable synths But Palms real innovation was probably his work with Wavetables – […]
Posted on 26/07/1978
Affordable modular. I had been enviously looking at the modular synthesizers used by my musical heroes, and stalking the music stores to find a system like the ARP-2600. But it was very far between them in Denmark in the late 70s. So when Korg launched a new range of synthesizers in 1978, it came in the […]