I have owned ( and * still own):
Synths:
1. Yamaha PS-3* (1981-1987, 2022-)
This was possibly the first electronic instrument I played. My father was a professional musician and needed a portable keyboard for rehearsals, so he bought one of these in the early eighties. As a child I would sit with this keyboard on the top of the family piano and pretend the rhythm and vibraphone presets made me sound like Jean Michel Jarre. The keyboard I own today isn't the original from my childhood, but it provides all of the same nostalgia.
It probably sounds like a bit of a stretch to claim this was my first multi-timbral synthesiser with built in sequencer and drum machine; but that is exactly what it was. By 1988 I had realised that I needed a sequencer to make music so, when I inherited a few hundred pounds from a relative, I felt this was my best option. As limited as this 'workstation' is, it is still capable of producing some good sounds in the right hands and I used it right up until its death somewhere around 2003.
3. Yamaha DX100 (1989-1991, 2006-2018)
Whilst it still had mini keys, this was the first 'professional grade' synth I ever owned. I bought the DX100 second hand in 1989 for about £200. In the shop I was faced with a choice between an Roland SH-101 and this and I was unable to decide which to buy. Foolishly I asked the guy behind the counter which synth would be better and he pointed to the DX100. In retrospect I can see that buying this synth wasn't a wise choice as not only is the SH-101 a better synth, but it is currently worth three times the value of a DX100.
When I bought my first DX100 it didn't come with any instructions and, as this was in the days before the internet, I thought it only had 96 presets. My original synth died in the early nineties and when I finally replaced it in 2007 it came with a manual that revealed there was another bank of 96 sounds by pressing a shift key. I didn't feel too robbed as nearly all of the presets in the DX100 are pretty terrible and it had limited use. I eventually sold the second synth via eBay to a known musician for twice the price I paid for it.
4. Kawai K4 (1993-2005)
I think it is fair to say this keyboard was not a terrific success and it was being sold at a heavy discount by the time I purchased it. I had to save hard to afford this synth and bought it brand new for £500 in 1993. The presets in the K4 are generally pretty poor and when my friend acquired a Roland JV-80 around the same time, I definitely felt like a poor relation. The real strength of the K4 is actually in creating gritty and abstract sounds that take advantage of its resonant filter and lo-fi effects. I felt I had rinsed this synth so I sold it around 2005. I don't regret that decision but if a suitable VST alternative is released I would be the first to put my money down.
5. Roland D-10 (1997-2005)
The Roland D-5 was one of the first keyboards I used at school, but when the D-5 was stolen, it was replaced by a D-10 and I used it to write compositions and play in a band during my school years. Nostalgia made me buy a D-10 of my own in about 1997 and I used it alongside my Kawai K4 for quite a few years. Much like the K4, the D-10 was out of date by the time I could afford it and it offered a very limited palette of sounds. Where the D-10 is good, it is very good. Where it is bad...
6. Roland D-110* (2023-)
I sold my D-10 in about 2005 but a desire to recreate some of my old tunes led to me buying a D-110 module in 2023. The D-110 is a bit more limited than the D-10 as it lacks the drum programming and has less memory, but it comes in a very convenient form factor that makes up for its failings.
An M1 was a mythical and unobtainable beast to me in the eighties, but by 1999 I was offered one for a very affordable £250. When I first played the M1 I found it a underwhelming experience as the drum sounds were rubbish and not mapped to general MIDI specification and all of the decent sounds were overly familiar. In an attempt to make more of the M1 I bought numerous ROM cards but they were all pretty disappointing. I even bought 4 cards from a third party supplier in the USA which were incredibly expensive but turned out to contain nothing but tweaked versions of the presets. Despite its short comings I kept the M1 as it had a nice keyboard and the classic piano and organ sounds came in very useful.
8. Korg M1r* (2008-)
As I spent so much time inserting and removing ROM cards on my M1, I finally managed to mangle and bend the pins in the rear PCM data slot and it died a sudden and unexpected death. Sometime around 2007 I decided I wanted cheesy house piano back in my life and I bought a rack mounted version of the M1. I still own this synth but it has definitely seen better days and hasn't been used in over 10 years. I sampled the piano along with presets like "Universe" and "Finger Snap" but it doesn't really have a place any more.
9. Novation Supernova II* (2003-)
"Virtual analogue" was quite a big thing in the late nineties and this synth vied with gear like the Roland JP-8000 to be the king of the virtual hill. I bought my keyboard second hand in about 2003 for the princely sum of £500. When I bought the synth I was actually on my way to buy a brand new Korg MS-2000B and called in on the second hand shop on a whim. This synth seemed eminently more capable than a MS-2000 (I was right) and cost a good deal less too.
10. Yamaha DX7s* (2006-)
As a child I constantly saw people on TV with a dual keyboard stand holding a Roland D-50 perched above a Yamaha DX7. This was, is, and always will be the classic eighties synth combo for me - I always wanted to own them. In 2006 I was in a second hand store and come across a DX7s. I made a low ball offer for the DX7 and a DX100 together, but the man in the shop declined saying, "I have trouble getting hold of these - not selling them". Thus the DX7s came home with me and I still own it to this day.
I wasn't too sure what the "S" designation meant when I bought the DX7, but it turns out this variant used the same upgraded shell and push buttons of the Mk II but retained the mono sound of the original. I have posted on here before about replacing the battery and adding a battery holder, but other than that this synth has been rock solid since I owned it. This reliability is ironic as the DEXED VST does everything (and more) that the DX7 does so I don't really need the keyboard, but I can't bear to part with one of the synths of my childhood dreams.
11. Roland D-50* (2006-)
As I mentioned in the DX7 entry, I had always yearned for a D-50 and a DX7 combo, so when I finally had the disposable income to afford them, I bought both. The aftertouch has stopped working on mine and the memory holds nothing but patches used by Jean Michel Jarre, but I still like it even if I don't use it. I also have a PG-1000 programmer in the loft which is probably worth far more than the synth.
12. Roland D-550* (2007-)
Until I started writing this page, I had completely forgotten I owned a D-550. In fact I used to own two of these but I sold one to help finance a holiday when money was short about ten years ago. The one I still have had been customised (by someone else) so that it was only half the depth of a standard unit and the screen has a switch to turn it off.
13. Roland JV-880 (2005-2006)
I bough this unit on a whim as it was being sold quite cheaply in a second hand store. As I mentioned in the K4 entry, a friend had the keyboard version of this unit so I was familiar with its sound. This was a very useful ROMpler but it's relatively limited palette became redundant when I bought a JV-1080 and I sold it after only a year or so.
14. Roland JV-1080* (2006-)
This is a very competent and reliable ROMpler. Some of the sounds have been overused in commercial recordings, but with a few expansion boards this thing has a myriad of sound options and it still remains useful today. What I like about this unit is that not only does it have the usual imitations/samples of violins, guitars and other conventional instruments but it has a very healthy slice of electronic sounds too. There are some nice lead sounds, a smattering of deep basses and some useful analogue strings to compliment the useless slap bass and trombone patches.
I went on something of a spending spree in 2006 and bought a whole series of second hand synthesizers that intrigued me. I've made a couple of posts about this synth and the various repairs and reappraisals it has been subject to over the years. This synth is currently back in storage, but I did create a series of bass patches that I then sampled into a DAW before it took a rest.
16. Novation X Station 25 (2007-2014)
I was once in a music shop playing around with the "virtual analogue" machines they had on display and this little beast caught my ear. However, I didn't buy this synth for another four or five years when they were relatively cheap on eBay. It turned out that there were only a couple of presets that I liked and it was annoying to program.
17. Roland JP-8080 (2006-2014)
This is another synth rack that I felt I needed to own but was disappointed by. By the time I bought this synth I was accustomed to the high standards and impressive functionality in the Supernova II. Synths like the JP-8080 always seemed to be mono-timbral and had weak effects, whereas the Supernova was eight part multitimbral and had more effects than a Star Wars movie. Everything else paled in comparison. I ended up selling this synth for a little more than I paid for it so I don't feel I lost out in that sense. It was just a bit of a waste of time and effort.
18. Korg MS2000 BR (2007-2014)
As with the JP-8080, I felt a compulsion to own this synth but it didn't really find a place in my set up. There were some nice presets and, whilst I found it easy to program, I don't recall ever recording any music with it - there was always something else that could do the job better.
19. Novation Bass Station Rack (2007-2014)
This rack synth was very disappointing. Yes, it had true analogue oscillators (the box even said "Analogue for the 90's!" on it) and incorporated a MIDI/CV converter; but I didn't own any other analogue/CV synths for it to control and it sounded cold and flat to me. Despite what others said, I couldn't get this thing to sound anything like a TB-303 and all of the presets were dull and uninspiring. I never really used this unit and wasn't sad to see it go when I had a clear out a decade ago.
20. Waldorf XTk* (2009-)
20. Yamaha SY85* (2008-)
I think I bought this synth as I was intrigued by the piano patches which I knew where on some mid nineties dance records. There are some nice presets in this synth but they are pretty lo-fi and crunchy by modern standards. I did expand the RAM and added some non-volatile to handle samples but it was such a complicated process I only ever loaded in one sample. The disk drive packed up about 2010 and despite changing belts and fully replacing the unit it still refuses to work. I have sampled in some of the sounds but this now sits in storage.
21. Alesis S4 Quadrasynth (2008-2014)
I had a big clear out of my studio in 2014 and this ROMpler was one of the first to go out the door. I originally bough this as I was looking for some different sounds and I had never owned an American synth. I can see why this synth wasn't really a success as it was difficult to get working and the sounds were distinctly unimpressive.
22. Korg Triton Rack* (2008-)
For some bizarre reason I decided that paying £400 on a "Buy Now" auction for a beaten up, eight year old Triton Rack was a good idea. I think I might have been working on a night shift and not thinking straight. There are some nice sounds in this unit and I have augmented it with five of the EXB expansion boards. As a sampler this unit is pretty impressive and the disk drive is really useful. However, the sounds and parameters associated with any "Multi" aren't retained and I always feel like there is something available that will do the job more easily. Has a great sound but the squeeze isn't worth the juice.
23. Roland Fantom X8*
One day I ordered an Alesis Andromeda. When the retailer rung to discuss my order and go through the particulars I sensed they weren't going to be able to fulfil my order so made the strange decision to change my order to a Roland Fantom X8. Yes, I went from ordering a fully analogue beast to a standard Roland ROMpler in the blink of an eye. I still can't explain it.
Yet, I had always wanted a hammer action keyboard and these things were being sold off with 4 free SRX expansion boards that gave them thousands of sounds. I have created all kinds of samples in this and expanded the ROM and even a added PC card with even more sounds. This thing can record audio, it has a rhythm composer, an arpegiator and an onboard sequencer that I have never used. Alas my ability to play is somewhat limited and I didn't really like the weighted action (my wife is a skilled pianist and she doesn't like the action much either) so this just became a glorified ROMpler - which is what it is. I mainly keep it as it is so big and heavy I wouldn't have a clue how to get rid of it.
Samplers:
1. Yamaha VSS-200 (1987-1988)
This is the first keyboard I owned and it was rubbish. Yes it had a sampler with a little microphone but once the novelty of recording yourself swearing and playing it up and down the keyboard had worn off there wasn't really a lot else to do. This keyboard had some of those automated patterns that gave everyone the impression all synths wrote the music for you but even they were useless. Sold to a friend of the family to help fund the purchase of the PSS-680. This is the sort of garbage that Yamaha should hold their heads in shame for selling.
Drums:
1. Boss DR660 (1995-2003)
When I got my first real paying job I went out and bought this unit as a friend had the DR-550 and I thought this newer model would be what I needed. The guy in the shop let me play around with it and when I asked if it had the TR-909 hit hats he said, "Yeah sure! Here's the 909 kit" but the hats that sounded were definitely NOT those of the TR-909. Yet realistically I didn't have many other options for decent drum sounds and the Boss came home with me anyway. I used this machine for quite a few years and it definitely had some good sounds but ultimately it was a bit of a let-down.
2. Yamaha RM50 (2006-2014)
The main thing I remember about this unit was that it was absolutely HUGE. I had quite a few rack synths, mixers and modules at one point and this thing was longer than all of them. I think bought this as I read it didn't have many acoustic kits and was aimed more at electronic music. The reality was the exact opposite with only one useable "Analog" kit and a whole bunch of Latin percussion and tradition acoustic drum samples. After only a year this thing went in the loft following a house move and never came out again until it was sold.
3. Yamaha RX11 (2006-2007)
One day I saw this drum machine for sale on eBay for £5 and I bought it. I think I actually got this confused with an RX5 and was surprised by the terrible sounds it had. Some of the drum pads didn't quite work properly and the samples I had of the unit actually sounded better than the real thing. I think this went in the bin.
Controller:
1. Alesis V61
I'm fairly sure I have owned another controller keyboard but my memory won't retrieve the information. I bough this controller as it was very compact and fitted the limited desk space I had. The drum pads are OK but the keyboard is horrible to play and there aren't enough rotary dials for controlling synths. At least it was cheap.
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