HeLp mE!!!!

paulyc

i hav a budget of £400 and i wos wondering if ne 1 can give me some information of some synths that i could get for that price e.g. JV-1080 or Novation A-Station.

thanks

p.s im also after information about cheap keyboards which i can plug into my synth so i can play chords and melodys wiv the sounds from my synth e.g. evolution keyboard (passion didnt u use them??)

thanks again

Sen

pauly,

a-station has 8 voice polyphony but is monotimbral - this means that you can produce 8 notes at once (in a chord or something) but you can only have 1 type of sound at once coming out of the synth - so good for basslines and leads and maybe pads as well as single drum hits - basically it's a bigger, badder bassstation - i use 2 of those...good all around synth for not a lot.

the JV series of Roland synths (now the XV series) has 64 voice polyphony and is 16 part multitimbral - i.e. you can have 64 notes playing at the same time and 16 different instruments making different types of sounds (so bass, strings, drums, whatver) - JV has built in effects as well and has large library of expansions to build on.

Other differences - a-station is much more knobs-on hands-on programming...JV series is deep menubased numbers/waveforms/algorithms which is really quite intimidating to the beginner.

If you want stock sounds of real instruments and the ability to play a lot of sounds at once without having to record to your HD all the time or create a patch and sample it, the JV may be your best bet.

If you want hands on control and better synthesis (well, more USABLE synthesis) the a-station may suit your needs. You'll just have to deal with the one sound at a time issue - which, given today's HD recording systems and soft samplers, isn't that big a deal.

Have you looked at any of the soft synths? or is your heart set on owning hardware?

BTW, how do you plan to get the sounds onto tape/cd/etc. etc. and into your computer?

paulyc

“	64 voice polyphony and is 16 part multitimbral	”

thats the sort of thing i want because i want to do chords cos i learnt the piano and i think that my tunes will be based around sort of melodys etc.

how many sounds and wot type of sounds will this have? the reason i want this instead of a normal keyboard is because although i want to be playing chords, i want sounds that arent normal and boring.

“	a-station has 8 voice polyphony but is monotimbral	”

i dont really want this if its monotimbral because it goes against the fact that i can play the piano if ya know wot i mean!! - will i still be able to make good enough sounding basslines with it?

“	Have you looked at any of the soft synths? or is your heart set on owning hardware?	”

well, i am running windows 95 on this computer which means i cant use reason, logic, but if u can give me a list of software that is decent enough other than them i will download them and then if i get a new computer (probably in 2 years) then i will hav them already.

“	how do you plan to get the sounds onto tape/cd/etc. etc. and into your computer?	”

say what??tupid:


last but not least: what are the advantages of a mac to a normal pc for producing music, i have heard that a mac is more stable, but is there any other factors???



THANKS ALOT

(101st post!!!)

djpassion

You won't get a brand new Jv1080 for £400. If you do find somewhere selling them at that price then I want to know about it!!!

Sen

Yah, but you may get a second hand one...so look hard

Mac vs. PC.

I have this arguement all the time.

I am a Mac user. Have been for time, will be for time

Reason? I have about $10,000 of software and hardware tied up in Mac/SCSI/Firewire.

That, and they kick ass

But, for a beginning producer, I'd worry more about learning the ropes before comitting to PC vs. Mac vs. PC whatever.

PCs = more affordable, more software out there, more freestuff, you can generally kitbash one together for cheap, etc.

Macs = more posh , all the good software is available (except games), in my experience (I've worked with Macs and PCs for the last 12 years as a network admin, technical specialist, and even now as a therapist) a more stable OS/hardware

I think there's a kind of merging of the markets at the moment - the high end audio stuff is coming out for macs and pcs roughly at the same time (PCs first tho usually) and what was once mac only is now on PC and sometimes vice versa. However, in going to ATA drives, Macs have come down in price while retaining a lot of their reliability.

The ability to burn DVDs/CDs/ have firewire AV input etc. right out of the box is nice, if you have the cash to use them. If not, you might be better getting a PC without them...Adding them later can be a hassle tho...

Budget is important - long term commitment is important
WHat you know how to use is important
what your friends know how to use is important

What you're going to use it for/with is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING THO

and that usually means software...

JJ might have some more pearls of wisdom as may DC on this mac vs. PC thing.

um...let's see...oh yeah...I meant audio input...what are you using now?

paulyc

“	You won't get a brand new Jv1080 for £400. If you do find somewhere selling them at that price then I want to know about it!!!	”

na i know!! im hunting, i found a second hand one for £375 so i mite look into that, JV1010 are £399 arent they?

audio input sen?:
by what am i using now do u mean how do i get samples on the pc? well i havent got ne equipment so the best i can do it plug my portable cd player into the back of the cds and play samples.

thats not wot u mean is it? tell me wot u mean by audio input!

Sen

Yeah, that's basically what I mean

i.e. how are you getting sounds into your computer and how do you plan on getting them off of there and in what format?

Hint: get an audio extractor program - one that can rip your CD tracks onto your HD - higher quality than plugging into your soundcard.

Soundcard is one of the most vital parts of your computer when doing audio...it's the critical link between your sounds and the HD...think about how you're going to do that reliably - a budget of #400 doesn't leave any room for something like that.

But who knows...in 2 years, maybe the audio standards will have changed on your basic desktop.

djpassion

Don't know much about the JV 1010, so can't really advise, but even though the 1080 is being discontinued in favour of the XV series, it's still an industry standard piece of kit, so could be worth trying to hold on. Could also check out some EMU sound modules. Proteus 2000 might be out of your budget but maybe something like a planetphat (we use it all the time in our place) would fall into it, if you can find one...

paulyc

ok thanks 4 ur help sen, and passion.

hav u used the evolution's passion, if so wot r they like - just for putting chords together (being used with a synth)

tnt

“	hav u used the evolution's passion, if so wot r they like - just for putting chords together (being used with a synth)	”

They're ok. The keys may not be responsive as you would like them to be, but that depends on which model you buy. You can get away with playing simple melodies and chords on the cheaper evolution keyboards.

You may want to look into getting a JV-2080 as this synth has more sounds and more fx units than the JV-1010.