Roland XV5080

I am toying with the idea of getting one of these to replace my 1080. There are many more sounds
on board and the 1080 soundset is also there, so my old orchestrations will still play (I assume) and it
can also take all my expansion boards.

One thing of immediate note is this machine shows the expansion board name rather than just the socket it's in and the display is really lovely and clear. Having said that I did manage to get a really confusing page up on at least one occasoin so it may take some learning:)

Stolen from the official page:

JV 5080 parameters

New 128-voice synth module with extensive layering and multitimbral applications

Massive internal wave memory includes incredible new sounds, plus all sounds from JV-2080 and a collection of waveforms from the JD-990 Super JD

Reads Roland S-700/Akai S1000 CD-ROM's via SCSI port using optional SIMM memory

Stereo playback capability per tone for amazing velocity switches and keyboard splits

Powerful Matrix Control gives sounds an unprecedented level of nuance

Studio-quality reverb and effects derived from Roland SRV-3030, V-Studios, RSS and COSM instruments

"SRXpandable" via new SRX-Series 64MB** wave expansion boards

Compatible with SR-JV80-Series wave expansion boards and XP/JV-Series Patches***

R-BUS port for 8-channel digital output to R-BUS-Ready devices and interfaces

Patch Finder for quickly finding sounds sorted by type.

..umm yes. and it's got really pretty buttons :)

Or maybe a V synth :)

Lovvvverly

Korg Trinity

Mmmm lovely 10 out of 10 for styling!

One of nice features of this machine is the 'ribbon controller' seen on the left of the keyboard in addition to the more usual controllers. The Trinity has digital inputs and outputs and features a massive touch screen too. Touch screen! Cool!

The trinity can be expanded to with the Moss engine to give it Z1 synthesis.

Novation Supernova

The Supernova is a rackmount synth using digital, analogue and ASM subtractive synthesis which looks really nice!. It has 32 note polyphony and is 8 parts multitimberal.

There's something about this synth and I don't quite know what. Maybe it's because I have the bass station and this unit looks nothing like it and yet I feel it should. Nevertheless I found myself strangely attracted to it and despite my intended path across the shop floor toward the rack of new dance modules, samplers and drum machines I found myself mysteriously pulled into the lonely corner the Supernova was sitting in.

Slipping on the well used pair of Sennheister's I routed the mother keyboard through and fixed my eyes on the strangely glowing blue display on the front of the unit. "That's it!", I thought. Novation have somehow managed to polarise the light emitted by the display to attract people. Once they arrive they probably think "why am I here? Oh never mind - what does this button do?". Just like I did - spooky!

Once my eyes had come to terms with the immense beauty of that display (am I going too far now??), a few moments fiddling later revealed some lovely sounds, all of which instantly tweakable using the array of knobs on the front panel. Drums sounds are good too. The unit has 8 outs for flexible sound routing.

Synclavier Nord Lead

The Nord lead is a cool red colour

Except for on this site.

Every parameter is tweakable using the dedicated knobs on the front, so there are no menus to go through first. This is the original modeling synth offering morphing where a control can take one sound through to another by changing all the relevant parameters in real time. Rather like picture morphing. It sounds wonderful.

Roland Jupiter 8

It was in a flat in a housing block in Lee, South East London, where it happened - I first got my hands on a Jupiter8. In fact this was my first experience with a proper analogue synth.

The whole experience was, well, spaced. I was not quite sure why I was there (I think it had something to do with a mate called Tom) and I was not quite sure if I wanted to be there either!

The Roland Jupiter 8

I just remember being infront of this synth looking out of the window with a great view of South east London just as it was getting dark playing these long slow to resolve chords on a marvellous patch which used the filter resonance to pick out harmonics from the sound.

I decided I did want to be there after all and when it was time to leave, they had to prise my hands from the keys!