I'm more of a hardware than software synth user. There is more than one right way to make music.

I can mix and match sounds from over a half dozen sound modules, two MIDI keyboards and two hardware samplers in my duo's backing tracks, picking the best sounds for the tune from each source.

Because they all have a latency of about 5ms and have no CPU load they are easy to mix and match in the same MIDI sequence.

My oldest synth module is a Yamaha TX81z. Many of the sounds are dated, but some are stellar and not found on newer modules. Same for the Roland MT-32.

My Yamaha VL70m Physical Modeling synth module can make more expressive emulations of physical instruments than any sample-based sound module I've ever heard.

My XV5050 and SD90 each have thousands of sounds built in. My i3 has an acoustic bass so good you can almost hear the wood.

Plus as computers come and go, my 5pin DIN synths from the 1980s still work. I bought my TX when my Mac had a Motorola CPU, my PC was DOS5, and I used an Atari ST. None of the computers or software of those days still work, my synth modules do.

But if I'm going to just listen to Band-in-a-Box, I'll use the Ketron because as I said, it has a very good General MIDI sound bank.

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
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