Share your instrument tips etc here

[Andrey Klimkovsky]

Korg M1
Korg T3
Korg N364
Korg TRITON Extreme 88
Korg R3

[Abi]

Ok, so last year, we got a new midi controller keyboard off eBay.... it was about this time last year in fact..

Well, it worked for about 10 minutes and then promptly died. Any self-righteous person would've admitted defeat and put it out with the rubbish.... not me. I won't see a keyboard thrown out, nor abused in that way.
Zip right forward to this week... the battered box in the back bedroom beckoned... don't know why, it just seemed that a burning curiosity burnt through me that I could get it working again.... I brought the box in, plugged in the usb connector... so far so good, switched it on - BINGO!! It worked!! I felt absolutely ELATED!

Now cut to the following morning..... zip, nada, zero, zilch.. NOTHING... back to its dead status. Well, me being me, I can't just give up so easily.. I reinstalled all the drivers, downloaded the latest firmware patch and took a deep breath.. I had my mind set that it WOULD work by weekend if it jolly well killed me.
Nothing... not even a single led light to indicate life...

Cut to the next day... by now, I was becoming seriously ticked off.. it was time to resort to alternate tactics... out came the screwdriver set and a penknife (handy things to have....) and I undid the 30+ screws that were holding it together (I admit now, I did lose 2 screws, but... I can put them back in when I find them ) and carefully prised the back off...

At first, it didn't seem as though there were any real serviceable parts inside but, in among the cables inside, I noticed that one of them was kinked, so, I straightened it out between my finger and thumb.. easy process really... then I set about adjusting the other cables so that they wouldn't get crushed when I put the thing all back together again....

I didn't feel exactly au fait with the process, but I screwed the keyboard back together and a feeling of despondancy crept over me... and that I could've either killed or cured it.

Once the final screw had been put back in, I turned it over on my lap and overwhelming quiet curiosity bit me and I just knew that I had to try the usb cable one more time (batteries and external power were failing too, so I knew it was a power issue) and as I connected it together, I sighed a deep sigh, took a mouthful of coffee and felt for the 'on' switch at the back.. not having any hope left at all....

Then joy of joys, after a few seconds, it sprang to life!! I felt the elation I'd felt a couple of days previously and had to announce to Chris 'hey, I got this baby WORKIN'!'

Ok, so he sorted out the keyboards self-diagnostics tonight and it hasn't stopped working...!!! :lights:
(Bless it, the keyboard thought it only had 25 keys when it had in fact got 49 )

It took a little teamwork and effort, but we got there..

But if I hadn't taken the back off it and had a look.............................

[Moug5]

OK IF HAVE A DJX KEYBOARD TRY THIS VOICE 025 AND 034 DUAL THEM UP AND PLAY AROUND WITH THE RELEASE AND CUTOFF .MODULATION WITH ASSIGN KNOB ON 025 ITS A PERFECT SOUND FOR THE START OF CHRONOLGIE 1

I TRY AND USED BOTH SOFTSYNTHS AND KEYBOARDS TOGETHER USING A LINEAR REALTIME APPROACH EACH TIME IS DIFFRENT ITS ALMOST A KIND OF IMPROVISATION

[Equinoxe5]

Here's a great and easy way of getting the best out of your synthesizer . . . . . .






Try plugging it in and switching it on! :P

[EOSPete]

There is a free refill of classic drum machine including Drumulator CR78, Minipops on
http://combinatorhq.com/modules.php?...=getit&lid=490

Free to register. Also some other JMJ sounds as Reason refills on there as well
A couple of Eminent combinators which when combined with the phaser running from the Matrixsequencer are pretty convincing

P

[Jock]

I'm lazy now. There used to be a time when all my sounds were homemade. I used to while away the days programming my first synth, a Yamaha DX100, and still have a cassette tape full of hundreds of really good sounds for it. These days I tweak an existing patch, or steal one off the net.

I cant get into VSTi's, but this is purely because I suffer from really bad midi latency and bad CPU performance, and it makes them completely unusable. I rely 100% on my outboard gear. Although when I upgrade to a new computer, maybe an Apple Mac G5, I'll re-visted the virtual world of synths. The day I get the money for that is the day I start collecting my pension.

Have you guys seen the online synth resource websites ? there should be loads of patches for your synths on them, a couple of good resources below are....

http://www.sonicstate.com/

http://www.planet-groove.com/

[Kevin Dixon]

Has anyone got any samples (especially the drum loop) from souvenir de chine.
I am trying to re-create the track in my bedroom studio..

thanks

[Jock]

What sequencer software are you using ?

The drums are so simple on Souvenir, why dont you just program them in ?

Or, you could get hold of the official JMJ Midi file and nick the drum midi track off that.

[Kevin Dixon]

Hi Jock,

I can program them in no problem, but I need the samples. I have created a version using standard drumkits which sounds quite different, but it doesnt sound the same without the electo tom toms, etc... the only sample i have been able to rip is the clap at the very end.. lol..

PS, I am using Reason 4.0 and Cubase SX 3

please, can someone help me :'(

[Jock]

Hi Kevin,

Ah I see. Ok. Makes sense now, you just want to get it as close to the original drum sounds as possible.

If you knew what drum kit/machine was used on the original then you could search the net for samples of that, I'm sure you'd be able to find them somewhere.

Didnt the drummer at the CIC gigs use something like a Simmons SDS5 kit ? Perhaps you wanna search for samples for that.

A quick search found this... you'd most probably wanna check out the Simmons SDS8 kit. Although I've not had a chance to explore all of them. Perhaps some of the others are a better match.

http://www.sampleswap.org/filebrowse...(FULL%20KITS)/

Hope that helps

Cheers

Jock