I've been playing around a lot with different softsynths and have made the decision that this year there will be no high end arranger purchase for me ala the Tyros or PA1x. Perhaps if the PSR3000 has a decent key feel, I'd possibly go there. Otherwise, I'll try to find a PA60 for a reasonable price or even ( sigh ) go back to a PSR2000 strictly as a backup to the PA80 for the live act.


I'm still happy with the PA80, and feel it still has everything I need so that I can express myself as an entertainer. An upgrade to the sound system is in order, but that will come in time as well.

It's time to upgrade the studio. I already have a Motif ES and PA80. I don't need any more hardware. I also have Sonar, Cool Edit Pro, and some other sequencing / audio programs, includiing the VST based SQ01, so for now I'll stick to those. If I ever go completely "pro" with this studio, then I'd likely give something like a "Pro Tools" setup some serious consideration. For now, that's on the backburner.

This year's funds are going primarily toward softsynths. For the price of a PA1x or Tyros, I can do some pretty awesome things in this computer. I have a modest but modern PC setup, and even with 512 mb of ram and 2.4 gig processor with and ASIO soundcard, and most of the unnecessary Windows programs removed, I see that there is plenty under the hood to run this stuff now, with no latency issues at all, and the ability to play what I want to play from a hardware controller.

That I'm purchasing the CS80V and Moog Modular V is already a given. The Novation V station and B4 ( B3 emulator ) are cool too and may come later. I'm liking Arturia Storm, Reason, the Pro 53 ( Prophet 5 emulator ) and a few others as well. I'm giving Tassman and Next I'm going to look at the sample based programs ( the giga studios, sampletanks, etc ) for that virtual "rompler" feel too.

Recently, Donny ( DNJ ) and I talked about software arrangers. Given the right controller setup, it could work very well and pretty much hassle free. Jos Maas OMB software does a good job in it's own right. The biggest downfall is that if you don't have a yamaha XG board / module to use as a sound module, you need to readjust every style to match your module. This is no fault of Jos' software. It's excellent, and with a dedicated controller that allows for adjustable midi cc messages, one can easily access every major arranger function needed. Rather, the shortcomings, if any, are dictated by the midi data from the yamaha based styles themselves. The SYXG50 software XG module is fair, but even my first PSR ( 530 ), had better sounds. To use the styles with my Motif ES, I have to tweak each one. I can add ( and have ) my Motif ES .ins file to OMB, so the patches are correct, but the rest of the settings ( Effects, levels, etc ) need work in order to get a pro sounding setup. I'd love to see someone take Jos idea and fuse it with a dedicated software synth or better quality XG module. If I had the programming skills, I'd like to give it a shot myself, because after years of tweaking synths, I think I can do a pretty good job with soundscapes, but my general computer programming skills are sorely lacking.

A computer arranger that I would actually use in a live setup really is in the realm of possibility, but I'd rather buy a completed all in one program then spend countless hours trying to tweak existing styles to match my sound modules.

I'm enjoying all these new possibilities so much. After going as far as I feel I could go with my arrangers for composing, I'm excited again. I see the palates of sounds and other tools that are available for me now that I could only dream of a few years ago. When I gauge all of this stuff, for the money I would spend or even less than the money I would spend on one PA1x or high end workstation or analog modeled synth ( my true love.. the analogs ) , I can turn this computer into one absolutely awesome synthesizer, and ... I think I will.

AJ