Originally posted by Dave2002
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Electronic keyboards
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Originally posted by Richard Barrett View PostYou can get a very nice virtual ARP2600 from Arturia for the fraction of the cost of a real one. I made this entirely with it, although actually the keyboard wasn't employed at all:
Listen to disquiet (2018) electronic music originally in 8 channels by RichardBarrett #np on #SoundCloud
Never having had my hands on the actual product I'm not sure how accurate the emulation is, although I rapidly homed in on setting up sounds and textures based on instabilities that cause them to change in a slow and irregular sort of way which I would associate with analogue circuitry.
Their virtual Buchla Easel is even better - you don't need that System 101 after all.
I've owned, among others, a Roland Jupiter-4, an Ensoniq EPS-16 and a Kurzweil K2500 over the years (although for the past 20 years or so my keyboards as such have just been controllers for computer software). All of these were, for their time, highly sophisticated instruments with possibilities far beyond the commercial priorities of their design.
As for educational purposes, well yes, as Joseph says, they're extremely useful in such situations, you can for example have a whole classroom full of them with one for every student, using headphones so that nobody disturbs anyone else, which is a much more hands-on way to learn about harmony etc. than the traditional more theoretical approach.
I'm less interested in "virtual" ones these days and about to get an old sequential circuits Pro-One refurbished to use live.
For educational uses I find unplugging the headphones and having a large ensemble of "nasty" keyboards can work quite well.
I'm not convinced that in schools anyone really learns much about harmony by being in the equivalent of a battery chicken farm any more than people learn to speak another languge in a "language laboratory" ? The model of "music as a solitary activity" that rooms full of keyboards with headphones encourage is a bit limited IMVLast edited by MrGongGong; 10-11-18, 09:10.
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Originally posted by MrGongGong View PostFor exucational uses I fine unplugging the headphones and having a large ensemble of "nasty" keyboards can work quite well.
As for vintage synthesizers, there's a lot of fetishism around that whole business these days. It's the sound that interests me most, and if that can be achieved digitally that's fine with me. Mind you, round the corner from where I live is an EMS Synthi 100 which I'll be spending a week with in the new year, so perhaps I'll change my mind.
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Originally posted by Richard Barrett View PostI bow to your superior knowledge on that particular issue.
As for vintage synthesizers, there's a lot of fetishism around that whole business these days. It's the sound that interests me most, and if that can be achieved digitally that's fine with me. Mind you, round the corner from where I live is an EMS Synthi 100 which I'll be spending a week with in the new year, so perhaps I'll change my mind.
Patrick Gowers used to teach us things on the VCS3 when I was a student inclduing a test where there would be two machines on a table with a tea towel over one of them and you had to create the same sound with the other one without looking at the patch pins etc
Some folks in Leicester have been restoring a Synthi 100
https://ask.audio/articles/very-rare-ems-synthi-100-analog-synth-being-fully-restored-for-public-useThere's just six EMS Synthi 100 analog synthesizers remaining, and none available for the public to play. That's about to change as one of these is being fully restored and placed in a public space.
Though I don't think the original question was about this
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Originally posted by Pulcinella View Post
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Originally posted by Richard Barrett View PostFor an electronic keyboard to feel like a piano it has to have weighted keys, which massively decrease the portability of the instrument for obvious reasons. Not being a trained keyboard player myself, I prefer non-weighted keys, which is highly convenient given that I have to travel with the instrument so often. (Plus various other bits and pieces as seen here.)
One other reature which should be possible on an electronic instrument is the abilty to use different tunings, though I suspect that's a degree of sophistication too far for most of the cheaper models. It should be possible to switch between equal temperament and other tunings which might be useful for performing different types of music. I don't know if any instruments provide this feature.
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Originally posted by Dave2002 View PostI don't know if any instruments provide this feature.
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Originally posted by Richard Barrett View PostNot domestic digital pianos and keyboards, for sure. The Yamaha DX7 synthesizer (the first commercially successful instrument to use digital sound synthesis, for those who don't know) had such a feature, but I don't imagine more than a tiny percentage of owners actually used it.
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Originally posted by Richard Barrett View PostNot domestic digital pianos and keyboards, for sure. The Yamaha DX7 synthesizer (the first commercially successful instrument to use digital sound synthesis, for those who don't know) had such a feature, but I don't imagine more than a tiny percentage of owners actually used it.
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Originally posted by Richard Barrett View PostReally? I've never heard anything of his that uses alternative tunings. Do you know where I'd find recordings where he does?
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Originally posted by Serial_Apologist View PostPossibly I should have said "bent" tunings, having got the impression of a swivel bar type application being used to de-tune when he likes to.
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