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well, this thing is just damn awesome. i bought a Z1 and was impressed with it but was thouroughly turned off by the irritating menu-programming style. i returned it to the guitar center where i got it and bought the ms2000 rack instead. i'm not slamming the Z1 though, its menu programming is no worse than any other menu based synth, the sonic power was great and i'm sure i'll get one again someday. but i wanted sumthing more hands on, more real-time (aka: more fun). i had been drooling over the ms2000 for a long time and now owning it i can say that i am not dissapointed in the least. this synth is amazing. first off i wanna say that i thought the four voice poly and two part multitimbrality would be limiting and that was the only thing that made me question buying this synth. but as i suspected it turns out to not be a problem at all, i have found it suits my needs very well. I find that analog style sounds dont need anything more than four voices, i mean they excel and are best at riffy-things (one note stuff), maybe some techno (if thats your bag)chords or chorded pads, and four voices are enough for that. i think ananlog sounds get too dense and muddy when you play too many notes in a chord. unless your using the dwgs waveforms which are good at organy and other types of sounds but i'd rather sample those out and keep the ms2000 running the live analog sonic madness in a song or show. thats what it excels at, why waist yr 37(?) knob synth on an organ patch?!? btw the dwgs waveforms werent anything i was too thrilled about at first, thinking it was just some extra unnecasary thing that korg thru in to make the synth more appealing, i didnt think it would be sumthing i'd use. and i'm glad to know i was way wrong. those waves literally double(!) the dimension and variety you can get outta this thing, and i love em now. just try syncing a saw wave on osc 2 keeping the pitches matching or slightly detuned with the dwgs on osc 1. hit the distortion and start scrolling thru the dwgs waves with the cntrl 2 knob. deep textured grindy wet basses. im lovin it.
Someone may slam me for liking the ms2000 more than the Z1, iv'e been a guitar player for about 10 years and a synthesist for about 2, and all i can say is when i sit down/stand up (Hey, thats a radiohead song, WooHoooo R-head ROCKS! ;)in front of an instrument i just want to play it. when i put a guitar in front of me i put my hand on the strings and start playing. i turn a few knobs on some pedals that have 1 maybe 2 functions each, i know what theyre going to do, boom! a distortion, bang! a phaser. and thats the beauty of this machine, i hit a key turn a knob and go! im never gonna get lost while in those all-too-fleeting moments of inspiration. machines like this keep the joy in music making and thats the point right? thats where music comes from in my opinion, creativity and complications/headaches dont go together well IMO. i want new sounds and sonic revolution as much as the next guy (in fact a million times more than the next guy) but i think companies can do that with easy intuitive interfaces, hell I've even considered going into electronic engineering just to make it happen, cuz it seems like these companies arent gonna get they're faces out of their wallets long enough to have a clue whats possible as far as interfaces, user friendlyness, and even new ways of making sound. i've already designed interfaces for synths that i wish existed. but it wont be till like 2077 that any of the companies are gonna get a clue about interfaces and possibilities. if you want proof just look at the eighties, not a knob on anything!! They were really thinking huh? it takes them 10 years to know what the hell the consumer wants. to make instruments(!) again. they're so slow and so far behind. its funnyand a bummer all at the same time. anyway im ranting and i'll stop now. hehe
btw: for people who might be bummed that there's no user arpeggio's on it, just remember that the mod sequencer is literally arpeggiator when you set it to control pitch, 16 steps. one mod per sound though. hmmm, the FM on the osc. rocks. it was one of the selling points for me. the delay as most would agree kicks ass, i'd dare to say its the best delay on any synth or pedal ever. the vocoder kicks ass well, a good amount of sound sculpting possibilites on it and you can use it with osc 1 which means sqr/saw/tri/sine/dwgs/noise/vox wave/audio in. one sucky thing about the vocoder is that when your using a vocoder program it a becomes a monotimbral synth. you cant run the vocoder and have another synth line running under it, only the vocoder sound. still thats live-with-able (new word)
so anyway i'll give this a 5 out of 5. even with its limits (polyphony, monotimbral vocoder)it deserves a 5 to me.
"so vacant in my breach, i drive the dirt of her garden sorrows" -billy corgan, smashing pumpkins
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