Vintage is overrated. Lesson learned(rant)

[vurt]

there was a time, people would recognise a monkees quote.
those days are gone.

[Uncle E]

there was a time, people would recognise a monkees quote.
those days are gone.

[zerocrossing]

People will disagree with me, but I feel there are a lot of modern synths that embody what we consider “vintage tone.” My Dominion 1, ATC-X and Melbourne Instruments Nina all can produce sounds that I consider vintage, or at least as vintage as I feel I need in my life.

So you have a Nina on hand now?

I do. It’s awesome. I decided to slim things down to a few really characterful hardware synths, and that’s one of them.

[pdxindy]

People will disagree with me, but I feel there are a lot of modern synths that embody what we consider “vintage tone.” My Dominion 1, ATC-X and Melbourne Instruments Nina all can produce sounds that I consider vintage, or at least as vintage as I feel I need in my life.

So you have a Nina on hand now?

I do. It’s awesome. I decided to slim things down to a few really characterful hardware synths, and that’s one of them.

Nice! I'm considering it. I want less gear, so my plan is to buy more! hehehe

What do you like about it? Any downsides? I read that it now supports MPE. If you have tried the MPE support, what do you think? Does Nina do Osc FM? Filter FM? Ringmod?

[liquidsound]

vintage threads are overrated

But they are Warm

[chk071]

Software has come a long way. It's amazing how good emulations have become.

[zerocrossing]

People will disagree with me, but I feel there are a lot of modern synths that embody what we consider “vintage tone.” My Dominion 1, ATC-X and Melbourne Instruments Nina all can produce sounds that I consider vintage, or at least as vintage as I feel I need in my life.

So you have a Nina on hand now?

I do. It’s awesome. I decided to slim things down to a few really characterful hardware synths, and that’s one of them.

Nice! I'm considering it. I want less gear, so my plan is to buy more! hehehe

Well, I sold my M and have a REV2 and ATC-X up for sale.

What do you like about it?

First and foremost, the character is awesome. Kind of vintage Moog meets Modal.

Second, it has a great feature set that’s not so sprawling that you get lost in options. That’s better done in software, IMO. It’s multitimbral, MPE, audio in (with feedback) polyphonic aftertouch support, and don’t forget the motorized knobs. No gimmick there. It’s super useful.

Any downsides?

No real downsides, but I would love a few additions, like letting me assign a/b morph (each patch has two parts) to aftertouch. Or letting effect parameters morph too.

I read that it now supports MPE. If you have tried the MPE support, what do you think?

Works great.

Does Nina do Osc FM? Filter FM?

The digital wavetable oscillator is a modulation source, and has an LFO mode.

Ringmod?

XOR gate.

[Vectorman]

Interesting glimpse of the past. Somehow the 13 years seems like a very, very long time ago now. I recall living sounds' posts were a definite motivator for me to try some vintage analog as well. Ended up picking up a Juno 60 (for $750 - they run just a TAD higher now), a Chroma Polaris, and a Microwave 1. I got a bit bored with the Juno after the nostalgia wore off (a 106 was my first synth WAY back when). The Polaris only worked for a few months before it developed one issue after another and is now collecting dust under a bed because I never got it fixed. The Microwave, which I got for $500, was sold on and now of course they're 5x that much.

After that, I mostly just resumed using software and picked up a Virus TI, until the Behringer synths tempted me back with their no-brainer prices. I prefer the Behringer D to the Little Phatty I used to have, sound-wise. The Pro 800 conjures a reasonable degree of vintage poly flavor, and it's hard to argue with an 8-voice, dual-VCO poly for only $50 more than their mono desktops. I really don't need anything more than what I already have, but if their UB-X and Wave turn out well, I'll probably pick those up. I doubt I'll ever buy another vintage synth. Of the last two I bought in recent years, one arrived smashed and the other worked for about 30 minutes before ceasing to produce any sound. It was like something was telling me to wash my hands of vintage.

[Stefken]

I recently bought Korg 707 keyboard, vintage FM synth, I plugged it in and the keyboard didn't work. I was able to get it to work via midi with a controller.

I took a peak inside and noticed a pcb board under the keybed was grey/burnt looking along one side.

I contact Korg, and several parts suppliers,and parts are no longer available, so I'm all beat up about it.

From now on, I no longer want to buy vintage instruments, they aren't worth the headache, especially if you are a composer/working musician.

Sure you may be looking for "that" sound. Which no other synth can duplicate exactly, but "that" sound was 25 years ago, the people who got "that" sound were just making music with whatever resources they had.

I say stop looking for "that" sound, and start making the "next new" sound.

We have plenty of gear, sound palettes, options that musicians would've killed for 25 years ago.

That being said, I have a Yamaha FB01 FM synth also, and want to load up the 96 user patches with 3rd party patches, but don't know how. Do I need an Atari emulator? How can I dump these patches into it?

Dunno. I guess you should check for correct operation or have some sort of insurance or quality control process in place.

I m not a big fan of second hand gear. I tend to go for new gear which has that vintage vibe. Korg still makes the MS-20, Moog still makes their vintage stuff (Roland also has their SE-02 By Studio Electronics) . Erica synths has their Syntrx and other vintage inspired stuff. Behringer has tons of clones that come very close. Analog FX has their SER-2020, etc etc.

New gear, vintage vibe. Best of both worlds maybe?

[damoog]

I know this will have been mentioned in this thread already but vintage is absolutely nailed now is software form ,it really has come that far ahead of itself and it baffles me that people are still chasing unpredictable vintage ‘dinosaurs’ when this equipment is EASILY covered by the likes of softube,UAD,Arturia and U-he

Each to their own but my advise for anybody after vintage gear would be to just keep your music budget on exactly what you need

[PatchAdamz]

I think the real problem is you purchased a Korg 707.

An old, and possibly mistreated Korg 707.

[zerocrossing]

I know this will have been mentioned in this thread already but vintage is absolutely nailed now is software form ,it really has come that far ahead of itself and it baffles me that people are still chasing unpredictable vintage ‘dinosaurs’ when this equipment is EASILY covered by the likes of softube,UAD,Arturia and U-he

Each to their own but my advise for anybody after vintage gear would be to just keep your music budget on exactly what you need

Some people would rather not make music at all than use software. I’m definitely not one of those people, but they seem to be a loud bunch. Also, not all of the classics have been nailed, at least not as far as I’m concerned. No one’s done a good ARP 2600 yet, for some reason. Roland’s Jupiter 4 sounds good, but doesn’t capture the rich harmonic goodness of the VCA when overdriven. Etc. So, I imagine that the people who love those instruments wouldn’t be happy with the current software, even if they didn’t mind using software.

Another aspect of wanting vintage is magic. Modern versions, as good as they can be, were not made in the time of magic. None were anointed by the great wizards of old, and even the last instruments made by those wizards happened at a time when their powers waned.

[vurt]

a lot of things are "over rated" unless, they happen to be your "thing".
none of them effect me though, in the sense that, if you want to spend several grand on an old synth, it doesn't make a difference in my day.

more so, if it makes "you" happy, then i can't see any reason against it. (barring the obvious like lack of funds and such) but someone owning a synth, doesn't hurt anyone (cept maybe neighbours ) and the way things are going, if you save the money to pass on to your kids, it will be taken by the government in taxes or be worthless due to inflation. spend it now!!!

[PatchAdamz]

Ratings are overrated.

[Uncle E]

more so, if it makes "you" happy, then i can't see any reason against it.

As a Chroma Polaris, Juno-106, and Andromeda owner, I’ll just say believe all the warnings you’ve heard. It’s not a matter of “if” things go wrong, it’s a matter of “when”.