BigNathy Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Hi all. I'm a newb here, so I thought I'd start off with a general question...... What was you're first 'midi' setup? For me - Atari 520 (?) & Cubase . S950 Sampler,D110 Module & D50 Keyboard. Guess I'm showing my age....... ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ski Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 I'm going to show my age too! Started with a Commodore 64 with a DX7. Eventually I got an SX-64 http://oldcomputers.net/sx64.html. After that I was using Synclavier for a while (I was working for them). When I went freelance I got an Atari 1040 with a Unitor and C-Lab Notator. By that time I had racks of MIDI gear including samplers, a couple of M1's, and a slew of keyboards including a MIDI-ized PPG 2.2, Matrix 12, OB8, Minimoog, Wavestation, Juno 60, D50, blah blah blah. These days my work isn't nearly as synth-oriented as it used to be (doing mostly orchestral stuff now) but I'll still use a K2000 and a JV2080 on occasion. I've still got about 6 or 7 keyboards laying around. Can't bear to part with them for some reason... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fazmanicg Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 I started with cakewalk DOS 1.0, a ROLAND r-8 Drum module, and a DX-7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantomimeHorse Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 I'm going to show my age too! Can't quite beat ya', Ski boy, BUT: Atari 1040ST, running Steinberg Pro24, listening to MIDI off a DX7 and locked up to SMPTE from a Fostex F16 ............ How's that for retro ? 8) -C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNathy Posted April 7, 2008 Author Share Posted April 7, 2008 Unitor all the way for me....locked to a Fostex cassette 4 track. 8) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkgross Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 ATARI 1040, Master Tracks Pro..original DX7, Tascam 388, Roland D50, S50 Sampler (then a 770). Seems to me I had a Roland Juno and some Proteus stuff at one point, and some Oberheim stuff...but those days are kinda foggy.... First time I ever Midi'd two keyboards together to play one sound was a DX7 and the Juno I think..I had a MemoryMoog Plus at one point in there (DAMN I wish I still had that thing). I'll have to think about what else was out in 76'ish time frame... I remember doing a whole album for Step Reebok Aerobics on my 1040ST and my 8 track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nagal Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 I started with an old IBM clone (286 I believe) running Cakewalk 2.0. My "midi" interface plugged into the parallel port of my computer. For gear I have an Ensoniq Mirage sampler, Roland Synth also cannot remember the name, some kind of cheesy Casio keyboard, a Yamaha RX-7 (maybe RX-5) drum machine. All getting mixed into a Yamaha 4 track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikkik Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Almost grabbed a 1040, but was told wait for the next jump (Falcon). Sat with my Alesis HR-16 and the companion MIDI recorder (MMR-8 maybe?), and Akai X7000 keyboard. Added a D20, and thought I was set... Wanted an Emax so bad... edited to add: I still have the D20. Tho many love(d) their D50's, that D20 was my first. My fav key action still...no other Roland feels like it (so far), no idea what happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantomimeHorse Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 ... some kind of cheesy Casio keyboard ...... I had a CZ1000 and a CZ5000. They had some cool soundz, man. Whatever happened to Phase Distortion synthesis ? - C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxwellJump Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 -mqx 32 midi card (still have it and it still works) -486 pc -Winjammer Sequencing Software -Fostex 4-track cassette -Roland 707 Drum Machine (still have it and it still works) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikkik Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 Oh- interesting one.. Storage and available space has become an issue, so I have had to start going thru old boxes and throw out tons of stuff. I found my old ISA Turtle Beach Maui card, with the full 8M of RAM onboard (Win 3.1! lol!). Was kinda sad to toss it. Even sadder though was when I moved out here to Oregon, I had to downsize a little. One of the things I gave to friends? My old trusty Mac SE/30. Had Turbosynth and some other cool stuff on it still. Move before that saw the give-away of my first computer, TI99/4A. Games, stuff I programmed and editor/assembler stuff. Not MIDI, but still... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddTime Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 First midi hookup for me was technically a C64 to a Kawai K1 (just for storing patches). I had (still have) a Fast Forward Design's Midi Step foot pedal unit for triggering the K1 when needed. For sequencing it was an Atari 1040ST running Cubase with an M1, Kawai K1, and an Alesis SR-16 drum machine. The Atari was MMC'd up to an Akai DR4d 4 track digital HD recorder. ...man I lusted after those D50's back in the day Ski; weren't those PPG's worth about 10 grand back then???! Wow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biff_larken Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 I used the "MTV Music Generator" for making 2 albums worth of weird, badly sampled stuff. As far as midi goes, what popped my techno-cherry was Creative Labs' "Prodikeys". I guess that really shows age (or lack thereof). It was surprisingly handy! http://www.prodikeys.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fadercraig Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 ahhh, it was 1992, the bass player left the band and took his Yamaha R3 (i think...) with him. For some reason it fell to me, the vocalist, to deal with the technology... Korg DDD5 (or was it the 3?) midi out to Akai S900 sampler midi thru to Boss Dr. Rhythm 550. We even toured it, the only problems were when i forgot to change the programs on the sampler. Mid 90's Ensoniq EPS 16, with the ram upgrade and multiple outs. Really an amazing machine, great sound. Did quite few ambient/freenoise shows on that one Late 90's Ensoniq ASR-X. A good idea badly carried out, under powered sequencer, lots of glitches at high tempos..which sucked cos i had started making n playing DnB live. Still has my some of my favorite reverb sounds though 2001 ish Powerbook G4, 1 ghz, Logic 5, midisport 2 x 2, Akai S6000. This setup ruled, but was extremely heavy to carry round Wow, despite all the years and damage done, i remember most of that pretty fondly... Cx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtonic Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 First midi hookup for me was technically a C64 to a Kawai K1 (just for storing patches). I had (still have) a Fast Forward Design's Midi Step foot pedal unit for triggering the K1 when needed. Amazing - someone else who had a K1! My dad bought a K1 back when it came out. I was just a little kid then, but between that and Nintendo music I was influenced into music creation. I moved on to using Soundfonts with Cakewalk Pro in the late 90s and eventually integrated the K1 into it. That thing was a pain in the balls because you'd have to manually create a multi-instrument and feed different midi channels to it to get it to do multi-timbral synthesis. It only offered 8 voices at once, so if you had a kick, snare, and hihat you were already down to 5. Last MIDI hardware device I bought was a Roland JV-1010, that was about 5 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtonic Posted April 7, 2008 Share Posted April 7, 2008 And since Biff mentioned it, I HAVE to post this link to someone rocking the Prodikeys: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddTime Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Amazing - someone else who had a K1! Yep, 'twas a nicely programmable keyboard for it's time! I also have a K11 (which is not the same as a K1-II). It's not a particularly noteworthy synth, other than that nobody in the universe seems to have heard of these (not ebay, not the synthmuseum)! p.s. welcome BigNathy. Nice way to introduce yerself; get a bunch of us (...well, me at least) all nostalgic for our old gear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigNathy Posted April 8, 2008 Author Share Posted April 8, 2008 Thanks OddTime, it's nice to be involved. I moved up to a K2000R/MPC60 next, still running off the ST. Then I got a mac and......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantomimeHorse Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Thanks OddTime, it's nice to be involved. I moved up to a K2000R/MPC60 next, still running off the ST. Then I got a mac and......... ........ the rest, as they say, is history ! - C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Threlly Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 I started pre-midi, but my first midi keyboard was a Korg Poly 800 and a brand new TR-909. The first things I ever synced together were a Firstman SQ01 bass sequencer and a Kay DRM-1 drum rhythm via a 24ppq socket. Nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bjs Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 I lost my MIDI virginity to an Atari 520ST & then a 1040ST & a Casio CZ101. (yeah, some really cool bass sounds--haven't heard nor seen one of them in ages). Oh yeah, & a Roland 505 drum machine & a MT32 sound module. All this went into the inevitable Tascam Porta One, with a 58 for vocals. I bought & used Passport Mastertracks Pro & then resorted to a cracked version of Cubase 1.0 when Passport refused to replace a defective program disk. There were all kinds of floppy disk programs being traded around, including early Band-in-a-Box. Anyone remember X-OR, the MIDI Librarian? One fine Sunday afternoon my apt. got burglarized & they took everything with a plug except the toaster. It was over a year before I could rebuild. Then I got an Ensoniq VFX, which had fantastic sounds but broke down every couple weeks. I finally traded that in on a Korg M1, which was the Big Thing. I still have the M1, the 1040 & somewhere around here, a shoebox full of old Atari floppy disks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantomimeHorse Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 I had a CZ101, too ! - They were cool. Along with the CZ1000 and the 5000, Casio had some great flagship synths, there. Often underrated and scorned by the DX7/D50 fraternity in the mid/late 80's, these devices were responsible for a lot of the sounds we associate with that era (Human League, Eurythmics, PSB's) - I have a CZ230S, now, but it doesn't hold a candle to the 1000. - C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcrigger Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Wow had to think about that - guess it would have '84-ish. Started with a Korg Poly 800 and a Roland MSQ-700 seq. - which I pretty quickly dumped for a C-64 running Dr.T. Then added a Roland JX-8P at that was it for a while. Then came the Atari - still with Dr T then to the mac - to run performer the first Digital Performer was so bad - shifted to Studio Vision then Gibson killed SV, so back to the luckily working Digital Performer finally fed up with "the more you edit, the slower it gets aspects of DP", switched to Logic at version 6 Happy guy now - with the smallest, yet most capable rig I've ever had of the past - what? 24 years? David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leahbasskitten Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 .... mario paint composer was my first adventure into the midi world. *blush* and if you are needing a better way to organize your midi files: http://www.adultswim.com/video/?episodeID=ed51283959c1b620020500a210f04a0d Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtonic Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Yeah, I think it's easy to underestimate how important Mario Paint was to some musicians today. It may not have been my first MIDI experience, but it was my first time with a sequencer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biff_larken Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 finally fed up with "the more you edit, the slower it gets aspects of DP", switched to Logic at version 6 David Is this still happening with DP? I've noticed this a *bit* with Protools, but then again, I'm only running it through a FW Solo, not a full blown PT rig. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prospect Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 APS Mac Clone running Logic Platinum 3 Akai MPC 2000 Casio Radio Shack type keyboard with MIDI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leahbasskitten Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 Yeah, I think it's easy to underestimate how important Mario Paint was to some musicians today. It may not have been my first MIDI experience, but it was my first time with a sequencer. thank you! i don't feel like such a dork now! *holds head up high* i used Mario Paint Composer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantomimeHorse Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 [thank you! i don't feel like such a dork now! *holds head up high* i used Mario Paint Composer But, do you remember DPaint on the Commodore Amiga ? The first painful steps towards understanding Bezier curves .......... - C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leahbasskitten Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 But, do you remember DPaint on the Commodore Amiga ? The first painful steps towards understanding Bezier curves .......... - C actually, i do! it was digipaint 3 to be exact. i remember making "3d" orbs. it was all i could figure what to do that was different. i was a little young to know what i really was doing though. it was still fun! i bet you weren't expected that answer, were you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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