Scoring Central

OK, I think I am getting pretty close to a working setup here.

OUTBOARD GEAR



The mixer I have everything hooked up two has two aux sends/returns (which is actually not bad considering it's just a cheapo 6 ch Behringer mixer). First one is pre-fader, second is post-fader. I'm using the pre-fader aux for reverb, and the post fader aux for delays (and possibly other fx, I don't know yet). So the rack stuff, from top to bottom...

AUX 1

1. Lexicon Alex.

This one sounds seriously amazing. Not that I thought Lexicon's reputation for being the king of hardware reverbs was undeserved or anything, but I did not expect this kind of quality from a 1993 budget unit. It's clear that corners were cut in the right places and that sound quality has not been compromized with. If I had an audio interface with more I/O, I would definitely try using it on my orchestral stuff.

2. Alesis Microverb III.

Since I didn't get a power supply with the Alex and the Alesis one was compatible, I'm not using this unit ATM. Can't think of anything I might need it for either, since it sounds kind of like a joke compared to the Lexi. I mean sure, the "bloom" reverb is kind of nice. But the rest... naah.

AUX 2

3. Digitech DSP 256XL.

I got this one for cheap well over a decade ago. The DSP 256XL has a reputation of being sort of a "hair metal" guitarist FX unit but it's more versatile than it's usually given credit for. The Ultimate Reverb algo actually sounds really nice (definitely better than the Alesis!), and the delays are good as well.

4. Behringer Virtualizer Pro 1000p

The guy who sold me the DSP 256XL threw this in at no extra cost since he hated it and had no use for it. And I kind of see his point. The reverbs are ringy and harsh and the other effects are not much better. It's one of those pieces of kit you keep around because you can't sell them and you don't have the heart for throwing working gear away. I might patch it in after the Digitech, using the chorus for a "mod delay" type of effect.

5. Rane ME15.

A nice graphic equalizer, nothing more, nothing less. Built like a tank and virtually noise-free.

6. Just some old 2x70W power amp that I had lying around. Not using it, just put it in there to populate the last empty rack slot.

THE COMPUTER

As mentioned previously, I did get rid of the AWE64. It didn't offer anything useful in terms of synth sounds (except maybe the FM chip... but I'm not big into FM), and it kept picking up some annoying high frequency inteference from inside the computer and was by far the noisiest card of the five.

I also did a complete rehaul of the computer today. I don't know why, but since I started using this thing again it has had some weird issues. It would work fine one night and the next morning when I booted it up again, Windows 98 had misplaced various hardware and needed to reinstall it. Followed by various IRQ and address space conflicts and a lot of frustration. So I finally gave up and replaced the motherboard, since I think there might be something wrong with the Abit BE6. I mean... why put five PCI slots and two ISA's on a mobo if you can't use more than three cards of any type at the same time without resource conflicts? I put in an Abit BX6 instead, which doesn't have an ATA66 controller like the BE6, but TBH the difference between ATA33 and ATA66 is marginal at best. The BX6 also supports up to 1GB of RAM, which is nice (and a crazy amount of RAM for 98/99) but hardly necessary for this build. So far it appears to be working fine, so fingers crossed.

While I was at it, I took the opportunity of replacing the 500MHz PIII CPU with the 600MHz one. My reason for not using the 600 to begin with was that it was actively cooled and has a noisy fan. But honestly -- I don't think that fan is even necessary. The passively cooled 500MHz processor gets only barely warm to the touch when the computer is up and running. How much of a difference does 100MHz make in terms of heat? I have the 600 in the computer right now, without the fan plugged in, and while I'm typing this it's been happily running the Windows 3D Maze screensaver for over two hours.

But wait, I hear you asking, what does it sound like?

Well... something like this.

This is just a random thing composed in 30 minutes (and 15 of that was probably dialling in the delay pattern), just the raw output from the mixer. I dunno, many people complain that old hardware reverbs and sound cards are noisy -- hell, I remember them that way too! -- but TBH I'm thinking that might have to do with bad gain staging and not knowing what you're doing more than anything else. Sure, this setup is waaay noisier than working ITB, for obvious reasons, but is it unbearably noisy? Definitely not.

Oh, right: that tune features synth patches from all four sound cards. The percussion is E-MU APS, the swirly pad type of sound is Yamaha XG, the high strings and low pad bass notes are from the Soundscape, and the shakuhachi lead is the Santa Cruz. With levels matched and a single nice reverb for making things gel, they go really nicely together.

Mattias, that sounds (and looks) fantastic! I wonder if between all of us on this forum we might find some game we could score or make an album with all of our old synths and samplers.

(03-09-2018, 08:24 PM)Samulis Wrote: [ -> ]Mattias, that sounds (and looks) fantastic! I wonder if between all of us on this forum we might find some game we could score or make an album with all of our old synths and samplers.

Thanks Sam! That is not a bad idea at all. I don't think I have the patience for recording more than a few tracks with this setup (given the unreliable nature of Win 9x), but maybe we could put together some kind of retro/synth/vapor/whateverbuzzword-wave compilation album

Come to think of it, are any of you guys using convolution reverb? Feeding a frequency sweep through these old units and creating IR's isn't that much of a chore, so let me know if you're interested.

(03-09-2018, 10:32 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: [ -> ]Come to think of it, are any of you guys using convolution reverb? Feeding a frequency sweep through these old units and creating IR's isn't that much of a chore, so let me know if you're interested.

You know, I actually might be interested in that! If you do it, I would be happy to try out the results.

(03-04-2018, 09:04 AM)Viktor Wrote: [ -> ]You got a lexicon for cheap? Thats crazy, around here you have to sell your kidney to get your hands on one. Have fun with it!

Just a quick thought in relation to this comment.

Here's the thing with rack gear: the majority of existing stuff is getting pretty long in the tooth, since few manufacturers make rack units anymore. My oldest one is the Microverb III which is from 1991. That's 27 years ago! For the sake of perspective: if it were a PC, it would be a 386. If it were a boy band, it would be East 17. My point here is, who knows how much life these things have left in them? Electronics don't last forever. And some of these digital effects have no discrete components that can be replaced, like you could on e.g. an old guitar amp -- they're just a PCB with I/O and an IC doing all the work. So if the IC fails it's game over.

So while I don't mind picking up stuff like this if the price is right, I refuse to pay any larger sums for equipment that, if worst comes to worst, might fail irreparably at any given moment. So that's definitely something to consider if you're thinking about springing for this or that piece of kit on ebay or whatever. You need to ask yourself, "would I be fine with parting with this amount of money while knowing that this thing WILL give up the ghost sooner or later, and most likely sooner?"

If the answer is yes, take a chance and go for it. Otherwise, if you're looking for something that will bring you the most bang per buck and will serve you for years to come, the software route is safer.

Or you can buy two of whatever it is and continually cannibalize one for the other.

Syntaur actually quite regularly has spare parts in stock for quite a few old samplers and synths, although who knows how long they'll be around either!

(03-16-2018, 12:53 AM)Samulis Wrote: [ -> ]Or you can buy two of whatever it is and continually cannibalize one for the other.

Sure, provided that you can find two at decent prices. Buying used stuff from ebay is rarely possible in this corner of the world since the shipping costs and import fees are insane -- for something big and bulky like a rack unit we're talking $50-100 on top of the asking price. So I'm limited to what's available locally, and you just don't see this kind of stuff often anymore.

I have yet to hear something definitive from the seller (he was out of town when I messaged him and would be getting back to me after the weekend, but nothing yet), but if everything goes to plan I will be adding a Yamaha TG100 to my setup shortly. Specs here.

As much as I love my old sound cards I would really like to get myself at least couple of decent sound modules from back in the day. Preferably an XG-compatible Yamaha one and some incarnation of the Roland Sound Canvas. The TG100 is pre-XG and basically Yamaha's attempt at making a SC-compatible GM device, but I'm at the point where I'll take anything I can get since these things are getting increasingly rare in this part of the world and prices are skyrocketing. At ~$50 it seems like a good deal though, the demo sounds quite charming and if you search on YouTube you can find several original compositions made with the thing.