If we're lucky, we may still have the factory sounds stored on data cassette somewhere, and we can spend many happy hours trying to get them to load back in. Then suddenly, it's as if the synth itself has been taken away. In fact, we only notice it when it doesn't work. We think nothing of it when we turn the cheapest polysynth off and back on again to find the sounds are still there. Of course we've been spoilt by it on synths. Thanks, I ought to point out, to a battery back-up on its memory.Īnd it's a wonderful thing, battery back-up. For me, the Tandy machine has one huge advantage over every other computer ever made: when you turn it off (or the power gets accidentally disconnected), it doesn't forget everything it ever knew. This was made possible by a revolutionary arrival in my life, a Tandy 600 portable computer. Much of this review was written aboard a TWA 747 flying over the Atlantic. LET'S GET THE major complaint out of the way first. Sequencing memory was to be 50,000 notes with floppy disk storage, and synchronisation would not be limited to unmusical SMPTE or prehistoric pulses-per-quarter note, but would push MIDI to its limits and introduce a new standard, MTC. Pitch, Level and Pan would be programmable for every note as on previous Sequential drum machines, but now there would be eight separate outputs. The sounds would all use 12-bit resolution, with a sample rate of up to 42kHz, and a 32-sound user-sampling option. Preliminary specs on Sequential's Studio 440 which began to filter through unofficial channels last summer - and their subsequent confirmation by Sequential in the autumn - made it clear that the machine would be addressing itself to pretty much the same market as the Linn, but with some major improvements. Yet as a dedicated drum machine, MIDI recorder and sampler, the Linn 9000 has filled a gap which no other machine could. Even its strongest critics have to concede its good points, and its staunchest defenders are left speechless by some of the more testing moments in its operation (like when you discover that it doesn't understand the MIDI clock, or that the song you've been working on for days goes down the tubes when it locks up). People either love its sound, the convenience of combined rhythms and sequences that it offers, and its way of approaching the tasks it performs or they hate the grittiness of its eight-bit sampling, its glaring omissions in the areas of programmable tuning, panning and MIDI, and the fact that nearly all revisions of hardware and software seem to crash every time a gnat hiccups 300 miles away. RAISE THE SUBJECT of the Linn 9000 among top musicians and programmers, and you can bet that whatever their reaction, it will be a strong one.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |