-Letters- Analog Synths Review

[harrybissell at prodigy.net]

I'd review synths based on the manufacturer's patches.
Let them choose the sound to represent themselves. This
is how we buy in stores... you have 30 sec to convince me that I need to stop (maybe even come back the next day) and take a couple of hours with the synth. The Manufacturer KNOWS what he can and cannot do... 

If the synth passes the initial "muster" then you check it out for real.

I like to read the maunals myself to REALLY review a synth..

:^) Harry


 ---- On Dec 23 P4DQt at aol.com wrote: 
> Hi, long time fan, love the Mag.!  
> I'm writing this letter in reply to the analog synths review, while Mr. 
> atkins did a fine job writing the review, I'm puzzled by something. After 
> visiting Keyboardmag.com, reading the article, listening to the Real Audio 
> demo files associated with the article, I'm left with this thought.  this is 
> not the way one can compare 2 or 9 Synths.
>  First, one should use the same technique across all the synths involved in 
> the listening test, when trying to determine the sound spectrum of a given 
> synth.
>  Second, the audio demo files, are recordings from different "styles"? Of 
> music, Virus-1.2 .ra for example was a 39 sec. techno like song that to my 
> ears, the auhor of the composition was inspired by the name of the synth in 
> the review, used to make the song for the review.  I think that if one is 
> going to use a sequence pattern to compare the sound capabilities of a synth, 
> one should use the same sequence across all the different synths, though I 
> understand why it's not done this way, it would be boring, and boring is not 
> a wanted quality for an article. 
>     Now conceder this, when one is comparing the sound spectrum of a synth, 
> one should use the Synths editor to create random patches and try to cover 
> all the possible parameter settings (agrhhh), recording them all into ra or 
> mp3 files and letting us hear them and compare them all. But this is the 
> stuff that dreams are off One comes to the conclusion that it's almost 
> impossible and not enough time in a life time to accomplish this. Then enter 
> the "standard", something like the pre set banks of any synth, you know ... 
> the Base, Drums, organs,  strings, winds, Pads, sweeps, arps, Fx, etc.  sound 
> banks of your favorite work station, this way you can try to compare banks 
> across 9 synths, or better yet, record the actual pre sets that come with 
> each synth, i guess single key strokes across the keyboard would be OK, but 
> better yet one could use a sequence in a style that is appropriate for the 
> type of sound, this will give the listener a good idea of the Synths sound 
> creation capabilities. But this is all to good and complicated to get done, 
> maybe it will be the future of synth manufacturers online shopping, one can 
> demo all the manufacturers websites and listen to their synths pre sets.
> That's all, thank you all at keyboard for making all of this happen and have 
> a merry Christmas to all who read this, Happy new year!!!
> Sam from NYC