Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ken Leonard" <ken@...>
To: <Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2003 12:31 AM
Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] Roland vs M400


Jon/Ken/Linda

> >A question - is
> >the Roland unit available in rack-mount or is it strictly a keyboard
> >or expansion card unit?
>
> The M-VS1 is a 1U rack mount, fairly small. Basically it's a power supply
> and output stage around the contents of the "Keyboards of the 60's/70's"
(I
> think!) JV-series card.

It's actually the 'vintage synth' card. 'Keyboards of the 60s/70s' features
a load of other sounds, including more 'Trons.

I don't know if the card works in the JD.

Nope - the JD isn't expandable, although it seems most of Mr.Roland's recent
creations are.

In the
> M-VS1 there are NRPNS/RPNS that you may be able to coax into doing
> something, but I haven't gone there, as I'm out of my depth with MIDI as
> soon as we get beyond talking about channels and ports (I'm just happy
when
> sounds come out when I want them to).

I'm told editing's easy when you know what you're doing! I don't... If
you're using the expansion card in a JV/whatever, apparently it's simple.

FWIW, I've been using the M-VS since it came out, and while it in no way
accurately duplicates 'Tron sounds, it suffices for live, especially in a
fairly noisy, non-prog band... I think the band were going to try to
persuade me to record with it until they heard the real thing, at which
point they backed down hurridly... :-)

Album due out late winter/early spring, hoping for reasonable amount of
'Tron input.

Andy T.