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Paul's Home Synthesizer Studio

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My setup is quite basic: I have a few MIDI controllers/keyboards, a few sound modules, and a modest audio setup.

July 2008 Update: I've upgraded my studio setup to include a M-Audio Firewire 410 audio recording interface and an M-Audio MIDISport 2x2 interface. Since I do mostly piano, I also added Garitan's Authorized Steinway Virtual Concert Grand as well as Apple's Logic Studio.

MIDI

Let's begin with the controllers, these are keyboards with no onboard sounds and must be connected to sound modules in order to generate music. I have three: an 88-key fully weighted, 76-key semi-weighted, and a 45 key unweighted controller.

• Fatar Studio 900, an 88 key fully weighted piano and had the best piano action at the time (circa 1993). Today there are better if you are looking for more weighted action. But, for me, the heavier action can be fatiguing. The action of the Fatar is quite nice and a feel I am now used to. It cannot split the keyboard, but I have some control from the keyboard, such as modulation, volume, aftertouch which are assignable to a wheel; and pitch control on another wheel. I can also transpose and switch MIDI channels direct from the board. I've had a hammer go, but it was relatively easy to replace.
• Roland A33 has 76 "semi-weighted" keys and wonderful action (slightly more resistance than synth action) that works great for anything other than piano: i.e., organ, orchestral, and drum patches. It has a full-featured set of interface controls that allows you to easily control sound modules direct from the keyboard. For example, the A33 features an assignable expression lever and pitch bender, full complement of patch controls, keyboard split and layers, reverb and chorus switches, transposition, sequencer trigger switch, labelled patch changes, and octave shift switches.
• Roland AX1 is a late 90's reissue of the popular 80's strap-on unweighted board and is a fun little thing. For me, it's completely not necessary though. It has features similar to the A33, and has some additional features for strap-on guitar-like play, such as a sustain switch that replaces the sustain pedal and a fantastic ribbon pitch bend controller on the neck.

For most, I would think an 88-key weighted and 76-key semi-weighted are musts. The MIDI outputs of the controllers run through an M-Audio MIDISport 2x2 USB interface which allows me to sequence or route the MIDI directly to the sound modules. These days I am running Apple's Logic Studio on a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac.

The nice thing about always keeping the sound modules separate from the controllers, is that one can upgrade quite easily. For sound modules, I've stuck with Kurzweil and Roland. Kurzweil gives you the best piano samples in a box known to mankind (well, to me at least) and Roland gives you the best of everything else. My Kurzweil modules include the newer PC2R which is an improvement over my mid-90's era Kurzweil MicroPiano.

For my Roland module, I have a JV-1080 (64 note polyphony, multitimbral; upgraded from my original JV-880) with the JV80-06 SuperSound Set, the JV80-09 Session, and the JV80-07 Keyboard of the 60's and 70's expansion boards. Since the venerable JV-1080, Roland has come out with the JV-2080, XV-3080, and XV-5080 modules; the latter two offer more voice polyphony and richer samples. But I'm still tickled silly over my 1080 and they can be had quite cheap used. Nowadays everything can be done on the computer with software based samples. I like my older system, though, and it's great for live stuff without the computer.

Sound Module MP3 Samples

• Kurzweil MicroPiano Sample: All Keys
• Roland JV-series Samples: * House I * House II * Jazzy to Rocky * House III * House IV * Effects-ish *
  
• Roland XV-3080 Samples: * Film Score to House * Jazzy Jazz to Mellow House * Ethnic * Hard Rock * Synthy Rock *
  
• Roland XV-5080 Samples: * American Heartland * Concert Piano Samples * Drums Samples * Vintage Samples *
  
• Kurzweil PC2R MP-3 Samples: * Elements by Chris Stevens * Fandango by Tim Gilpin * The Girl with the Flaxen Hair by Debussy and performed by Lucy DeSa * Precipice by Jordan Rudess * Symphonica by Chris Stevens (Orchestral ROM Block) *
  

Audio / Sound Reinforcement / Digital Audi Recording

The other essential component of a synth studio is the audio. Traditionally, one has a bunch of analog audio outputs from your sound modules that need to be "mixed" and sent to a amplification system so you can actually hear what you are playing. Of course these days one can stay all digital, but I haven't gone there yet. The image at left was what my studio looked like circa late 1990s.

The StudioMaster 8 channel mixer has large-throw gain sliders and 3 band EQ per channel with 2 effects sends (pre and post). I like it alot since it's pretty basic and large, simple, and clean. All the audio components (sound modules to mixer, mixer to amplifier, etc.) are connected with 1/4" XLR cables which are all of the heavy-duty Excelline variety and some recently added Monster StudioLinks.

The two audio outputs of the mixer run to a Samson Servo 150 Amp and Tannoy PBM-6.5II speakers connected with 12-guage insulated speaker cables (i.e, get the best cables you can afford). I also have a portable Barbetta Sona 32C (165 bi-amped Watts through a 15" woofer and a 7" horn).

Unbalanced left-right outputs go to the M-Audio Firewire 410 audio recording interface at 24-bit/96kHz. This allows me to record on my iMac.

Other Stuff

I almost never use the following list of toys which sit on my rack. But someday, I hope to do some more songwriting and vocals. The effects send on the mixer goes into an ART Tube MP, which I use as a microphone pre-amp for vocals (I have two MICS, a Shure SM57 and SM58) or for my Matador Bongos or other percussion sound makers. I use an Alesis Nanoverb effects processor and an Alesis 3630 Compressor/Limiter to compress vocals, percussion, and when my wife plays her Dean Mark IV electric bass (which is almost never).

We have a smattering of other musical toys, including a decent Yamaha Acoustic guitar that I would someday really like to learn how to play. I also tried, unsuccessfully, to rekindle my interest in my Martin B-flat trumpet (I spent many years playing the trumpet as a kid) and am trying to learn how to play blues harmonica. But both of those endeavors have fallen by the wayside, as I have had much more fun noodling around with my Hohner Alto Melodica (an unusual harmonica-like instrument with a keyboard) and Irish Whistle (I have the Cillian Faedog in D and recently added a John Sindt D). If you are interested in learning more about Tin Whistles, check out this site: Cliff & Fipple.

All my gear was moved from basic black racks and stands to an Omnirax SynthRax 88 when we moved to our new house and I moved my gear out of the basement. It's a 3-tier cabinet with 3 sliding shelves with 30 rack spaces below and sports a Mahogany laminate finish that fits in with the rest of my home decor.

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