06.02.10
Super Fat and Mr. Thin
..that about sums up my next purchase.
On the fat side was the Roland “Super Jupiter” (MKS-80) analog rack synth (with programmer).
This synth had an amazing sound but ironically,many of the presets were attempts to emulate “real” instruments like horns and strings. It was a killer for bass and actually fun to program,unlike the Yamaha “FM” synths that were out,like the DX-7.
The DX-7 WAS good at emulating real instruments..it did an amazing electric bass and rhodes piano,with a metallic crispness and attack that could not be matched by the analog Rolands.
I didn’t really want another full keyboard so I opted for the small rack version of “FM”..the “TX 81Z”.
This scaled down,single rack space synth was almost impossible to program but had some great presets..the “Lately Bass” one was used to death on many productions of this time period.
The last synth that I put in my rack at this time was Roland’s attempt to move ahead with their analog line by employing DCOs
(Digitally Controlled Oscillators) instead of the VCOs (Voltage Controlled Oscillators) of the previous generations of synths. These DCOs were supposed to give more stability to the waveforms and tunings and add some extra crispness..they were definitely feeling the heat from Yamaha. I got this with the programmer as well..this was yet another fantastic sounding synth from Roland.
