Just for Fun: What music gear do you regret buying?

[emulatorloo]

saw a similar thread at another board, it was a lot of fun to read.

But you guys are even livelier and more fun than those guys. So since you started on this, what are a few pieces you regret buying.

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I think it was 1987 when I got into MIDI. I had a little yamaha sequencer, a Yamaha FB-01, and a little later that little Roland MT-32. Those synths were noisy as hell, but I don't regret buying them. Long gone, but they got me hooked.

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MIne in no particular order:

Nord Lead V2 (used) - everybody raves about this VA. I found it about as cold and uninspiring as they come. This got sold quickly, replaced by a Korg Z1.

Korg 03r (used) - reviews indicated "the same sounds of the 01". Well ok maybe the factory patches as similar, but there is an unpleasant harshness to the sound. Very shrill. I still have this too lazy to sell. I got an 01r/w (used) to "replace" it, night and day in the way it sounds.

Yamaha A5000 (clearance) - this is down to my own stupidity. I can't make heads or tails out of the operating system. It has some wonderful mangling features. Still have it hoping I will get smarter.

JUNO-106 (used) - got a great deal on this in a package with a JX-8p. I already had a Juno-60. Once UPS brought this to me, it just sounded so one dimensional and flat compared to the 60. OOOPS. Still have the 106, I kept hoping it would appreciate. (it has, but I am holding on a little longer, the prices of Roland stuff seems to be going up) I liked the JX-p a lot, but I sold the JX-8p to finance a JX-10 (LOVE LOVE LOVE)

Jupiter-6 (used) caught up in the Jupiter hype, I HAD TO HAVE THIS. I traded a Korg MS-10 as partial payment on it. I know this makes me a callow person w very poor taste. I wish I had kept the Korg and my cash. I just can't get into it. Still have, again hoping it will appreciate. It is.

Roland U-220 (new) - my first Rompler. Not horrible, but the piano patches still give me nightmares. Long gone, I think it partially financed a refurb Kurzweil PX1000 module.

Yamaha FX500 (clearance/used) - I think this was the first digital guitar multieffect unit. It actually has one of the nicest flanging sounds I have ever heard. I got two very cheap to use in my rack with keyboards as well as guitar, way back when. And a few years ago, I got a used one on ebay for next to nothing. I don't regret having a FX500. BUT WHY DO I HAVE THREE OF THEM.

There are a few others, I guess I will save them for later.

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[James Steele]

I had to comment... I had still HAVE an MT-32 and FB-01. I don't use them, but I'm seriously considering hooking them up because I have a good many old project files that used them and I have no idea what I was thinking because I can't hear the playback as intended. So I want to hook them up just so I can know what VIs etc. to reassign the MIDI tracks to.

Gear I regret buying? I have to think harder about that. I know off the top of my head I had a Digitech rackmounted effects unit that was affordable in it's day that sounded like crap.

[emulatorloo]

I figured out if you sampled an FB-01 or MT-32 and loop them before the noise floor kicks in, you can get some damn good sounds! I did that with my Roland S-220 (QUICKDISCS!?!?!?) before I dumped them.

There was an EP patch on the MT-32 I LOVED - I tried forever to reproduce it on a D-50, never came close.

I had so much fun in my basement studio with those. My next synth was a close-out Oberheim Matrix 6r (still have); I was in heaven with those three for a while.

UGh digitech. . .I hear you.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

M-Audio FW410
M-Audio es88
Yamaha O1V
Bose Personal Audio System
Korg M1 (Keyboard version; VI is awesome)
Sony Portable DAT
Panasonic SV3700
JL Cooper PPS 100

Contrary to this, what I LOVED:

Roland V-Synth
EMU Proteus 2/Orch
EMU Morpheus
Korg Wavestation
Kurzweil PC88 & PC2
Fibes Drums
Yamaha Grand
Yamaha DX100
Ensoniq SQ80 & EPS
M-Audio BX5a and BX 10 Speakers
Edirol 60 note controller

[jgest]

Roland mc505, when I was still a noob with synthesis concepts. I knew from the day I bought it, that the filters sounded off, but I had no experience or relative standards to compare it to. Even though everybody tried to direct me towards an access virus at the time.

[FMiguelez]

.

Kurzweil K2000.

At that time, after import taxes, I paid more than 6K for the damned thing. And it was not that amazing at the time.

In contrast, I LOVED (at that time -1999-2000) my Roland JV-2080 with all the extra cards. These two have been my worst and best purchases respectively.

[jgest]

.

Kurzweil K2000.

At that time, after import taxes, I paid more than 6K for the damned thing. And it was not that amazing at the time.

In contrast, I LOVED (at that time -1999-2000) my Roland JV-2080 with all the extra cards. These two have been my worst and best purchases respectively.

I must say that since I began using reason and other soft synth sample programs, my jv1080 (loaded with the discontinued dance card amongst others) has not been turned on in over 6 years

[emulatorloo]

Contrary to this, what I LOVED:

Yeah that's good too.

For me:

Ensoniq ESQm - this I got for 125.00? The father of MLC's SQ80. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT. Dunno the filters sound so warm and oooooozy. Like a big warm pot of caramelized sugar. I bought a second for $75.00 just to have a back-up.

Roland JD-800 - pawn store find after wanting one forever. A true near mint piece, you don't see that much in a pawn shop. The Lights! The Colors! The Sounds! This one is great to play with all the lights off, expression pedal, just let the sound envelope you. (Synth addict, obviously) I also love my JD-990, has vintage card.

E-mu EIII - ebay find, a decent deal as it is a 4 meg model. I just upgraded the harddrive to 80GB!!!!! Another item for playing in the dark. Sample digital synths into it they become beastlike. Emulator III = "emulatorloo"

Novation Supernova - used, after the SNII had come out. I really don't want to think how much I paid for it. I am a huge bargain hunter, this was not a bargain. It really has "that sound" - sort of what I thought I would be getting with the Jupiter 6.

Roland S-770 - used cheap. Sounds amazing, looks great, fun to work with a mouse and a monitor. Mine came with the full 16megs of RAM. Bought a Roland SP-700 w 32megs for pennies to supplement it. I have tried Konverting my library to Kontakt. A waste of time, only the real thing will do.

Korg MS-20 - I got this when I was a poor grad student. A professor friend who played guitar now mostly had an MS-20 and an MS-10 that he had got new when they came out. Flash forward to when I first knew him. Every time he had a party, he would haul them out and set them up for guests to play with if they got bored. I was fascinated by them. HA HA nobody else was. About a year or so later, he called me and offered them to me I think for $250.00. I borrowed the money from another student and got them. The 10 is gone, the 20 I still have. I mostly ran it through that Yamaha FX500, it was <INSANE> I rarely use it now, mostly the Legacy VI version with the little USB controller version of it. I can't bear to sell it.

[buzzsmith]

I always hated Fender Rhodes. Loved the sound, but hated the action.
I actually threw one off the stage one night in disgust (after all the guests had left and we were tearing down the band...gave it to a church about a week later)
3rd time was the charm, though. Bought the one that was "Dyno-My"ed.

Currently, I'm not at all pleased with the M-Audio ProKeys88. Hate it as a controller, moderately/marginally acceptable as a gig piano.

I'm sure I'll think of more...

Buzzy

[Phil O]

When I first made the switch to digital, I bought a couple of ADAT machines. I thought they'd be around for awhile. Haaa!!

Phil

[kassonica]

You know I've really can't think of anything I really regret buying.......

Being a poor musician type when I save up for gear I do a lot of research and make careful choices, boring I know but it works for me.


But there must be something..............

[James Steele]

When I first made the switch to digital, I bought a couple of ADAT machines. I thought they'd be around for awhile. Haaa!!

Phil

Boy... did that trigger a thought just now. One thing I have never regretted is not going the ADAT route. Years ago I had the choice of being able to afford a two ADAT system or buy a limited Pro Tools system with the 882 I/O with only 8 channels of I/O. And remember, at the time there was a lot of scary talk about how unreliable hard drives were and how you could lose data with hard disc recording, etc. I am so glad that I went ahead and went the hard disc recording route instead of the ADAT system, because it really was the future. I've actually known more people who've lost work due to damaged ADAT (aka S-VHS?) tapes than crashed hard drives.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Same here. I never liked the ADAT concept. Too proprietary, IMO.

[James Steele]

Same here. I never liked the ADAT concept. Too proprietary, IMO.

Right. Also since they were pressing a VHS style transport system into service for an audio recorder, I heard it was also rather delicate and iffy. If anything the DA-88 systems were more robust because TASCAM designed them for the rigors of audio work (frequent shuttling back and forth, etc.). As I recall DA-88 ruled the post-production world whereas ADAT was more big with basic music recording studios.

As I recall though, one slam on the DA-88 format was that it track shared, as in pairs of tracks were linked, so if you were ostensibly recording to track 1, data was being read and recopied on track 2. In theory if you lost power while tracking to track 1 you could have a glitch on track 2. That was the spectre raised by critics of the DA-88 machines, but then a UPS on the machine renders this moot. From what I understood the DA-88 was far more robust. Alesis improved the transport with the later ADATs and a friend of mine still has the Fostex version which was the RD-8 that had better sych options from what I recall and better quality. Still at its pinnacle ADAT was a 20-bit system I believe.

I can see recording on ANALOG tape for effect, but storing digital data on tape makes no sense any more. I can't wait till the SSD technology becomes mature and more affordable! Hard disc mechanical mechanisms I imagine will go the way of the cathode ray tube in a few years.

[jroadrage]

Digital Performer, hands down. It's soooooo vastly inferior to Logic and Studio Vision Pro. I can't even install it on my iPhone. Also, it doesn't open up excel files. The manuals not even in color. Terrible, terrible software.

(sorry james, I couldn't resist)