Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

On Sat, Jan 10, 2004 at 11:12:17PM -0500, Ugo wrote:
> for starters, have there been any reliability or bug issues with the
> evolver?

I think I've only heard of maybe one hardware problem in the past
eight months I've been on the list. and Dave fixed it for the person
within days.

> if i get one that still has OS 1.x in it, does updating it to OS 2 tend to
> go smoothly? (and if it glitches up during transfer, can i just try again
> or will the OS chip by totally hosed by then?)

yes your chip would be fried if something went wrong.
a good number of people had problems updating, but every one of them
received new chips directly from Dave (again, within days).

> how recently did evolvers actually start shipping with OS 2?

I believe it was about four months ago. check Dave's site; I belive he
list what serial number started receiving OS2.

> has there been mention of upcoming dave smith news that might alter
> my plans for buying an evolver soon? (new models, price increase or
> reduction, hardware changes, etc.)

no.  except that there's going to be a polyphonic Evolver. well,
basically it's four Evolvers in a 1U rack. but you would want an
Evolver as the programmer for this unit anyway.

> how is the new editing software?

I prefer the hardware interface itself. (anyone?)

> the evolver i tried had encoders with notches. it seems like this would
> probably cause problems when trying to do smooth filter sweeps. so
> is it best to do real time controls of this type from another controller
> instead of directly from the evolver or can you actually do smooth
> slow sweeps by hand with the evolver's encoders?

the notches are supposed to be there. the first time you turn a knob,
the first notch will display the current value of the parameter on the
display. this is actually a great way to solve the virtual parameters
vs. physical parameters problem. and you can do plenty of realtime control
directly on the Evolver (slow sweeps and all).

> the demo unit had an odd behavoir that the sales guy couldnt figure
> out. the first 70 presets were playing the same note no matter what
> key on the controller i was actually playing. i didnt get to try presets
> where the pitch actually tracked the keys until  #70. any idea what
> may have been going on here? does this have something to do with
> the sequencer? (i have no idea what preset bank i was in, i didnt
> know how to use the sequencer, and the salesman couldnt find
> the manual so i was at a loss trying to figure out some of the synth.)

I'm not sure about this one. but it sounds like it was just set up to use
MIDI notes to trigger the sequencer, rather than to transpose the sequences.
I believe that has to be set in the patch itself, so maybe that's the problem.

Joe.