Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

moose <moose@...> writes:
>> Anyhow, like it's been said before, do *not* base your opinion of the
>> A6 on the default patches.  But *do* try to play an A6 next to an
>> Evolver/Polyevolver if you get the chance.  They sonically work
>> really well together, sorta like peanut butter & jelly. :)
>
> i totally agree.  i have the poly evolver keyboard here for a short while
> and it sounds & interfaces really well (DSi have done a great job with the
> interface) but there are still things i prefer on the A6.  in a similar way

Any more specific observations?

I spent a few hours in a shop trying to get a more detailed impression
of the A6, using a list of tweaks Richard sent me to try an remove the
typical "A6 [preset] sound".

So I was turning down mixer levels very low, etc. trying to avoid
clipping, turned off tuning, etc.

The end result was sort of inconclusive; if anything I'm now a bit less
impressed by the A6 than I was initially.  The tweaks seemed to make
_some_ difference, but not all that much [and the UI on the A6 is quite
daunting, so I often got completey lost trying to effect some simple
change (like "hmm, sounds there's some FM or fast LFO mod going on, I'll
try to remove it..." only to give up 20 minutes later having turned down
every mod and tweak I could find, without finding what I wanted).]

The A6 certainly is very strong in the bass dept (not just "strength",
it simply sounds realllly nice), has a very sweet sounding square wave
at high pitches, the FM is great (it seemed very organic and
non-DX-sounding, I've never had a synth with FM that sounded like
that...), and overall definitely has this appealing "yeah, VCOs!" sound
to it.  On the other hand, I could not seem to make it sound sweet or
warm in the midrange, and never really did hear anything that would make
me think "Rich and wide polysynth"; even my poor little mono Evolver
seems to have it beat handily on that score (which is one thing that
makes the Polyevolver keyboard sound so tempting).

Another point that drove me nuts about the A6 was that the aftertouch
seemed nigh-well unusable -- it was either way too insensitive or way
too sensitive, and I couldn't manage to adjust it to some useful middle
value; also in the "more sensitive" settings, it was very hard to avoid
pegging the aftertouch due to the initial keystrike.  [As the A6 and
polyevolver keyboard use the same action, this has me bit concerned
about the PEK too; people have reported Dave has paid particular
attention to getting good aftertouch response, so I donno...]

Anyway, while I believe what people say about the _possibility_ of
getting these sounds out of the A6, I'm beginning to think that it's out
of reach of mere mortals ... :-/

I've still got lots of time before I get any money to spend though, so
I'm definitely gonna give the A6 a few more tries to see if something
clicks.

[Oh, BTW, I was using AKG 240M headphones for this (driven by a mixer),
which do have a tendency to be a bit unflattering, but at least provide
some consistency in listening environment; I also use the same
headphones with the Evolver.]

Thanks,

-Miles
-- 
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