Analogue systems

This morning I had the fortune of laying my hands on the first 
Analogue Systems' RS300 to hit North America the moment it 
was unboxed.  I thought I'd give you all my impressions of this 
(hint) fabulous device.

I understand that this touches upon a sore subject for some of 
you (midi instruments) and at best the great debate for the 
remainder.  My personal feeling is that analog and digital 
machines CAN live together as both have their place and 
purpose in that society.  Well, the RS300 just brought them
(a lot) closer.

This device has 8 programmable inputs and one midi output.  
Each of the 8 ins can be user-assigned through a front panel 
LCD screen to any of the 127 midi controller numbers so that 
analog voltages be used to control midi instruments via their 
midi implementation charts. This alone is quite liberating, as it 
breaks you free from what I see as the two big misses on
all analog modeling instruments - the lack of control modularity 
-and- the inability to transmit most of the controls signals they 
can generate out of the of the instrument to others.

The RS300 erases all that.  Imagine having filters sweeps 
synced to pans on not only one instrument, but many - all at the 
same time.  Envelopes longer than those each machine is 
capable of generating.  Random control of anything you wish.  
Audio range A.M. Non -linear control. - there are a billion 
possibilities.

This type of control is nothing new to analog machines.  The 
Doepfer A-192 has allowed you to do this for a few years, and it 
allows for twice the inputs (16) as the new Analogue Systems 
device.  There is one distinct difference between the two which 
however which, for the time being,  puts Bob WIlliams' new 
gizmo that  a football stadium ahead of the Doepfer offering:

Channel 1 can be assigned to generate midi on/off messages.

Your RS-300 can be used to not only control a midi machine, but 
play it as well.  This is a big deal.  It was possible using Doepfer 
equipment, but required the purchase of their keyboard controller 
board, a soldering iron, a clugey interface and some solid 
design knowledge to get it working and while it did well for a 
limited range of notes, full polyphony was a bit of a core and a 
hardware nigthmare.  The RS300 does this without thinking.

While I was playing around wit this thing, I got an analog 
sequence going and used that to play a Voyager. WOrked like a 
charm and  the tracking was perfect when the same sequence 
was routed through a quantiuzer and applied to the 1v/octave 
freq input of an Analogue Systems oscillator. Think of the
possibilities. Keep in mind that if I had wished, I could have 
recorded this sequence as a midi track  in Cubase, or DP, or 
Protools, where is could be stored for future use.

Because of the unit's LCD screen, you don't need a computer in 
between the two for easy programming.  To me, this is as 
equally of big of a deal as its ability to generate midi notes.  No 
Sounddiver template, no Mac/PC madness, no hassle.  You can 
get it up and working with two patch cables from a cold start.

I've used the A-192 extensively and have grown to appreciate 
what this type of control is capable of.  If you've heard Electrolux, 
its littered with this as 98% of the sound on that piece was 
generated on a SuperNova II, although the added analog control 
had almost everyone fooled..

Now with the added feature of easy generation of midi notes I'm 
really going to go nuts.

- P

P.S. Electrolux can be heard here:

http://www.buzzclick-music.com/music.html

scroll to its title and hit the 'listen to' link.