Elektron Musical Instruments

the sid station is a cool instrument but it is a bad mistake to buy it 
thinking that it is something else. the SS is a synth that has 3 oscilators 
which means 3 sources of signals that can be mixed together i.e. monosynth 
mode which means you can play only one note at a time like a flute or a 
trumpet... or in poly mode you have up to 3 sounds at a time  i.e. you can 
play chords or harmonies up to 3 voices at a time.
from a Midi standpoing it is not multitibral which means that when you record 
the sid station to a midi sequencer you can only record onto one midi channel 
(1-16) but never more than 1 because the SS will not transmit or receive 
seperate midi channels.
you said that you are not familiar with midi well in the most basic manner 
think of midi as the ability to record different voices on different midi 
channels and the ability to play them back on those channels. sort of like a 
tape that has many tracks (like a four track or so) that you can record to it 
one track at a time and then play back the whole arrangement of tracks to 
listen to the whole picture.

The sid station is best to compliment an existing setup. not as a first synth.

and by the way..I know it is not so appropriate but if you are simply in love 
of the sid sound (like myself and others here i'm sure) there is also a sound 
card that is called HardSid Quattro (sorry elektron) which uses sid chips as 
well and in fact you can drive 4 chips from the same card to have them played 
as a multitimbral instrument on seperate midi channel. I own the SidStation 
and the Quattro card and they both compliment each other for an ultimate sid 
machine.

hope this helps
if you have more questions you can email me

Eitan Teomi

Eitan Teomi

<A HREF="http://ourworld.cs.com/teomi">http://ourworld.cs.com/teomi</A>


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