OBERHEIM SYNTH

> -----Original Message-----

> Larry, you say you'd never own a 6R again... why is that?
> 
> 


Ok, let's see what I can remember.

The 6R came out at a time (87?) where the whole world was beyond midi-fying
everything as was switching over to the Keyboard + Module format.  Look at
all the modules you can control with a REMOTE keyboard!  Yamaha was big on
this; Ensoniq was a real player at the time, too.  Oberheim took their
Matrix 6 apart and sold the keybed separately (with some additional logic)
as the Xk-1.  Being the type I was, I bought the separate components, Xk-1
and M6R, rather than the M6 synth.

Still have the Xk, BTW.  It's built into a "project" of mine that I still
use.

I really can't fault them for eating up 2U of rack for 6 voices.  After all,
for the electronics of the time, that wasn't such a problem.  Every synth
manufacturer was offering their wares in modules.  I have many yet today.

But the #1 irritant for me was the fact that midi did NOTHING on the 6R.
Patch and note... that was it.  The sales pitch was that through the matrix
mod section, anything could be routed to anything... and that's true...
except it's making virtue of necessity.  You HAVE to route it to make it do
anything.

So where lots of other modules had volume and pitchbend already integrated,
the 6R did not.  If you want to control volume via Midi, you have to route
the midi signal to VCA2, thus LOSING a useful component of your synthesis
engine for the mundane task of volume.   Either that, or run 40' of
roundtrip noisy cable from my synth rack to a rocker pedal by my "remote"
keyboard.  

This is silly.  If the emphasis was all this 'remote control' then why make
it so hard to remotely control the thing??  And I was even using a pretty
darned good graphic editor (Opcode Galaxy) that made programming really
sweet.  When used in the same rack with a Yamaha TX802 and a Kurzweil
1000PX, it was definitely the boat anchor to mess with.

On other modules, including the M1000, midi volume just *worked* and it was
not a chore to get it to work.  Pitch bend just *worked* and it didn't have
to be programmed-in every patch. 

I don't know the first thing about decisionmaking at the factory, but it
appears that feedback got to them.  When the M1000 came out, it seemed they
were trying to make up for past sins.  1U in size.  That was great.  It had
1,000 patches built in.  Name the module that comes close to THAT.  Rubber
buttons instead of membrane switches.  And midi integration on more than
just patch/voice.  It was basically what the 6R SHOULD have been. 

So I have 2. Love 'em.

And with the pricepoints being so similar; the rack size being half; plenty
of choice patches; my editor/librarian software still works; and a useful
midi volume;  why would I ever want to go back to a 6R?  Ain't gonna happen.

Thereya go.  Howzzat?

Larry