a friend of mine told me the next one it'll be a PolyFreak


sometimes you can find that on french cuisine

Doesn't make sense cause the MiniFreak is already polyphonic so the name adds nothing new. I suppose "MatrixFreak" would be another option though, cause it having multiple oscillator types is something that would lend itself well to the matrix system they used on the Brute, and if a MatrixFreak does arrive, I reckon it will have full-sized keys.

That aside, I think I'm going to call it a day on here now. Life's too short and I get the feeling that behind some of these discussions, numerous members are taking the piss. But that's ok, I have plenty of time on my hands and have continued to post despite thinking this, mainly because going into detail debunks any criticisms every time - so it's been worth it.

To be honest though, I cannot see me buying another SP-404MKII unless those responsible for it fix its interface fuck-ups, and even then I'm not sure I'll have any interest in it when I have two (as new) Yamaha MT50 cassette multitrack recorders to hand.

Having two of those things means that I have a four into two bouncing configuration where I can bounce from one unit to the other, and with a Behringer SX3040 sat between them the recording quality is going to be nuts (and analogue). So connecting a MiniFreak to that little rig means I have my recording, synthesis, effects processing, mastering and even sequencing sorted as well - and not a computer in sight.

It's just as easy to trigger the sequencer on the MiniFreak and record it to tracks of the MT50 one at a time (or trigger those sequences as if they were samples) as it is to sample or resample a playing pattern on an SP. Then, if I produce an album worthy enough to release on cassette, I can re-route the SX3040 to sit between the master output of the MT50 master tape and the input of the Marantz SD-60 for producing cassettes at home.

So you see, while it might seem that I don't have my head screwed on the right way, the polar opposite is true cause I've held on to the important gear and it's only the surplus that has gone. So, very happy with my decision to pair a MiniFreak up with a HAMMER 88 although it does look as if the SP is no longer of interest to me.

At this point I shall bid thee all farewell (for the time being anyway). The piss-taking is getting old to be honest and there's no point me being here anyway unless I plan to produce Hip-Hop, and the set-up I've decided on wasn't really chosen for Hip-Hop if I'm honest about it. My decisions have always mainly been geared towards being able to produce something orchestral in nature, but dark, weird and industrial in essence (this is why I like the RoAT, OPSIX, MicroFreak and MiniFreak).

It makes sense in the sense (:) ) that he intended a bigeer keyboard a s you said maxfreak ish

That hurt bruh, but since it's you and I know very well you are taking the piss a lot of the time, I just want you to know that my time away from the forum will be time well spent. I intend to get some practice in, and when I return I might be able to play like this on my HAMMER 88!

Tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlaF8JuG4Gc

Then again, perhaps I won't be able to but I will definitely give it a go

In fact I already noticed that one of Benny's secrets is that he uses a lot of what (I believe) are called "Diads". Perhaps he did that since he was writing for two singers and maybe that also leads to one of the ways they work out their harmonies.

See y'all in two or three months or summat

That previous post was sarcasm btw, I think it'll be quite some time until I can play like that (if ever), but anyway I forgot to address this comment here ...


Yeah, that's pretty awesome dude but unless you missed it, the government has made it impossible for me to afford the luxury of a car or even a motorbike. I could afford a pedal bike, but there's no way I'm peddling to Bristol to check-out a synth no matter how good it is.

I really miss owning a car and the independence that came with it, you just pull-out your car keys and off you go. But should you ever be in the position of no longer being able to afford to run one, you will soon find that the sort of thing you suggest is neither easy nor affordable.

^^^

Flol.

Why on earth do you need to own a car or a motorcycle when there are trains that run from Blackpool North railway station to points all over the UK.? ....

You can get over to Manchester for example at less than ten quid ...PMT Music have a store there and are also authorized KORG dealers, nice staff...you should pay them a visit .

You're based in Lancashire,on the Northwest coast of the country-not in Outer Mongolia dude ...

Well there you go then, lol, you literally just answered your own curiosity as to why such things are just not feasible for me!

The price you show is for the very cheapest fare. It is also a one-way fare, it is also the lowest of the low in that you have to fuck around changing trains half way even though Manchester is the closest major city to Blackpool.

So let's add this up then, shall we?

- £9.00 (at least) Train from Blackpool
- £9.00 (at least) Train back to Blackpool
- £2.00 (Minimum) Bus within Manchester to Store
- £2.00 (Minimum) Bus within Manchester from Store

So we're already at £22.00 (minimum), but wait, because there's more!

I happen to live right up near the Cliffs, Doric and Elgin Hotels area that is situated on the promenade, so that means despite the amount of fares required so far, I would still have to walk from my flat to the station, and back from the station to my flat when I get back. I walked that distance just now carrying two shopping bags, and I do it every time to keep the fat off regardless of whether I walk that way into town or the other way into Bispham, it's no problem at all but if I wanted to cut that out as well then we are looking at another £6 return which would bring the total cost to £28 (at least).

You're clearly not aware of the costs and inconvenience involved because you have your own transport. And if you think I'm paying even £22 (at the absolute bare minimum) just to go and test a synthesizer then you are out of your freakin' mind. £22 to me is around two weeks worth of groceries. I would only have to do that four times and I would already have thrown enough cash away to buy a bloody Volca or something!

Money is too tight to do stuff like that bruh, way too tight!

It's obviously better, cheaper, and more convenient to just pay the return postage on something that is not suitable, which is what I always do (but only if the return is my own fault).

Once I get my life back on track I'm thinking of buying my first motorbike cause I want to get back into photography and make a start with cinematography (and therefore need to be able to get around more). Might even join a few biker clubs and try to find me a nice, mature, leather-clad biker babe to ride pillion, but that's a way off the way things are going!

So in a nutshell, you appear to be living in a land of make-believe

How many hours from your home to the shop
Ps
Go ahead with photo/film stuff;)

Haven't a clue bruh, like I said I've never attempted it cause it's just not feasible. Another problem of course is that even if I had done that and found something that way, I would still have needed to pay to have it delivered anyway cause I'm not travelling on public transport or walking the streets with a synth under my arms!

Anyway, it's all irrelevant now cause I've decided on the keybed and the synth so all is good. I've already paid for the MiniFreak up-front now to fix it at the current discount price of £529, and I can honestly see it reaching £600 once the pre-orders have exhausted and I didn't want to chance that happening. I can buy the Hammer 88 as soon as it's back in stock.

It would actually be pretty dumb of me to not buy the MiniFreak, cause it's what I was hoping they would do with it after using the MicroFreak, they've done exactly what I wanted and even a bit more besides, so that's bloody fantastic!

That said, I think I might have misunderstood something about it. I initially thought that both oscillator parts would be the same and that you would drive one with the other. But actually it sounds like they've put a set of processes in one part that you put the other part through, and then expanded the matrix abilities so that you can cross-modulate between the oscillator parts. And if that's the case then it's basically a different take on the same sort of system that I thought, so either way, totally awesome!

I also love that it has macros cause that will actually come in very handy for a lot of the stuff I have in mind (especially vocal synthesis stuff). I keep checking the website for the manuals to download, but no one has seen the manuals for it yet, not even those who got to review it!

You've spent the last two years on here returning literally thousands of pounds worth of gear every month or so that you've had it yet you're moaning about spending less than 30 quid to go out,get on board a train and go to a city literally over an hour or so away to try things out in person at an actual music store.

You've had 3 SP's so far ...the 404-A the SP-808 and the 404 MK2 and done absolutely fuck all with them except complain and drone on about 'perfect synthesis' lol...it's a fucking joke mate.

People are making entire albums on these things for fucks sake ..often on just one sampler most of the time .

That's absolutely bizarre logic from you to be perfectly honest... everyone else seems to be managing just fine from what I've seen .

It's baffling in fact .

That's because, as I've said many times before, I cannot get along with gear that I know is going to limit me in what I want to do. These sorts of things don't bother you personally cause like most people out there, you are perfectly happy to have tons of gear and use one piece for one task and another piece for another.

I'm not, I'm just not wired that way and if I bhad to work like that then I would be better off not bothering cause I would never get anything done as a result of it. I know exactly what I want but the trouble is the manufacturers, not me. Purchasing a separate keybed is as far as I'm prepared to stray, and that is because there is no other option, they're never going to release a Freak synth with 88 fucking hammer keys no matter how long I wait, so buying the HAMMER 88 to go with it is the perfect solution.

I want an "only" synth dude, and that means the synth actually needs to be capable of synthesizing anything and everything I intend to throw at it, and the interface used for creating those sounds needs to be enjoyable and hands-on otherwise I would just end up selling the fucking thing.

The SP-808 was a menu nightmare, the software on the SP-404MKII is so badly designed that frankly, it's unfit for purpose to the point the designers ought to be fucking sacked because they're clearly (and provably) fucking clueless. The only one of the lot that I wish I'd kept is the SP-404A, so considering the cluster-fuck of a dud that thing really is, what the fuck does that tell you about the MKII?

So keep-up the interrogation if you must but there are very good reasons why I have zero interest in poorly designed gear, and won't use it. So instead of interrogating people who know what they're talking about (that would be me), why don't you instead spend your time contacting Roland and asking them how the fuck the current team of lame-brains got a job at Roland?

And if you think I am the only one who feels this way, think again. Those morons fucked up bigtime on both the physical and software design, and I'm taking about in ways that actually cost them more to do it wrong than it would have cost them to do it right!!!

It's just as well I'm not a member of YouTube othwerwise I'b be ratting-off more than a few rants at these clowns during their bullshit presentation live-feeds.

A resampling beat-making device that is set-up so that it cannot resample through all of it's own effects (I told y'all Roland would pull that shit, I was even called out (prolly by a Roland shill) for my words, but I was right).

Not a single effect with a note reset on the effect LFOs. Not a Touch Wah in sight on what is, after all, a fucking Hip-Hop oriented device. A software design so fucking bad that it's enough to make Bigfoot go bald. A dumbass decision to put two headphone jacks on the front instead of one on the front and one on the back. Cluster-fuckery in the extreme by putting preset names instead of numbers on the fucking effect buttons when it is now a menu-based device. Three power options and those stupid jack connectors for MIDI, instead of two power options and proper MIDI DIN.

Yeah, I think you'd be better-off channeling your disdain somewhere it's actually needed bruh

But hey, look on the bright side, you can always book yourself into the local nut-house if it gets too much. Or perhaps you like that sort of atrociously designed shit, in which case you can try to reason your own stupidity for keeping it by boasting about how Roland REALLY listen to their customers by bringing you FAR more important things like ...

Doo-Ree-Mee
Boo-Boo-Yaah
Mee-Soo-Dumm

... or whatever the fuck they're called.

Honestly, I reckon (know) I could produce a better MKII than Roland have completely on my own thanks to the development tools available to us these days. And if you think I'm joking, do remember that all three of KORG's latest synths use such a platform, and there are many examples of one-man brands coming along and totally stream-rolling those big brands in the usablity and design department, the dude who produced the Liven FM synth being a perfect example of that, and IMHO the only reason the KORG FM 2 exists to compete with it (I reckon you'd still be stuck with the worthless three-voice bullshit othewise).

The reason these big companies shit all over the customers like that is because of the sheepish culture generated by social media and places like YouTube. All this "Sold", "Take My Money", etc when what they should REALLY be saying is ...

FUCK-OFF AND COME BACK WITH A PRODUCT I WANT OR YOU WON'T BE GETTNG MY CASH!!!

People need to stop licking these dogs' arses and start spitting venom like I do instead. If enough people did that often enough they would soon start delivering what you want unless bankruptcy is an attractive proposition to them.

So I'll buy what meets MY needs and I WILL discard anything and everything that does not. I'm not one of those social-media poisoned sheeple that trawl YouTube drooling like GAS-mad loonies with more money than sense. I happen to have a fully-functioning, completely uneffected brain, and that, dear chap, is clearly a rapidly declining attribute in todays world.

In a nutshell my dude, I am the designer of dreams, and you are one of the purchasers that will help to make me extremely rich some day.

All you'll actually do is get yet another set up,tell everyone on the forum in one of your rambling overlong posts why they should have the same stuff too and then return it after a couple of months and be back on here screaming and ranting about how it's a total bag of shit, the designers don't deserve to live and need beheading .

Oh and don't forget to throw in one of your thinly disguised 'Jonny Foreigner' racist comments about China while your at it ..

I can guarantee that you still won't have produced a single note of music within the next 12 months either because I honestly believe you do not have a clue how to do it basically.

I don't have tons of gear btw ..I use 2 samplers,a Technics turntable and a Juno synth.
The only stuff I'll be adding is another synth and possibly the MPC-X .

The SP 808 is an absolute piece of cake to use too ..had mine since they were originally released and never had a 'menu nightmare' once while using it just for your information.

You sent your SP-808 back to the seller cause it had a scratch mark on the casing if I remember correctly and you couldn't stop moaning about it .

A fucking scratch mark ... Jesus.

You really should have a trawl through the archives of this site ..go and listen to the dope shit that members here have produced over the years using these 'useless and badly manufactured machines' hahaha.

@Ghost Bazz made an album called 'The Falling Man's Parachute' I'll recommend that for you to start with..go listen and more importantly learn what is capable to achieve .

As for you being the designer of dreams .. forget it. You're just a dissilusioned bloke in your 40s lol ..you have no capital no prospects and no job..how are you going to achieve this exactly?

It's all talk and nothing more ..you live in a complete fantasy world dude..in Blackpool,where there are 108 direct trains to Manchester daily,just over an hour's travel away with stores that sell music gear you can try out first and that you won't have to endlessly keep returning.

I'll give you less than a couple of months with whatever you choose to purchase next like I said previously because your track record with equipment speaks for itself.

joins sp forums, doesn’t like sps, sends back sp, probably won’t ever use an sp. Lol

I haven't made any "racist" remarks. My comments about China are related to them being a nation of sheeple who are now paying the ultimate price for being sheeple. Understand also that if I wanted to make some "racist" remarks then I would be perfectly happy to do so. I don't subscribe to being told what I am and am not allowed to like. I will like and dislike whatever the fuck I want to like or dislike, and that natural born right of freedom does not exclude people, in fact it does not exclude anything.

So I will continue to like or dislike whatever I the fuck I want to like or dislike, and I will forever practice my natural born right to voice my opinion, you socal medial-poisoned conformist - seriously bruh!

As for mocking my OCD, well put it this way, OCD is actually massively beneficial when it comes to product design, because bullshit never gets the greenlight unlike at Roland with the MKII. I could have done better than that on my own as I have already said.

As for the scratch on the SP-808, lol, well I'm guessing that for some reason you expect me to tolerate bare-faced lies then. Tell me, if your new guitar had arrived with blatant and very noticable damage not pointed out to you would you have kept it?

Don't expect me to be any different; the seller blatantly lied to me. And yes, the SP-808 menu system was a nightmare, because IMHO there are a lot of mis-catagorised settings. I think logically and therefore this made the unit a bit of a nightmare to use in some respects.

As for my current situation and what I can and cannot do. You first of all have no idea of my industrial skills or background, nor have you any idea of the amount of compensation coming to me just as soon as I get to sue the living shit out of the death-threat sending cunt and the provably corrupt solicitor who fucked my life up. I was aready well on the way to releasing a hardware product onto the market when my life was turned upside-down by those bastards.

Anyway, I think this interrogation has run its course by now, don't you bruh?

And just one more thing. Since you landed yourself with a displayless synth, are planning to purchase a device that is overly complex, and therefore still do not have a suitable synth setup yourself, you are hardly in a position to be having a pop at someone who needs only the one synth and a very minimal setup.

Yep, I'm sure the Freak and the Hammer combo will be fine, just fine bruh!

I actually went into a music store and inspected my new Gretsch before I purchased it lol ...you honestly don't think I'd shell out 800 quid for a guitar I'd never seen before do you ?..

And I can navigate around the Juno display very easily ..the synth is a piece of cake to operate thanks and sounds cool as fuck .