www.billnelson.com

You might also enjoy reading "The Art of Electronic Music" and "Analog Days"
Tom

Will check them out, cheers.

Well I have been mainly a guitarist for many years but I have alway had a love of synths and found myself getting into the Software side first. My favorites being Absynth, Reaktor, Rhino and Dimension (have quite alot of software but these get used the most) but was not totaly satisfied until I got some hardware: Alesis Ion, Korg Wavestation, M3r and MS2000r, DSI Evolver, Oberheim Matrix 6r and 1000, Novation X-Station, Yamaha TX81Z and DX200 and a Paia Fatman I built from a kit. I also have a modest guitar collection but my main ones are the ones I built myself.

Hi John,

For the Mac users ( I used Macs for many years before they got too expensive ) there is the OPCODE TRANSLATOR...it can be connected to the classic Mac printer port, and then to a keyboard or any MIDI device through the MIDI output. I used the Opcode Translator for a lot of time, so I could use QMidi to controle the Roland MT-80s player, or my Korg ...also used it with a MIDI controller to record some tunes.

About my synths... I use mostly guitar synths in my tunes, I have the Roland GR-09 EX, GR-30 and the recently released GR-20. These synths are connected to the guitars ( Fender and Gibson) through the GK-2A and GK-3 hexaphonic pickups. I also have the Roland VG-8 EX, that is more like an analog synth.

I also use these keyboards: Korg i3 ( with some special patches like Mellotron and other vintage sounds), Yamaha DX-100, Casio MT-240.

The only soft synth I used in my recordings is the Pro-53, that sounds like the Prophet 5. But I have many others, mostly downloaded for free from:

http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/

They have many free soft synths, standalone or in the plugin form. I tested many of them, but there are so many great sounds that it´s hard to choose, then I use my old synths instead...

Thanks Paul,

I'll almost certainly have to purchase a USB type MIDI interface at some stage soon, my Mac being a year 2000 issue G4, which therefore precludes the the printer port/Opcode Translator option. Thanks for suggestion though, appreciated as ever .

My slight whinge in my above posts was the fact that the M-Audio soundcard should do both audio and MIDI but just doesn't work on the MIDI side (with my config at least, which is a fairly standard one). It's as the American's say, a reluctance to "pay twice for the same real estate".

When I hear what everyone is doing with softsynths, I realise its an area that is calling to be explored.

Until then, its analogues and 1/4" jack plugs!