emmmgeee

rgcaudio - z3ta - good for EVERYTHING

I can pick between VBR and 192kbps. Prefer VBR naturally. I buy the keepers, and discard the rest - lets face it, the artists make fuck all when you don't 'pirate' (arrrgh, Jack Sparrow, I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request) - They make their cash from touring, GO SEE 'EM IF THEY'RE GOOD, EVEN IF THEY'RE NOT.

I LUV YOUR ALBUM, I think your album along with Talpa and the Misted Muppet may be signalling a building of a kind of renaissance. The old greats have become somewhat bloated and banal; Full-on phalanx has swept like the Borg. If you come to Australia, I am so there

One of the best parties I ever went to was in a quarry near Melbourne Airport, 1km down. Logic Bomb was there playing Headware material - Brilliant Stuff. Saw them for the next album in a club, Another good set, cut their own work to pieces and reasembled - a real live performance that lamentable was indoors. 2nd album was ordinary next to Headware - Although Lodjik off assasi:nations was excellent. Not heard much as of recent from Logic Bomb, but I am not missing them much, as I was missing them when they were around if you catch my drift... Headware was indeed the peak, and after that they just teased us (Melogic, Crystal Skulls).

About to commit blasphemy - Didn't much care for the filter, resonance cranked high didn't sound as good as my microQ - perhaps I am just not used to it? Otherwise, that screen and that ribbon controller and the knobs on it were amazing - Well Built but not necessarily a must to buy.

The new Behringer BCA2000 is USB 2.0 24/96 and Behringer do a fantastic product for what you pay them, don't let the price throw you, they are brilliant - the proverbial steal. I dunno what the price is but in Oz it is $500 retail, which you can shave 20% off if you know how to talk to salespeople. The only issue is it's size, it's larger than other interfaces, because it has 100mm motorised faders. Otherwise, spend the cash and get the Novation X-Station, cos then you have controllers as well as audio in 1 unit and it can run on rechargeable batteries.

if you have a tip, take a screenshot of it, and circle stuff we should notice

hmmm. 1997 was full of excellent releases, although 1998 had some nice residue from the artists involved with the success of 1997 (1997 was just a great year full stop, as for 1998 why didn't 'Beast' do a follow-up?). 2003 was probably the worst year, so much so that I didn't listen to much psy that year, not really any new releases when I did - I was digesting the yumminess of the OTT projects and still very much in love with the first Shpongle and Younger Brother. 2000-01 was good with the whole Spiral Trax and Medium thing going on (ah, Vibration 3!). 2004 has been excellent - This year has seen more division, which I think is good, aslo, a bit of a renaissance for melody. While Techtrance is in a decline, Progressive Trance has been in quite a productive/mutational state. I often find with the Trance that it is 1 good year/1 bad year although patterns break all the time e.g Bug Funk, Kindzaza-or-whatever-the-name, Winter Demon, Psychotic Micro to England varying from Scorb, NRS, RAM to Organik Records to all the good Prog to the forward evolution of Finland and the decline of GMS/TIP/Cheese and all the other Full-on Stalwarts. 2005 shall prove interesting Roll on new Shpongle (A test for Simon Posford).

surely you jest??? More like the most informative catalogue? SOS all the way. Ever notice how Future Music will more often than not review things 2 months in advance of SOS? cos they flatter rather than present an even handed review, at least in terms of the degree to which SOS constantly achieve this. FM are deeply in the pockets of their advertisers, hence the perks of first dibs on new product reviews.

East Coast huh? I am in Melbourne myself ;D I am not sure I'd go either way, given the cost, especially with the Virus. PC's are going 64bit, and the cost of crossing over to 64bit vs the cost of either of these Synths is cheaper and will give you more. The performance and QUALITY are going to seem exponential in increase. I'd instead spend the money on: (in order of what your priority should be); a)Audio Interface (E-mu 1820m all the way, they have the same a/d/,d/a as Pro-Tools 192HD) b)Monitoring (Got a few thou to burn on a synth, fuck it get this instead, more important in long run) c)Computer (AMD64FX/939) with as much RAM as possible, although you can do this in installments (no pun intended, but will take credit) d)Midi/Control Interfaces (Behringers BFC/R2000 range) Now as a caveat, I must mention there isn't much support software wise at this point, but it's coming, and given this, the benchmarks I have seen are still good with the AMD64FX, hinting at the potential. Many are using only software to produce, it's a viable option although if you are lazy it can sound generic. So you can spend $4000 or so on just one piece of equipment or you can spend high teens on a computer (I have priced one around $1800), and $3K or so on the rest I've aforementioned. I've seen the E-mu on Ebay for $730AUD which incl. delivery and GST from a store using Ebay as an outlet. You could easily go into a store and get a package deal on the Behringer Controllers for $720 or so, and while you're there talk monitors, get a set of actives for $1,500-$3000. Genelec are the best, they also sell in singles which is good if you ever do 5.1 and have a subwoofer in their range to compliment their nearfields. All this, and 200mbitps (25megs a second/1.5Gb a minute/A new DVD in 10 minutes) internet through the AC socket in your wall? the next 2 years in terms of technology, are going to be interesting.

Yay, I finally have that track without some Hebrew Radio Announcer killing the Romance Really Good track, I love the blippy drums on it.

I concur with Bhudda-whats-his-name re:MicroQ I have one and it is fantastic and really cheap. Also editor is available one web. Also, Software wise, there is z3ta by rgcAudio. Fairly Cheap. and amazingly flexible - best LFO's in the business. I have owned a Nord before, owned the Rack 2 for 3 years - Don't bother. Have a look at the Korg MS2000 or The Alesis Ion/Micron - The Micron looks really promising and has been said to be the most authentic modelling of Analog yet. As for Analog Synths, have a look at the evolver from Dave Smith Instruments or maybe start building one with Parts from Doepher or Analogue Systems - Newer, More Stable than old Synths and more parts and they sound really good. Process, Tristan, Infected Mushroom, Prometheus have them in their setup. Modular can be as simple or as complex as your finances &/or imagination can allow. in fact, whatever you choose, get z3ta as well it's that cheap.

Yes, you are the only one who likes beija flor - c'mon Pos pleez make it more like the first album

'tis a field of mines, or a singularity in close proximity to one's wallet. I got burned on an Audiosport USB from M-Audio but I have had luck with their Firewire Version. I have also had issues with the Mark 1 of the 828 (PC user, wasn't supported as well as they should've) which I sold. Have been burned by Roland products before, badly. If you want the absolute best with a realistic outlay, I'd get an E-mu 1820m. If you're on the move I'd still get the E-mu and probably a Novation X-Station as well - Nate of Protoculture spoke highly of it. The advantage is that you can have the Nov run on rechargeable batteries and your centrino in the park and have all your Audio/Midi needs in one box. I wouldn't bother with an external synth - I've owned all of them sans Virus and even though I still have my microQ (RIP Waldorf) which I think sounds amazing. Rgc Audio's Z3ta does all my synth stuff, is better spec'd than all of those external synths bar the Nord Modular G2 and has antialiasing on the filters and is dirt cheap. My next setup is going to consist of home and portable setups, with the aforementioned E-mu and Novation gear with Behringer (A great product usually, at a great price) Faders/Rotary Controllers and Monitors and a good pair of headphones when I am on the road (road?fucking dreamer rockstar talk - disregard ;D) Priority is on the foundations; the quality of the converters, the monitoring, and the tactile interface(s) in that order regardless of what music you make, the rest will follow GOOD LUCK