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For £325 this is an astonishingly versatile piece of kit and has a huge bank of sounds. Roland's typically sound very 'bright' and this one is no exception, lots of those lush noises remind me of the stuff you get on a Stock/Aitken/Waterman record.
The nearest budget competitor, Korg's R3 by comparison seems to be overpriced at £465 but perhaps is better for more avant garde synthetic sounds. Korgs are really nice but in a different way. Almost a sombre, eerie sound from the bass and strings.
Mansour Ali wrote: For £325 this is an astonishingly versatile piece of kit and has a huge bank of sounds. Roland's typically sound very 'bright' and this one is no exception, lots of those lush noises remind me of the stuff you get on a Stock/Aitken/Waterman record.
The nearest budget competitor, Korg's R3 by comparison seems to be overpriced at £465 but perhaps is better for more avant garde synthetic sounds. Korgs are really nice but in a different way. Almost a sombre, eerie sound from the bass and strings.
I would give the £325 to the British Legion instead! 
Isn't it the case that when Roland drag out a classic name, it's only to sully it with some pile of shite....
Eg the MC303, hardly a worthy successor to the tb303, horrid digi-faked analogue sounds and knobs with about 8 steps in them so you can hear the filter/whatever stepping horribly as you move the control.....hardly "in keeping" is it.
I've not read SOS in about a year or more......Waldorrf Blofeld you say? Any grandson of the PPG 2.2/WaveTerm is worth looking into.
WOW they don't have one called Scaramanga yet though.
I like the sound of the "vocal spectrum" thingy...I wonder if it gives them that "living" sound Fairlights were so legendary for (mind you, the old PPG kit sounded pretty lively, not to say unique, too back in it's day). I still waste a lot of time with their virtual PPG and Attack.
+1 on the Blofeld unless you need a rompler like the Juno D. Roland has bastardized all almost all the names and numbers that made them famous.
Steve, the Blofeld doesn't get as "griity" as the old PPG or Waldorf Microwave due mostly to the lack of analog filters. I'd say it's a polished sound but a very enjoyable one. SERIOUS bang for the buck from Waldorf as it gives you not only their classic wavetable synthesis but analog modeling as well. Definitely one to check out.
Trying to avoid coveting harware, I've only just hidden the last of the gadgets to make room to live. I will now blaspheme.. I do not like the filters on the original Juno's, it brittle, nasty and is almost impossible to find the "bite" point on, it seems to straight from not-much-res to screeming self oscilation in about 2 nanometers of control movement. The 6 and 60 are much nicer than the 106, but still suffer the same thing (odd since as far as I know, they share a common filter, it's the oscilators and control mechanisms they messed with to create the 106).
Campbell's first law of audio engineering: "the juno is too loud!"
nice aquasition chris , i'm just at the coveting stage at the moment, i need to ebay all the worthless garbage in my studio before i can dream of a new toy, or wait for hooky to finish this fookin album
Old Lead Foot wrote: nice aquasition chris
It was one of those deals that would have been too stupid to pass up. Fun to play and dead easy to program. My only complaint thus far is that the output isn't very loud but that's easily fixed at the mixer. Tell Hooky to hurry up with the album or at least buy you a Blofeld. :D
Old Lead Foot wrote: nice aquasition chris
Make sure and post here when the auctions go up....you're bound to have SOMETHING that'll look nice here at slightlynarrow HQ.
Old Lead Foot wrote: got a lovely dusty DX27 I know you'd LOVE!!!!!
grrrrr
Actually the 27 is the one I know best. Used to work with this teeny local label, and one of their bands had a keyboard player who (as well as having the most cavalier attitude to electrical safety I have ever encountered...in a living person anyway), could actually make a DX27 sound like a Theremin....even down to the "filthy" old sound (he could also field (ie stage) rebuild a juno106 in minutes). Apart from that, I've fought a TX81z to the death a few times.
The good thing about the 27 is that when you fail to get a fiver for it (who am I kidding, there are Dx fetishists out there), it wont take up much space in the skip
