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From: rosen@ucbvax.ARPA (Rob Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.music.synth
Subject: comparison of DX-7 w/ Mirage
Message-ID: <10246@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 30-Aug-85 19:32:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.10246
Posted: Fri Aug 30 19:32:18 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 1-Sep-85 05:11:21 EDT
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 38



    I am considering purchasing either one of the abovementioned machines.
The DX-7 has gotten good reviews for its voices, but does not have digital
sampling capability.  I'd like to know how any current Mirage owners feel
about their machines; is it worth purchasing over a DX-7 merely because of
the presence of its sampler?  Is it easy to use?  What's the sampling rate?
How do the factory disks sound?  Is the on-board sequencer any good?  Is
there any market for used instruments?  How about factory support?  Has 
anyone MIDI'd a Mirage to a hardware sequencer such as the MSQ-700?

    My idea is to purchase only three items and have hopefully enough
equipment to make quality recordings -- I think a good digital synth,
a good multitrack sequencer with a lot of memory, and a 4-track deck like 
the Tascam would do the job.  The idea is to use the sequencer to store 
maybe 16 tracks of a song, and then dump it to one track of the tape.
Then I'd record the drums and cymbals on another 16 tracks of the seq.
and dump THAT to the second track of the tape, etc.  Digital sampling
seems to be the way to go to get a really good drum sound, which is what
I consider to be pretty important.   

   Also, have any Mirage owners used any of the IBM PC software that's
availible?  Is it worth a damn?


		thanks for your input...

    ps---  AKAI has apparently come out with a sampler that'll work with
    a DX-7 but it runs about $1K.  If it comes down to a DX-7 + AKAI,
    MSQ-700 and Portastudio, I'll be out a good 5-6 thou or so, which is
    a lot!!

-- 

		       --Rob Rosen

		       ...ucbvax!rosen
		       rosen@ucb-vax.berkeley.edu