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From: ach@pucc-h (Stephen Uitti)
Newsgroups: net.music.synth
Subject: Re: comparison of DX-7 w/ Mirage
Message-ID: <2246@pucc-h>
Date: Wed, 4-Sep-85 11:40:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: pucc-h.2246
Posted: Wed Sep  4 11:40:29 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Sep-85 04:31:32 EDT
References: <10246@ucbvax.ARPA>
Reply-To: ach@pucc-h.UUCP (Stephen Uitti)
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 69
Summary: 

In article <10246@ucbvax.ARPA> rosen@ucbvax.ARPA (Rob Rosen) writes:
>
>
>    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?
	I just purchased a DX-7.  I bought it to double with my Prophet T8.
I'm not impressed with the Mirage.  I've heard one reasonable sound on it:
an "orchestral hit".  The trouble with the mirage (in my humble opinion) is
that the recording quality is that of a dirty 45 RPM record.  The "orchestral
hit" (a factory sound, I think) was OK mainly because there was so much
going on in the sound, and it was over before you could hear any noise.
	The DX-7 does good with "bells and whistles".  It also comes with a
relatively awesome pipe organ and a few other sounds.  The DX-7 lists for
about 1/3 the Prophet T8, and is (to me) worth about that much, which is
plenty.  Being an FM machine, the DX-7 does things that are difficult for
my T8 to do (which is analogue based).  Conversly, there are many sounds that
are easy to do on the T8 that are a pain on the DX-7 (such as really thick
strings and brassy sounds).
	Incidently, I've played with a Yamaha TX-7 (DX-7 in a box - no
keyboard).  If you have a keyboard with MIDI, and the factory preset sounds
are all you want, it should be ok.  If you want to be able to create or
modify sounds, you need a DX-7 (at present).
>    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.   
	No comment on multi-track recording.  If you want really good
drum sounds, buy a drum machine!  If you want truely awesome drum sounds
(and are perhaps made of money), get a Lynn.  The Lynn 9000 has one of the
nicer MIDI sequencers available, and apparently has "multi-track"
capabilities.  Remember that most analogue synths are MUCH easier to
program (sounds) than digital ones.  My T8 has a knob for everything (which
is getting rare these days), and, for example, changing an envelope
to "just right" for a particular song can take as long as a minute.  Often,
I don't bother to save the edited sound, since I can always recreate it.
On the DX-7 (which I've only had for a couple weeks), it still takes me
up to a half hour to make such a mod.  First step is usually to get out
a pencil and paper.  Analogue machines are much easier to learn to use.
My T8 will ALWAYS sound richer than my DX7 (not for lack of trying on the
DX-7).
>
>   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

	Steve Uitti, PUCC, pur-ee!pucc-h!ach, or ach@purdue-asc