As a follow up to last months article on MIDI for beginners by Bjorn Lynn I have reviewed a variety of synthesizers to help beginners decide which synth(s) to buy for starters. I have included some technical jargon but complete beginners should still get the general idea. 1. THE KAWAI K1 - PRICE 595.00 The kawai K1 was my first synth and is possible the best choice for a novice MIDI musician. It comes with a 61 key piano weighted keyboard with velocity and aftertouch sensitivity, modulation & pitchbend wheels. It is fully Multitimbral allowing different instruments to be played on each MIDI channel. But what does it sound like ? Well luckily the sounds are excellent, ranging from authentic choirs and strings to jazz organs and panpipes. Each sound is made up from either short bursts of sampled sound or any of the 256 preset waveforms or a mixture of the two. The kawai has 4 sources meaning that 4 of these sounds are mixed together to create the final instruments (or patch). Using 4 sources allows 8 notes to be played simultaneously but you can opt to use only 2 sources per sound giving an excellent 16 note polyphony. A special 'MULTI' mode as kawai call it allows you to assign a different sound to each MIDI channel for use with a sequencer such as MUSIC-X. If you don't fancy programming the synth yourself, don't worry because 64 excellent preset sounds are already present in memory along with 32 MULTI sounds (various combinations of the other sounds). Others are available from kawai on 256K RAM cards which slot into the back of the synth. The K1 represents, possibly the best value for money yet in a synth. mainly due to the keyboard which would normally cost 500 pounds on its own and also has sounds to rival the much more expensive ROLAND D50 (as used by Jan Hammer !). 2. The Roland D110 - Price: 599.95 The Roland D110 comes as a module with no keyboard and can only be used if you already own a MIDI keyboard with MIDI OUT. It was the best selling synth expander of 1989 and is now used by many professional pop groups. The D110 uses the same technology as the Roland D50 (LA synthesis). The main features of the D110 are the built in reverb and separate drum section meaning that you can dispense with the need for both a drum machine and a reverb unit ! Built-in (factory) sounds include a whole variety of instruments from realistic acoustic sounds such as clarinets and saxophones to weird and wonderful soundfx like wolves howling in the night and the chime of Big Ben ! Reverb is a stereo effect which gives depth to any sound. Try holding down the loud pedal on a piano and giving it a gentle kick. The resulting echo is reverb. This is because the sound of the kick echoes round the inside of the piano until it dies out. The D110 can be made to sound like its playing in either a big hall, small or medium room as if the sound were bouncing off the walls like it echoes round inside the piano. The 61 sampled drum sounds are on parr with those found in Rolands own drum machine and can be mapped across a 61 note keyboard so that each key gives a different drum sound. All sounds are created using a mixture of analogue synthesised sounds and 16 bit samples. Sounds can then be filtered which cuts off certain frequencies making a sound more lively or dull. The D110 boast 32 sound sources giving up to 32 note polyphony, however each sound can use up to 4 of these sources so realistically you could be cut down to around 12 - 16 note polyphony. Using the MIDI overflow option, two D110's can be linked together to give 64 sources. The one bad thing about the D110 is that it is a real pain to program from the front panel. If you want to program it then buy a computer editor such those available from Dr Ts. A special module should be available shortly for music-x allowing on screen programming of the D110 ! 3. The cheetah MS6 analogue synth - Price: 295 pounds This is again comes in module form and as such needs a master keyboard to control it. The MS6 sounds much different to the above two synths as it uses analogue synthesis sounding similar to the C64 at times ! The MS6 contains over 500 preset sounds with 5 separate categories .... Strings, Bass, Pianos/harpsichords, effects and Brass. The strings are very warm and FAT sounding as has always been the case with analogue synths. Brass sounds a pretty good but pianos are pathetic. However the bass sounds are ACE and ideal for acid house / hiphop styles of music. Analogue synthesis works by taking a simple waveform such as a square, triangle or sine wave and then using a filter to filter out unwanted frequencies, hence its alternative name .. subtractive synthesis. Take a look at the instrument design page on Aegis sonix which was written to emulate an analogue synth. If you can use sonix then the MS6 will be a doddle to use ! The MS6 sounds pretty naff compared to the Kawai k1 & D110 and I only really use it for the bass sounds. Only six notes can be played simultaneously and it only has one mono output so an external reverb unit would be useful to give sounds more depth but it is fully multitimbral and represents good value for money if you already own a MIDI keyboard. 4. The Commodore Amiga - Price 399 pounds !!! Yes thats right, the Amiga`s internal soundchip (PAULA) can also be used as a sampler. Music-X allows upto 4 samples to be played together at the same time as controlling your synths. If you have more than 1 meg, effects can be sampled at really high rates (upto 40 khz) and when put through a reverb unit can sound like samplers costing thousands ! The Amiga is only really good for soundfx though and not good enough for actual instruments as they contain a lot of hiss. Synths to look out for .... Coming soon are a number of new 'Super Synths' .... Firstly the new Kawai K4 which comes with the same keyboard as the K1 and sounds which outclass those of both the K1 and D110 and possibly even the Roland D50 mainly due to the amazing quality 16 bit samples. The piano and choir sounds are said to be better than any synth to date ! Also comes with 61 drum sounds. The price is around 690 for the module version and 800 for the keyboard version. The other synth to look out for is the Roland U220, a new version of the U110 sample playback unit. The U110 was criticised in reviews for its noisy samples and lack of a filter however the U220 looks set to make amends promising a larger memory, filters and 64 note polyphony! Although it could be somewhat more expensive at around the 750 mark it looks set to be the best value sampler to date. My set up ? I use a kawai K1, Roland D110 & Cheetah MS6 simultaneously under the control of Music-x. I use the D110 for drums, leed and effects and the Kawai K1 for strings and rich choir. The cheetah MS6 comes in when a punchy hip-hop style bass sound is needed but I feed it through an effects unit to add stereo effects. I now have quite a wide variety of sounds to play with but could do with a sampler for realism. I am looking into the akai S1000 but will probably go for the Roland U220 when its released. When using a number of synth simultaneously you also need an audio mixer to mix down the sounds from each synth into two stereo channels. I use a Phonic MR-50A costing 170 pounds with 4 stereo inputs and 2 outputs, one to an amplifier and the other to a tape deck. If you want to make good quality recording of your music on to tape then a quality tape deck is a MUST. I use a Denon DRM 500 because it includes Dolby C noise reduction and HX PRO (Which lets in more high frequencies). Dolby cuts down the hiss rather like the amigas low pass filter (power led) and is very important if you`re serious about recording. Dolby B can also be used but is far less efficient than C. MIDI jargon .... Multitimbral - If a synth is multitimbral it can transmit and recieve on a number of MIDI channels (usually 16). This means that a number of instruments can be played simultaneously on one synth. Polyphony - How many note a synth can play at once. The amiga has four note polyphony, most synths can play at least 8 at once. Velocity - The strength at which you play a note on the piano keyboard. The harder you hit it the louder the note on most synths. Aftertouch - The presure applied to a key after the initial attack. On some synths, the greater the aftertouch the greater the vibrato on the note giving extra expression to a sound. Patch - A collection of all parameter settings needed to get a particular sound on that particular synth. MIDI - Musical Instrument Digital Interface. A standard language for communication betweeen musical devices. Effects unit - A musical device which takes an audio input and adds stereo effects such as reverb, chorus and delay. The D110 has a built in effects section. Well thats all from me. If you want to know more about any particular synth then why not write to me at ... Allister Brimble Hill House Lapford Crediton Devon EX17 6QE England