I’m fully susceptible to commercial and indy audio/instrument maker marketing efforts. I hear about things, look at the specs, sometimes read the manuals, and look at what else is out there that does similar things or maybe look at possible DIY opportunities to save money. All that said, I have a built-in censor for this stuff, one that combines a reality of my financial situation with an internal instinct to fight off desires for buying new things. And yet…
2 things have really got my attention lately because of my recent obsession with listening to huge thick polys: the Retroactive MPG-70 controller for the MKS-70 and the Deckard’s Dream Analog Polysynth inspired by the Yamaha CS-80.
The MPG-70 is a hardware controller for a rack mount version of the Roland MKS-70, the Twin Peaks synth (in a box). It works with the amazing updated firmware (and mods) by Vecoven and has the ability to generate randomized patches, including randomized patches in specific categories such as bells, bass, pads, etc. It also bypasses many of the hardware limitations inherent in a digitally controlled synth vintage 1986 and offers way to control multiple parameters at once. The fact that more than one parameter can even work at once is a feet of both the controller and new firmware.
The Deckard’s Dream synth is a beast. It’s directly inspired by the synth made famous by Vangelis’ original score for Blade Runner, the Yamaha CS-80. They’ve taken steps to design the circuitry to replicate the unintended artifacts of the original (specifically the sawtooth glitch), contains the same controls, and allows for more expressivity than the original with MIDI/MPE with polyphonic aftertouch capability. I’ve been dreaming about using one of these with a Linnstrument (I know both Matt Carlson and Daryl Groetsch have been using these for at least a year now).
The MPG at $850 is significantly more attainable than the DD which is around $4K. Though they can be purchased as kits, which maybe saves money (??), but then factor in the time and maybe not so affordable. Depends on what you want to do with your time I guess, build instruments or make music (or write this stuff).
For now, as much as I crave a non-virtual analog poly I’m good with DCO and the free and open source beauty of SuperCollider running on any and all of my old computers, or the subpar endless encoders of the Behringer BCR-2000 for handy tweaks.