Conference napalm::commusic_v1

1239.0. "SCI Sequential 3000 Sampler" by AQUA::ROST (Tush, tush, you lose your push) Wed Mar 09 1988 08:31

    This arrived over USENET last night.   Might be of interest to those
    who have been wondering about Sequential Circuits:
    
    
    
    
    
Newsgroups: rec.music.synth
Path: decwrl!labrea!aurora!amelia!orville.nas.nasa.gov!dat
Subject: Sequential 3000
Posted: 8 Mar 88 02:24:17 GMT
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
 
 
On Thursday I attended a presentation made by Gary Luenberger, an SF
Yamaha dealer, and Dave Smith, a design engineer for Sequential.  Gary
had two new Yamaha products, a midi controller built into a grand
piano, and a midi player upright piano, which he demoed.  Dave gave a
technical desciption of the sequential 3000, a 16-bit rack-mount
sampler.  In this message I'll describe the sampler.
 
Dave made a big point of the 3000's 16-bit architecture, and declared
that at least 14 bits or so were preserved all the way through.  The
machine supports a 48kHz sampling rate, and can generate 8 voices.  It
has a stereo output as well as 8 separate outs.  The 3000 has new
technology VCF's with about 88 dB headroom.  There are also quiet
VCA's on the stereo output.  The output DAC's are the standard PCM
56's used in many CD players.  Sample rate variation is used to change
output pitches.
 
The unit is three rack spaces high and has its front panel controls on
a remote control unit connected to the rack unit by a cable.  The only
contrls on the remote panel is a 6 line graphic LCD display, six
'soft' keys across the bottom of the display, an alpha-style data
entry wheel, and a four key cursor motion group.  The keys are used to
move between menus.  The user interface seemed pretty okay, with
useful data displayed quickly in summary form, rather than a single
full page requiring a separate crt.  Things usually requiring a
separate computer could be performed from the control panel, like
editing samples by zooming graphically.  There is also zero-crossing
and slope matching software to help find loop points.  The five-stage
VCF envelopes can be called up and edited via "macros" that avoid
having to input the control parameters for each stage by hand.
 
The 3000 supports reading and writing full rate sample data to its
SCSI disk interface in real-time, ie. permits recording and playback
of digital audio to and from disk.  There is also a micro-floppy
interface for "2-meg" disks which take 1 minute to load.  Although
none of the floppies that Dave played for us was 'done' they did
contain up to four or five samples.  The 3000 has a maximum of 4 MW of
main memory.  The main processor is a Motorola M68000.
 
Although Sequential has been acquired by Yamaha International, Dave
said that the first units will be manufactured, as originally planned,
in the United States.  The retail price will be somewhere between
$4500 and $5000, with the unit becoming available as soon as the end
of March.  I asked Dave why Gary was not presenting Yamaha's TX16W
sampler and he said that Yamaha dealers were not too happy with it;
it was too late to market (for a 12-bit machine).
 
This is all I know about it, direct further inquiries to Sequential.
I have not interest in Sequential or Yamaha.  The above is my own
fuzzy recollection of the presentation, don't sue anyone based on the
above information.
 
David A. Tristram
NASA Ames Research Center

    $4500 for 8 voices .. nah. get 2 Emaxes, or a Korg DSS-1, or a 
    Yamaha 16 voice sampler..
    
    karl

    re .1  I agree with Karl. They gotta be kidding themselves if they
    think they can get away with charging that much! Definitely not
    worth it, IMO.
    
    Mike D

    First the Studio whatever drum/sequencer combo @$4500, now this...
    
    Are they short a few bits or what???
    
    Edd

These things are now for a "limited time only" from some Y* dealers at
$2995 according to a recent Aftertouch.  USENET posting said some company
Wine Country something was selling them of at $1995.

FWIW

Chad