Conference napalm::commusic_v1

    I saw a price for -- I think -- the M1 in last month's Muso Technology.
    1600 pounds-ish -- someone might be able to confirm this. 
    
    
    Richard.

    huh??????
    
    I got the distinct impression that NONE of these were availible
    yet. Just in concept phase.
    
    Sort of an extension of the one-proto-but-you-cant-get-any-for-6-months
    mentality that we experienced with the HR16.
    
    Bad trend. Next will be the "NEXT GENERATION PROCESSING" Ads which
    will say like "soon" (read: 5 years) "we will" (read might/mightnot)
    "announce" (read: chapter 11) "technology that will surpass your wildest
    dreams of sound generation" (read: same old sh*t) "and expressive
    control" (read: mod wheels control filters too) "featuring patented
    BFD ORGASMA STRUCTURED OBJECT-ORIENTED AI SOUND GEN CELLULAR PROCESSORS
    [TM ORGASMATRONICS LIMITED,INC.]" (read: fancy term made legal by
    a coupla MIT hackers and a Harvard Law graduate,partners, written in LISP)
    "only possible from state-of-the-art MUCHO-MEGA-CELL custom LSI"
    (read: we will hire a chip designer when you send us your deposits).
    
    Common. Remember the first D-50 ads? 
    
    Big deal. 
    
    ron (you been warned....)
    
    
    

    I heard the KORG M1 (the socalled workstation) at the Frankfurt
    Music Fair. Last month I attend a M1 demo in a musicshop here in
    Munich. I was very impressed by sounds and the capabilities of the
    instrument. As far as I understand the concept is very similar the
    D50, but multitimbral. Furthermore it includes two independent digital 
    reverb units, a drum section (sounds like HR16), and a sequencer.
    The price is 4kDM = ca 2.4k$ in Germany.
    
    So I think that it will be available very soon.
    
    /Hermann-Josef 

    
    There has been a lot of traffic on USENET about the M1.  Apparently
    some netters *have* them already and are quite excited about them.
    
    Supposedly the S1 "workstation" is a few months away.
    
    Anyone seen one in a MA store yet??
    
    
    				Brian_curious_but_broke
    
    

	I have been seeing these in the stores, and I have to say, the sound is 
NICE.  I skipped through the on-board sounds and was quite impressed by the 
cleanness, the reverb (seems like on-board digitasl reverb has become a 
standard?)...

	I didn't hear any use of the sequencer.  Looks like this machine is a
good competitor of Roland's D-family.

    I played with one at Only Guitar (hey, I needed a KB to test the
    Xpander with, it was there, ok? :-) )
    
    I didn't notice that anything was "so great".  In fact, I would
    go so far as to say the UI was "weak".  Not as bad as a Mirage,
    but not as good as a D-50 or an ESQ.  It needs more buttons.
    
    In the end, we spent so much time trying unsuccessfully to find
    the MIDI setup page on the M1 that we used a D-50 for the more arcane
    MIDI features.
                                                                
    	-Bill_the_proud_new_owner_of_an_Oberheim

	'Only Guitar' has an Xpander, M1 and a D50?

    Uh, yeah.  Well, they _had_ an Xpander.
    
    Don't worry about it, it's just the name.
                                                                   
    -----
    
    (their phone # is (518)371-1232, in case anybody wants an EPS or
    an M1 shipped FedX. :-) Ask for Phil, tell him "Crash" sent ya.)
    

  

  Saw an M1 in Daddy's Nashua.

Chad

    
    I saw and heard (briefly) the M1 down at Union Music today.
    
    First impression: A better piano than any other non-sampler except
    for Kurzweil.  Lots of D-50 like sounds.  Lotsa reverb and stuff
    on the presets.
    
    Good news:  The thing will allow *new* sample waveforms to be added
    via ROM card.  Look out!!!  No more obsolescence of the synth because
    some new machine with new waveforms hits the market. Third party
    developers can have a field day with this.
    
    Bad news:  The on-board sequencer has limited storage (6500 notes)
    and the Union slaesman says he feels it is not up to the ESQ sequencer.

    One surprise: Despite mongo features, this thing has almost no
    controls.  I gues the current trend will lead to a Fairlightish
    box with two buttons on it   8^)  8^)  8^)  8^)

    The thing does have four outputs (assignable, with two doing duty
    for normal stereo outs), 16 voices, allows storage of four "drum
    kits" (these steal from the 16 notes, though) and has two assignable
    digital processors.  
    
    
    

    I've heard (from demoing salesman) that the M1 is multiphonic- but most
    of the patches take two voices!  So, you have 16 "voices" but usually
    only 8 notes at the same time. 
    
    I didn't get a chance to check this but it sounds reasonable.

    Jeff demo'd this unit for me Saturday. While the 'workstation'
    concept seems sort of neat, it's not for me. Gimme modular
    any day...
    
    The M1 drums could stand some improving. They sounded like they
    were recorded poorly. In a gymnasium. Using a speaker for a mike.
    
    It did have some real pissah tricks, like only certain instruments
    being affected by the controllers, neat-o velocity thingies and
    what not.
    
    Powerfull (though 16 voice INCLUDING drums stinks), probably, but
    not my cup o' tea, thanks.
    
    Edd

    
    I agree with Edd. I was impressed by most of the sounds, the
    programming card (use that term loosely, it looks like a deck of
    cards) is quite thorough, the on-board fx looks and sounds nice,
    the two-standard ROM card inputs are interesting.
    
    BUT, the 6500-note sequencer is GARBAGE. No disk - give me a break.
    No decent screen, limited software, limited drum sounds, constrained
    multi-timbre capability. Nice synth, but a workstation it ain't.
    
    for two thousand bucks you can do better.
    
    /pjh

    I came...
              I played it....
                             I left

    I recently purchased a "Frontal Lobe" unit for my M1 and it does
    the trick! It features a 3-1/2" 1.44 Mb drive and expanded memory.
    The Frontal Lobe becomes the sequencer that drives the M-1 from
    the FL's memory.
    
    Up to 127 files per disk minus one for a "song list" which will
    AUTO-LOAD your custom song list for live performance. Works real
    well.
    
    You can find Frontal Lobe reviewed in KEYBOARD and Elec. Musician
    magazines.
    
    THe only negative I can think of is the price was on the high side...
    around $520 federal greenbacks.
    
    However, it makes the M-1 a LOT nicer in live performance! Along
    with my ROLAND U-220 we be makin' some beautiful music together.
    
    P.S. The M-1 and I have been doing jobs every week for a year and
    a half with no bugs! I say this after hearing from my brother who
    bought a VFX and had real problems... then sent it back to the factory
    for their upgrade and had MORE problems.... The dealer couldn't
    help him... he finally sent it back and Ensonic gave him a brand
    spanking new one! It seems to be fairing betta!
    
    best regards,
    Paul