Korgscrew
Group: Super Admins
Posts: 3511
Joined: Dec. 1999 |
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Posted: Nov. 03 2007, 16:39 |
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I know someone who's got an ESQ-1 kicking around in his attic somewhere (or did anyway...he's just had a loft conversion done...). I offered to buy it off him, but he never got around to digging it out...but what he did pull out of there was a KS-32, which now sits looking big and beastly in my studio. It's a relative of the VFX/SD-1, though I believe slightly cut down in terms of architechture.
I have to admit that I haven't spent a great deal of time exploring its possibilities, but I can say a few things about the sound which I believe will apply to the SD-1 as well.
The presets are indeed mostly fairly horrid. Many of them are smothered in a particularly wobbly chorus, which rather dates them. It's also really not one to buy if you're looking for a synth which will give you anything even close to realistic recreations of acoustic instruments - they're not likely to fool anyone, though for their time, a lot of them aren't bad.
So...why would you want to buy it? There's one thing I like in particular about it, and that's that the bass end is amazingly powerful. It's not 'phat' in the currently fashionable analogue sense, but more just plain weighty. If you want something to give breathy, earthy bass underpinnings to tracks, you might find it'll do something you like. I think the seller of the SD-1 was spot on when he mentioned film soundtracks - it's that kind of sound. I haven't delved terribly deeply into the transwave synthesis architecture, but I get the sense that it can be tweaked to provide more unusual textures. I'd put it in the category of "interesting to have around" rather than "must use on everything" - whether that makes it worth buying is a very subjective thing. There's probably nothing there which can't be done in software.
Still, Mike's SD-1 is sold now anyway (and without much of a fight for it...), so anyone intent on owning one will have to keep their eyes peeled for more!
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