Roland JV-90, now that's what I expect from a vintage

Heya,

in the beginning of 2011, I bought --out of curiosity-- a second hand vintage synthesizer, a JV-90. It was in need of repair, and left dusty in a corner of a music store. I thought that since it's my first time having a synth, for a $250 it's pretty good deal for only knowing what a synth can do.

After a month effort of repairing it, the JV-90 finally show its worth. The sounds I missed from yamaha psr e-303 and technics kn-5000 finally can be produced from this baby. The piano, chimes, guitar, organ, bass, and many more, sounds great even when produced from kn-5000 speaker.

For me, the JV-90 looks somewhat professional ... this is something I regret when I finally sold it three months later. Even though it's old, those sliders are actually made the JV-90 a seriously good midi controller. Just noticed when I saw those expensive synthesizers and midi controllers. Oh, and those 76 keys ...

Last regret I feel when I finally bought a Roland Juno DI. Even though the specs said that it's much better than any vintage keyboards, I do miss those sounds. Apparently that's the reason people is still collecting vintage keyboards; you can't reproduce vintage sounds in new synths.

A reason to install Reason

Ck... after about 2 month I succeeded to live in an igloo with a penguin, I have to admit that I cant live without a ventilation. Though I felt reluctant, finally I reinstalled Windows last week. The reason ? Its Reason.

I installed Reason a few month before I removed my Windows from my computer. Though its just to try the demo song, I was very impressed by the sound it produces. Too bad I dont have a keyboard yet.

Now I do have a keyboard with a limited feature and not-so-good-unless-its-piano sound sample, I feel the urge to connect it to my computer using a MIDI cable through my soundcard's game port. So I go back to Bandung just to get the stuff and back to Depok soon after.

As expected, Reason is good enough to produce sound in real time mode. Sadly, the problem lies on my soundcard. There is nothing to expect from value version of Sound Blaster Live! but to have a little bit too much latency. After so much tries, I finally able to get optimal setting to minimize the latency. I got this setting : rate 96000, buffer 4096, and latency 42ms. It feels like having a little echo, but I still can keep my concentration. Maybe its time to consider buying a not-value-version of Sound Blaster X-Fi.

Again, I have to give a credit to Reason developer, who is able to create such sophisticated yet less processing power consumed software. My system actually feel the increasing processing power needed after I added about five Combinator device to my song. A Combinator device is a device that combine one or more device to produce a sound, for example, a flanger generator device mixed with a guitar-sound-producing device. And for my surprise, every Combinator device I added contains more than five device.

Why do I write about Reason so much ? Because I think its GOOD. I almost don't need anything else to create a sequencer or to play in realtime mode. Like I said, I just need a better soundcard to minimize the latency and maximize the system's processing power. But, I regret that until this moment, I haven't finished any song yet with Reason. The reason is obvious. I'm too tired to do any work after I got home from the office.

Damn Bureucracy :D

Yesterday my dad phoned me. He told me about the exam of civil servants wannabe that took place on saturday, February 11th 2006. He said that I have to be grateful since I got my current job quite fast 'n easy. Hmm...yeah ...yeah ... I replied.

Actually I was also going to participate in the exam. Since my parents asked me to take part in the acceptance of civil servants, I reluctantly went to one of registration places in Department of Health (DoH). Why there ? I really like anything related to hospital. Hospital Information Systems, smell of drugs, people in white dress, and the fact that system administrator in the hospital where my father works goes to work at 8.00 a.m. and back home at 2.00 p.m. Perfect for a lazy people like me. I mean, I really wanted to do other work beside IT as a secondary job. Imagine how hard it is when you have to go to work in the morning and back home late at night.

When I got there an hour earlier, a lot of people have already gathered. Nothing much to tell, I think. But when the opening began, I went back and forth the queue just to correct the application letter. I was wondering why do we have to make application letter exactly like the example they provided. Why bother ? Is this the face of a newly reformed bureucracy ? So, my patience went to the limit when the one who check my application letter said that there is no opening for a Computer Scientist. Instead there are opening for Computer Engineer, Bachelor of Information Management.....

I went home.

Me and my E-303

At last. After two years full of pain being unable to play a keyboard, finally i decided to buy a yamaha psr e-303. I was having a chat with my colleague about how he want to learn to play guitar. Somehow I felt something burning inside myself ... an urge to have a working musical instrument ( I do have a 'silenced' keyboard ). Since a 'decent' keyboard is so expensive, I didn't think about buying one. Instead, I was thinking about buying a contrabass. Well, for those who don't know a contrabass, the Indonesian word for the instrument is 'bas betot'.

You might think why I suddenly want to buy a contrabass.

I do have played a contrabass before. I learned to play the instrument from angklung corps in my highschool. Though it was the only occasion, I was able to play "You can't hurry love". The song was simple, at least for a beginner contrabass player.

Oh well, it turns out that a contrabass is quite expensive : 2,5 million rupiahs. So I was wandering in Plaza Depok until I saw this E-303. Somehow I asked the shopkeeper to turn it on. I was astonished by its grand piano voice and its price : 2 million !
So I decided to buy one, but first I have to do some price surveys. And that day, I walk around Depok Mall and Plaza Depok only to end up buying it at Gramedia.

Since Gramedia doesn't provide shipping, I carried it with my own hand home.

What a day.