Gear that I've owned at one time (and had to sell to pay bills sigh)
Right now I just have the MPC X. One of these years I'd like to get it all back again, as it's what I learned music production on. Not all are rack mount units (actually only the FS1r and the EX5/EX7 had rack mount versions, along with the SVC-350), but I digress.
1.) Yamaha RY20 drum machine (my first electronic piece of gear). I owned this twice and the second time I made sure to sample the complete AWM2 300 sounds before reselling. When I get the 20 drum kits recreated on my MPC X I'll create a sample set to upload to the group. Lots of natural sounding drum kits, including classical, jazz, rock, metal, hip hop, etc.
2.) Yamaha CS1x synth
3.) Yamaha SU10 phrase sampler (The SU700's baby brother, came out in 1996. Portable, runs on batteries, 56 seconds sampling time, with a ribbon for scratching effects).
4.) Yahama SU700 sampler (It did similar to what the Akai Force does now back in 1999. 3 different types of pads across 40 tracks: Loop, Composed Loop and Free. Great for on-the-fly composition.)
5.) Yamaha RM1x sequencer/groovebox/AWM2 tone generator
6.) Yamaha RS7000 sequencer/groovebox/AWM2 tone generator/sampler (the RM1x's successor: a SU700 and RM1x married and had offspring.) In my opinion: this is the most advanced MIDI sequencer in hardware form ever made. I wish Yamaha would make a modern version of this with today's specs.
7.) Access Virus B desktop edition (virtual analog)
8.) Yamaha DX200 (desktop FM groovebox: the DX7 made simpler for early 2000 musicians)
9.) Electrix Warp Factory Vocoder. If nothing else, I'd like to get this back for it's real-time vocoding effects.
10.) Korg MicroKORG synthesizer/vocoder. Nice portable synth with a vocoder with built-in mic.
11.) Akai MPC 1000. My first MPC. Didn't really jive with me, coming from my Yamaha sequencing/sampling mindset. This one I wouldn't really want back, since the MPC X does all it did and more.
Dream Gear I'd like to own:
1.) Yamaha EX5/EX7 (top of the line flagship synths/samplers/tone generators of their time in the mid-90s). You could add daughter boards to these units to add additional synthesis types (i.e. FM, VA, etc. along with the built-in AWM2 and sampling).
2.) Hartmann Neuron
3.) Yamaha FS1R (rackmount FM synthesizer with serious programmable power)
4.) Roland VP-330/SVC-350 Vocoder (used by Afrika Bambaataa on Planet Rock, along with lots of other classic electro & hip-hop tracks from the early-mid 1980s.)
5.) Korg Prophecy, Triton, or Trinity. Other flagship units from the mid-1990s.
My next piece of gear I'll purchase (if I get any more in the near future) will be the Behringer TB303 clone (the TD-3). So I can have a piece of CV hardware to use my MPC X's CV connections with and learn basic modular sequencing. At $150 it's almost an impulse buy.
