Now we're at my main MIDI rig, I'll run down the wonderful toys I've got in here, top to bottom. 1) Casio CZ-101 - early 80's digital Phase Distortion synth. In the early 80s at the dawn of MIDI ever keyboardist had either a Yamaha DX series synth or a Casio CZ series synth. It was the law. Great retro analogue sounding synth. You can make some nice basses with it and some ripper leads. As with all the early digital equipment there's little real-time control over the sound. Synth engineers were a little to eager to chuck the knobs and sliders in the early days of MIDI. 2) Yamaha PSS-480 - A very simple 2-Operator FM synth that I picked up at a flea market for $15. Needed some work to get it playing. Like the Casio CZ it had those blasted mini-keys. Basically it was a consumer toy keyboard but since it had MIDI I was able to chop the keyboard off it to cut down on its size and stick it in the rig. Most of the presets are lame imitations of accoustic instruments that sound absolutely nothing like whatever instrument it says they're supposed to be. Very easy to program and you can make some really freaky sounds with it that beef up nicely with the right effects on it. It has a built in percussion section which can be controlled via MIDI. Some of the internal rythmes are actually pretty funky. 3) Kawai K5m - This machine uses additive synthesis except all the harmonics are controlled with only 4 envelopes instead of an envelope for each harmonic. You have to be a freaking rocket scientist (or Wendy Carlos) to program this beastie. I usually program it from the Atari ST's K5 editor Librarian using the "randomize and tweak" method. Makes nice brasses, organs, and bell-like sounds. A little cold and brittle though. Warms up nicely with the right effects added of course. 4) Moog MG-1 - This is my Moog MG-1, it's the same model as the very first synth I ever played back in 1979. Having only played pianos and organs up until then this wee beastie blew my freaking mind. 2 oscilator analogue subtractive synthesis engine basically it's the same guts as the Moog Rogue/Taurus/Liberation but it also adds a 10 voice polyphonic synth that can be mixed in. It was sold through radioshack in the late 70s/early 80s. I used to go to the local radioshack after school and play with this thing until the salesman would kick me out. Never dreamed I'd one day own one. Traded an old moped for it. 5) Yamaha RX-21 drum machine - My first drum machine. Bought it back in the mid 80s. Very cold, sterile, lifeless early digital drum samples. Only one kit on it. It sat unused for years but a couple of years ago I brought it out and discovered that it's the perfect blank page for creating interesting drum sounds with an effects processor. It's now earned itself a place back in the rig. I'm glad I didn't sell it now back in the early 90s. 6) Ensoniq Mirage - An 8-bit sampler from the 80s with analogue filters. Very distinct sound that has given it a certain amount of retro chic. This particular one used to be a full keyboard version that was used as my controller but then I got an Edirol MIDI controller and the full key Mirage just took up too much space. I was originally going to hack it into a rack box but the freaking motherboard is an inch too long to fit into a rack space. So I made my own wooden box for it to sit it. Legs attach to the bottom and it can double as a coffee table/piano bench. 7) Behringer DSP 2024P - a really nice 24bit digital effects processor. I love behringer gear. Inexpensive, flexible, powerful, all things I look for in a piece of gear. I haven't had this too long so I really haven't had much chance to play with it. I was mostly using it during the recording of the new SNB10 album to add compression to Monica's bass but I also used it's vocoder on the new version of Ivory Towers. I think I'm going to buy me another one of these. You can never have too many effects controllers. Seriously! 8) Edirol PCR-80 - MIDI controller keyboard with lots of real-time programable knobs and sliders. Love it! Love it! Love it! 9) Studio Projects C1 large diaphram condensor microphone (in flight case) - Chinese copy of a Neumann U87 microphone. Sounds freaking awsome and costs $3000 less. 10) P166 computer w/ Sound Blaster Live card - I use this as a real time digital effects processor and as a MIDI channel filter other than that it serves no function. I never throw out gear, even obsolete gear. I just find new ways to use it. The effects processor on the SB-Live card is a really nice Emu processor. The wave table synth on it is pretty damned good too but I mostly use my desktop PC (also equiped with a SB-Live) when I need to make use of the wavetable synth. I really like the effects processor on the card though so this old 166 does see quite a bit of use. I also use it if I want to incorporate the LD-80 into a MIDI mix since the LD-80 is stuck in OMNI mode I can't select only the MIDI channels I want it to play. The 166 takes the incoming MIDI data, filters out everything I don't want sent to the LD-80 and then passes the MIDI data along to it. I don't really emply the LD-80 tha often as a sound engine. I mostly just use it to control other MIDI drum sources. It's easier to lay down sequenced drum beats with the pads than it is to play MIDI drums on keyboard keys. 11) Some old amplifier - Got it free when a guy was chucking out a bunch of old electronic "junk". One channel is blown but the other still works fine. I used to use it with the RX-21 to control the Moog from a MIDI mix. Basically it would work like this. I'd send a bass drum track from the sequencer to the RX-21. The output of the RX-21 went to the amp. The speaker out on the amp went to the coil on a relay instead of a speaker. When the bass drum on the RX-21 was hit it would fire the coil and close the contacts of the relay. The contacts shorted the trigger on the MG-1 which would cause it to play whatever the last key pressed on the keyboard was. I could get the MG-1 to repeat a rythmic pattern controlled by MIDI. This was particularily usefull when I wanted a throbbing synth bass rythme or a fat analogue kick drum controlled from a MIDI sequence. One of the C-64s ( the one up in the top corner in fact) accomplishes this task now with a Moog Song Producer MIDI interface.