Equipment
A lot of different equipment has been used to produce the samples on this site. Here is a obsessively compiled list, with brief descriptions and links where appropriate.
Software:
Redmatica's AutoSampler provides an easy to use sampling interface for hardware synthesizers. Normally, one would have to play, edit and process every note of an instrument before it could be loaded into a sampler, AutoSampler does away with all of this by playing each note, chopping start and end points and normalization and looping, once it has done this, it spits out a ready-to-use Sample Instrument. Without AutoSampler, there would be a lot less content on this site.
MOTU's Volta allows us to control CV/Gate enabled devices directly from any Audio Unit (AU) compatible sequencer. Volta is primarily marketed towards Modular synth users, however it can be used in conjunction with many different devices, many monosynths will work with Volta, it can also add some extra mileage to anything with a pedal input. for instance, my Ensoniq ESQ1 has a Pedal/CV input, which can be assigned to several different parameters (filter cutoff, oscillator pitch etc), by patching Volta into the pedal input I can add a 5th, tempo syncable LFO to the ESQ1, or run any parameter through the step sequencer.
Logic Pro is my standard day to day sequencer. It's very fancy. if you're on this site you probably know what this is, so I wont say anymore.
Five12's Numerology is a software representation of a hardware step-sequencer. It really is a fantastic piece of software.
Hardware:
Some of the hardware listed here is no longer in my possession and unfortunately, some of it is broken, but they have all contributed to the samples on this site.
My burgeoning modular synth lives in a Doepfer Low Cost (cheapo) case.. Notable modules include a Synthesis Technology E340 Cloud Generator ,a Cat Girl Synth Synthacon Filter and a Doepfer A-127 Triple Resonance Filter.
My small dotcom system was recently sold and while I don't miss its bulk and I never particularly cared for the filters, I desperately miss it's wonderful oscillators. The tracking was great, they were stable, I am not complete without them.
The Ensoniq ESQ1 and SQ80 keyboards are, in my opinion, the best synth's without knobs ever built. The spec is impressive, 3 digital oscillators, 4 envelopes, 4 LFO's, sync, AM, analogue filters and a pretty good sequencer. Programming is easy, thanks to it's intuitive layout.
I cannot stress how much I love this synth, to show my undying adoration for this thing I am dedicating my first premium sample collection to its glory. Coming soon, Dark Mysteries of the ESQ1! Watch this space...
Yer basic Roland Blip box, okay i guess, not much going for it, the ADSR was snappy, the sequencer was easy to use and worked well with other gear.Not worth what I paid for it, certainly not worth what I sold it for!!
Dave Smith Instrument's Tetra is a lovely little box. It can operate as a 4 voice polysynth or as 4 individual monosynths, or as one huge monosynth!
http://www.davesmithinstruments.com
My poor MG-1 is dead, I really miss the old girl. She never sounded quite right, but that was part of her charm. I think her filter, like a good wine, had aged to perfection.
I didn't really like the Microwave XT, so I sold it. I think it's because I am prejudiced against all wavetable synthesis, it's just not right. (the Korg Wavestation, what's that about?). However, it's digital filters are very impressive and there are a lot of modulation options.
When I was trying to figure out the XT, I found the site below very informative:
http://www.carbon111.com/mwxt.html
Now here's a digital synth I can get behind. Sure it does Analogue modeling and that's very boring and clean sounding, however it takes the whole physical modeling one step further by offering a bunch of different models like strings, brass, electric piano, several analogue VCO types, comb filter, FM and organ. I've only just started using this, but I expect to get a lot out of it.
Check out this excellent demo of the Z1 in action. It's was this video that encouraged me to get mine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcNhJI92cF4
A pretty good string machine, that also does brass, organ and piano sounds. None of the sounds are particularly convincing, but that's not the point. I traded it in for the Z1.
