Serial# 811067

Those “Glass Voices”… that “Guitarrrr”… there are many patches on this box that I used to think that I could not live without. If it broke down I would have to shop for a D-50 on E-Bay, I would say to myself.

Interestingly, as I re-work projects that featured this synthesizer, I find myself using alternative instrumentation in preference to the venerable D-50 tones. I don’t know why, exactly. Many synths of its era have disctinctive patches that were overused in commercial productions of the day, to the point where the patches now sound cheezy. The D-50/550 certainly has its share of these, but it is still capable of many unique and fresh-sounding sounds with depth that hold up today.

A lot of people have said that they have had problems with these M-Audio USB MIDI interfaces, but mine has worked flawlessly with Windows 2000, XP, and more recently, Windows 7 (although the drivers were only released in beta form very recently). I originally only used the IN/OUT-A because the Roland A-880 handled the rest of the devices. When I got the Roland VK-8 I’d run out of ports on the A-880 and so I plugged it into the In/Out-B ports. This works out really well because the VK-8 will actually respond on several MIDI channels as a multi-timbral device.

Serial# ZA98548

I live in fear of this device breaking down. Where the heck can you find MIDI patch bays these days? Apparently no-one makes them any more, but I don’t see why that should be. They are still a vital component of any comprehensive MIDI studio.

This one has been very reliable. But still I worry…

I had no problems at all with this interface in Windows XP. Sonar just profiled the device and away we go. I initially thought I would never use the SPDIF inputs but then I got the Roland Fantom, which has digital audio out. Apart from being lower in volume, I figure it has got to be better, right? So I feed the Fantom digital out into the SPDIF on the Delta-66 card.

Since moving to a Windows 7 64-bit workstation, I have had some issues. Occasionally I’ll hit the playback or record in SONAR, and instead of getting sound I’ll get silence. I’ve learned to hit the stop button pretty quickly when this happens, because if I don’t I’ll get a pulsing pile of digital rhythmic feedback noise on my electrodes. 

I suspect the Win64 drivers from M-Audio are to blame. It happens whether I select ASIO or WDM/Kernel streaming mode, and is not affected by buffer sizing.

If M-Audio don’t produce updated drivers that solve the proble, then at some point, I am going to have to switch to a different vendor. Probably Echo Layla 3G.

Serial# 011114

This has some truly excellent sounds, both synthesized and drum kits. I originally purchased it to replace what I thought was an ailing Korg M1. Until Addictive Drums came along, it was my main source of standard drum kit sounds..

Serial# 043388

The Korg M1 was our first real “workstation” keyboard. Actually, some might say that it was the first true “workstation” keyboard available on the market. Man, when I heard what this could do in the store I knew I had to have it, because it would take our music to the next level. I think it did. Suddenly we could use sequencing and drum samples, and our overdubbed sketches turned into pretty nice well-rounded demos.