Greetings from an old-timer turned newbie!

[milo_]

Dear Artemio and gang,

I am finally posting my first thread on this wonderful forum of yours. A few months ago, I attempted to purchase a V-synth through eBay. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a well coordinated scam that left me without a grand and without the so much wanted board.
All despondent, I spent many days just reading this forum, drooling over some of your audio demos and just hoping that I would get a chance at another V-synth for a decent price. For a brief moment I thought about saving up for a V-synth GT, but decided against it due to the price and the fact that IMO only the original V is to become a 'classic'.

Fast forward to 10 days ago...and there was this NIB V-synth on eBay being sold in Ontario with a one year Canadian-wide warranty! Price? A thousand bucks!
Assured that the transaction was through Paypal and having communicated with the seller by phone, I took the plunge and now I am the proud owner of a Roland V-synth!
It was completely new, unused, version 1.12 V-synth. After struggling to make the synth and my PC speak to each other, I finally managed to upgrade it to version 2.00. I am totally blown away by its sonic possibilities and it complements my Korg TR-88 workstation very nicely.

A bit about myself: I live in Vancouver, in Beautiful British Columbia. I am 45, and I used to be very much into synths and electronic music in the 80's. I owned almost every Roland and Korg keyboard or rack that came out between 1984-1990. Then, in 1991, for personal reasons, I quit music and went on a 15-year hiatus, which only ended late last year.
(For the record, I wasn't in jail! )
Technology, of course, never slowed down. On the contrary, it kept developing faster and faster, but I was not in the game anymore. This has left me with a 15-year knowledge gap and I have a lot of catching up to do - especially in the synth to PC communication department.

I am not very much into computers, except for the basic applications. I have a Cubase LE which I got with my new Alesis USB8 mixer, but I have yet to figure out how to connect everything together into one smooth home studio.

I hope you guys will have the patience with me when I ask a question that for many of you may appear obvious. I work as an educator, and I believe that the only stupid questions are the ones that are not asked.
I still have much research to do when it comes to computer audio files and data transfer. Stuff such as .wav, .aif or .mp3 were not around when I was fully involved with music. Heck, not even the Internet was around!!!

I am looking forward to exchanging some good information with you guys in the months and years to come. I am convinced that the V-synth is a classic in the making, and that a couple decades down the road this synth will be valued and respected as much as or even more than some classic 70's and 80's boards are today.

Thanks for keeping such a wonderful place up and running. It's INVALUABLE!!!

Cheers,

Milo

[Still Learning]

Welcome milo, glad to hear you weren't in jail!!
I'm 1 year older than you (born in Dec. of 1960) so it is good to see another one of us younger guys on this forum.

Good job getting your v-synth up to ver. 2.00. I'm running a 3-year old Alesis Multimix 6fx and I've been thinking about getting a newer, bigger mixer lately.

My wife of 22 years is an elementary school teacher and we both share your philosophy regarding asking questions, so...ask away

For the record, I find Artemio's forum invaluable also.
Take care,

---------------------------
When most people go to work they work. When musicians go to work they play. Which do you prefer?

[Igglethorpe]

milo,

Welcome aboard. Maybe in another thread, we can talk about what it was you were playing and recording back in the 80s. I'm sure it would bring up interesting conversation.

Look forward to reading your posts and helping where I can.

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Fantom X8 (2.10) 512MB
Fantom XR (2.02) 512MB
V-Synth XT (2.02)
SH-201

[V-CeeOh]

Hi Milo and Welcome to the Clan

It's always good to find an oldtimer around has I can consider myself and oldtimer too - I'm soon becoming 41 .
You can check the ages of some of our members HERE. Make sure you don't get intimidated by some of our "babys"

I believe that you already know that this is the friendliest forum around and generally everyone gets a reply. But, if you can't get your questions answered at least make sure you get a good laugh

See you around

[milo_]

Thanks, guys.
It's good to know that I am not the only 'gramps' here.

I am currently setting everything up at home. I ordered a PC to CF card converter and a SanDisk 1GB card for the V after reading the forum a bit on memory expansion. I hope I ordered the right stuff. :-0

I am still trying to figure out a bunch of things as I've only had the V-synth for a few days now, and most of my free time I spent it playing with the factory presets and then upgrading it to v.2. (Unfortunately, I am a full time language teacher, and that doesn't leave me much time to play.)

Still learning, I would suggest you take a good look at the Alesis Multimix 12 Firewire. It seems to be the cat's ass in its class and price range, especially if you run soft synths. I am quite happy with my USB8. Currently, I only have 2 boards, so 8 channels will suffice.

V-CeeOh, thanks for the warning, but the babies won't intimidate me. I make a living working with people 17-24 y/o, so I think I know how to deal with them. One of the good things of getting older is we DO become smarter (or less silly).

Igglethorpe, it would sure be nice to talk a bit about the past. I got into synths in the early '80s and my biggest frustration was that Dad couldn't afford to buy me a Jupiter 8 at the time. As a result, when I started making my own money, I made it a point to buy every new board or rack that tickled my fancy...which happened too often!
I had a fairly successful band down in Caracas (Venezuela) where I spent most of the '80s. We played techno-rock. However, my forte was never gigging. I enjoy a home studio setting, where I can unleash my creativity and imagination. I have done some work for radio and TV (jingles, background music for sitcoms, etc...). It never paid enough to allow me to become a full-time musician, but it was fun fun fun. Maybe we could start a thread about our past music experiences.

I also worked for two years in a music store in Caracas in the keyboard department. There was a time when I really knew just about everything about any piece of synth-related equipment in the market. My friends used to tease me that I used "Keyboard Magazine" and "Electronic Musician" in bed instead of "Playboy" or "Hustler". Almost true! LOL!

Thanks for the welcome. I hope I will become of some use here as I keep updating my skills. All this PC to synth interfacing is still a bit intimidating for me. 15 years away from music technology sure took its toll.

I'll be around, both lurking and participating actively if and when I feel I can contribute positively to any discussion.

In the meantime...keep those tracks rocking!

Cheers, Milo

[Shimky]

Milo said, "One of the good things of getting older is we DO become smarter (or less silly)."

I was a '68 baby and I'm very much still a baby. Still, that's the way I was made, so I'm not going to fight it! I guess I must be a little smarter but, damn, I'm no less silly!

Welcome, Milo. And hello to everyone else. I can't really welcome Milo seeing as I just joined the clan half an hour ago! But you know what I mean. :O)

I've tagged a new joiner's message onto the "V-Synth GT" thread in this forum, so I won't repeat myself here.

Warmest wishes,
Shimky.

[s.asad]

Greetings Milo & Shimky.

I am a newcomer here myself.
It has been a very helpful & resourceful board so far:)