Jen SX 1000

Hi all, found an odd pokey little music shop the other day with one of these babies for sale. Is it a good price? Anyone got any experience with these things? Sounds like a great deal to me, thinking about going after work and snapping it up. It looks lush, I'm def going to try it out tonight at least :)

Some pictures of one (not the one I might be buying) are here

http://www.fantasyjackpalance.com/fjp/soun...jen-sx1000.html

Thanks :)

By all accounts it sounds great (there's some youtube videos of it available), but I'd have to look really long and hard at the fact that it doesn't even have CV/Gate in, let alone MIDI. You have honestly no way whatsoever to sequence it. There's a Kenton MIDI retrofit available, but then either you or someone you pay has to crack it open and solder shit on plus mod the case.

You could just sample the hell out of it, yes, but there are probably better options available.

Mmm, that's my major bone of contention really. Reading into it, it'll cost a fair old bit to retrofit it. But for a first foray into analogue I thought it might be rather fun to tinker about with. I think it's actually a little overpriced, perhaps I should try to knock the bloke down to £100.

  ten fingers ten toes said:

I'd have to look really long and hard at the fact that it doesn't even have CV/Gate in, let alone MIDI. You have honestly no way whatsoever to sequence it. There's a Kenton MIDI retrofit available, but then either you or someone you pay has to crack it open and solder shit on plus mod the case.

 

You could just sample the hell out of it, yes, but there are probably better options available.

See, I've never really got this (and don't make some smartass comment back at me about THE EXTREME ADVANTAGES OF MIDI AND CV/GATE, that's exactly the kind of thing you would do) why can't you just play the synth live - it's really nice to have that human feel about your synth tracks: so it's not exactly in time or whatever. Just record your entire track in one take, I mean admittedly it's not easy for really fast melodies and lots of stacatto notes unless your really careful about it but hell, I just don't think you should not get a peice of gear at all because it doesn't have MIDI.

Well, some people can't play the keys (like me), some people write music that is prohitibitvely difficult to play along to, some people would like to have hands free while recording to do aother things (tweak knobs, move mixer slides, etc.). Not to mention that even for really proficient keyboardists, getting the timing right can be a really finnicky ordeal. These are all great reasons to not buy something that doesn't have any external control options.

I mean, if you really WANT to play live all the time then have at it, but you are giving up an awful lot of felxibility here. Also, nothing is stopping you from playing a MIDI'd keyboard live, just don't sequence it!

You might also want to think about what it is about it that you really want. Most of the time (and I'm no exception) it's just because it looks cool and it's new, paying no mind to the fact that it's easily replacable/replicatable by tools already at your disposal. For every time I think that software just won't cut it, I think about the fact that Kraftwerk's Minimum/Maximum tour/live album sounds almost exactly like their studio cuts, in some cases better, using Sony laptops running nothing but Arturia plugs.

Just more food for thought.

yea, i wouldn't get it without a CV/MIDI retrofit or some way of sequencing it. I don't really see the point of just sampling it - not really worth shelling out £140 for a soundbank.

if you can knock him down to £80 I would go for it and have it fitted with MIDI etc...

That's pretty much my plan for after work BCM... providing it all works correctly. It's just hard to turn down a beautiful looking analogue synth that's only about 60 doors down from me on my street! I really do want to be able to sequence it for 'proper' use - it'll be fun to play about with, but when writing tracks I like to be able to bash out a simple melody on the keys, then refine and elaborate on it using programming.

I'll let you know how I get on tomorrow :)

*finds the shop and buys it*

  ten fingers ten toes said:

Well, some people can't play the keys (like me), some people write music that is prohitibitvely difficult to play along to, some people would like to have hands free while recording to do aother things (tweak knobs, move mixer slides, etc.). Not to mention that even for really proficient keyboardists, getting the timing right can be a really finnicky ordeal. These are all great reasons to not buy something that doesn't have any external control options.

 

I mean, if you really WANT to play live all the time then have at it, but you are giving up an awful lot of felxibility here. Also, nothing is stopping you from playing a MIDI'd keyboard live, just don't sequence it!

 

You might also want to think about what it is about it that you really want. Most of the time (and I'm no exception) it's just because it looks cool and it's new, paying no mind to the fact that it's easily replacable/replicatable by tools already at your disposal. For every time I think that software just won't cut it, I think about the fact that Kraftwerk's Minimum/Maximum tour/live album sounds almost exactly like their studio cuts, in some cases better, using Sony laptops running nothing but Arturia plugs.

 

Just more food for thought.

Ya that's a good point, I kind of take the fact for granted that I have played piano a long time and it's kind of easier for me to do live jams in that respect. I've actually heard an amazing piano part in a Grime track (ok, lol bad example but this guy is suprisingly good) that was done on a sequencer and it was better than I could dream up after playing piano for years. It just doesn't work out for me I guess, I can't "get funky with a mouse" (as Vibert once said) - I have to be able to sit in front of a keyboard of some kind to make up my melodies and basslines.

i had one - i loved it - i sold it for £100

i regret that

Well, I got him down to £100 and couldn't really say no... going to have loads of fun hooking it up to pedals and the like for a bit, then eventually retrokitting it. I might post a few photos of me looking all happy with it at some point :) Picking it up tomorrow after work.

Next step in the studio enlargement process - a huge harmonium (if I can get it in the house) and possibly a reel to reel player to mess about with

Vibert said he used to use one to make acid before he bought a 303

Hmm can't see how you'd really make acid with it, obviously still fiddling with it but not got anything immensely 303ish out of it. Still quite a pleasant little monosynth, got some nice noises with some delay and distortion added