Novation Xiosynth

Is this a good buy?

Depends on what you want, and the price etc. etc.

I owned one of these, imo it did sound pretty good, very nice onboard audio interface as well. Not 100% hands-on control as it has menus and stuff. No MIDI IN except for USB.

Well I'm sort of new to making electronic music. What I have right now is a Casio CZ 3000 and a Korg Er-1. To record I use Audacity.... I have no midi cables or anything like that.

With this I still make some nice tunes, but with midi and all that jazz it's probably alot easier.

I guess I should have made this a thread about what I need to get started.

For synths, I think using knobs is better to tweak the sound (my Casio has so many buttons its gets annoying tweaking the sound that way).

I also need recommendations on synths in a price range of $200-$300.

Any help or tips would be nice.

Thanks

korg ms2000 :)

and if you're into the xiosynth, maybe check out novation k-station. barrel of fun that keyboard

  On 3/21/2010 at 4:41 AM, hahathhat said:

korg ms2000 :)

 

and if you're into the xiosynth, maybe check out novation k-station. barrel of fun that keyboard

You have some mad love for that ms2000.

Maybe I should check it out...

you've got no midi cables? wtf? you do realise you can hook up your CZ3000 and ER-1 all together with your computer right? so you can create a sequence in your DAW (fruity loops, cubase, logic - whatever you use), send that to your CZ3000 and have it all play nicely in sync with your drum machine? it staggers me how many n00bs just don't even connect their stuff together via midi because they haven't bothered to work it out and investigate how midi works... seriously mate - get some fucking midi cables and hook your gear up properly. do some research on line on how to go about it. get a decent DAW and use it to sequence your gear. also, your CZ3000 is a very good synth - much better and more powerful than a xiosynth, which personally I would not bother with.

last time - GET YOUR GEAR CONNECTED VIA MIDI.

I own a XioSynth 49 (bought it for 300€). I use it with an old sampler (Yamaha SU-700) and after some time I finally managed to produce something "listenable".

This is my first synth, perfect for my low-level of "knob twiddling". The default presets are not that good (except a few of them) but the synth gives you enough options to create good sounds.

I can't talk about the MIDI-Control because I don't use it. Same for the audio interface.

I like my Xio.

Don't know if this message was usefull.

I have heard alot about Fruity Loops. Should I get this or is there a better DAW out there?

  On 3/21/2010 at 1:44 PM, BCM said:

GET YOUR GEAR CONNECTED VIA MIDI.

Ill pick up some midi cables later this week

fruity loops is really good especially for beginners (although it's by no means basic or compromised for begginers - it's a fully fledged DAW). the sequencing style should also be easy to get your head around if you're used to programming your ER-1.

edit: you will also need some kind of USB or Firewire Audio/MIDI interface in order to connect your computer to your synths and transmit the MIDI information. I believe you can actually use a Xiosynth for this - I think it doubles up as a USB to MIDI interface.