Hi'y all!

We were talking in my band recently about our perceptions of how authentic we thought synth sounds were, and discovered something interesting. Try this in your own band(s)!

I'm a guitarist and real picky about my sound (I have this theory that truly great players can make great music with crap sounds). Anyway the keyboard player was demo-ing some of the guitar sounds and I said they sounded like crap.

He was perhaps a little taken aback - he said he thought they were pretty good, but what he didn't like were the piano sounds (because he's used to playing real pianos)

Now I was surprised - I though the pianos sounded great! I also liked the other sounds - organs, brass, bass, drums, etc. By this time the others had joined in and we came to the conclusion that none of us liked the sounds of the instrumenets we played (bass, percussion, brass), but thought the other sounds were fine.

I think this is not just professional jealousy (being relpaced by a machine or whatever) - for me, I would be truly ashamed to use the guitar sounds I heard.

It reckon it has more to do with the sonic richness and control we have all grown to love on our own instruments, and hearing some basic and bland synth/samples played back just doesn't cut it.

So at the risk of starting 2 threads in the same message, let me move on ...

I've been looking around for an entry level synth for my son's birthday & after reading a small amount of info on the XP-10 here, and decided to go that way. I know it's basically a sound canvas with a keyboard, but for the price (2/3 of list price) it was a good buy. The sounds can be layered (which is what I do with my sequences anyway), so overall I think he'll be happy.

I did compare it with the XP-30, after reading the rave reviews here on the built in session, orchestra cards, etc and went straight for the session guitar sounds - guess what? I'd give them about 3 out of 10 (and the XP-10 about 2 out of 10).

But the string sounds (orch card) and techno sounds/loops - WOW!

So maybe I'm over-sensitive to guitar sounds, but honestly, the clean patches sounds more like an electric banjo to me, and the dirty patches sound like a synth though a fuzz box. The nylon solo patch (orch card I think) could possibly be mistaken for the real thing in a busy arrangement - that was probably the best of the bunch - I'd give that one about 6 out of 10.

Anyway - enough of my ramblings - ask your band what they honestly think of their own instrument sounds - you might be surprised.

rgds all,
Hound Dog