I was there in the 1980's - couldn't afford any of the synths used. That JP-4 is soooo much in demand at the moment and commands top prices. However... I have subsequently owned many synths and have now reduced my kit. I can recreate many of the tracks now from scratch using the few modern synths I own, but you soon come to realise, what's the point? There is no doubt when you listen closely to the tracks there was a lot of skill and talent involved (so I'm doomed) - so now I try to imagine what if I'm doing their next album. That is a challenge, and having little talent myself...
As for synths, I like 'em with knobs on. There is some spritual connection between human and synth when the hand is on the knobs. Tweeking the sound, the hearing of it creates an emotional connection, then more tweeking, more emotion.. etc.
VST synths are good but for me I much prefer that hands on a knob approach and give it a tweek. Does that sound rude? wasn't intended to be.
I think offences happen when people start to battle virtual (VSTi) instruments with the physical hardware. To me it would be like emulating a 5150, you lose the physical aspects of the floppy drives, big red flippy switch, capacitive buckling spring keyboard, CRT monitor etc.
And the same goes for the synths, you lose the knobs, wooden sides, spring-loaded keys, colours, etc. However, analog is
infinitely (
) more difficult to emulate with digital software as it doesn't understand infinity. Digital is limited to set numbers.
While IN THEORY it
may be possible to create a fool-proof 100% accurate emulation, none exist for any of my synths or various sound devices
Analog synths really dropped in price during the 90's when Yamaha released the DX7. I was too young then to know what a "polyphonic analog synthesizer" even was.
I didn't know there was a demand for JP-4s? As far as I know, it's a more obscure synth with a high upkeep. There's a lot of issues when owning one (none of which affect me), but here they are:
#1 JP-4 needs tuning due to the VCO, you have to open it and tune the four sandwiched voice cards (mmmm analog sammich). And then fine-tuning occurs on the outside with the tuning knob. I have a special system of tuning my synths which works well.
#2 you have to have a technical knowledge of synthesizer lingo, and know what the knobs do.
#3 you have to know how to play, and the desire of such. Unless you're one of those people who just collects stuff and never uses it (which I don't like: what if there's someone who really wants it, and will actually make good use of it?)
#4 understanding of circuitry is needed, and the tools to repair electrolytic capacitors or whatever else. Luckily the JP-4 has very simple PCBs (the main board is single-sided from what I could tell). Runs on an 8048 processor, like the 5150's keyboard apparently.
#5 no MIDI! Musicians who live and breathe MIDI will not be interested. I think this is one reason why JP-4s are ignored. Of course you could solder on a minerva kit or whatever it is (but that might even turn down more interest in it), but I don't have the heart to modify my electronics,
I always leave them stock.
So that's pretty much it; as you can tell, most folk would rather throw in a VSTi and have it all dynamically hooked up with MIDI and never worry about hardware needing maintenance or periodic
tuning. There's not a whole lot of *creative* people that are also equipped with *technical* skills; usually it's one or the other. I'm just starting to get into the technical arena, will buy soldering tools some day; so I can repair my electronics (besides, finding, let alone paying someone to do it is not worth it).
There's always been (from what I observed) a big distance between vintage computer and vintage synth aficionados. Which is too bad as I enjoy both.
By the way, if anyone's interested in hearing a super-quick track I did (mostly) on my JUNO-60,
here it is. The backing strings, and "weow" (charactierstic of the resonance filter) are from the juno.
Awww man, it's awesome with a bunch of good speakers and hearing that thing blare nice and loudly.
I'll quit rambling now
