Key/synth review section

[Scrap]

In an attempt to compliment the Gear FAQ and Instrument Overviews, I'd like to gauge interest in a possible 'key/synth review' section for the forum. Reviews would be user-contributed, following a strict guideline/layout of review structure, similiar to but more organized than that of Harmony Central. Some of the guidelines I've thought of:

Reviewer must have had key/synth in question in their posession for at least 6 months prior to reviewing. Must be clear and concise as possible, bringing up the major pros and cons of each board. Usability, ease of use, features, and "context" (for example, you would not compare an SP to a workstation) must be clearly highlighted. Links to sound clips and pictures would be ideal, but not required. Comparisons to boards significantly over/under the price of the review board in question would be pointless, as well.

What are your thoughts, folks? Keep in mind this is to just gauge interest. It may or may not actually happen. Post any comments or suggestions that you may have.

[Enigma™]

the only questionable thing about this I'd say is the whole "having it for 6 months" part... Within 3 or 4 weeks I already know if I'm going to keep it or not. I mean, there are obiously aspects of the board you'd not know about, but then again, look at the Kurzweil2x00 line.
Most people I know still don't know what the hell they're doing on it ;)

Otherwise, it looks like a fantastic idea and I'd love to contribute!

[Scrap]

This is true, however, some people have that 'new gear aura' about for a month or so, and sometimes it may take someone a while to 'come back down from the clouds' to truly hand out an unbiased review, so to speak. ;)

Perhaps we could change that date around, though.

[Everlasting_Rain]

It's such a cool idea. I'd love to contribute, but I've only had (and still have) one synth in my life, so I don't know if I could make it.

Anyway, I hope this idea goes ahead.

[Semmi78]

I think it´s a good idea! Maybe you can watch www.harmony-central.com for tips how to build a review up. I think a framework, in which someone can write something, is necessary.

brand:
type:
sounds:
programming (easy/difficult):
reliability:
expansion possibilities
etc etc


Semmi

[Scrap]

There's a reason for that - have you ever actually read Harmony Central reviews? Half of the people there have no idea of what their instrument is capable of ("durr, what is an oscillator?" :P), and the other half don't even own what they are reviewing. :P

Needless to say, the quality is a bit lacking.

[Semmi78]

Yes, I came to the conclusion myself. Therefore edited my post!!! :P You are just so fast! :P

Harmony-central is too huge, and therefore the expertise is lacking a bit. And it is true that we are looking to synthesizers from another perspective, namely soundcreation, songdevelopments and the use of the intruments controllers. If your read Harmony central, nobody speaks about that. Ok, maybe a few.

[Scrap]

Good layout idea so far, Semmi. I'll work it into what I'm developing. ;)

[Over The Edge]

Having a user review section with those guidelines
suggested sounds like a great idea.

Let's also have everyone identify themselves as novice
intermediate and advanced users in order to fully understand
the context of a review.


FL
www.franklucas.net

[Semmi78]

Thanx! I think that is really necessary and more obvious when reading. Otherwise you will get enormous reviews with no structure. :wink:

semmi

[Luca_Capozzi]

consider me inside of this mess, mate :)

[Kirby]

Hi!

I would contribute some Reviews for sure.
About 4 or 5.

[Irish]

I think this is a great idea! I can't contribute much, because I only have one synth and I'm the only one who appreciates it, but it would be helpful also because that way you know who to talk to if you have questions about a particular instrument you might be interested in buying. I hope to see something come of this.

[Enigma™]

Having a user review section with those guidelines
suggested sounds like a great idea.

Let's also have everyone identify themselves as novice
intermediate and advanced users in order to fully understand
the context of a review.


FL
www.franklucas.net

I think this is also an excellent idea.
I mean, there ARE drawbacks, people who think they are experts at everything and know a lot of nothing will (mislabel) themselves... HOWEVER generally speaking it's a great idea I think.

[Scrap]

Okay, here's a quick template that I've shamelessly ripped off from Harmony Central, with some editing. THIS IS NOT OFFICIAL, so don't start writing up your reviews yet. ;)

Suggestions and changes are welcome.


Template Document

Initial Information:

Company, Keyboard Name/Model: (Roland, Kurzweil, Clavia, Korg, so on)
Price Paid For: (In US Dollar or Euro)
OS Version: (1.0, 1.1, 2.0, etc etc)
Classification: (Stage Piano, Music Workstation, Performance Keyboard, Portable Keyboard, MIDI controller, Analog Synthesizer, Virtual Analog Synthesizer, 'Clonewheel' modeler, FM Synthesizer, Software Synthesizer, etc)
Sound clips: (links to demos in mp3 format)
Reviewer's level of knowledge: (novice, intermediate, advanced)

--

Technical features:

(Total number of oscillators, effects, notable 'selling' features (E.G. VAST synthesis, HI Synthesis with Alternate Modulation System, Modulation Matrix, Sondius Physical Acoustical Instrument Modeling, so on), number of inputs, outputs, sampling yes/no, so forth.

Expressiveness/Sounds:

(Subjective and personal opinion of PRESETS and their level of
'expressiveness', I.E. dynamicism and feel)

Ease of use:

(Describe how easy/not easy it is to travel around the OS, program sounds and use the sequencer, and any nickpicks you may have)

Expansion capabilities:

(General overview of expansion capabilites (if any), and expansion options)

Reliability:

(Fairly obvious question. Does it look like cheap plastic that will break easily? Have you had problems with this instrument?)

General Overview:

(Why you bought this board, what role does it fill in your music making, who is it best suited for, so on)





Pros: (E.G. studio quality effects processor, key action)
Cons: (E.G. poor effects, bad keys, lacks features you find important)


Final rating: (1 out of 10)

[maJ estY]

Great idea and I would gladly appreciate a review about my synth, but I won't contribute, because I have only one synth, which means that I can't compare it and although I've had it for so long, I also don't really know what I can do with it.
Shall I better go to harmony central? *lol*

[X-dark]

It's a great idea but I can't contribute because my knowledge of synth are too little.

[rlainhart]

Would you consider adding softsynths to the review possibilities as well? I doubt I'll ever buy another hardware synth (certainly not another keyboard, unless my Kurzweil blows up), but I regularly get new softsynths, and I think those kinds of reviews would be valuable too.

[Over The Edge]

Absolutely Richard as that is the growing trend
among the masses (personally, I'm still a hardware guy).

I am an Arturia user and have wondered how many of
you have used either Storm, Moog Modular V or
the CS-80V programs.




FL
www.franklucas.net

[Scrap]

If you notice, in the template document, there is a cateory/classification called 'Software synthesizer', so you're all set there, Richard. ;)

But I'll add a few more softsynth-centric things to the template as well..

[Tigerfolly]

In an attempt to compliment the Gear FAQ and Instrument Overviews, I'd like to gauge interest in a possible 'key/synth review' section for the forum. Reviews would be user-contributed, following a strict guideline/layout of review structure, similiar to but more organized than that of Harmony Central. Some of the guidelines I've thought of:

Reviewer must have had key/synth in question in their posession for at least 6 months prior to reviewing. Must be clear and concise as possible, bringing up the major pros and cons of each board. Usability, ease of use, features, and "context" (for example, you would not compare an SP to a workstation) must be clearly highlighted. Links to sound clips and pictures would be ideal, but not required. Comparisons to boards significantly over/under the price of the review board in question would be pointless, as well.

What are your thoughts, folks? Keep in mind this is to just gauge interest. It may or may not actually happen. Post any comments or suggestions that you may have.

I think it's a great idea, but I think it will be ignored just like every post with information about keyboards already is. Just look at the past week or two, where it seems like almost every new thread is sitting next to a thread from a day or two earlier about the -SAME- thing.

There's already tons of posts full of information people are looking for, but people are too lazy to actually look it up, so instead they just post a new topic asking about it, even if there's a post sitting RIGHT THERE in front of their face about the same thing. Need an example? How many different posts have been asking about the VK7/8 and the CX3? How many different posts are required for this one topic? Apparantly, a couple dozen.

I'd love to see a gear review section, because then to every idiot who posts, "Anyone have a Triton LE? How is it?" we can say, "Moved to Gear Reviews". :)