Synths
I'm not sure why I picked up playing with synths - it may be because I couldn't actually play the piano very well and decided that they could play music for me. That was probably an unwise move if it were true.
Below is a list of my synths, with a bit of info on each.
Technics WSA1
This is a 61-note workstation released by Technics back in late 1995. It has 64-note polyphony and uses "acoustic modelling" which is just a clever filter rather than doing anything clever with mathematics.
The screen is usefully large and as a multitimbral unit it works really well, with doubled-up MIDI ports so you can have 32 MIDI channels. Ther mixer section is also very good as it gives easy access to a load of parameters at once.
Where it does fall down a bit is in the richness of its sounds. It's not the most massive sounding synth although it does sound different to your average ROMpler. This is mainly down to the "resonator" which does the acoustic modelling which essentially models the body of an instrument. Samples of strings being hit are fed through into this resonator so you can, theoretically, get the sound of a piano string being played from inside a tuba. Or a conversely get a tuba shaped like a piano.
Korg X5DR
This is a simple ROMpler module made by Korg, released in 1995. It is the successor to the O5/RW module and just has more samples, plus double the polyphony (64 notes).
You are allowed up to two samples per voice but as the samples are so rich many programs just have one.
The module is, as mentioned, a very rich-sounding unit. It's easy to produce muddy-sounding tunes from this as each sound wants to force its way to the front of a mix. The soundset is pretty standard mid-90s ROMpler territory but it does have some extra bits such as famous sounds from the Korg M1 (Universe, Piano etc.).
If it does lack something it is resonant filters. Korg put in something called "emphasis" but this just doesn't sound anything like it.
Novation Supernova II
This is a virtual analogue synth (mine is the module version) which got a lot of critical praise when released in 2000. It is the successor (surprise!) to the Novation Supernova and has a few extra features such as FM and more polyphony (24-note).
It has a really lovely smooth sound to it which I happen to love, and the filters are excellent, being 12db, 18db or 24db with beefy resonance and self-oscillation. OS 2.0 came with a load of extra sounds which are well worth getting if not already installed. Getting OS 2.0 onto the machine can be quite tricky though. I had to use MIDI OX and make sure I did not flood it with data.
The Supernova also has a flexible vocoder for dalek impressions (or something musical).
Alesis Fusion 8HD
Released in 2005, this was intended to be a big-boy workstation to compete with the top units from Korg, Yamaha and Roland. It never quite made it because of OS bugs and the sounds it came with not quite being there. In addition it is not the easiest of units to use.
The spec is very good, with 4 different synthesis types, sequencer, hard disk recorder, sampler and the ability to load up new sample sets to the hard drive. The synthesis types are VA, ROMpler, physical modelling and FM. The VA sounds very very good and is one of the highlights of the machine.
A load of free sounds were released by Hollow Sun, a sound design company, which really made the machine special. They included samples from classics such as the Fairlight, Mellotron and PPG Wave plus stock sounds like choirs, strings and synth pads. The Holy Grail piano sound it comes with is also quite good.
The keyboard is weighted (although lighter than some) and has aftertouch. It is generally thought this machine could have been fantastic if the different parts were better integrated, especially given the better spec it had compared to other synths. The Fusion is up to 272-note polyphonic although this is only for samples. For FM is is 240 voice, VA 140 voice, PM reed 60 voices and PM wind 48 voices.
Roland D-110
This module, released in 1988, is the module version of the D-10 which shares the same synth engine as the D-20. All of these inherited from the famous D-50 synth although in a cut-down form.
The synth uses "LA synthesis" which is basically a combination of synth and samples. Roland wanted to save on sample memory and made all the samples short "hits" which are used at the start of sounds. This way the complex attack part of a piano could be made by the sample with the relatively simpler sustain sound done using a synth part.
In practice the sounds are horribly unrealistic but that does not mean they are bad - they can be usable in their own way. For analogue-type sounds the synth can do fairly well and the resonance is quite sharp. Each sounds can be made up of 1 to 4 "partials" which are either samples or synth parts. The unit can play up to 32 partials at once so it can be 32-note polyphonic at best or 8-note polyphonic at worst.
The drums are fairly crunchy (all samples are 8-bit) and the sound set also contains a few GM standards such as Atmosphere, Fantasia and Soundtrack.
Sequencers
I tend not to use the internal sequencers on my workstations but use external sequencers.
Brother PDC 100
This is a 32-track hardware sequencer released in 1991. It is very useful as a data filer but also pretty competent as a sequencer too. While it cannot compete with software sequencers for ease of use, it has a lot of features.
It saves to 3.5" floppy disks and has a nifty mode which allows you to inspect the MIDI messages sent through to it.
There is a lot of scrolling to be done around menus to do editing etc. although this gets quicker as you use it.
Emagic Creator
This is a classic piece of Atari ST software, using the built-in MIDI ports on the side of the ST. I use it extensively as I can't be bothered to learn anything else and this is fantastically easy to use anyway. Additionally I have hooked up the Unitor 2 which gives extra MIDI ports so up to 3 synths can be controlled at once.
It requires the hi-res ST monitor to work and also needs a hardware dongle. The real attraction is just how easy it is to lay tracks down and mess with them. The basic functions are all there to be used and no extra faff.
I did try to use this to upload OS 2.0 into my Novation Supernova but the internal memory was simply not large enough to accomodate it.