LOOK MUM NO LIVESTREAM 4th JUNE 7:30PM

I’ve purchased two used synths in recent years, a Roland Gaia SH-01 and a Yamaha MX49. The SH-01 originally came with patch editing/library software but mine didn’t and Roland discontinued it entirely. Here’s a shoutout to Starving Musician in Santa Clara, California, where I purchased both for very reasonable prices. The MX49 originally had a code in the owner’s manual to download a version of Cubase. The code would only work once, but doesn’t matter because I didn’t get the manual and besides that, Cubase stopped making the software. For the SH-01 there are a couple of free programs to do the editing, but for the MX49 I haven’t found anything. Still, I love both synths. I’d love to see all the big manufacturers offer long term software support and support for used instrument buyers. I’d be willing to pay a fee for that!

cautious possum

I couldn't finish until the end, had to go to bed (what you probably should've done as well, Sam), so I hope you got there in the end and today everything works in your rented white room-thingy.

I finally got my first hardware synth on Friday to get away from these pesky computers. It's a MicroFreak and it worked and sounded great out of the box, no PC needed. But there was a firmware update so of course I had to hook it up to the computer for that. It took hours! First "MIDI Control Center" had to update and restart, 20 minutes. Then it couldn't see the MicroFreak so had to restart it, 5 minutes. Started the firmware update, 15 minutes, then it tells me it failed. The synth won't start up, "Utility" light blinking. I restart the MCC and the synth is still not booting. I'm MicroFreaking out hoping the synth isn't bricked. I see in MCC I can still start firmware update process even though its not fully booted up. Another 15 minutes for a "Success" message. Buuuut, the synth still won't boot. Now I'm MacroFreaking out, absolutely certain it is bricked. I look to see if anyone else has had the issue and the only solutions I find are to just redo the firmware update process. Since I just did that, I spend another 20 min looking for more ideas. Can't find any and figure I'll just try it one more time. Another 15 mintues. FINALLY, it works. Then MCC tells me since I just updated to v5 I need to run the preset updates, another 20 minutes. Next time I'm just buying a fully analog synth. I'd rather re-solder an entire circuit than deal with that computer nonsense, and I'm a programmer! I can't even imagine what it's like for people that rarely use these beasts.

Jason Kostempski