Back in 1986, this synth broke new ground by letting you sample your own sounds, draw waveforms freehand with sliders, or build them harmonically from scratch—three synthesis worlds in one hefty keyboard that still turns heads today.
It packs a 61-key velocity- and poly-aftertouch-sensitive board into a sturdy 1171 x 436 x 123 mm frame weighing 18.5 kg, with a performance joystick for pitch bend, mod, and filter sweeps instead of basic wheels. Dual sample-based oscillators (up to 16 multisounds in memory) mix with noise, feeding a resonant analog lowpass filter switchable between 12dB and 24dB/oct slopes, plus separate ADBSSR envelopes for filter and amp, two LFOs for pitch and filter, oscillator sync, and unison up to 4 voices across 8-note polyphony. Onboard 12-bit sampling at 16/24/32/48kHz rates captures up to 5 seconds (or 16 at lowest rate), with editing like truncate, reverse, mix, loop crossfade; effects include twin digital delays (0-500ms with LFO mod), low/high shelving EQ, plus mono audio in, stereo outs, headphones, full MIDI I/O-T, floppy drive, and sustain pedal. A crisp LCD, dual data sliders with step buttons, and keypad make deep programming intuitive once you dive in.
Players have long praised its warm hybrid tone—those analog filters chew through digital waves for fat basses, evolving pads, and punchy drums that age beautifully—though some note the limited sample time and 32 onboard patches (expandable to 128 on disk) feel tight by modern standards, and the OS can be menu-heavy without MIDI librarians. It's a cult favorite for sound designers chasing vintage character without the full Fairlight price tag.
