The cheapest MIDI home-studio of 1988
276,024
Published 2023-07-03
Massive thanks to mu:zines and archive.org for their incredible collections. This led me to all the cheapest gear that people were actually using back in the day. Thanks also to all those I reached out to who verified most of the findings and gave me amazing insights to the gear of the day.
Gear used: Atari 520ST (mostly), Roland MT-100, Yamaha MusicStation PSS-580, Kawai K1, Yamaha EMT-10, Dr T MIDI Recording Studio, Cubase 1.5 and Rotel mini system.
00:00 - Intro
01:10 - Atari's Sound and finding your first synth
02:40 - Synth - Yamaha MusicStation PSS-580
05:02 - Atari - DR T's MIDI Recording Studio (demo)
08:32 - DEMO - MusicStation & Monitor
11:13 - Synth - MT-32 Intro
14:00 - Atari - Cubase 1.5 (demo)
17:56 - DEMO - MT-32 Solo & Polyphony discussion
19:52 - Synth - Kawai K1 Intro
21:50 - Synth - Kawai programming and MIDI assign
23:12 - DEMO - Kawai K1 and Guitar Jam
26:00 - DEMO - Yamaha EMT-10 + MT-32
27:45 - Conclusion and End tune (demo on the Kawai K1)
Please do not copy this entire video to your own channel without permission. Using 45 or 60 seconds as a quote (fairuse, etc) is fine. I'd love to see your video if you are making similar content, @CTRIX64 on twit :-)
LGR video on MT-32 : • LGR - Roland MT-32: Retro PC MIDI Mus...
Lestyn demos Roland: • Roland MKS-7 Super Quartet and MC-500...
Finally, don't be fooled by the badge, the Atari is an ST520 not an STe - we'll explore this more in part 2 when I open up the case!
All Comments (21)
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Well this was just delightful. Loved your Amiga sampler video some years ago too and this feels like a perfect sort of follow-up. Glad to see you back on YT and I’m stoked to see part two!
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Just so you know, you've got unbelievable talent bringing these old sounds to life within your compositions. Love to see it!
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My dad, a musician, bought an Atati ST the same week I was born in 1988, so I grew up on the things and have had an affection for them ever since. But man he used that thing for Midi with Notator and the C-Lab Unitor-N midi port peripheral (he had that roland MT-32 as well, and a bunch of Roland guitar synth stuff too) well into the late '90s when he then replaced the ST with.....an Atari STacy, the laptop/luggable version of the ST which he used until like 2006. I remember he did all sorts of really cool shit with the MIDI capabilities like sequencing the entire score to Little Shop of Horrors for a high-school musical production. He wound up selling the STacy to a computer museum because it was one of the rare 4MB RAM/40MB HDD models and has a very low digit serial number. Still 18 years of use out of a platform ain't too bad.
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The compositions in this video, and your career in general, are insane and deep. Being limited to only four tracks really pressurized your creativity into a laser.
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The amount of research for this video 😱🚀
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Return of the king
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I clicked for the nostalgia, didn't expect to watch a high-quality documentary and great music making. Thanks for sharing!
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That demo on the music station, such a good sound!
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As a teen in the 80s, I had no clue what all this was, how it worked, etc. So I stayed away from synths and workstations and just played acoustic instruments. Decades later this video just brought it all together and now it makes sense. I understand now how it works and I really appreciate it. Thank you.
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Great video ! My obsession for Atari ST Cubase (esp. v2) is so high that I created a cheap SD card adapter for the ST (electronics and all): the ACSI2STM. This was a 3 years journey of reverse engineering, painful tweaking, and a bit of help from a small community. After 4 versions, and a few dozen nights spent understanding the hardware and the horrible OS of the ST, I have something that can actually provide full SD card compatibility, up to 2TB per card, and removes/works around most ST's filesystem bugs. What a journey, but well worth it !
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Omg. 3 years of waiting to watch such a gem. You would have made millions in the 80s/90s just making themes for various tv shows!
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Keep those sick beats coming! Your channel is my musical haven! 🎧❤
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In 1990 I owned an Atari STe, a Roland D70 and a Roland SC55 and no mixing gear whatsoever. And my first software was Steinberg Pro 24, the predecessor of Cubase. When later Cubase came out, it was a complete revelation.
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Man ! You just made an awesome 1993 fighting game stage track ! I really hope you compose for some retro video game projects in the future ! You'd nail it !
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Back in '87 I became friends with a guy who had a 1040STFM, Roland MT32 and Axai X7000 sampler. At the time I was using a casio SK1, Specdrum (for ZX Spectrum) and tape recorders. I thought I was in heaven when I was let loose on his setup!
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You really make me even more proud to have bought my pss-680 on ebay years ago, just cause it allowed me more control of stuff that my 470 gave me. Didn't realize when buying it how capable it was controlling my other synths via midi until I looked up the manual, and then my mind was blown. This video is gold. Meow 💜 ✌️
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My guy just casually drops a banger video after being MIA for 3 years
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My middle school choir teacher used one of those proprietary-floppy-format Roland boxes to record her accompaniment and then play it back while we practiced! I remember taking the floppy disk for a song I really liked, and then being extremely disappointed when the format wasn't MIDI.
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I missed these kind of videos back in my time of watching 8-bit Keys. Glad to see these!
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The synth sounds on that Yamaha are unlocking ancient childhood memories. I must have had something from the same line as a kid, though certainly a cheaper model. I didn't know what I was doing with it, and it was long gone before I started learning about making music for real.
