I never appreciated how hard it is to write "how to" content until I had to do it for work (accounting software lol!). You never know what they don't know, lol!
Would be cool to hear more about your time at Quasimidi, honestly. I bet those must've been interesting days and as these sounds are the ones I grew up with, I'd love to hear about the people behind them.
@@Superjenson it's so '90s that the name coincides with 1991's Argentine cyberpunk comic Cybersix (later made anime in '99 as サイバーシックス). I wonder if it's just coincidence or it was some kind of homage but it screams '90s nonetheless.
"German" Quasimidi logo with Belgian flag. I know you did it on purpose to get people to engage in the comments. I like it. You deserve the engagement ;)
Two majors you missed on that one 1.turn all fx off and you'll be amazed. 2. Every parameters off the synth works on the drums as well if you hold the select channel keep holding and twix the synth parameters. Keep up the great job !!
This was my first synth I bought at age 16 from my first self earned money. Synced up with ReBirth RB-338 it was an endless source of jamming fun with my friend! Thanks a lot for finally making this episode! Looked forward for a long time and wasn't disappointed at all. I just KNEW you'd make banging jams with it!
The Spectralis can have a very steep learning curve for the first 5-10 hours, but/and it sounds so good you might take longer (like I did). Arguably the most professional-sounding and possibly most capable of all 'grooveboxes' next to the RS-7000.
Holy shit though, that workflow is pretty brilliant with the pattern change knob per "motif" and the "special loop" motifs you can throw in. Sounds like a dream for live performance! It would be awesome to see a remake of this with the advances we've made in technology and more modern sounds!
That concept of motifs and patterns seems (to me at least) to be some sort of proto-clip-launching, way better than the usual pattern/song style of most groove boxes.
@@thedoublek4816 Yeah, even today it's still uncommon to find hardware which uses a clip/scene workflow instead of patterns. The first time I encountered something like clips+scenes was back in ~2000 or so with Jeskola Buzz, and I could tell immediately it was a huge upgrade compared to a chain of patterns... ... but it has been weirdly unpopular. I wasn't able to do that sort of thing in hardware until I got an Akai Force, two decades later. And it hasn't really caught on like its pattern-based siblings like MPC or Digitakt. So it's 2021 and most of our electronic music hardware _still_ pushes people to make short loops instead of focusing on melodic progression... and that makes me sad.
@@ToyKeeper great comment it is the sort of thing that makes 70s bands like Heldon sound fresh even today as they did melodic synth lines over disssonant percussion beds.
Would love to see more effects covered with synths and drum machines! There's a massive amount out of reviews out there, but very few good ones without guitars.
@@AudioPilz Do a Boss Metal Zone! You can start off under the typical guise of using it as distortion for acid bass lines and then trying it on other gear & sounds (wonder if it would make good gabber/hardcore drums?)
I am sick of the obligatory guitar solo on effects that would excel on a synth.... Out of the countless effects videos only 1 or 2 guitarists played something sublime, the rest was, well.... you know
It's so obvious that Schaaf worked on this beast. I sold my Accelerator to a friend and in the past two years we still can't figure out a reliable method for saving our patches...but Radikal and Quasimidi sound so damn good! So worth it.
I've actually seen the xx7s recommended as good sequencers fairly often (a few years ago); but who cares, anything being on this show is good (and I never want him to run out of gear, heh)
I cannot believe it. This is like seeing an old friend on holiday. My mate had one and it was basically what got me into hardware properly. Back then it felt like only scientists would understand it though and I always wanted to buy one but couldn't afford them and they're soooo rare! I was gonna ask if I could buy your one until you said it was on loan. OMG so many instant flashbacks from those sounds. They sounded soooo deliciously brash.
Oh GOD I wish you made more music like this, I was seriously pumping my Stereo to the MAX during your 3 examples, and images of the historys greatest scientist so lovlingly framed in gold in my home, nearly fell off the walls during the time I listened to your pumping throbbing techno attempts!
Finally a synth that I actually had myself, it was my first synthesizer after toying around with trackers on PC. Happy to say that after many years and currency units spents on varying pieces of hard- and software my music output hasn't gotten much better than with the 309 anyway.
With an Atari ST, MMt 8 or MC50 to drive it ,the 309 wasn't too shabby. The sounds were decent for their day, but the dsp which managed the multi-timbral crushing activity on the main (only) output was the weakpoint on all of Quasimidi's synths. I owned a "KwahZah" for a few years, and multi-timbrally, it sounded dire in that particularly over-ambitious 90s way, but with a multi firing on a single midi channel, it was immense. The music shop I worked in sold gazillions of 309s, and vast amount of the output expansions. The fact that there were always a few customer returns in the synth sickbay was a sign that the OS and DSP occasionally had a fight which neither won.
I met Freidhelm and Jorg in 2000 at a Synth Museum event, and we got properly tipsy with the good doctor. I would hazard a guess that after the company folded, they went back to being devs for hire.
@@AudioPilz There were only four or five people at Quasimidi, , so they could never keep up with demand, and that also meant that debugging and dev support was a bit limited. There were two major updates to the OS that I recall, but flashing them was fraught with peril.
@@secretelitemusic "I would hazard a guess that after the company folded" - do you know why it folded, exactly? I couldn't find any article that gave an actual reason for it - especially since their products were quite popular.
I really love your content. Hadn't had this much fun with an electronic music production channel in youtube since, well, ever. Congratulations on producing such enjoyable videos.
I had one of those and sold it about 13 years ago, and sometimes I think "should I have saved it?" but like you said , it was super frustrating to use, and the lack of saving made me hate it. I think I got $300 for it on eBay at the time. It is very easy to hate if for those reasons. Great vid again, and the dancing anime guys at the end fit like a Michael Jackson glove.
I get upset when channels like Bo’s has all these subscribers- but this gem is still under 50k. A synth channel with originally content and boss video editing.
You must spend a lot of time getting all the pop culture reference bits together. Great vid once again. Quasimidi might just be the best ever name for a 'zehr Deutsch' synth/gear company.
What I find amusing about this hardware instrument is the kind of appearance that on 2D image only makes it look like it actually is a plug-in. I can almost picture teens of 2020’s looking at this and going “Wooooow, dad! Did you 3D-print the VST? That’s so cooool!!!”.
Keep in mind that so many of gadget-related common sense we have lived by do not make slightest sense to them - so much so that they would fearlessly ask you what it is that you are rewinding, and/or express that CDs are way cooler than phones because they can provide music playback even when you are offline. Oh, and they would probably assume that you actually recreated “Save button” on a 3D-printer if you were to hold a floppy disk in front of them.
the fact that he played his boiler room sets and recorded his albums WITH ONLY a MC-303 is a feat of legends. infinitely inspiring, i desperately wanna bring a single piece of all encompassing analog hardware/groovebox and effects to the live sets i play just like Dixon.
Apart from the 2-line display, that both looks and sounds like tons of fun. I am actually rather jealous of the 8-bar pattern length (cries in digitakt).
I loved my fully maxed out rave o lution so much back in the day. The interface was quite user friendly and it's midi was rock solid. The samples itself didn't age that well and needed a lot of work to make them sit in the mix. But it was used by my hero Klaus Schultze and anything he used I craved for. Fun fact: my first beats were made with an Amiga and used samples of the album Timewind. Later in life I could sell mine for a very decent price and I used the money to buy an MPC 1000. That machine was and still is a class in itself.
Thanks for posting, I had that in but had to rigorously edit the whole overview section as it was getting much too long for people who are less into the technical aspects (or will most probably never see a 309 in the flesh;)
People: "the MC303 is useless" Terrence Dixon: *plays a full 40-minute set on one* People: "The MC303 gets too slow when you use all the tracks" Terrence Dixon: *uses fucking 3 of them at once*
Apparently Charlie Clouser used one of these when they were recording drums for the Nine Inch Nails album "The Fragile." I believe the "Starfuckers, Inc" drum beat was borne out of the Rave-O-Lution 309 (most likely quite heavily edited with post processing as most things were on that album). It's pretty cool. Too bad they're not easier to afford.
Sounds like Quasimidi are all over late 90s KMFDM also. I used to play with the Sirius they had at the Wurlitzer store in Boston, and when "Symbols" came out my ears and hands remembered.
Had one of these for about 10 years and although it was constructed well, had pretty good sounds and panel layout the workflow and menu system was absolutely HORRENDOUS. Confusing as ever and very easy to accidentally delete or screw up loads of work accidentally. The person I bought it from had thrown it across the room several times in frustration and I thought I'd rescue it by buying it off him. The only thing I regret is not gutting out the inside and redesigning the internals because it's a pretty awesome layout.
If we're talking the rave scene and serious menu diving, I wonder what's your take on the E-MU series, especially the over-engineered and yet ubiquitous Proteus 2000. Though if you can get your hands on a XL-7....
The key advantages to the 309 was that you could make it sound good in a club no matter how much ecstasy or meth you had ‘accidentally’ ingested before the gig. I promise I do not speak from experience.
Awkward , Complicated And Frustrating No Doubt But As A Drum Machine , I Think It's A Great Piece Of Gear If You Can Get One At The Right Price . I Love It . Awesome Review As Always !
My very first gear at all I bought in 1996... the passion has never ended and love was even stronger so that there´s still enough room for 309s... plus lots of more Quasimidi sibblings 😇
I have 2 x Sirius (I got sent two by mistake when I only ordered one) and a Raven. The Sirius is also "Bad gear" but I still love it. I never Owned the 309 as the Sirius could do the same things, plus a bit more.
This Quasimidi is more serious than the Sirius Quasimidi, imho. Actually... I just prefer the absence of a keyboard. From my notes... and suggestions for future shows. * = you already nailed it! Quasimidi Caruso (1993) Quasimidi Quasar (1994) synth module Quasimidi Raven (1995) dance music synth Quasimidi Cyber 6 (1995) master keyboard *Quasimidi Technox (1995) synth module *Quasimidi Rave-O-Lution 309 (1996) synth module/groovebox *Quasimidi Sirius (1997) [this thing is pretty!] Quasimidi Polymorph (1999)
I really liked quasimidi, real innovative company in meeting demand that the big companies seemed to ignore at the time. Maybe sound a bit dated and despite of their limitations, if they were a bit more affordable I’d still buy their old tech now! Hope you can get your hands on a raven/cyber6 one day to see what you can do it.
I have tried so many times to justify owning one. After getting a basic model which needed all the pots to be replaced, got an upgraded one and it sounded flatter than the other, oh well! MIDI would always drift and let’s not talk about programming the sequencer. It’s a great form factor, full of functionalities yet the software was never refined
this was a good one. not a drop touched all episode until the memefunk finale then at least five or six thirty gulps at the end. all that suspense then a twist at the end. not to mention the refil or timetravel for the shoutouts. epic stuff
I have TWO of these and they are the most amazing boxes! One does NOT work right and holy moly does it to strange things for me. I NEVER used it to save anything. I would use these for Live PA and use the drum patterns MIDI OUT to trigger other synths since my 2x EA1's limited me to 4 synth tracks. I am happy to have two, hoping to get the one weird one going again right some day, but it worked then and will still work for me now. What an epic box. I paid a LOT for these things 15+ years ago. Like $350!!! One has the expansion, cost the same :D
Such a shame these expanded things cost two kidneys and a little toe because it just looks fun. Might not have the most elaborate synth ever onboard, but a fun little device to make sketch out some little ideas on. Or so it seems. Drums sounds nice and punchy!
Hey there to save a pattern you just created. ------ Edit button > pattern select user > OK > Motif:USR*00 then Page arrow 3 times to (drumgrid) insert your pattern on the drumgrid then exit out of edit mode then press Write button. choose option 2- store pattern > OK to pattern P 01 OK exit edit mode and should be sorted
Oh my i still have one fully functioning with all the extra output channels and latest official firmware. What really killed the mood with this one is the squencer hiccups while live editing. It's kinda usable to use it with a external sequencer (like beatstep over MIDI for example) and turning off all internal effects and shenanigans.
Hi. I bought mine in1996 I still have it and use it. It’s has the expansion synths. Can you please tell me what OS are you with ? And how does one upgrade the OS. Thanks
@@grandmasterjo1 The OS can only be upgraded by getting a new Firmware Chip (ebay for example). If you are technically experienced there are ways to get an unofficial firmware (3.0b i think) and flash the EEPROM yourself, but thats not an easy task. I just opened up the 309 to look at the Chip - It says V 2.0 e.
@@i_never_asked_for_an_alias Thank you so much. I just checked for the chip on eBay. It’s available for $29.99. Is there any link to see the details what the ver. 3 has to offer ? Thanks again
Luckily the Polymorph later was quite improved, great sequencer and better synth engine. I never thought that the Quasimidi prices would increase that much, bought ours used for round 650 Euro early 2000's... now these are 1200-1500. (???)
Damn, i bought one about 7 years ago fully upgraded with the sounds and outputs for about 470 euro. Sold it for the same price too about 2 years later. If only i knew 👀
Nice to see all the gear thats have been made over the years I didnt know about this musicstation before Its sounds good though and your own comments are so damn entertaining, the video and photoclips brings it to an even higher level love your channel . Every friday is Audio- Pilz day....
Superb. Your channel is the go to place to review gear I owned once! I miss the 309, it was a gnarly money pit - the software upgrades came from a distributor in Miami on EEPROM chips - expensive - and delivery was.. erratic? I upgraded a few times and got the audio output, but ended up selling it. You totally nailed the frustration of accidentally losing work. It might still be my favorite drum machine, but the synth part, and the bugs, I don't miss. Banging channel, mate, keep it up.
@@AudioPilz I have the sirius on the wantedlist for quite awhile now. I'd trade it for the 309. Have you tried that other Quasimidi monster Raven yet? Huge and heavy motherf***!
Whaaat, you’re destroying my youth - the best machine we had at this time. Blame Roland. Ok, joking. But wait - German machine🇩🇪 with a Belgian flag 🇧🇪 ????? Wrong pill?
