[A6] modern analogs/arpeggiators

[Tom Moravansky]

> The top of my wish list is a random arpeggiator. But based on this thread, 
> maybe there's a JP-8 in my future.
> 
> Get an old Oberheim Cyclone - incredible hardware arpeggiator. Blows away the 
> JP8 (which I loved!) and MUCH cheaper! Recommended for everyone on this list 
> (unless you have a software arp.)
> 

Ok - I'm going to ask since you've mentioned it twice now.

How do you nbormally use the Cyclone?  I've heard some
good things about it, but the reaons I've never picked one
up were that folks constantly harped on 2 main issues:

Cryptic UI,
it constantly crashed their MIDI rigs.

The cryptic UI I could probably live with.  The MIDI crashes
are more serious.  The basic flavor (dig through groups.google.com
and look for cyclone, Mike Metlay, Nick Rothwell) from the messages
at the time were that as soon as you started to do more with it
than simple arpeggiations (using the more advanced features), you
significantly increased the potential to get stuck notes and lockups.

If I remember, Mike M said it was the only device that could
literally lock up his MIDI rig and require a reboot of the synths.

Now the gear at the time was probably a D-50, U-110, maybe an
Ensoniq and/or Kurzweil, so I don't know if it's changed with more
modern gear.  They also mentioned that the 1.10 (I think) OS
improved things a bit over the original OS.

Any comments on the Cyclone?  I ended up saving cash up for a longer
period of time and got a Latronic Notron instead.