[A6] potential a6 owner questions

[Chris Pickett]

Hi,

First, this might be a little off-topic for this list, but since I see 
myself as an A6 owner in the future, I was wondering if you kind people 
could help me out.

I've been a DJ for 7 years, and ended up (after a long trip through just 
about all genres) getting really into deep / jazzy / vocal house; 
Masters at Work, Larry Heard, Joe Clausell, Kerri Chandler, Ron Trent, 
Moodymann, etc. etc.  I got kind of tired of all the music coming about 
1.5 years ago, and haven't really bought any records since then, and 
actually started buying CD's again.  Never thought that would happen.

Anyways, I have a couple of mixtapes that I want to master and put on 
CD.  So I bought a sound card for my laptop.  Then I decided my mixer 
wasn't good enough, so I bought a new mixer.  Then I wanted an effects 
processor for my new mixer so I bought one of those.  Then I wanted a 
BPM counter to sync my effects box accurately with my records.  At this 
point it feels like a closed system and I can be a little happy.

I then (hours after promising myself that I wouldn't do any more 
shopping until those mix CD's were finished) was looking for a master 
keyboard and spent some time reading reviews and listening to the Yamaha 
S90 and Kurzweil stuff.  I wasn't too happy with the synth sounds of the 
S90 but was sold on the keyboard action (everyone said it was the best 
ever).  Then I happened upon 3DarkHours' mp3's at sonicstate.com and my 
heart skipped a few beats (and then I did the obligatory "read every 
link Google returns" thing).

Basically, I've now decided I want to put together a small home studio 
and I want the A6 to be the centrepiece.  I am more interested in buying 
a few quality components than something like the MC909.  Money is not 
really an issue for me at this point.  I don't really have much 
experience with synthesizers except that I had a 303 for about a month 
(it was fun), have played a bunch with ReBirth, and played classical 
piano for 10 years.  Oh, and I love the sound of them.  But before I get 
too carried away, I really need some opinions on how to proceed in this 
whole gear buying mess.

Here is my current gear list:

3 Technics SL-1500 MK2's (+/- 9.9% digital pitch control, much better 
for recording than 1200's -- not good for playing out or scratching though).

1 Technics SL-1200 MK3 (Japanese, equivalent to MK2 over here).

3 Ortofon Nite Club cartridges + stylii.

Sony MDR-Z700 DJ headphones (crap, but I wear them outside and stuff).

Gemini PS626 3-channel mixer (old and crackly)

Rane Empath 3-channel mixer (in the mail).

Korg Kaoss Pad 2 FX processor (nice, but I don't have enough control).

Red Sound Micro Sync BPM Extractor (to sync MIDI clock to live sound / 
turntables) (in the mail).

Thinkpad A20p Laptop (750 MHz processor, 384 MB RAM).

Digigram VXpocket V2 PCMCIA laptop soundcard (24-bit A/D and D/A).

Marantz PM-62F 180W amp (home stereo stuff, about $700 U.S. to replace 
with new equivalent).

12-gauge speaker wire.

Some 20-year old monitors / bookshelf speakers that sound good to me but 
I could probably do with a second pair.

A Denon dual tape deck (DRW 580).

=============

There you have it.  I bought the VXpocket, the Kaoss Pad, the Rane 
Empath, and the Micro Sync in the last month.

My question is how to proceed.  I can do all sequencing on my computer 
for now, and am leaning towards Cubase.  All the options are really 
overwhelming, and I would really like something minimal enough for me to 
learn all the pieces, but flexible enough for me to do what I want.  I 
want to be able to make jazzy, deep, funky, vocal house (not necessarily 
all at once!).  Although the sounds on sonicstate.com are pretty spacey 
/ trancey, I can still hear that it will be great and a lot of fun.  I'm 
really drawn towards the A6 because it seems like something you can 
really manipulate to make all sorts of new and interesting sounds along 
with the old classics.  I love things that are complicated and look 
forward to the steep learning curve of this thing!

Things I have considered:

Mackie mixers (which?).  Although my Rane Empath's 3 channels are 
probably enough to start.

Lexicon MPX-1 effects (seems like the best deal with the next step being 
the too-expensive-for-me PCM-81 and -91).  I might even sell my Korg 
Kaoss Pad 2, except that it's a great DJ tool.

Nord Clavia Electro 2 Rack (Rhodes, B3, Wurlies, etc.)

Some kind of MIDI interface (serial or parallel is better for me than 
USB) ... I have no idea how powerful an interface I need.

A microphone.

A sampler.

The Andromeda A6 (pretty much sold on this one).

A drum machine (or can the A6 do good drums?).  Should I just use some 
samples for drums for now?  Aaaaahhh, so many things to think about.

The Yamaha S90 for it's keyboard action, pianos, drums, and other 
sampled intsruments.

New headphones (had AKG 141's once and liked them a lot).

New monitors - which?  I live in an apartment, so they can't be too 
gigantic.

===============

Where do I start?  Any recommendations on a studio setup?  Anything I 
haven't thought of?  I find that the more I buy (which really isn't that 
much right now), the more I "need" to buy, and I don't want to make 
mistakes.  Is this like a common plight among gearheads or something? 
Oh yeah, my computer will be fine for recording, the unweighted S/N on 
this sound card is -94 dB.

As for learning how to operate all this stuff, I ordered two books off 
Amazon:

Midi for the Professional (pretty essential)

Sound Reinforcement Handbook (not so essential but I'm interested in 
that stuff).

Are there any other recommendations on books?  I love books.  I don't 
really know anything about analog subtractive synthesis, a book would be 
great (or some research papers, whatever).

I can read through all the prior postings on this list too.

Finally ... how much should I pay for an A6 these days?  Is eBay a good 
idea?

Thanks very much for any advice,
Chris Pickett

P.S.  If you think I should post this somewhere else, please tell me 
where would be a good place with knowledgeable people ...

P.P.S.  In case anyone cares, I'm doing an M.Sc. in Computer Science at 
McGill University.