[A6] sequencing the A6

[Tom Moravansky]

> I read some reviews about the Notron ... it seems pretty awesome.  It 
> looks like it's from another planet.
> 
> Can you still buy them new?  Have they stopped supporting it?  How much 
> do they go for used?  Tell us about it.  Compare it to sequencing with 
> Cubase / Logic / PT / Sonar.
> 
> I personally spend all my time staring at a computer screen (school, and 
> because I have no life), and so when I make music it would be nice to 
> have it as hardware-oriented as possible. 
> 

Like a lot of folks that own and use old/unsupported gear,
sometimes you feel like you're all alone with no support and
no one to turn to with questions, etc.  That's why mailing
lists, newsgroups, and websites are useful.  This is a preface
to the comment that I am in the process of gathering and
putting up a bunch of Notron stuff on synthservices.com  to
assist current and potential Notron users.

Notron is no longer made or supported in any official
capacity.  There weren't that many sold (a few hundred at most),
they are prone to death by static electricity and the AMD Mach 210
Programmable logic device is the one that dies and currently
must be replaced by one programmed by the Notron guys, who are
not supposed to do anything or charge any fees for anything
connected with Notron.

If you have any kind of color weakness (red or green), using the
Notron will be difficult to impossible because the tri-color LEDs
display red, green, and orange and they are not the newer super-
bright LEDs.  The color state is critical to programming/using
the sequencer.  I have a mild green weakness and the only way
I can tell the difference between red and orange is by the 
relative brightness.

If you think the way it works, you'll love it.  If you don't, 
you'll end up not using it much.  The best way to tell is to
use one for a couple months straight.  If you want to slog
through 67 .jpg's, the manual is here for now in a raw, low res
format until I can get a real OCRed/PDF version on-line.

http://www.synthservices.com/temp/notron