Nick Chan, Malaysia. Updated Nov 6 2003
zzzxtreme@yahoo.com
My Gears

(currently own : Korg C25 Digital Piano,Yamaha P50m

Many has been sold because of financial problems. As I no longer in any band, I still keep my Korg digital piano and buy a yamaha p50m again.Feel content playing classical.But I did feel the pain selling my wavestation. It is my all-time favourite
After playing lots of low end , mid range and high end stuff, I find that it is true ppl says you get what you pay for. For example, Korg N5, good sounds, but.... bad DACs, bad waveforms, there's no quality,thick,crystal clear sounds, compared to gears like XP80, S80 etc... The first high-end synth I had was an SY77. Sounds better to my ears. Then I got an Alesis S4, and regretted buying it. Lifeless sounds, too 'compressed' to my ears. From then on, I start to be patient and get high-end stuff. Just a humble advice from me

1st Gear, 1988 $60 (Now with my niece)
Some small 32-key casio. 4 Polyphony as I remembered

2nd Gear, 1990 (With me, but most keys broken)
Casio MT750. 16 polyphony (i think). ADSR editing. 61 Mid-size keys. 220 PCM, 16-bit sounds. 110 Accompaniment. A toy really, with MIDI in, thru and out. Outstanding synth strings. Really.

3rd Gear, 2000 $320 (Sold to my friend)

Roland EM10. 24 polyphony. GS/GM Compatible. 220 sounds. Another toy (but very good woodwinds) . Had the money to get a Peavey DPM SI, or Yamaha CS2x or Alesis Quadrasynth. Suddenly a friend needed my help with money. Oh well.

4th Gear, 2001 $80 (sold to anonymous)

Akai SG01k GM Sound Module. 32 Polyphony. 8MB, S3000 chipset. 196 sounds. Full GM Implementation. Sucky sounds. Bellish Pianos.

5th Gear, 2001 $450 (sold to a friend)

My first real synth, mid-range Korg N5. GM/XG compatible. 64 polyphony. 12MB ROM. 500+ Multisamples. 1000+ Programs and Combis (+2GM Banks). Aftertouch/Velocity. Arpeggiator, cool octave shift buttons. 100 User Programs, 100 User Combis. Sucky Acoustics, Nice strings, nice pads. Tons of patches on the net. Resonance Filter only as an effect

6th Gear, 2001 $300 (current)
Korg C25 Digital Piano, full 88 weighted keys. Bought it as a midi-controller, sounds not functioning. Can't find out much about this unit.

7th Gear, 2001 $120 (sold. re-bought in 2003)

Yamaha P-50m Piano Sound Module. 32 Polyphony. sounds superb. As a compliment to my Korg C25 digital piano at home.

8th Gear, 2001 $500 (sold)

Yamaha SY77 Synthesizer. Advanced FM + AWM. High-end sounds. 2 HP/LP filters per element, up to 4 elements per voice. FAT sounding synth

9th Gear, 2001 $160 (sold)

Alesis S4 sound module. 16MB ROM. 64 polyphony, A-DAT output, PCMCIA RAM/QCARD slot. Bad sounds, good drums lacking waveforms/multisamples, sucky strings. 16 splits/layers in 'MIX MODE'. no resonant filter. superb matrix modulation

10th Gear, 2001 $160 (sold)

The Legendary Korg Wavestation Keyboard. Vector Synthesis, Wave Sequencing, 32note Polyphony. Superb sounds. Beautiful strings. Mind blowing PADS.

11th Gear, 2001 $160 (sold)

Korg 05r/w Synth Module. AI Synthesis. 32note polyphony. This is the heart of the 01/w machine and you know how good it sounds, for its age anyway. Still cheesy and thin.

12th Gear, 2002 $700 (sold)

Yamaha FS1R FM+FS Sound Module. 8 Operator 88 Algorithm FM+Formant Shaping synth module. The Best FM module ever. Great filters, great effects. More than 1000 presets. Tons of performance.

13th Gear, 2002 $700 (sold)

Alesis QS7 76 Key Performance Keyboard. 64 Note polyphony, high quality samples, but lacking in character. Can import user samples and Sound Designer Sample Cell files !! Still no resonant filter. Velocity, Aftertouch sensitivity.

14th Gear, 2002 $90 (gave away)

My first sample playback module. The Peavey SP. 32MB RAM 44Khz 16bit. 4 audio outs, 16 polyphony. SCSI/SMDI MIDI/SDS Floppy Drive, Floppy Spanning. Cool !

15th Gear, 2002 $300 (sold)

Yamaha SY85 Workstation. Only matched by Kurzweil K2000 during its days. Studio-quality SPX900 Effects Processor. Built-in sequencer, wave import. Nice filters, 8 sliders. Stunning machine. Email