AW: Native Instruments Pro-53

["Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill" <rs@moinlabs.de>]

Jeff,

I didn't test it in depth, only more or less superficially (which included
programming some sounds myself and even using it at live shows), and I
haven't worked with the "original", but here's my super-short review:

As you mentioned, the Pro53 is not extremely flexible, rather more 
optimized
for a specific task. And I personally would not like to use this to
"improvise over something" (in the traditional sense, i.e. playing a more 
or
less melodic pad which is more or less fast-paced) and see the strenghts of
this instruments in analogue-sounding pads and really weird creations.

For both of the latter applications, the thing works quite well (again,
within its "theme"). You quickly get a feel for the dials (which in the
applications I had mapped to the controllers of a Q) and their effect,
including how far you can go before it will sound crazy. Regarding 
stability
and runtime, it's on the standard I've come to expect from similar products
(read: NI stuff): low and (more importantly) steady system load and no
acting up that I can remember.

abstract: a nice soft synth, which can both give you what you want and take
you places you never thought of going, but not the kind of synth I'd use 
for
improvising over loops (again, see above for a further specification to 
this
term).

        Rainer 

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: 3nki [mailto:3nki@modaldub.net] 
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 28. Dezember 2005 21:24
An: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Betreff: Native Instruments Pro-53

hello,

as a long time user of a Sequential Circuits Six-Trak, i am considering 
buying NI's Pro-53 and making it my main (soft)synth. the demo sounds 
good, and i like that it follows the original philosophy of doing a few 
things and doing them well, as opposed to being a giant toolbox where 
nothing works together intuitively and the whole package is hard to 
grasp at once. for me, when Eno talked about instruments needing "more 
Africa in them" this is what he meant, something that is limited and 
works really well in a coherent, "themed", fashion. my Six-Trak has 
been a great live improv instrument to me for almost twenty years 
now...

so, has anyone had a chance to use the Pro-53 extensively? any 
impressions on its sound, flexibility, stability, etc.? i'm planning on 
using it to improvise over a bed of loops in radiaL.

thanks,
jeff