Radio Shack FX2 User Manual download pdf (Page 16)

tack and a breathy sustain is the basis for this sound, but push

the pedal to the ﬂoor and the mallet glides up a ﬁfth. Shove the

mod wheel and the mallet disappears, leaving you with one of

the softest "airy" voices I've ever heard from a synth. Very

reminiscent of the new age music coming out of Ireland these

days. Add to this the panning effects of an LFO (which Sam

has done) and this is a big winner.

MTLBEL is a bright bell and mallet soimd. This time, the pedal

raises the pitch of the mallet a ﬁfth, the wheel magniﬁes the

panning and pressure adds a subtle yet expressive vibrato.

Another pleasing sound, I must be slipping...

TEMPLE is a very unique combination of bell, organ and

voice, where the wheel takes out all but the bell. To build a lit

tle drama into a score, you might start with the wheel full on

and little by little, drop it back to add the other voices. Three

layers of voices in one patch? This is what the SQ-80 was

m e a n t f o r !

TOKYO pulls similar tricks. A mallet attack with a pad sus

tained by the breath and triangle waves. LFO 1 modulates pan

ning to add open space to the sound, pressure adds some

vibrato, the pedal drops the mallet by an octave and the wheel

removes the breathy quality. All the potential for expressive

programming on the SQ-80 realized in a single patch. Practical

ly a substitute for the patch select buttons on the EPS, VEX,

ETC! There is not much more you could ask for.

Well, I still haven't found a dog in the bank. And the fact is, I

couldn't (and believe me, I tried). At this point, between what

I've reviewed, bought, programmed and swapped, I have many

thousands of sounds for the SQ-80 and Sam's are by far the

best I've seen. Ever! It has renewed my belief that the SQ-80 is

capable of remarkable things. I always suspected that someday,

someone would be able to rejuvenate this creature and who bet

ter than Sam Minis, Mr. Tweak himself!

There are plenty more sounds on this disk and they all shine.

Every one is musically useful in an array of settings, without

the mindless duplication of "stock" type sounds which clutter

the public domain and the shelves of so many studios. Add to

this the extensive program notes and the low price and it would

be a mystery why anyone who uses the SQ-80 would not just

go ahead and order it.

Now the moment you've been waiting for. I met with Sam and

let him read the review. Granted, there is not much for him to

defend, but there are a few things I want to ask him, so here

goes:

MM: Sam, many of the sounds on this disk seem new age in

style. Did you program then that way intentionally, or is this

simply your preference in musical style?

SM: A little of both. 1 felt that the SQ-80 had the potential to

emulate the sounds found in the Ml and D-50 synths, but

programmers were not taking advantage of this potential.

MM: A lot of time and thought has obviously gone into the

creation of these sounds. Did you have the sounds in your head

or did you "stumble" upon them? Along these same lines, how

did you decide which controllers were to do what? Is it the

result of your performing experience, your own needs, or was it

a fairly arbitrary decision?

SM: A few of the sounds were stumbled on, but most were the

result of trying to capture a particular type of sound. As far as

the choice of controllers goes, 1 tried to keep the most used ef

fects in the mod wheel since most people have at least that con

troller. I gave the CVpedal the least priority since many SQ-80

owners might not have that controller.

MM: How did you ﬁnd the "hidden waves?"

SM; (pause) That was done by crashing the ESQ's operating

system by loading bad tape data and then sending the cor

rupted data to the SQ-80.1 was able to access up to wave 255

but, as I said in the manual, most of the waves were not useful

a s a s o u n d s o u r c e .

MM: Thanks for talking with me today.

(The writer always gets the last word., or is it the editor??...) wm

[Actually, it's the publisher. — Pub.]

BACK ISSUES

Back issues are $2.50 each. (Overseas: $3 each.) Issues 1-9,11,13-23,

27, 29, 30, 35, 36, 37, 38 and 68 are no longer available. Subscriptions

will be extended an equal number of issues for any issues ordered that

are not available at the time we receive your order. ESQ-1 coverage

started with Issue Number 13. SQ-80 coverage started with Number 29,

(although most ESQ-1 coverage also applies to the SQ-80). EPS

coverage started with Number 30. (But didn't really get going till Num

ber 35.) VEX coverage got started in Number 48. Permission has been

given to photocopy issues that we no longer have available - check the

classiﬁeds for people offering them. Reprints in our "Quick and Dirty

Reprint Series" are available: MIRAGE OPERATIONS, for $5, and

MIRAGE SAMPLE REVIEWS for $4. Each contains material from the

ﬁrst 17 issues.

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

12 MONTHLY ISSUES

US: $23/year. (All others: $30/year—please use Intemational Money

Order, payable in US tuncfe.) Please make payable and mail to:

TFIANSONIQ HACKER

1402 SW UPLAND DR., PORTUND, OR 97221

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