Technics WSA1

[Description::edit]

Brand : Technics
Release year : 1995

User Reviews :

(2 reviews)

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User Reviews : Technics WSA1

1. Technics WSA1 - 1 year ago - Dave M (USA)
Purchase year : 2008 Price paid : 350 USD (used)

Rating :

This is a review I wrote awhile back and posted on SonicState. More reviews can be found here: http://www.sonicstate.com/synth_reviews/_inc/user_comments.cfm?id=486&p=1
I thought I would post my review here in case someone wanted the information.
I usually don't write keyboard reviews although I read them voraciously and find them very valuable. So, when I read the reviews for this particular synth and noticed that they seemed to run a gamut of great to terrible - I thought I would add my impressions. I imagine that a few music stores might still have some of these keyboards as new old-stock, but I imagine your best bet is eBay if you are looking for one of these synths. OK, here goes ... the WSA-1 is a workstation. It has three banks of internal sounds: one in ROM and the other two are user-editable. In addition, there is a fourth bank of general MIDI sounds. Some of these are the usual run-of-the-mill GM sounds, while others actually make use of keyboard's acoustic modeling synth engine and are very good. You can import patches via the floppy disk drive. This keyboard also has a vey nice 16 track sequencer and two complete sets of MIDI ports - so the unit can address 32 MIDI channels - this makes it somewhat similar in MIDI capability to the GEM S2 and Equinox workstations. The sequencer is thoughtfully laid out and thanks to the large display - editing tracks and events is easier than on many workstations I have used. There are many different real-time controllers for sound shaping. The built-in effects are clean and respectable - you can use up to three simultaneous effects (similar to most of the Roland workstations of the time). There are two expansion cards that were made for this synth. The first is a wave expansion board that gives more ROM sounds. The second is an output expansion that gives you two extra pairs of analog outputs and a digital output. Both of these expansions are VERY hard to come by. All the above-mentioned are positive points for the WSA-1. However, I think that one thing that folks should keep in mind is that this is a synthesizer workstation, but it is not really a traditional sample+synthesis workstation (what some folks call "Romplers" these days). It is also not a sampler and has no ability to import samples. So when I read comments about the sounds not being similar to someone's favorite ROM sounds or samples, I think they are probably right - but they are also wrong ... they are comparing apples and oranges. It is my opinion that this is great keyboard to have in your arsenal - especially if you DON'T want to sound like everyone else. This synth is capable of producing some very interesting and creative sounds. If this was to be your only keyboard, I think I would recommend that folks look around for a sound module of some kind to compliment the unique sounds of this instruments. There are very cost effective ways of getting great "bread and butter" sounds for composing these days. The Kurzweil ME-1 or the Roland JV-1010 come to mind.

2. Technics WSA1 - 2 years ago - Dave (USA)
Purchase year : 1997 Price paid : 1500 USD

Rating :

It's been an incredibly durable keyboard, but then again I baby it. I've had it now for 10+ years, never any problem.
The sequencer is very easy to use, and has more tracks than I ever could fill. We recorded the CD "Color the world new" in 98'-99', and it turned out great.
Of course, keyboards now have so much more on them, but if you want one that has a good sequencer, and easy to use, this is it.