Purchase Integra 7 or a Legacy Module (XV-3080, 5080)

Forum for Integra 7
User avatar
Monkey Man
Posts: 287
Joined: 01:37, 1 July 2013
Location: Australia

Re: Purchase Integra 7 or a Legacy Module (XV-3080, 5080)

Post by Monkey Man »

PauloF wrote:
Monkey Man wrote:It's just a matter of Kronology then, Paulo. :)
Hi Nicky,

Like the Portuguese saying.... It's just a matter of "time" (€€€) ;-)

Take care
Paulo
Exactly, Brother P-Man.

Story of my life, really.
User avatar
PauloF
Posts: 4201
Joined: 02:35, 16 January 2006
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Contact:

Re: Purchase Integra 7 or a Legacy Module (XV-3080, 5080)

Post by PauloF »

Monkey Man wrote:
PauloF wrote:
Monkey Man wrote:It's just a matter of Kronology then, Paulo. :)
Hi Nicky,

Like the Portuguese saying.... It's just a matter of "time" (€€€) ;-)

Take care
Paulo
Exactly, Brother P-Man.

Story of my life, really.
Yep... Mine too!
User avatar
Monkey Man
Posts: 287
Joined: 01:37, 1 July 2013
Location: Australia

Re: Purchase Integra 7 or a Legacy Module (XV-3080, 5080)

Post by Monkey Man »

Well, they say good things come to those who wait.

Kronos... I mean, time will tell of course... but that too is a matter of time.

[Raises glass of filtered water]
Here's to our eventual success, bro'!
drumster
Posts: 12
Joined: 20:45, 22 June 2015

Re: Purchase Integra 7 or a Legacy Module (XV-3080, 5080)

Post by drumster »

Update: I am pleased to report that I purchased the Integra 7 and that it finally arrived a few days ago. The sound quality is amazing, and I am blown away by the shear number of sounds. The Integra complements my Kronos 2 and Motif XF quite nicely, and I can find areas where they all have their strengths.

So far, the supernatural sounds in the Integra 7 have really impressed me. The PCM Strings, FM pianos, pads and brass are all very good as well!
User avatar
Monkey Man
Posts: 287
Joined: 01:37, 1 July 2013
Location: Australia

Re: Purchase Integra 7 or a Legacy Module (XV-3080, 5080)

Post by Monkey Man »

Yea! Well done, Drumster! Congratulations, mate.

Yup, the PCM strings, especially those on the Orchestra and Symphonique Strings cards, are warm and huge IMHO. Pretty damned good for a ROMpler, eh?

I'm not big on the SN strings 'though. Too thin and harsh for my taste, which is a pity as the SRX ones would have been absolutely awesome with this sort of control.

Still planning on getting a second unit so I can run a mix of cards at the same time. One unit will be for "real" stuff, the other for synth and EDM stuff.

I too have something like the XF you have, only it's the previous model, the XS Rack (x2). Unfortunately there won't be room for a Kronos as well, so hopefully the MOTIF and INTEGRA-7 combination will cut the mustard. What do you reckon I'd be missing out on without the Kronos, given the combination I just mentioned, along with a Supernova MkI rack?

Again, congratulations, mate!
drumster
Posts: 12
Joined: 20:45, 22 June 2015

Re: Purchase Integra 7 or a Legacy Module (XV-3080, 5080)

Post by drumster »

Monkey Man wrote:
I too have something like the XF you have, only it's the previous model, the XS Rack (x2). Unfortunately there won't be room for a Kronos as well, so hopefully the MOTIF and INTEGRA-7 combination will cut the mustard. What do you reckon I'd be missing out on without the Kronos, given the combination I just mentioned, along with a Supernova MkI rack?

Again, congratulations, mate!
Thanks for the congratulation Monkey Man! My apologies for this late reply. I've been so busy this summer that I haven't had much time for the online forums.

To answer your question, the biggest thing you might be missing in not owning a Kronos is having some Korg tones in your arsenal. As an owner of the Motif XF and Integra 7, the Kronos adds a different texture. I think compared to both of those aforementioned synths, the Kronos has the best acoustic and electric pianos. You also get FM synthesis with the MOD-7 engine, which could be very interesting for the type of music you do. In short, the Kronos is a vastly powerful synthesizer with lots of routing capabilities. I don't find it as immediate as the Motif, but I've spent more time in the Yamaha interface. In terms of build quality, I own the new Kronos 2 with the wood end panels, and I think it's a big improvement on the Kronos both visually and structurally. I hope this helps!
User avatar
Monkey Man
Posts: 287
Joined: 01:37, 1 July 2013
Location: Australia

Re: Purchase Integra 7 or a Legacy Module (XV-3080, 5080)

Post by Monkey Man »

It sure does, brother drumster. Thank you!

Dang. I really have to parse the system down to fit the MOTU AVB setup I'm upgrading to. I'm using the USB-connection option, and am therefore limited to 64 I/O.

The Roland drums alone require 10 ins, then there're the SN1 (8), I-7 x 2 (16) XS Rack x 2 (8), VL-70m and P-50 modules (4), a JD-990 (8), a Nova (2 only as it's for vocoding)... and already I have a problem 'cause the MIDI stuff has to fit into 48 ins; the remaining 16 are for the desk, preamps, guitar and bass processing and so on. Oh, and this is after eliminating half the XS Rack array, of which there are 4. That's 56 outputs, already parsed, and I have to somehow find at least another 8 to get rid of.

See the dilemma? Each of these items is critical to me. Even the 2nd I-7 (due to the limitation of the number of active ROMs one can use at one time) will be used for EDM & world sounds, whilst the 1st unit will be set up for bread and butter stuff.

I've lost so much sleep over this it's not funny. Yes, I'd especially love the FM as well as the general Korg sound of the Kronos as well, but what can a poor monkey do?

Thank you again, my dear fellow!
Nicky
User avatar
PauloF
Posts: 4201
Joined: 02:35, 16 January 2006
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Contact:

Re: Purchase Integra 7 or a Legacy Module (XV-3080, 5080)

Post by PauloF »

Monkey Man wrote:It sure does, brother drumster. Thank you!

Dang. I really have to parse the system down to fit the MOTU AVB setup I'm upgrading to. I'm using the USB-connection option, and am therefore limited to 64 I/O.

The Roland drums alone require 10 ins, then there're the SN1 (8), I-7 x 2 (16) XS Rack x 2 (8), VL-70m and P-50 modules (4), a JD-990 (8), a Nova (2 only as it's for vocoding)... and already I have a problem 'cause the MIDI stuff has to fit into 48 ins; the remaining 16 are for the desk, preamps, guitar and bass processing and so on. Oh, and this is after eliminating half the XS Rack array, of which there are 4. That's 56 outputs, already parsed, and I have to somehow find at least another 8 to get rid of.

See the dilemma? Each of these items is critical to me. Even the 2nd I-7 (due to the limitation of the number of active ROMs one can use at one time) will be used for EDM & world sounds, whilst the 1st unit will be set up for bread and butter stuff.

I've lost so much sleep over this it's not funny. Yes, I'd especially love the FM as well as the general Korg sound of the Kronos as well, but what can a poor monkey do?

Thank you again, my dear fellow!
Nicky
Hi Nicky,
I was reading through your post regarding the number of AUDIO inputs you need and crossed my mind that although you need all those inputs, you cant use them all at once, so I thought (maybe a stupid thought...) that I would use a MIXER for those ones that you do not use at the same time, just be enabling/disabling the INPUTS to the MIX or SUB-MIX as required, and feed those MIX/Sub_Mixes to the MOTU.
That way you could save lots of INPUTS to your AUDIO interface and only maintaining directly connected the the ones that really matter (like the drums, as an example).

Cheers,
P
User avatar
Monkey Man
Posts: 287
Joined: 01:37, 1 July 2013
Location: Australia

Re: Purchase Integra 7 or a Legacy Module (XV-3080, 5080)

Post by Monkey Man »

Oh yes, Paulo, that's good thinking, mate.

That's how I used to do it using an O2R. I saved for over ten years for it, and ran ADAT light pipe to a MOTU 2408. It became too confusing in the end 'cause I had to change monitoring modes on the mixer and muck around with outboard FX and whatnot. I agonised over the decision to go "ITB" about ten years ago; it took about 3 years to decide to actually do it 'cause I love mixers. Ditched the desk and 2408 and replaced them with MOTU 24I/Os for all synths etc. Bought a small Mackie for monitoring mic inputs and guitar / bass so there wouldn't be any latency etc.

The idea was to leave everything connected and just activate track inputs as needed, and when arranging was finished, to record all inputs as audio to their relevant tracks in one pass. Sounds great in theory, and I never got 'round to testing it 'cause life has conspired against my making music for 20 years, but it should have worked. The 24I/Os, of which there are 3, provide 72 I/O, and everything's hooked up right now (except for that 2nd INTEGRA which I haven't been able to get yet, and a decent mic and preamp).

Only trouble is, MOTU had to go and bring out the AVB line of interfaces, who's converters are seriously in a different league altogether from the ones I have. It's for this reason alone that I'm upgrading from the 24I/Os, and am willing to scale the system back down at least a little in terms of I/O in order to make things fit. If I had thunderbolt on my Mac there'd be no limitation and I could easily accommodate 128 I/O, but I'd have to get a Trash Can Mac (nMP) for thunderbolt. One can use ethernet via a properly-spec'd PCI card, but the base-line latency (minimum) is around 10ms, even 'though that too would allow 128 I/O easily. So here I am trying to reduce things in order to fit into the USB2 limit of 64 I/O; the MIDI stuff as well as guitar, bass and vocal channels have to squeeze into this limit.

It's times like these I think it'd be great to have a big analog desk... and then I think of the power bill and realise I have no choice these days. I'll make it work. Two of the Yammies will have to go, along with perhaps a couple of others, but the JD-990 is staying no matter what... and the TD, I-7... in fact, no Roland will be sold!

Thank you for going to the effort to try and help me with my conundrum, Brother-P. I really appreciate it, matey. You're a star!
Nicky
User avatar
PauloF
Posts: 4201
Joined: 02:35, 16 January 2006
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Contact:

Re: Purchase Integra 7 or a Legacy Module (XV-3080, 5080)

Post by PauloF »

Monkey Man wrote:Oh yes, Paulo, that's good thinking, mate.

That's how I used to do it using an O2R. I saved for over ten years for it, and ran ADAT light pipe to a MOTU 2408. It became too confusing in the end 'cause I had to change monitoring modes on the mixer and muck around with outboard FX and whatnot. I agonised over the decision to go "ITB" about ten years ago; it took about 3 years to decide to actually do it 'cause I love mixers. Ditched the desk and 2408 and replaced them with MOTU 24I/Os for all synths etc. Bought a small Mackie for monitoring mic inputs and guitar / bass so there wouldn't be any latency etc.

The idea was to leave everything connected and just activate track inputs as needed, and when arranging was finished, to record all inputs as audio to their relevant tracks in one pass. Sounds great in theory, and I never got 'round to testing it 'cause life has conspired against my making music for 20 years, but it should have worked. The 24I/Os, of which there are 3, provide 72 I/O, and everything's hooked up right now (except for that 2nd INTEGRA which I haven't been able to get yet, and a decent mic and preamp).

Only trouble is, MOTU had to go and bring out the AVB line of interfaces, who's converters are seriously in a different league altogether from the ones I have. It's for this reason alone that I'm upgrading from the 24I/Os, and am willing to scale the system back down at least a little in terms of I/O in order to make things fit. If I had thunderbolt on my Mac there'd be no limitation and I could easily accommodate 128 I/O, but I'd have to get a Trash Can Mac (nMP) for thunderbolt. One can use ethernet via a properly-spec'd PCI card, but the base-line latency (minimum) is around 10ms, even 'though that too would allow 128 I/O easily. So here I am trying to reduce things in order to fit into the USB2 limit of 64 I/O; the MIDI stuff as well as guitar, bass and vocal channels have to squeeze into this limit.

It's times like these I think it'd be great to have a big analog desk... and then I think of the power bill and realise I have no choice these days. I'll make it work. Two of the Yammies will have to go, along with perhaps a couple of others, but the JD-990 is staying no matter what... and the TD, I-7... in fact, no Roland will be sold!

Thank you for going to the effort to try and help me with my conundrum, Brother-P. I really appreciate it, matey. You're a star!
Nicky
No I'm not, but thanks for the kind words! very glad to be able to help if I can :-)

I don't think I can imagine the problems you had, as me with my mini gear had some input count issues too driving all my analogue inputs to my audio card and even with only an i-7, a V-synth XT, a MOXF, a DR-3 and a n iPad, I really had big trouble to get them all connected at once to the Presonus AB 1818 VSL ans having a silent and smooth system.
Actually I was never 100% happy with the Presonus AB 1818 VSL, giving me some issues with latency and Pops and clicks...so it had to go

Then I had to sell the V-Synth XT and gained two extra inputs :) but lost the XT for good :(

I had to purchase another audio card and opted for a relatively inexpensive Focusrite Scarlett 18i8, which handles the Integra OUTS, the MOXF, the iO-Dock and a MG06X that Mixes the Integra's D out + the DR-3 for all Drums, except the Yamaha ones (for the moment).

SPDIF <---Integra SPDIF (Main i-7)
1/2 <----- MOXF (all)
3/4 <----- Integra B OUT (Basses)
5/6 <----- iPad (iO-Dock) - (iM1, iPolysix, iMS-20, iElectribe, Sunrizer, Alchemy)
7/8 <----- Integra D OUT + DR-3 OUT Mixed by MG06-x

Very easy setup, but nevertheless I took some time to get it right, stable with no noise, hum or pops and clicks - it is completely silent even at veruy high volumes. I'm happy, but now that I've seen the new Boutique Series JP-08, JX-03 and JU-06, I wonder about the JP-08 (at least ), which will be a big problem for the Input count again...!!! ;-)
User avatar
Monkey Man
Posts: 287
Joined: 01:37, 1 July 2013
Location: Australia

Re: Purchase Integra 7 or a Legacy Module (XV-3080, 5080)

Post by Monkey Man »

LOL How well I know the connuntittydrum, P-Man.

I'd offer a solution, but the MOTU AVB line, which I feel is the best bang for the buck channel-count wise as well as for sound quality, is probably too expensive for you. I not, I say jump in!
Post Reply