Re: S90 prices

yeah 3500 seems the go. I’ll call around next week! : D

Re: S90 prices

G’day all. I am very much a newbie but have done quite a bit of research and decided that the S90 is an ideal keyboard for me - I have played keys at church for the last five years and started to write songs and do some home recording using Nuendo and Hoontech/STA’s Cport on my computer. Living in Oz and being a student has its financial drawbacks as many will know, and the cost of the S90 compared to U.S prices, particularly as the $A is now getting over 70 US cents is quite remarkable. I have seen it consistantly advertised in the US for $2000 AU, the cheapest here in Oz is the $3 500 at Turramurra. A friend will be going over to the US early next year, so should I ask him to get me one while he is there? What tax/ import duties would I have to pay? Is power a problem? Or is the risk of not being under warranty too great? I’m sure I am not the first to think about this, so any advice would be much appreciated.
Also, i know that the MO ES is a different class of instrument being a workstation, but where does the S90 stand in comparison to it? Cutting to the chase, should I consider getting the MO ES because it is the next generation technologically and that much more powerful or stay with the S90 as it is still fairly current? Thanks for any help you all can give! Cheers!

Re: S90 prices

I’d get an ES8 if I could afford 6 - 7 grand! since I can’t, I choose the S90 as it is weighted 88 key and a good synth.

Re: S90 prices

hey, Chriso,

i am also using the C-Port with the S90. how are you going with it? have you noticed anything strange (in lieu of all the complaints floating around on the staudio forums?)

Jordan

Re: S90 prices

Hey Jordan!
I actually haven’t purchased an S90 yet, in fact that was what my post was about - I am trying to decide whether or not to buy the Mo ES or the S90 and also where to buy it - overseas from U.S. as the aussie dollar is fairly strong over there - or from OZ. Have you had problems with the S90 and the CPORT? I would be interested to know -

Re: S90 prices

I’ve had my S-90 about a year now and its given me no problems and I play it hours every day.There are a few notes in middle C octave that have developed a minor very quiet, spongy,squeaklike noise but its easy to ignore.

Re: S90 prices

Hi Chriso,

as Rhodeye said, the S90 is a good buy. I have never regretted getting one and for me (more into the feel of the keyboard, than onboard sequencing etc.) its exactly what I needed. I don;t think I would have been able to justify spending what the Motif series demands (the only ones I would have considered are the 8 and ES, with the real-action keyboard, and that would have been 2much4me.

on the other hand, what I spent on the C-Port (which is a fraction of the S90’s price!) has given me much more buyer’s guilt! I have spent quite some time on the staudio site trying to come to terms with all the problems people are having with it. mainly this is for Nuendo 2 and Cubase 2 users (the C-Port drivers have a known bug with the new asio formats of these programs). I’m using Cubase 1 so it doesn’t affect me. However I have a major problem: when I hook up my S90 to the C-Port break-out box I get a very annoying crackling/interference sound coming thru. this doesn’t happen when i plug in a guitar or a mic - just with the S90 (which seems odd since I would expect it to have the most nitid output). I am in the process of figuring out where the problem lies (as soon as I unplug the jacks from the S90 the noise ceases!). I am not saying its a problem with the S90 (when I plug in headphones, of course, the noise is not there). It is much more likely to be something to do wither with the cables i’m using (ie: guitar leads!) or with the c-port itself (a ground-loop or something like that) but i was wondering whether you had any issues with the c-port of a similar nature.

Cheers,
Jordan

Re: S90 prices

Hey Jordan
Thanks for your reply.
I haven’t had any problems with the Cport (except for when some friends and I tried to run 3 together!!), although like you I am using an early version of nuendo and haven’t upgraded to nuendo 2 and so haven’t had to deal with those known errors in the driver that you mentioned. You may already be aware of a the fantastic site produced by Matt Skinner - he is the official CPORT dude in Oz (SOund & Music in MElb)- where he has tried to preempt every problem a CPORT owner could have and has given terrific detailed instructions on how to set up your system to avoid conflicts/problems. type in “skinah “ on google and follow the links (if you havent already!)

I have recorded using a roland JV 90 through the CPORT using 2 channels for stereo (via short guitar leads) with no problems, so I would expect you would have to go through a process of elimination: make sure your system is stable by following Skinah’s tips and tricks and set up proceedures, use short leads or if they need to be long balanced ones etc.

However, one of the selling points for the S90 was its digital outs, and I had speculated that I would use the CPORT’s XG daughtercard which takes the digital signal so that the full amount of channels (you know, the 10in/10 out advertised amount) would be available to me. Of course, I have yet to actually do this, but perhaps that might be another way of connecting your S90 which could solve your problem while freeing up 2 of your analogue inputs as well.

Good luck matey!
Chriso

Re: S90 prices

Thanks, Chriso,

in the end it was found (with help from people on the SOUNDS forum, the STAUDIO forum, and others!) that the problem resided in a ground loop. if you are ineterested in full details you can check it out under the thread “noise from S90 to my soundcard” in the SOUNDS forum. easiest/safest solution: isolating the earth shield in the jack connecting the S90 to the C-Port.

Yes, I know Skinah’s site and just just downloaded the latest DSP24 driver (the WMD 7.3.0225) from him, which hasn’t even been placed on the STAudio site yet! Thanks for your advice, let me know if you go for the S90 in the end!

Re: S90 prices

I FINALLY HAVE MY S90!!!!!!!! woohoo!!!!

3600 from Turra