Okay, well, here's a couple more things to look at.

I remember Oberheim had two upgrades to the units, a card reader that could
be installed and a memory swap that would give the unit a lot more patch
locations. This would be good to search out data on.

-----Original Message-----
From: oberheim@yahoogroups.com [mailto: oberheim@yahoogroups.com ] On Behalf
Of acousmatique
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2007 12:06 AM
To: oberheim@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [oberheim] Re: The Perf/X units are all the same board! Cyclone,
Strummer, Drummer plz read!

--- In oberheim@yahoogroups.com <mailto:oberheim%40yahoogroups.com> , "Rick
Massey" <seafox@...> wrote:

>
> You know, I can't understand why the systemizer is less popular, as
> it's absolutely amazing at controlling multi-synth setups. I used mine
> live for months in a band, and since the guitarist and bassist were
> both using ART FX boxes with the foot controllers, we could totally
> change sound layouts at about the same rate and the tweak time between
> songs was completely dependent on how long the singer wanted to
> chatter with the audience. The Alternate patch footswitch, which took
> me to my solo organ patch, (three different synths covering different
> ranges of drawbars, plus all three sampled through a distorted Fender
> Twin) meant that with a tap of the foot I always had my signature
> voice ready, and the way it handled transpose and patch tricks meant
> that effective brass section stabs were a snap. It's an underrespected

box, for sure.

Well, it seems that none of these are very popular anyway. Oberheim wasn't
very successful with them. And I have seen very, very few MIDI tools and
effects out there ever.
I am not much of a musician, but usually and "end-user" of everything. I
can't imagine having two pieces of MIDI gear connected and NOT see and
filter the serial data in real time, at the very least. If functionality is
bundled into something which people already want to play with and hear, then
it gets more exposure and use just by tagging along for the ride. Like
Korg's "KARMA" system, for instance.

I think they all sound great. My guess about the Systemizer and Navigator
being less popular than the others was based only on prices I've observed.
Since these two usually went for less, I guessed that they were less
sought-after. I don't really know. Cyclone is the one I have heard most
about over the years and still often goes for the same price it did new,
about $200. When I said that the other units were more popular, I was
guessing that maybe the Systemizer and Navigator were more "utilitarian"
compared to Cyclone, Strummer, and Drummer. Many people who have heard of
and seen Perf/X modules have mentioned that they don't know what those
former modules do, even - which is probably due to its functions being a
less simple to explain in a one-word sentence. "arpeggiator"
"guitar-phraser", "interactive pattern sequencer", "... "

Mine doesn't work yet, but it sounds as if it can do splits, remapping, and
quite a few other cool things. Hey, I can barely "control" a single
keyboard, so I have much respect for those who can, and even play a whole
system. I'm just a tinkerer who likes low-level hardware stuff like this.