Roland Juno-6 versus Roland JX-3P | Comparison

video upload by MIDERA

"Comparing the Juno-6 to the JX-3P. Some of this felt a little unfair because I was using the Juno 6 with sub and both oscillators active, so the 3P sounded a little anemic at times. I also noticed at times the JX-3P appeared quieter. I tried to rectify this, but know that going in it may feel slightly biased. I made this video TWO YEARS AGO and actually forgot until today that I had made it, sitting 'unlisted' in YouTube.

00:00 Pulse wave comparison
00:32 PWM
02:18 All waves on (not great with JX-3P and PWM)
02:56 LFO speed for PWM (Juno way faster)
03:37 Sawtooth wave comparison
04:28 Saw + Pulse waves
04:50 Sub osc (JX3P lower octave)
06:30 Filter cutoff 0% res
07:00 Filter cutoff 50% res
07:15 Filter cutoff 100% res
08:00 Envelope snappiness
09:00 Sequencer / Arp envelope snappiness and speed
10:50 Envelope release time comparison
12:22 Comparison of Chorus
13:00 Sync (JX3P only)
16:30 Random patch creations"

https://www.midera-artist.com/

https://midera.bandcamp.com/

Sequential Prophet 10 REV4 versus Prophet VS Vector Synth: A not-so-detailed comparison and thoughts

video upload by MIDERA

"I had both of these side by side and figured it was now or never - do a brief comparison of the two head to head. What's interesting is listening to the Prophet VS filter afterwards it didn't sound so 'TB-303' like as it did when I recorded it. It sounded more tame. It was a bit depressing, but I guess that's part of what is important to hear - differences between what's recorded and what's heard live.

A few notes: if you listen on a phone, you really won’t hear ANY differences mention, lol. I don’t hear the aliasing on the PVS.

You can initialize the PVS patch as well holding enter and pressing zero. I didn’t do that here because it puts all 4 oscillators on using different waveforms, which isn’t really initialized for my purposes.

Also - I want to comment about something that annoys me. If I ever want to look up anything on the "Prophet VS" it comes up as thinking it means 'versus' so I hardly find any information about the VS.

What do you think about the two (P10 v PVS)?

MIDERA"

Yamaha DX7 and Fractal Audio FM3 soundscape improvisation

video upload by MIDERA

"I think I'm getting worse at playing keyboard. Anyway, a friend wanted me to fix his DX7, but I can't find anything wrong with it so I tested it out for a little while and just made this brief piece.

Yamaha DX7
Fractal Audio FM3"

A DSI Poly Evolver Soundscape

video upload by MIDERA

"A soundscape using the Poly Evolver. I used the sequencer to advance the waveshapes, although, I think it was quite hard to tell.

Enjoy

Poly Evolver
NI Raum"

Once awake | Cirklon, Minimoog, Poly Evolver, Prophet 10, Machinedrum IDM electronic music

video upload by MIDERA

"Today I managed to find about an hour to write this track. I've been trying to find a reason to keep the Poly Evolver (although I don't seem to have any local folks interested), and so I figured the best way to do that was to use it in my songs and see how it does.

Sequentix Cirklon 2: Sequencing
Moog Minimoog: Bass
Prophet 10: Bells
Poly Evolver: Pads
Machinedrum MKII UW+: Drums"

The voice of nothing | Cirklon, Minimoog, Prophet 10, Poly Evolver, Machinedrum MKII Electronic IDM

video upload by MIDERA

"Today, before bed, I laid with my family on my bed, listening to the downfall of rain on the roof. I loved every second of it. My kids? It scared them for some reason. Undoubtedly, some day they will look back and think 'I can't believe I was so scared of that gentle rain on the roof... I missed the opportunity to just relax with my papa and mama.'

Of course, not a day goes by that I don't look back at the end of the day and wish I had been more present. Who knows what other adventures I'm missing out with them by being just so stuck in my head.

Well - as for this track, I was trying some new things, using the Machinedrum instead of the Nord Drum 2, and stacking the Poly Evolver and P10. I didn't really enjoy the experience of either. I know some people fill their rooms with synths and Jasper's stands, but I think it just kills the creativity. Maybe my constant unhappiness with my studio keeps me writing more and more?

I don't know.

Sequentix Cirklon 2: Sequencing
Moog Minimoog: Bass
Prophet 10: Bells
Poly Evolver: Pads
Machinedrum MKII UW+: Drums"

Wayward shift | Moog Minimoog, Spectralis 2, Prophet 10, Prophet 12, Nord Drum 2

video upload by MIDERA

"Another track with the Spectralis driving the synths.

Gear:
Moog Minimoog = lead/bass
Sequential Prophet 10 = Bass
Sequential Prophet 12 = Pads
Radikal Technologies Spectralis 2 = Sequencing, plucks, cello
Clavia Nord Drum 2

#minimoog #prophet10 #norddrum2
Uploaded March 25th, 2025"

Synth track: Spectralis, minimoog, prophet 10, prophet 12, Nord Drum 2 IDM electronic music

video upload by MIDERA

"I wonder... how does one increase views? I've been doing the same thing for years. Like 10+ years... and the longer I go, the fewer sales I have on each subsequent album, the fewer views, the fewer everything. I guess it's hard to change, maybe everything I do is the same.

Probably just a saturated market. Everyone out there is doing something."

Sequentix Cirklon 2, Minimoog, Prophet 12, SX-240, Nord Drum 2 IDM electronic track

video upload by MIDERA

"I've been trying to see what sequencers to keep. Obviously the Spectralis stays, but I kept running into roadblocks with the Cirklon so it was something I needed to write a track with. I did the same with the Squarp Pyramid, but I got stuck working through it. I'm starting to get the hang of the Cirklon though. Although it does often take a few extra button presses to do things I think should be easy, I've figured out other ways to do what I want too. I'll try again with the Pyramid, but most likely that one will be going away.

Sequentix Cirklon 2 - sequencing
Moog Minimoog - bass
DSI Prophet 12 - bell/synth tone
Kawai SX-240 - pads
Clavia Nord Drum 2 - drums
Native Instruments Raum for reverb"

Sequential Prophet 10 REV4 and Rhodes Piano | ambient improvisation

video upload by MIDERA

"My family and I went on vacation this week and had a great time. Some things came up at work and frustratingly, I feel I wasn't entirely as present as I'd have liked to have been. Kind of ruined a lot of things for me, but, despite that we had fun.

My oldest daughter, as usual, wanted a stuffy. We went to a store and she decided she wanted to wait to get something at a different place (because she usually liked the stuffed animals there. So later that day we drove down and - to her dismay - the new stuffed animals there were for little kids. We asked how she could tell, but she said she could. She did not want them. But we didn't have time to go back to the other place (since this was a restaurant and we were going to be eating dinner and the other place would be closed). I drove back up afterwards, looking for any place that might sell something similar, but nowhere did. The next day we knew a snow storm was coming in, a huge one. So she was very sad that we wouldn't be able to go back - but I was proud of her for two reasons: 1) She was able to hold off getting something now for the hopes of something better. 2) She didn't just grab something at the second place, because she knew she didn't want those. And although she cried and was very sad, she did not get something there. I was proud of her for that.

The next morning, we decided to go out in the storm and we did end up getting that stuffy for her. I got her something extra too because I was proud of her for waiting.

As for this track - well, I'm trying to see - do I really need that SX-240? Just because it's pretty? Basically, I have found the Prophet 10 actually does sound almost identical to the SX-240. As cool/nice as it is, I can't just keep all this stuff. There's just too much stuff here and I can make the same or better stuff without some of these synths in my studio.

Sequential Prophet 10 REV4
Rhodes Electric Piano MKI
Fractal Audio FM3 for FX"

Roland Jupiter 6 lush pads and Rhodes Piano soundscape

video upload by MIDERA

"I'm convinced the Kawai SX-240 should go, if only because I can trade for something else (Yamaha CP-70b?). But what can take its place that's already here? The Jupiter 6? The Prophet 10? The Prophet VS? They're all similar, but different. Guess that's why I stupidly have so much stuff. I can hear interesting tones from one that I can't hear in another. They're all interesting.

The Jupiter 6 surprised me here. I have learned some tricks about keeping the filter from sounding so harsh, and I think that's helped. It's for sure an unusual synth - and not entirely my favorite. In fact, I'd say generally the SX-240 sounds better (and looks better). I think the SSM2044 filters really make that synth shine, and nothing I have is like that. The Polysix had these filters but it never sounded as good. I think the Prophet 10 probably is the closest, but it also lacks reverse saw waves that I really like for LFOs. I don't know why they omitted those on the P10, but they did.

Track title: When our sighs collapse

Roland Jupiter 6
Rhodes Electric Piano
Fractal Audio FM3"

Unending | Sequential Prophet VS improvisation

video upload by MIDERA

"I was playing the Kawai SX-240 against the Jupiter 6 tonight and started to realize "wow, the Jupiter's filter is really quite 'thin' compared to the SX-240. It's impressive how much better the SX-240 sounds to my ears... so then I pulled out the Sequential Prophet VS and was kind of blown away by how good it and its filters sound. Certainly it is in a class all its own. I found this patch and just really enjoyed improvising.

And this patch was just really inharmonic and just fit these notes…

Sequential Prophet VS
Fractal Audio FM3 for FX"

Missing | Fender Rhodes Electric Piano and Kawai SX-240 improvisation

video upload by MIDERA

"The other night - I learned about the Yamaha CP-70. Now I want one. They sound so good. I can't usually play acoustic piano on my main floor because my kids are around and I'll be distracted. I can't play at night because they're sleeping - so I kind of wanted an acoustic piano in my studio... Of course, from what I hear, the CP-70 is very big. It seems like it's about the same size as my rhodes, but deeper. I would probably have to part with my Rhodes to get the CP-70. I'm not sure what to do....

On another note, yesterday I started to realize that I'm embarrassing my daughter. I was dancing with my younger daughter, and my older daughter wanted nothing to do with it or me. It was a realization that those fun days making her laugh, dancing with her, playing with her, are coming to an end. It made me really sad.

Rhodes Electric Piano
Kawai SX-240
Fractal Audio FM3 pedal for FX (for both instruments)"

Kawai SX-240 soundscape V - Gone away

video upload by MIDERA

"Tonight, my daughter called for me after I put her to bed. It's unusual that she calls for me now as she's gotten older. I used to find it so irritating to get these calls, sometimes 3-4 times a night ("Papaaaaaaaaaa... uhm, I love you"). Now it seems to happen once every few months and is usually something more serious (at least to her), so I run up. She's sitting up in bed telling me about how she was terrified I had "gone away." I think she was just afraid I was going to die (of course, we all are going to some day), but it was hard to get that out of her. Usually the harder days are the days she has the most fun, I guess (maybe creating a lot of memories?). I know we're slowly descending into fewer and fewer days to be together, fewer chances to snuggle before bed, to tell 'Kwazii stories.'

I did tell her that some day I will die - and that I hope that day comes long before her time comes. That I won't be feeling anything when I'm gone, and that I would be happier if it were me and not her. That, of course, didn't really make her feel much better. Me staring at her boogery nose and making a face did. She started giggling, and I knew I had cracked the sadness, which faded, and we could say our good nights.

If you remember me saying the other day I had a financial problem - well, it was that I plugged the Kawai SX-240 back in to play it and it was dead. Nothing would happen. I was miserable, because I was planning to sell it and of course it would die before I could! Well, I managed to fix it. If you ever look up the service manual for this thing, it's horrible. I didn't realize how bad it was until I messaged Bob Grieb about his Tauntek eprom update (thinking maybe a bad eprom was the problem). He said it wasn't likely the problem, but sent me his version of the service manual and you can actually see the traces on it (the online version is so bad it didn't even pick up half the traces!). From there, I could see there was a bad solder joint between Pin 3 of the EPROM (I was right, something was wrong with the EPROM!) and Pin 2 of an adjacent IC. And - well, I brought it back to life. Another successful repair.

Kawai SX-240 and Fractal Audio FM3 for FX."

Unravel | Minimoog, Spectralis 2, Prophet 10, Prophet 12, Nord Drum 2 electronic music

video upload by MIDERA

"Got 5 hours of sleep last night. Had something frustrating happen (possible loss of $$$), not the worst thing in the world of course, just frustrating. After this track, I'll go back and see what else I can do with the Cirklon.

Moog Minimoog = bass
Sequential Prophet 12 = Main melody line
Sequential Prophet 10 = background chime sound
Radikal Technologies Spectralis 2 = sequencing and lead later in the track
Clavia Nord Drum 2 = drums
Native Instruments Raum = reverb"

The lies ahead | Moog Minimoog, Spectralis 2, Prophet 12, Prophet 10, Nord Drum 2 electronic

video upload by MIDERA

"I spent a part of the day rearranging my room... as I often do when I have the time. And when I was rearranging I realized just how little sense anything would make. I finally just set it up to explore 'How does the Spectralis fare compared to the Cirklon with sequencing.' And - well, I still think I prefer the Spectralis. I just write stuff faster. That doesn't mean this track sounds better than my last one (Crashing down) [posted here], but it was just a little more organic for me to write and quicker. It's hard to explain, although I suppose it's easy to explain when I think about the 14 years I've spent with the Spectralis. Of course, it's not perfect, it doesn't easily assign MSB/LSB for program changes (you can use cc's but it's a little awkward) and it can't do polyphonic step sequencing (which is actually awkward to do on the Cirklon).

Anyway - here it is. And listening a day after writing it, it’s too repetitive. I don’t like it. But I’ll share it anyway.

Spectralis 2: Sequencing and piano
Minimoog: Bass
Sequential Prophet 10: lead
DSI Prophet 12: Bells
Clavia Nord Drum 2: Drums
Native Instruments Raum: reverb"

Crashing down | Moog Minimoog, Sequentix Cirklon, Sequential Prophet 10, DSI Prophet 12, Nord Drum 2

video upload by MIDERA

"I was considering selling the Minimoog. Kept talking to friends about how I just didn't like it. I don't know why, I guess maybe it was like with the Prophet 10, where it's just a lot of money and it doesn't really seem to do anything that much better than what I already have. One of my friends said 'Well, have you tried sequencing it?' And no... I hadn't. I got the Minimoog when one of my cats died, then I rehomed my dog, and then my mom died. The whole next year (2024) I spent scanning photos in of my parent's. Only now have I started to get back into things. Well, I decided to try it out and wow, I really enjoyed it - the Minimoog sounds pretty amazing. So this is my first track with it sequenced.

I'm also working on trying to get more proficient with the Cirklon, and I've gotten a little hold on using it.

Parts:
Moog Minimoog: Bass
DSI Prophet 12: Bells
Sequential Prophet 10: Pads
Clavia Nord Drum 2: Drums
Sequentix Cirklon: Sequencing
Native Instruments Raum: Reverb"

Embrace of nothing | Sequential Prophet 10, Prophet 12, Nord Drum 2, and Toraiz Squid downtempo

video upload by MIDERA

"I finally scanned in over 7700 photos of my parents and their lives. It was so nice to see them again, happy, exploring. Somewhere in there it all changed, but they still looked and seemed happy. So many times I'd see a photo and just stare at it for a few minutes, as though I'd been hit by something. Like seeing them arrive at their first motel on their honeymoon. Or seeing photos from the 70s and then the 00s when they went to the same cabin. It was clearly a world that just hung so close to me, but I never saw it. By the time I could get to know them in this capacity - they were both gone.

Now that I have my studio back - I can finally start writing music again. I pulled out the Cirklon. As you can see, I didn't use the Cirklon here. My goodness that thing just antagonizes me at every turn. I know I need to give it more time, but after two days using it, I put it away and within an hour, I had something I was enjoying making and playing.

Toraiz Squid: Sequencing
Prophet 12: Bells
Prophet 10: Pads
Nord Drum 2: Drums"

The new sorrow | A Rhodes and Minimoog somber track

video upload by MIDERA

"Too many things to describe. Too many things pointing to a future of horrors.

Rhodes Electric Piano with Fractal Audio FM3 + looping
Moog Minimoog with Strymon El Cap
Native Instruments Raum for reverb
KDEnlive for video editing
Reaper DAW for audio editing
Moved over to Linux"

Tranquility | A Sequential Prophet VS ambient soundscape

video upload by MIDERA

"Another year is gone. 2024 was a pretty good year. I had probably the best birthday with my family I could've asked for. Some of my health concerns have resolved. We adopted two new cats (they're terrors and nothing like the ones I lost in 2023).

I feel there's a lot of uncertainty in my life that was troublesome for 2024 and will go on into 2025 (isn't that true of everyone though?). Things were not perfect, and are not perfect - but I don't think they ever could be. And even if they were - like on my birthday - it doesn't last.

Anyway - here's to a good year. And hopefully to a better year for everyone.

And yes... you can see in the video that I close my eyes. I am tired. I think I fell asleep a few times while playing. Hopefully the music turned out alright.

Gear used:
Sequential Prophet VS #prophetvs
Strymon Volante #strymon
Eventide Blackhole VST #eventide"