Quasimidi The Raven

The Raven is a very powerful meat and potatoes dance keyboard. This is a panzer of keyboards. This board has been neglected due to it's price in the past, and the lack of units on retailers shelves It's always easier to find a synth at a fave local music store and try it out. I myself took the risk, (since nobody around me even heard of the Raven) and bought it. Quasimidi sent me a CD set of audio demos from the Raven. before I bought it, and I was pretty impressed. A well laid out manual comes with the synth, as well as 12v power supply.

This is from the Manual with some side comments from me. Panzer like durablility, wooden sides and real metal case. 61 Keys, 5 Octaves Velocity and Aftertouch Sensitive. German made, these have some weight. Sound Synthesis MASS (Multi Algorithm Sound Synthesis) 21 voice polyphonic 16 part Multi-Timbral 512 Single Sounds (expandable with Raven Max to 1000 sounds)$340.00 250 Performances 2 Outs (this was dissapointing) Headphone jack sits on top of the keyboard. Display is 2x40 Character LCD (easy to read in dark clubs, Green) Midi in,out,thru Foot Switch 2 effects banks (45 effects) can be assigned to indivdual sounds in seq 8 track sequencer 8 track drum grid (like a 303 or 909) sequencer does sync to external midi devices like rebirth etc etc Digital filters for cutoff and resonance, i was dissapointed in the filter department.
This keyboard can be complex at first, since it has some unique features like the Motivator, which basically is dance music persons dream machine. You have 8 tracks, Kick,Snare,Hi-hat,Perc,Bass,Seq1,Seq2,Chord, and Solo. You can assign what they call motives, which are little loops to each track. You can edit them, for example, you like your seq, but the kick would sound better if it was more like a 909 than a 606, presto, just change them. It took me a while playing with it, to realize, geez this thing is expanisve. It has Tons of good sounding drums, Linn drum, 909, 808, basses, like 303, arp etc. The pianos sound good, but remember this is for dance music, not many good sounding flutes or korg like new age sounds. My complaint is the digital filters sound a bit weak, i mean you can use the knobs to tweak em, I am thinking about getting a pole filter, or running them through a samplers filters like an Akai s2000 or something. The 2 outputs are limiting. This keyboard is good when combined with a sampler, and something like a 777 or 309 since most of its sounds it makes a good dance controller board.

The instruments sound good, you can create your own if you don't like whats there. This is a Dance Panzer, if you need dance this is a good solid board. The effects are cool, you can get lost in the sounds playing with them. It reacts well to my playing, I have heard of people doing entire live P.A's on a Raven alone. The sounds are very Euro, and you may already heard the Raven at the last club or rave you were at. I haven't gotten bored yet, there is 1000 more sounds available with the raven max expansion board. It will cost about 340 bones. The velocity is good, semi chunky, and after touch is responsive.

I think this is like a mercedes of Keyboards. Safe, rugged, well engineered, minus the 2 outputs and semi weak digital filters.

Quasimidi always has responded to my emails and inquires about their products. I think getting it repaired wouldn't be that difficult.

Over all I like my Raven, This is one of the first groove type machines but it gives you more flexibility, affords you German Luxery, wish it had more outs, and better filters. I can't complain about the filters since every other digital dance machine has about the same quality in filters. The raven just gives you more power and creative ability. Its very intuitive and well layed out. If you have questions, feel free to email, I am off for some dinner.
Brandon

Presets : excellent Patch editing : easy, able to mix 4 sounds Manual : good

This synthesizer is house/dance orientated, you can make a song in about 5 minutes with the build-in sequencer. Just press some buttons and The Raven will do the rest !
Patches: 200 Sounds: over 500 Drumkits: 16 Polyphony: 21 voices, aftertouch (2 X) Effects: 43 (FX1 - 20 & FX2 - 23), each sound can have his own effect Expansion: unknown Midi: all basic midifeatures Sequencer: 8 tracks, each track has 400 house/dance like motives Pitchbend, 2 modulation wheels Sound editing is a bit limited

Synpads: excellent Organs: good Bass/drums: good Synleads: excellent Strings: good Waves: good Pianos: good Effects: excellent Basses: excellent

A reliable synthesizer when it comes to saving up patterns/songs.

The company is friendly, replies on email, letters etc.

Great buy for house musicians, excellent sounds, fantastic sequencer that will do most of the work for you. The Raven can be expanded, a new synthesis-upgrade is on its way. The only thing how that is done is unknown.
To bad the sound editing capabilities are limited, but it doesnt spoils the fun though :)