Technics WSA-1

Pretty easy compared to dem Hilbert space calculations what we had to do in da old days to make speakeasy math flow clean.

It had dem blinky-blink lights and good indicators, although dey coulda added in a bit more for dat patch editing what I wanted to do.

It had dem sounds what I needed to use in dis one project what I was doing wherein I wanted to get dat banging neo-tong sound what Tangerine Dream had in Optical Race, dat album dey did back in 1987 what happened some fab-clear sets and dryson loops and speakle-spark keys.

I turn it on, it work with blinky-blink lights and stuff. Jafo Llewellyn's sold us our first and we boughts a second to make some bangin' neo-tong Tang Electro like in Tangerine Dream's Optical Race.

Dey stopped supportin' it sumpin' fierce.

I did some wit it.

The WSA1 is remarkably simple to get around, thanks to its large screen. Navigation is similar to its home keyboards of that age.
The sounds are clear and bright with a lot going on in the more complex patches.
Editing is easy thanks to the screen but some of the higher level 'physical modelling' edits make little or no difference to sounds.

The keyboard action is perhaps the best thing about this machine. Nothing touches it, being clearly ahead of any of the market leaders. The keyboard sits solidly on its stand with the keys having the right balance of springiness and give. It feels as if it can handle years of playing without losing the touch it had when the box was first opened. I must admit, it took me about two weeks to find the right touch sensitivity curve and I was really worried during this time. But when I found it, this keyboard became the perfect transmission of my expression in any keyboard instrument I've played. Simply sublime.
The sequencer is the let-down. It looks good, promising power and flexibility. But there just isn't enough processing power dedicated to it. Without really pushing it, there are soon timing errors that cannot be rectified. It is a real shame because it renders the sequencer redundant as the user loses confidence in it before he/she has even begun.
So '10' for the keyboard action but about '3' for the sequencer.

There is a sound called 'EP Pad', which is the best EP I've played on a non-market-leader synth. Very responsive and expressive. The wonderful keyboard action adds to it all, making it my indespensible sound. Brasses are bright. Strings especially realistic.
The effects are good enough.
Acoustic pianos are pig-awful. Hours of programming have made no difference. The waveforms are simply not good enough, inexcusably bad for a big synth. So it loses points here.

It's ok on stage. Not enough kudos though and the sounds do not have the cutting-edge to really hoild its own corner.

Non-existent. Technics seemed to dump this project as sales did not take off, thanks to its over-inflated retail price and the emergence of the far-superior Trinity. And Technics' post-sales after-care reflects this, should you give them a call.

It is easy to use yet you can get quite deep into the editing process. Editing is quite easy and it is I would say obligatory with a synth like the WSA 1. A patch editor would be nice, but where can you find one?

It has the best keyboard action of any synth I have played ( and I have played a lot). I really like it and it's response can be adjusted. I would always use it as my master keyboard. Unfortunately expansion possibilities don't exist anymore for this synth, but that is not a problem.
It has an onboard sequencer, but I rarely use it. It is actually quite good but I prefer to use a dedicted software one.

The factory patches themselves aren't that exciting as they don't show off the real potential of the instrument. Creating your own sounds or downloading some 3rd party stuff is a far more interesting proposition. I don't have any of the original factory presets installed. Instead I have made a best of library with my sounds and 3rd party stuff. It can produce some excellent and unique sounds. I still as yet to hear any synth that can produce voice and string sounds better. I also have a Korg Triton yet I think the WSA has some sounds ( voice/ strings in particular) that walk all over it.

Very reliable and well built!

I would hate to be without this synth purely because it is unique. I would buy it again if it were ever damaged, but they are probably hard to come by these days. I rate it highly, but I emphasise that it is made for editing rather than relying on factory presets. I recently read in a Dutch magazine that it is highly sought after now and the second hand price is worth more than what I paid new!!!

There are four manuals - 2 blue ones are cheats patch and midi listings. 2 black ones - one covers getting started and one user guide. These aren't thick enough - could do with more detail and top tips approach. synth itself is pretty easy to use - helped by a large screen that shows everything you need at once - compare a 14" monitor with a 21" monitor for gaming or graphics and you will understand the impact. Physical modelling has been simplified. However, I don't even bother with sound editing. I tend to layer 4-8 sounds together and create a user patch (in this case USER COMBIs) for each song the band I play in performs. These are named appropriately in 128 combi locations occasionally with transposition. I use velocity and range zone settings on patch components a lot and tend to deaden the sounds a lot - remove a lot of reverb. All in all - a lot simpler than most synths I have used - certainly than Yamaha SY99 I had. HAve found it problematic getting patches to be identified by cubase av and cakewalk.

64 poly, good synth action. Only recently started using onboard sequencer - partly for trying out new songs from midi sites. These all need re-balancing as the basses tend to be too heavy and sustained from stock midi files. Can't seem to get accuracy needed for realtime recording - it seems to quantize things out of time too much.

It is unusual in having 32 part multi timbral - 2 sets of midi sockets at the back - good as control centre. Also has control and sustain pedal inputs and four jack outs - main and aux. V useful for live work when bass player is away. I use combi patch with 2-3 basses - these provide varying attacks and tones depending on velocity and aftertouch - sent to bass amp. Brighter tones of layered pianos etc sent to another amp. Velocity settings here provide chance to add brightness for eg. to piano pads when played hard and add strings through aftertouch if needed.

It gets nine because I only paid 750 for it - it's worth lots more.

Some sounds are very good. For rich, powerful, evolving sounds I find combis do best. These evolving sounds can be v useful for celtic music I play with family. Organs lack bite generally. ROM 1 Piano is v. good, other 7 are poor. 2 electric pianos are good - 1 like a Rhodes. Another 6 bad. Breath pad and Warm pad v good and useful. Have programmed my own driving synth sound which is excellent for Stranglers. Sound problem is that many are a bit too digital and cold. Drum kits good. Tip - edit the sounds and take some Reverb out for band playing.

I used to be able to depend on it real fine. However the after 1 drop too many (must have had 20 including a car crash), I not only broke some keys which usually cost approx #8 per note, but the synth started to jump patches without warning. If I could afford a backup I would take one and drive this from the other keyboard. I am amazed there isn't more wrong with it. It is solidly built.

Never really used them as I don't think they support it. There's not much on the web for this synth compared to some others. REally nice Swedish and Norwegian sounding names. I think because this synth was brought out at just the wrong time it died and Technics couldn't sell and support it. If it had beaten Korg Trinity by 12 months they might have fared better.

It was the best buy at the time and since then I haven't seen any other synth come down as much. If it was stolen I would get onto my insurers and get something else for at least twice as much money - maybe Motif8, Triton LE88, XP88, or S90. I sometimes feel the keyboard is too small when I am doing both bass and piano splits in a band. Wouldn't go over 2000.
I like the basses - they are powerful and loud and can provide real drive and power to a band - especially when layered sounds for electric no's e.g. material girl, abba nos or 80s synth no's.

If I were here 6 years ago I would definitely buy it again.

This keyboard is quite simple to use. Each patch is clear on the screen and access to a variety of live controls are at hand. It is also possible to 'drill down' and scroll through the menus, locking a patch until changed. One problem is that the only way to scroll through the presets one by one is to use a footswitch.

The keyboard action is extremely soild, only rivaled by heavier non-giggable instruments. There is no ricketty feel at all & it certainly gives off the feeling that the action could hold out for years. It seems to give a layered response which adds to the expressiveness. Polyphony and effects are more than adequate for keyboards of this age. With full MIDI capabilities & the output board installed, it is as flexible as the top modules. The sequencer is very good but can be fidgetty to get around if new to it.

The vast majority of the sounds are useable, making the WSA1 a good all-rounder. This point coupled with the excellent keyboard action makes it react well to the seasoned pianist as well as the ok-average keyboardist. The main let-down is the quality of the acoustic pianos, which are downright poor & lets the instrument down, especially considering its original retail price. However programmability is out of this world and will keep the average programmer occupied for weeks.

It is great on stage, with almost no-one else having one the user is sure to have unique sounds. It has a helpful re-map function but unfortunately that uses the volatile RAM (as does the sequencer). It's best to set up the sounds in the mixer section of a song arrangement and save that to disk, changing the sounds with the touch of a button.

Technics seeems to have washed their hands off this one. Almost uncerdstandable, seeing that it must have cost a fortune to develop with so few buyers other than the satisfied few with secondhand models.

The WSA1 despite its flaws (especially the useless piano) is still a mini-classic to those in the know. The feel is easily the best I've felt in a 61 key machine & in terms of sound quality & programmability it is up there with the very best of the late 20th century. The immoveable secondhand price beggars belief for a keyboard of this quality. I will not sell it ever.

The whole synth is laid out well although sometimes it can get a bit confusing due to the sheer number of facilities available to you.
Technics have done well to make sure each part of the synth is easy to get around and the sound editing is especially good. I love creating sounds with this synth, it is almost as much fun as actually playing them.
The manual is okay, but not outstanding.
Overall they have managed to cram in the features surprisingly well.

With a large enough polyphony for most people it can handle all the sequences you need. The keyboard is nice to play, and I do like the aftertouch, which seems to be triggered at about the right point.
The effects are extremely easy to assign and fiddle with, and sound superb.
There used to be an expansion card containing dance sounds for it but they stopped being sold when they discontinued the synth it seems.
The sequencer is not that bad, but is hardly intuitive. It does have a nice graphical edit option which reminds me of a computer sequencer.
The keyboard makes a great controller as it has 32 MIDI channels, aftertouch and 5 controllers. The 3 mod wheels are each of a differing type - one spring loaded and centered (generally pitch bend), one free and rests at one end and the third is free and centered. The ideal set.

I was not taken aback by the sounds to be honest. The piano is gobsmackingly good and sounds very sweet, and the digital-sounding synth sounds shimmer nicely enough. The problem it has is that analogue-style sounds are very weak. It takes a fair bit of programming and fiddling to get what you want, and despite programming it being so much fun you wish it didn't take forever to get results.
The drums are solid throughout. Acoustic drums sounds realistic, electronic drums have real kick.
To be honest it would have benefited from the original samples placed in it being a bit thicker in some places, as the acoustic modelling can sound nasally when trying to cover these up.
One thing is for sure, and that it has a lot of character. The sound is unliek any other synth I have heard so if you like what it produces, then you'll love it to bits.

It has been mostly very reliable and pretty robust too. I dropped a speaker on it once to my complete horror, but it appears to not even have noticed.
I've never had it lock up, apart from when MIDI transfers have gone wrong and here for some reason I have encountered more problems than I should have.
The keyboard has also had a few notes played too softly for my touch on occasions but this is rare.
Never gigged it, but I'd be happy to, as long as I did not have to load up system exclusives via MIDI.

I have to say I don't spend all my time using this synth because the sounds don't quite appeal to me, but frankly if I was to find another keyboard that had the WSA's features, ease of use PLUS a sound set I liked, I'd be in heaven.
Apart from my personal taste in sound, I really have no complaints to make.
I'd not buy it again, for reasons stated, but I urge anyone who thinks they might like this keyboard to try it out. If you find you enjoy the sound of it then go for it and get one.
It is as flexible and powerful a synth you can buy and tragically overlooked.
If you like its tonal character you will never want to give up posession of it.

Good navigation around its large LCD display. Everything is arranged logically and can be accessed quite quickly. Manuals are fine, although they skimp on the finer points of sound creation - as to what a modelling parameter actually does (it gives a rather general description). Patch editing is good, with lots of graphical hints to help you through - the manual is a let-down in this department as, again, it is a bit obscure as to the low-level tweaking of modelling parameters. It has a quirk that on entering the multi-timbral 'system' screen the current patch defaults back to 1, which is annoying if you wanted to continue tweaking your other patch assignment.
One thing I really dislike is the fact that it has only one multitimbral set-up. I have to constanly save the 'panel settings' to disk and load a new set-up when I want to refer to another song.

Sixty-four notes of polyphony, and I have not detected a drop-out yet, which is a good indication of the voice assignment of the synth. It has 3 effects processors, which can all be configured to whatever you want (even the assigned 'Reverb'). Effects are good, although the delay times on the delay effects are a bit limited. The effects routing is flexible and allows for some very interesting combinations! Can be expanded with one voice card and also to accept a digital i/o card with extra outs. Talking of outs, I quite like that it has an extra sub out, to which any sound can be routed to. Ah, MIDI! It has 32 channel MIDI support with two sets of MIDI in/out/thru ports, which has come in handy lots of times! The sequencer is rather good, but is completely let down by any lack of 'undo' or a preview function (which my Roland XP-50 has). Apart from aftertouch and pitch-bend and two expression controllers, it also has two funky 'ball' controllers to mangle the sounds with! Pretty extensive on features.

There's a finesse about the whole shebang that quite escapes description. The bass can rip the bowels out of a bison at 30 paces and the high-end is well-defined and smooth. The sonic power is quite awesome - despite some of the modelling parameters sounding a bit nasal and honky some of the simulations are very good. I am constantly asked if that's a real guitar or drum drums and I have to shock them by saying it was a synth. Drums in particular, on certain kits, one can almost feel the skin stretching! Pads are good and can be quite surreal due to the modelling; the only thing lacking is LFO sync-to-clock which would have added an extra zing to it. I like the sounds a lot on this keyboard. The ROM sounds are very functional - toolbox sounds I'd call them!
Playing the darned thing is very good - the keys are semi-weighted and give a good response and are not too noisy. The problem is that the sounds can be so good that the controllers are left gathering dust. Some of the controller-effects of the patches are a bit too weird for my liking - most seem to sound like they're being fed through a pipe.
The effects routing for sounds is a bit strange in that sounds can be sent in 0-127 levels to Reverb (named as 'reverb', but can be changed to another effect) or effect 1, but only as an 'on/off' to effect 2. The drums are 'kit assigned' to effects - the drum kit effects assignment overrides the effects send. For example, if the drum kit is sent to the reverb at 100% then only the snare would be sent to the reverb because it has been defined so in the drum kit. This is far better than a total assignment and more realistic. If you don't like it, you can quickly define another set and save it in one of the four user drum kit memories.

Solid as a rock. Very well constructed and it has crashed on me only once (!); not too bad as it recovered after a switch-on with all the sounds and settings as I left them.

N/A

It's a rare keyboard. Technics overpriced it and felt the earthquake! If they priced it at 1/2 the asking price of the original launch it would have flown off the shelves. The keyboard oozes quality in all respects. When I saw them at the discontinued price I travelled at light-speed to buy one. Now I have it and I'll never sell it. It's up there with the best simply because it has the features to make it and a unique character of its own.

This Keyboard is very easy to use. The HUGE display makes everything much, much simpler. You can set up 10 patches and see them all displayed on the screen at once. The only problem is playing with sunlight shining on the screen.... Editing patches is fairly simple if you know what you're doing. The manual is decent, but does not go into great detail. Don't expect programming tips.

It is 64-note polyphonic with 60 non-weighted keys. There are 32 banks of 8 factory presets plus 32 banks of user sounds. The touch is very light, which is what I like. The built-in effects are very good. You can actually program 2 effects to be filtered. I think you can buy an expansion card for it....not sure. It has great MIDI capabilities. Everything is midiable. There is an on-board sequencer, but it is cumbersome and much less preferable to computers. Other great features include a built-in mixer screen to balance the 16 parts. There is even an on-board equalizer.....

Some instruments are very good, including some brass, reeds, and horns. Others are so-so. The piano is pretty good, but I have found a better one on the new Alesis QS series. Guitars are very good, as are basses. Drums are VERY realistic. On-board effects are very nice. The keyboard doesn't react all that well, though. I think that the oversampling could have been much better. The Acoustic Modelling feature seems like it could be fun, but I didn't find much use for it. I am more of a performance oriented player.

I have abused it, dragging it to many gigs, and it is holding up fine. (cross my fingers)....

I don't know

I am switching keyboards soon because I want a an even better piano sound....and better guitars, too. The one I really don't like about they keyboard is that some of the samples have vibrato sampled in.... I hate that, because it means that whenever you want to play a long extended trumpet line with no vibrato, YOU'RE SCREWED!!

I like the sound-editing on the WSA. I've had lot of other synths but now I create most sounds on the WSA. If one has used other synths, the big display makes sound-editing very easy. I think it's not difficult to use its acoustic modeling functions. I created two freeware soundsets for the WSA and I work with this synth every day.
I don't like all of the presets. The natural-sound-imitations are great but there are no analog sounds for electronic music (By the way, you can find these in my freeware soundsets, try www.technics.com).

64voice polyphony and 32+3 effects at the same time are great. The keyboard is great. The main effect-processor (3 Effects simultanly) is easy to use, but the part effects (32 Effects simultanly) are a bit difficult. They are stored within sounds and thats difficult to understand. You can insert a danceboard (it sounds very great!) with drumloops, TR-909 Soundsets and some Rap-Sounds and there is a Output-Expansion (4 Analog Outs and 1 SPDIF Out). This Output Expansion is not available in germany. The onboard sequencer is very good if one compares this thing to Korg 01/W or something like that. But Cubase or Logic is much better.

The sounds are great. They are reacting to velocity and aftertouch, they can be modeled using the trackballs. Most of the instruments are very realistic. Using Acoustic Modeling you can produce a plastic synthesizer-piano or a real big grand piano. But the WSA isn't very well for Rock music. If you have got an exciter and an equalizer it works, but if not, you will loose against electric-guitars. The sounds are great for pop, electronic, dance and other playback-like music. The onboard effects are good, but the reverb needs some editing before it sounds great.

No errors found.

Its very difficult to get in contact with the german Technics support (TAIYO). But Technics Music Canada answers all my questions and does something for all WSA-Users by providing a good forum on their web-site. I've got the danceboard-expansion and its very easy to install.

I would by it again. Its my best synthesizer I ever had. I love the expressive sounds, the sound quality is very high. But it is a lot of work to understand acoustic modeling synthesis and this is no synth for beginners. The only synth on this high level of sound expression I know is the Kawai K5000 and the Korg Z1. The WSA is the best synthesizer you can buy today. It has the capabilies for making great music and for creating lots of interesting sounds. But its not easy to understand all of its function. Try it!
There are some WEB-Sites for the WSA. Try: http://www.technics.com http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/2594/ http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~gjstockh/technics/ http://home.t-online.de/home/BjoernBojahr/wsa1.html