Big Studio Refits, Costly Upgrades and eBay Bargains! My 3 Tops and Flops
The synth-related highs and lows of my recent past
3,8 / 5,0 | 
Studio refits to make more room, or at least better use of it, come to us all, sooner or later. And who else has had enough of paying for upgrades so soon after the last?
It’s been a hectic few months here at Failed Muso. As well as travelling the length and breadth of the U.K. to various synth shows with a travelling vintage sampler exhibit, I’ve been forced to rethink my studio space. I was also forced to pay for an upgrade some software six weeks after buying it. But an unexpected eBay bargain cheered me up.
My Tops and Flops
Studio Refits
There’s something quite cathartic about refitting your studio. We’re always doing it, we always complain about having to do it but we all secretly enjoy the process! A studio refit can be for many reasons. Maybe you need to rethink your workflow or perhaps you’ve purchased something new and need to make room.
Or perhaps, like me, you’ve bought too much and things are piling up and becoming trip hazards! That was my ever-increasing issue this year as more synths arrived and my modest space was full to bursting. So I decided I needed to make some changes and have a studio refit.
It was immediately obvious that I could not feasibly have everything accessible, connected and operational, so my plan was to have some sort of storage that I could place keyboards into but have them available at short notice, should I want to use them.
I spoke to some friends and one of them had an ingenious suggestion. Catering shelves. Yup, you heard right. Catering shelves. These things aren’t anything particularly special or fancy but what they are is large and capable of carrying significant loads.
I found a company that was selling black, powder-coated units and bought two 5-shelf units. for around £160 GBP. They were stupidly simple to assemble and within minutes, I had a vertical shelving unit with ten shelves, on to which i was able to store around fourteen synths, some drum machines and a couple of controllers.
That left me with enough room on my existing Jaspers units for the synths I wanted access to and freed up some valuable floor space. Sadly, that floor space was soon taken up by a new Arturia MatrixBrute and an E-MU Emulator II on loan for some research. Back to square one.
I think it’s time for another studio refit…
Tell me about your studio refit woes, or share useful tips on making the most of your space in the comments below.
Too Many Paid Upgrades
My first experience with a proper, professional computer-based sequencer was Cubase on an Atari ST. I’d previously used Electrosound on my Commodore 64 but Cubase was where I began to cut my teeth. By the mid-90s, I was able to afford a brand new copy of Cubase 3, just before it turned into Cubase 3 VST.
Because I had bought my copy of Cubase a few months before, Steinberg were gracious enough to grant me a grace period, my first such experience of this practice. I was chuffed to bits because I felt cared for and respected as a customer and I didn’t feel cheated.
So it was infuriating today to find out that Steinberg’s excellent customer service in this regard has deteriorated markedly since. I jumped off the Cubase bandwagon around the time of Cubase SX, mainly because Steinberg insisted on upgrading it every 12 months and wanted £100 or more for the privilege.
At the end of September 2024, I felt the need to acquire the latest version, mainly for review purposes but also because I think I secretly hoped it might rekindle a passion for the application and its workflow that I had lost two decades previously.
I was happy to purchase a cross-grade package whilst it was on offer and immediately downloaded, installed and activated my new purchase. So imagine my surprise when the news arrived in the Gearnews office that Cubase 14 was on its way. I wasn’t too upset though as I figured that because I’d only recently bought Cubase 13, I should fall into the grace period criteria.
But no. Apparently not. As it turns out, Steinberg’s grace period is around 28 days. Outside of that, and you’re paying full price! I had missed out by just 13 days. Now, Steinberg clearly knew that Cubase 14 was on its way but they weren’t going to tell anyone that back in September.
An email to Steinberg customer support yielded a short but curt reply that informed me that they had to stick to the timeframe and wouldn’t be able to make an exception for me because they’d then have to do it for everyone.
Now, the upgrade price was only £83 but that isn’t the point. These days, £83 can be a considerable amount for some. And sure, I don’t have to upgrade. However, in my line of work, having the latest version of certain pieces of software is essential to my role as a freelance music tech journalist. I can’t rightly report on or compare to something if I have no experience of it.
Sure, this is truly a first-world problem, but how much would it hurt a company like Steinberg to give a fair crack of the whip to its newest customers? Have you ever felt treated unfairly by rapid upgrades and associated costs? Let me know in the comments below.
My eBay Bargain
And so to my eBay bargain that accidentally fell into my lap this week and sort of cancelled out my other grievances. Those of you that know me personally, or know me from my Pro Synth Network YouTube channel, know that I have a penchant for Yamaha’s DX range of synthesizers.
It actually goes way beyond the DX’s. I own most of the RX drum machines and all of the TX rack synths and QX sequencers! Yes, it’s a little obsessive, but they hold a special place in my heart and I’ve been adding to the collection for some time.
Before this week, I was only missing four of the DX keyboard synthesizers, namely the DX9 (the worst of the bunch, in most people’s eyes and ears), the DX21, the DX27 and the DX100. I’m not including the DX7-II Centennial Edition as that is, sadly, rare as rocking horse poop and I have pretty much resigned myself to never owning one.
I used to have a DX27, but in a moment of madness, I sold it and a few other little nuggets (A Yamaha CS1x, SU-10 and RM1x, along with a Roland PMA-5) to fund the purchase of a new Alesis e-Drum kit some years ago.
Sadly, my car at the time failed its MOT test (an annual mandatory U.K. roadworthiness test), and I was left with a choice. Have a car to go to work or stay at home, unemployed and play my new drums. My wife and kids made the choice very easy for me!
Anyway, back to the main story. I was missing a second-generation 4-Op DX synth and I had frequently considered the DX100. Why? Well, it’s virtually identical to the DX27 internally (some of the boards are actually marked with both model numbers with one crossed out with a marker pen) and it was small so wouldn’t take up too much space (see my first tale above!).
They often come up on eBay for around £300-£350 GBP, but one popped up for around £150 last week, so I popped it onto my watch list. On Friday, last week, I got the email telling me that there was 15 minutes left on the auction and so I popped back on to eBay to check it out.
Amazingly, it was sat at £155 with about 10 minutes to go. I figured that the highest bidder had probably set a maximum bid around the £300 mark but was feeling a bit lucky, so I chucked a £180 bid on with about 10 seconds to go. To my utmost surprise, I got a message saying I was the highest bidder and by the time that information had registered in my brain, I’d won the DX100!
It was only at this point that I decided to inspect the images closely, and it was then that I noticed the unit was quite grubby, although the seller, who had a 100% rating, claimed it was fully functional. I had visions of it arriving in 100 pieces, filthy, unusable and waving goodbye to my hard-earned cash.
It arrived on Monday, very well packed, only slightly filthy and very easily cleaned to a point where it looked almost new! It had its original box, polystyrene inserts, and all of the manuals and the all-important guitar strap studs! I was over the moon!
Naturally, ‘Solid Bass’ was the first patch I played as I revelled in my good fortune. What have been your best eBay bargains or surprises? Tell me all about them in the comments below.
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8 responses to “Big Studio Refits, Costly Upgrades and eBay Bargains! My 3 Tops and Flops”
I too was screwed around by Cubase’s rigid and unfair business practices with the Cubase 14 upgrade. My scenario was that this summer I found out about the e-licenser going away early 2025 and I promptly went to upgrade Cubase AND WaveLab on August 31 for the discounted price of $99 each. I really feel conned by this company I’ve been loyal to for 10 years. I pleaded with support for a voucher to no avail- “thanks for being a loyal customer for 20 years”, etc NO
The more people I speak to, the more I hear similar tales of woe 🙁
Would love to know where you got the shelves
I’m in the U.K. so bought mine from here… https://www.hartleysdirect.com/hartleys-180cm-5-tier-adjustable-wire-shelving-unit.html
I assume these are fairly common globally though 🙂
Thanks!
I bought a DX7 on eBay by mistake. As in, I chucked a low bid in some time before the end and then forgot about it until the next day when it turns out I’d won. So the good bit is I have a DX7, the bad bit is it’s one of the originals with dodgy MIDI and a metal chassis that weighs a ton.
Yes, they certainly built them to last. Unless your name is Trent Reznor, of course 😉
You can pick up later versions of the DX7 firmware EPROM chips for not a lot of money which improve the MIDI response 🙂
Ebay bargains..some memories
(this is all relative, as it was close.to.20 years ago and I’ve sold most of them onwards since)
jx3p – twice on Ebay, as the first one arrived in a black bin liner from texas, with a smidgeon of bubble wrap to protect it. I left it with Kent, as he said he might be able.to make use of some of.the keys. it cost about 110 pounds including shipping. The second one cost a bit more and survived the journey. It was in my olde studio for some time. Midi was primitive IIRC..I think it was always on channel 1 & you couldn’t do anything other than note on & off. That one was about 170 pounds.
MKS30 – I know, I know… bought as it came with the PG200 programmer, which I used more with the jx3p as this rackmount kept blowing a voice. Kent replaced the chips twice i think, and then I half heartedly sold it on. it was about 300 Uk pounds.
OB8 – 800 quid all in, from somewhere in the states. it had page 2 silk screening, midi and also panning pots on one end cheek to move the voices around. it sounded a bit thinner than the OBXA , which was strange.
It also had a dodgy voice, which Kent fixed, so onwards it went. The guy turned up in a Jag to buy it, IIRC
Roland System 100 – my first one contained bits from Australia (the 101.keyboard) and the UK (the 104 sequencer & the 102 expander). Had the original patch books and manuals too via U.K. Seller. total cost around 1200 UK pounds.
It worked fine, but needed some help as it had tuning wobbles somewhere; it ‘asynchronously’ (I suspect due to three seperately calibrated units) drifted out of tune as time went on; usually during the middle of a take.
It was overhauled by Kent, and later sold to guy who came via ferry from France (i think). It was replaced years later with a full system in much nicer condition, which is demonstrated here :
https://youtube.com/@srdhain?si=VhN6G4ZyvUI5nN4Z
I’ll stop there, as there’s been a lot of gear but there’s not enough time to go into the joys (and oddities) of getting synth/sampler and drum machine bargains from the Internet.
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