Nocturnus, I'm only 5 years younger than you, so I can definitely relate to some of these. The ones I can most relate to are 3 (Windows XP), 6 (school), and 7 (TV shows).
Here's one of my own. Those who know me well will not be surprised. long story ahead!
When I was in high school, I took a music technology class which was pretty much my dream class. For 45 minutes a day I sat in front of a computer producing music. Most of the software they used wasn't very accessible, at least not with the old version of NVDA that was out at the time. So I took a copy of my favorite midi sequencer which could be run portably, and put it on a flash drive. While the rest of the kids were playing with Finale and a DAW which I can't remember, I was creating music with my preferred midi sequencer (qws) instead. The instructor frequently went from trying to help me, to being too busy with other students, to leaving me to my own devices, and before long, being outright intrigued at what I could do with the school's cheap workstation keyboards.
The sound was far from ideal. To start, the headphones I was using had past their prime, which made the sound muffled. The headphones also left disturbing amounts of residue around my ears. Even more frustrating was that the left channel on the keyboard had a faulty output, leaving me with sound only on my right side most of the time. Add to that the noise of talking students was really loud so I couldn't hear well what I was doing. This is high school though. I came to expect those sort of difficulties; My high school experience at least was full of equipment failures, routy kids, uncertainty, all that. To keep me sane I focused on my musical areas of interest which led me to wonder what kind of keyboards they were using. I had never heard the sounds before, but I liked them for some strange reason, even though they were really not high quality sounds.
I don't know exactly how I found out, but I'm almost certain the workstations being used were Korg X5D keyboards. These were released in 1995, and were entry level keyboards, even then. The sounds on the Korg X5D were taken from other higher end workstations which were four years older, having originated on the Korg 01/w in 1991. And a few sounds were recycled from the Korg M1 in 1988. So yeah, these sounds were old way before I even heard them. My first exposure to them was in that music tech class in 2012! Despite them being 20 years old I still liked them. One fond moment was when the teacher was showing us how midi worked and how different sounds could be selected on the X5D. He pressed a button and hit a key, and the next thing I knew, the keyboard showed off this impressive display of whooshing jets, dramatic cinematic cymbals, timpani, strings, and tinkly sweeping etherial sounds layered together. The teacher was like, "whoa, that's not what we want... What the heck is that? *checks the display* Solar flare... hehehe yeah you get all sorts of sounds on here..." I wanted to ask how the heck it did that. Until that point I had only heard the conventional GM sounds, akin to the ones that come with most computers, and I thought they were interesting but I had hardly heard anything like that. My first thought was to jump up and ask, how does something just do that? If it can do those crazy effects, what other things can it do?
I started exploring buttons on the X5D over time, and eventually learned that Solar Flare was a combination of sounds layered together. I learned how to switch from that to the basic patch set I had been composing with. Combinations aren't meant for composing on the computer, they're more for live performance. So, when I would get bored of composing, I'd switch to one of those combinations and just scroll through and allow myself to be inspired. It's ashame I only got to hear the right side, because I've heard recordings that really do show off cool stereo effects. I was playing with a particularly strange sounding one with what sounded like chanting demons and weird ethnic instruments, and the teacher comes over, not being able to hear what I'm doing, and glances at my display. "Headhunters," he observes. "Sheesh." With how demonic and crazy the sounds were, headhunters seemed like a fitting name for that combination. Another combination I later learned the name of was phantom sax, and I really liked that one too because it was very ethereal but musically expressive. All of the sounds, including the combinations with all their cool effects, and despite being impressive and huge, had this 90s gritty sound to them, and I find that sort of gritty low fi quality, in moderation, to be soothing and nostalgic. I wouldn't want it put on modern stuff as much, I only like it if it's genuinely brought on by old technology or really good emulations. And it's funny, I normally don't like really old sounds, but these I did. Something about them just sounded warm but uniquely cheesy in all the spiciest of ways.
The sounds would've been perfect for animated films, and in fact I've heard it used on budget films and documentaries. There's one in particular I know it was used on, but I can't remember what it was. I heard it in a history class in college, and even though history is my least favorite subject, I'd still watch that film to hear those sounds. I missed the sounds so much after high school that I couldn't bare to hear any of them for I'd say 6 months after the class had ended, and refused to touch the midi files I had created even though I'd backed them up and took them home with me. It's silly to think about it now, because they weren't really all that impressive. I could only access a subset of the sounds available since I didn't know how to use the unit, so I was limited in that way. Plus I wasn't as good at sequencing then. I think it was just that unique sound I've been raving about for the past 5 minutes.
I had long resigned myself to the fact that this was over. I didn't need these old sounds. I had much better stuff at home. So in 2015, when a friend of mine got the Korg X5DR (basically the X5D without the keyboard), I became pretty envious for a while. He hooked it up to his computer and showed me sounds on it, and started composing some stuff with it, and I instantly wished I had it. He graciously sent me recordings of my music tech compositions which sounded as I remembered them. I got to hear them better though since they were recorded properly and I heard them over nicer headphones. That brought back memories. The friend told me that they were a little difficult to record since the way our unit at school was set up was a lot different than his, so a few things were difficult to establish. The sounds were the same though, so they could be fixed, he just didn't have the original memories as a frame of reference. I wished I could've fix them.
I was still resigned to the fact that I probably wouldn't get these sounds back, but for curiosity's sake I asked him if he thought I should get the X5DR. He told me that if I wanted even more, I should get the NS5R instead. It's a step up from the X5DR. It has all the same sounds but includes a lot more, and it's also easier to switch between sounds. My friend also said there were newer things I could get but they would start to cut the old sounds I wanted, or would mess other things up. I forced myself not to look this up, not to listen to demos, not to even start anything. Just to forget about it. The main reason for this was that my parents, who still managed my finances, seemed to be hesitant about me making Ebay purchases, and I respected their concern and didn't want to tempt anything.
Last week, I was listening to my music tech compositions again, which is something I do every few months when I get bored. All the while, I was asking myself why I let myself give into nostalgia. It occurred to me that finding an NS5R or perhaps X5DR would be pretty easy to do. I hadn't even looked on Ebay yet for fear that I'd be tempted and want to get one, and my parents would refuse. But then I thought, why not at least try? I have nothing to lose by being proactive and seeing how the ball rolls. So that night, I brought it up to my mom, and while she was a little nervous I think, she didn't refuse. Soon, I will manage my own finances, but I'm not quite there yet. So we found a used KorgNS5R unit from the US which I could purchase for $180. Not a bad price for what it offers. There were some that were lower but seemed to be in worse condition than this one. We ordered it on Thursday September 28, and it was at first scheduled to arrive here today, October 6. However it's since been delayed to Monday October 9. So I'm literally on the edge of my seat waiting for it. I've read manuals for the X5DR and NS5R. I had to OCR both which meant that they were sometimes a little hard to read, but I got a lot of things out of it. While the usage seems to be different, they seem to share similar features. I really do hope I don't regret buying this synth or any old synth for that matter. I don't think I will, but I guess we'll just have to see. I can always resell it.
So there's my crazy story of nostalgia. If you're still with me, congratulations! Lol. I will try to record demos of this synth and other things when I get it, if anyone is interested.
Make more of less, that way you won't make less of more!
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