Music stuff I had and didn't keep.

MIDI Controllers used in the past:

The Phat.Boy controller which was good, but too many wires involved.

It can control quite a few devices and is especially good with Yamaha XG synth's and Propellerheads Rebirth Program.

Evolution Dance Station controller, small and powered from PC, nice unit really, but no controllers asides the pitch and mod wheels.

Evolution MK125, basically a 4 octave version of the above. A good cheap, no frills 49 key controller.

Roland MC-505, it's absolutely stunning! looks great + sounds greater!

These things really were worth their $1,000+ dollar launch price! you can find them for approximately $400 used at the moment. It's worth every penny!

Korg NS5r.

The NS5R gives 1100+ Korg sounds in a compact unit. Some very, very good sounds on this, particularly the basses. Sounds surprisingly good since the Korg AI2 filters lack resonance. Available at good prices too.

An absolute bargain and Highly under-rated piece of kit. The Yamaha modules sell for much more than this and they are pretty much preset! the Korg is fully programmable including the ability to completely construct custom drum kits as well as Korg's traditional COMBI mode.

Has a stereo input on the back too which is useful.

Yamaha MU90r

A 19" rack with many effects and a full set of XG sounds, XG midi is rather boring.

Yamaha TG100.

Classic old AWM 12 bit GM sound module. You would be surprised how good these sound!

Can be had very cheaply. Nice sounds for the money.

Tb303 Clones:

FAT Freebass and MAM MB33 MkII

Nice sounds but MONO.

Roland / BOSS SP-505 Groove sampling workstation.

Very powerful and useful sampler. 8 voice poly can be limiting, but, its enough to get a lot done. Kind of a poor mans MPC this.

Can use up to 128 meg smart media cards. Sounds like a great idea right? since you would think a huge number of samples could be stored to card ready to use. The catch is the FAT12 file system used on the SP-505 allows only around 180 WAV files to be written to the card! what use is that I ask. You have to import samples to pad locations and save them off in pad banks.

If you can live with that, and don't mind shuffling cards to and from the pc all the time, this is a great sampler. The graphic editing of loop points is brilliant.

Also the pitch mode is unheard of on a Phrase/Groove sampler.