The Rave-O-Lution is a stand alone groove box that has taken the techno world by storm. Very popular among DJ's for live performance and interaction with the audience! It features a very advanced sequencer and a host of excellent analog and electronic drum and bass synth sounds. The 309 is very intuitive and easy to get started using. Play with the patterns or make your own. All real-time tweaks can be recorded into your sequence for later playback!

The 5 part multitimbral feature is the secret to this units power for live and interactive performances. The 5 separate parts are Kick, Snares, Hi-Hats, percussion and bass synth. During your performance you can mute any of these parts to drop the beat or isolate the kick, thus building or lowering the groove and your audiences energy! A plethora of knobs offer quick and easy access to filter and envelope modulation for shaping and morphing the music. The 309 is also well suited for studio work with complete MIDI implementation that includes all real-time controls and knobs.

The 309 is truly an instant dance machine! It sounds great for analog emulation synthesis! It looks pretty cool and comes from a company that knows all about Trance and Techno music. The Rave-O-Lution 309 is an obvious choice for anybody seriously looking to get into dance music with an affordable all-in-one box that will grow and remain useful in your studio and music for as long as techno is still around! It has been used by Apollo 440, Nine Inch Nails, and KMFDM.

There have been three expansions for the Rave-O-Lution 309 since it was released. The Audio expansion added two audio inputs and two more audio outputs. The Drum expansion added a bunch of new drum and percussion samples plus midi synced LFO's. The synth expansion added a second bass/lead synth (though it requires the audio expansion and they do not have their own 'part' buttons).

Oli

July 21, 2009 @ 8:22 am

M.E.L, are you sure the oscillators for the bass/lead sections aren't ROM based? That is not to say that the sounds are sample playback, just the oscillator waveforms.

Quasimidi were a bit vague on that point. The architecture appeared consistent with ROM based waveforms though. A ROM based oscillator can still be termed VA, as the ROM is just a form of virtual model.

By the way, there is an aftermarket ROM 3.0b available, with a few upgrades:

http://freenet-homepage.de/rave-o-lution309/309English/framesROM.htm

M.E.L

July 13, 2009 @ 12:57 am

The bass/lead section is virtual analog and uses no samples. The drum/percussion sections used samples, many of which were revived on the Radikal Spectralis

Oli

July 12, 2009 @ 9:50 am

309; more than presets

Waveforms are ROM based, but valid oscillators. Not a deep synth engine, but sounds can be designed, and tweaked, with decent range. Expansion can give three independent synths. Effects are limited, though overdrive is not bad. Can do good bass, synth filler/pads, and lead.

Compared to other groove boxes of the time, 309 had more scope for sound control. Korg and Yamaha's more recent offerings have far superior synth engines.

309 has useful set of percussion, with punchy, pre-compressed style of output, and some tweakability.

I think if these can be bought cheaply, they could still be handy and worthwhile. My friend uses one as his travel buddy, and has made good tracks with it.

I think the buttons feel cheap, and can jam under the surface of panel. From memory, the knobs/pots are fine though. The enclosure itself feels very robust, and looks like a lunch box for an industrial robot - hmm, warm crispy chips inside.

Jens

April 22, 2009 @ 1:11 pm

If anyone needs support, expansions or just help for QM look at
http://www.quasimidisupport.de

Machine

March 3, 2009 @ 9:51 am

This would be ideal for someone who wants a drum machine/sequencer with tweakable PRESET sounds. I.e. someone who just wants a basic upgrade from something like a Zoom RT223.

If you want a machine focused the ability to mold your own sounds more or less from scratch, go for something completely different.

Of course, such machines are going to cost you a bank and are probably gonna consist of more than one machine (sound module + sequencer + effects + other stuff) and this does have the advantage of being reasonably cheap (I've seen them sold on ebay for as little as 160 euros). Beware though, as always you get what you pay for.

I think it feels very cheaply made and that it was aimed for the "sparetime-musician"-market. Not for professional use.

Not worth the money at all, unless you couldn't give a [beep] about sound manipulation and just want the standard electronic music sounds everyone's using.

Quasimidi products are waaaaay too hyped.

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