As I was driving back from Idaho, I was pondering a track I'm working on, and I was thinking "which synth should I use to make that AlphaSyntauri hollow pad sound..."

Try as I might, the AlphaSyntauri is probably the only synth I've really wanted but never managed to obtain. I actually had everything required at one point (up to and including a Decilionix sampler card, which actually worked fine) including two (!!!) AlphaSyntauri keyboards, two (!!!) sets of Mountain Computer cards, and all the software, including the educational stuff. And all the manuals.

However, the Mountain Computer cards were fukd by way of that stupid paper connector strip that lets the two cards talk to each other. I tried hard-wiring one pair, to no avail, then gradually gave the other stuff away to other people over a couple-year timespan.

I've had a couple people offer to sell me a complete working AlphaSyntauri system, but the offers always came at inopportune times. Either I was broke, or I was deep in to some other aspect of synthesis, so I either wasn't able to or didn't want to take advantage of the opportunity.

The other thing I'd really like, and it kind of goes hand in hand if you get lucky with the version of Apple ][ you're using as the base station, is a Roland CMU-800R. Similar situation with the AlphaSyntauri, where I wasn't able to take advantage of the one opportunity I had. (Actually, I was a little bit resentful, because the person that offered to sell me the system, who is an AI reader, was the one that outbid me on the 'Bay for it. Never mind the fact that I was broke when the offer came.)

If I could somehow cobble together a system that was able to be a Decilionix sampler, an AlphaSyntauri, and a CMU-800R using the same Apple ][, I'd be just about as happy as a boy could be. But now I'm back to being broke, courtesy of the IRS's annual kneecapping, so it's just left to ponder. Oh, well.

What's your Moby Dick? (And I'm not talking about Moby's dick; let's just get that straight right away.) The mythic siren, who's song calls you on to the rocks every time?