I love buying used gear, you will meet the most interesting people ever (two men selling organic tomatos out of their house, failed superstar DJ who lives in the past with his magazine articles, and body builder industrial musicians are a few). This particular guy had his own record distribution company that dealt with local and over seas labels. He took me to his office/studio which looked like some carpentry shop on the first floor. I noodled around with the Multi-Trak amongst saws and wood shavings while talking with this man. I ended up taking it home even though I wasn't exactly thrilled with it. So what does it sound like? Super dark and cold. I soon began to embrace the stubborn character of the Multi-Trak, and realized it is the PERFECT synth for techno. It was made in San Jose, but it sounds like DETROIT. So what you get is a 6 voice VCO synth with some very unique functions that actually give it a broad sound palette for what it is. Sadly, the low end is rather shitty. Unless you stack all 6 voices, you really aren’t going to get a nice bass out of it. However, the stack function is not just an ordinary one, you can stack up to 6 completely different programs on top of each other! Now you can get some really unique timbres even though the polyphony will be quickly limited. The filter can also be modulated by the oscillator, a nice thing to have that can take you straight to robotic, powertrain motor city madness. But what the Multi-Trak does especially well are murky, haunting pads that are so perfect with those major/minor techno chords. Total bliss. There is a master chorus effect onboard that has pretty good range and can add some serious stereo field to the sound. The interface has mad buttons, and is actually a pretty logical matrix layout with one knob used for controlling parameters. Not only is it nice and compact, but it's damn good looking. I’v always appreciated the ever so fitting use of Stop typeface for the Sequential logo too. I guess the real marketing point of this synth was the 6 track sequencer, hence the name. Yes, it works but I just don’t find it practical. The arpeggiator on the other hand is tons of fun, but WHY can’t I edit while it’s engaged! Seriously?! The keyboard action is some of the worst I have encountered, but this thing is not meant to be comfortable. It’s a resentful, cold hearted machine that should have been born in Detroit.
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