Help:Creating Articles

Creating articles on this wiki, as well as editing any pages requires one to have an approved account once registered. If you need help with this, simply get in touch with hikari_no_yume on the DTM Central discord.

Once you have been approved, you can create and edit pages as needed.

This page will be expanded on in due time to add more topics or sub-pages as needed.

Preface

This page's sole aim is to answer a couple of questions you might have if you're thinking of creating an article. It's not hard rules you must absolutely follow, but a set of guides that should hopefully inspire one to research their topics and start off with a good article. We encourage you get in touch with us, whether that's via the Discord or via a talk page or something if you're not sure about something... or you could just create the page as is and force one of us to fix it up (though, please don't, it would add to a backlog where all of us contribute during our free time, ultimately making editing the wiki together less fun)

This wiki's scope

We're trying to make a dedicated place that contains valuable information about mid-late 80s to early 00s devices, and sometimes beyond as well if applicable. The devices in question are almost always MIDI Romplers ("ROM" Samplers, basically), where they use built-in waveform data and combine it, with volume, pitch and filtering, to create new sounds. Some of these units have been very popular in contemporary media, such as films, video games and more. Some of these devices would get cut down releases in small form factors aimed for music creation/listening at home via MIDI (Roland's Sound Canvas series, Yamaha's MU series etc), where a handful of musicians were able to keep using and create amazing compositions. There is a niche but vibrant community of people still doing as such.

What's outside this wiki's scope?

• Old or new analogue synthesisers - we also love Moog synths, Prophets and Oberheims, but they're outside the scope of this wiki. New analogue synthesisers would also fall outside of our coverage for similar reasons. There are many other places that focus on these synths, how to maintain them and repair them, and so on.
  • Virtual analogue synths may also fall outside this scope, some more so than others. Just use your best discretion I suppose.
• Although we do focus on digital synths, we don't focus on all of them - the Yamaha DX7, although notable, would fall outside our scope - not because it uses FM rather than a ROM source, but because it was made during an era where it was competing with other mono-timbral analogue synthesizers.
  • The Roland D50, although employing some analogue-like synthesis combined with PCM samples, would be fit for the wiki, as it would end up directly influencing their JD, JV and XV lines of synthesizers, and also the LA32 series (MT32, CM32L, D110 etc) by reusing a lot of the synthesis methods first employed with the D50.
• Modern digital synths may also fall outside of our focus, unless it's a reissue of a synthesiser that falls within our focus (such as some of the Roland Cloud VSTs), or is a new synthesizer that implements the same/similar synthesis and capabilities as an older generation.

What 'is' within our scope?

• Anything that supports the General MIDI, Roland GS, General MIDI 2 or Yamaha XG standards.
  • This isn't limited to hardware only but is also extended to software, such as the Microsoft GS Wavetable Software Synthesizer, Virtual Sound Canvas and more.
  • It is also extended to other peripherals, such as PC sound cards that have built-in support for these standards.

• Any drum machines released between the mid-80s to the early 00's that employ MIDI - these can be drum modules, like the Alesis D4 and Yamaha RM50, or machines like the Roland R8.

• Samplers released within specific time periods that can be loaded in some synthesizers.
  • For example: The Roland S770 and Akai S1000 would be fit, as they can be directly loaded into the XV-5080 (provided you have a means to load them in as well as installed RAM).
  • Rule of thumb might just be anything from the mid-late 80s to the early 00s.

• Other types of devices (Effect units, non-sampler/ROMpler synths) that have relevance to the synthesizers we cover.
  • Examples: Boss SE-50 and SE-70 (Same sort of effects found on many JV and Sound Canvas units), Alesis Quadraverb, etc
  • Rule of thumb here would really just be units from the late 80s to late 90s.
  • Guitar pedals wouldn't apply here unless they can be directly linked to effect units on synths covered by articles here. If these are niche then it might be better as some sort of footnote or reference or something else instead.

• Modern synths that are remakes, reissues or in some way deeply related to articles covered on this wiki already.
  • The INTEGRA-7 falls perfectly into this category, it is a new synthesizer, but is overall a reissue of the XV synths combined with SuperNATURAL sounds and all expansions.
  • The JD-08 also falls nicely in this category, as it is a reissue of the JD-800 in desktop form.
  • VST remakes of synthesizers covered on this wiki are obviously fair.

A good rule of thumb might be this one: If you're in the DTM Central Discord, and you can either think of people who already own X synthesizer there, or who would like to own one, it should be OK to document on our wiki.

Should I create this page?

• If you can provide substantial information about the synthesiser, standard etc in question that the page is about, go ahead. Otherwise, hold your fire and get some more information first (from reviews, interviews, manuals etc), and/or ask around if there's multiple models that may have different behaviour. Someone's always willing to help if able! ^_^
• Avoid creating pages for red links (missing pages) just for the sake of it as well, for the same reasons as above. There's nothing worse than seeing that there's an article for something obscure, only for it to barely have any information at all.
• If you feel that the device is outside the wiki's scope, then it's best to avoid it, or maybe get a 2nd opinion!

Examples of good and bad in this case if you want an example

The Good One

the Roland XV-5080 is a 128-voice synthesizer released by Roland in mid-2000, notable for being one of the first synthesizers to incorporate the XV Engine, and is also further notable for including COSM effects, sampler memory and the ability to load samples from a CD or hard drive disk.[pretend there is a reference for this linked] [pretend there is an infobox here]

• Even if it's short, this gets the main features and notable features across, and, if you use your imagination, you'll even see references and an infobox. This can be later expanded into a full article with sections where necessary. Feel free to see the actual XV-5080 article!

The Bad One

The GEM S3 is a synthesizer released by Generalmusic in 1993.

• Ok, so, firstly, comparing the GEM S3 to the XV-5080 is apples to oranges, I know. But the point is, let's take into consideration someone doesn't know what the GEM S3 is, or even what the XV-5080 is. If the XV article was like this, they'd learn nothing about this unit at all. No notable features, no main specs, no references - nothing!
• And, well, imagine you are still said user, and you wanted to know more information, and well, they find a blue link! OH, but it has no actual information! This can be frustrating for some.

Wow, secret third example???

The Roland SC-88VL is a variant of the Roland SC-88 that lacks the extra controls on the bottom, and uses a 9V DC power input instead of a permanently attached power supply.

• While this doesn't even go into detail at all, we know it's a SC-88 variant, so we can refer to the SC-88 article for the information. Notably, we also go into what the differences are, which aren't many.
• Of course, typically, this would just be listed as a variant in the SC-88 article, but for the sake of this argument, let's assume that this is not the case. This is still useful, even if the information is very brief.

Okay, well, in brief, basically, it's okay to start an article and add basics that while helpful aren't the most they can be, this can be expanded on later and any help is appreciated, but the point is, do go out there and do research! It's fun, you get to learn things you might've never known otherwise, and it's going to help folks a lot who will use this wiki as a resource.

Redirects

• Redirects can be done for different spellings - JV1080 should just redirect to Roland JV-1080, for example. In rare events where the same model is shared between two different synthesisers, a disambiguation page is preferred, similar to Wikipedia.
• If the synthesiser in question is different enough where you can pinpoint a notable difference, then it should get its own article instead. If the only difference is one is a keyboard, one is a rack-mount module without keyboard-related functions then they can belong on the same pages provided the differences are detailed.

Examples of differences where they are notable enough to warrant different articles:

• Alesis Quadrasynth and Alesis Quadrasynth Plus - Former releases early '94, had no GM support, only has 2 banks total and has 16MB of waveforms. Latter has 20-24MB, 3 extra banks, GM support and a bunch of software tweaks.

Examples of differences where they aren't notable enough for different articles (sections or mentions in the opening line instead):

• Roland SC-88 and Roland SC-88VL - Only difference on the VL is the lack of extra controls and 9V DC instead of hard-wired AC.
• Yamaha MU90 and Yamaha MU90R - Exact same synthesis engine, just in a different housing.

If you have an example where you're not sure about, please ask first! Worst case if nobody is around, create a new page for it anyway, and should we decide it's better fit merged with another page then we will action that ourselves, but we'd prefer if you ask first!

Photos

If you would like to take a photo of a missing synthesiser, then that's great! Thank you! You can find what needs a photo here.

I would love if you could make sure of the following when taking photos:

• Lightning - consistent lightning (preferably taken in the daylight) where there's no obvious shadows being cast down from a light source.
• Zoom - Taking a picture from further away and utilising the zoom function of your camera will lead to more natural looking pictures, but the overall quality of the photo detail-wise will be more degraded. If the text isn't easy to read, feel free to move closer to the picture and zoom further out.
• Turn on your equipment - it would be useful to see the default state of the device, and the natural color of the LCD screen.
• Keyboards - As long as the frame of the keyboard can fit in a neat square, that's fine.
• Reflections - Try and keep reflections low if possible. This can be of objects in the background, light streaks or anything like such. I would recommend the use of a polarising filter lens in particularly bad examples.
• File sizes - We're trying to be frugal about our file storage situation, which also helps keep backups speedy and the site itself speedy. JPEG is recommended unless the image needs to have its details preserved in lossless form. In addition, reducing the image's size, whether that is by cropping or by resizing the image is recommended.

Keep in mind that photos will need to be uploaded by someone approved if you're not approved to upload yourself. You will need to also specify the rights to the photo, currently we support either CC-BY-SA 4.0, CC-BY 4.0 and CC0 (Public domain) for own works.

Infoboxes

• See Template:Infobox_module.
• Units should be in the metric format. Dimensions should be in mm (millimetres), weights should be in kg (kilograms), etc.
• Photos in the article need to be uploaded by an approved upload user first. This is done so to avoid the wiki being flooded by improperly optimised images (our space is not plentiful) that may have copyright issues.

Content policy

• Generally speaking, we ask that you do your own research and cite your sources (this can be manuals, reviews, articles etc). Any pictures should be either original pictures (i.e. pictures you hold the rights to and/or have taken yourself) or available in a permissive licensing format like CC-BY.
• The use of LLMs and AI is heavily frowned upon and may be removed without notice. If you do decide to use these tools to write your article, you must double-check the information and correlate it to sources as per above.
• Original research (writing based on your own findings from using a synth or module) is welcomed and encouraged - as long as you note as such, and is especially appreciated if multiple users can confirm your findings.
• This wiki operates similarly to other wikis, its contents are freely available under CC-BY-SA. This means that anything you contribute will be also licenced as such, and if you do use material from this wiki you are obligated to share your material under the same or compatible licence. For more information, please refer to this: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Discussion pages

If there is some information that you're not sure about, feel free to ask about it in a discussion page. You can also ask about it on the Discord server should you prefer this.