2019 Gear Purchase: Hits & Misses

The Lounge General Discussion
#21

I’ve made no big purchases this year (due to lack of space and having other financial priorities), but I’ve bought a couple pocket operators for on the go quick hits. I’ve used this year to familiarise myself with some of the gear I’ve amassed previously, and I now feel a lot more polished on my A4 and MD.

Recently though I have been interested in a few bits of hardware like the digitone and Zoia, but I haven’t pulled the trigger as yet.

My biggest temptation is the OP-1. I’ve lusted after one for years, and I think I’ll give in soon. I’m trying to adopt a one in one out policy for gear now. So what will give way for an OP-1 purchase??

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#22

Rytm and octatrack here. They brought so much to my workflow and my creativity.

Talking non instruments, I would say midiverb2 followed by strymon deco. The midiverb is so different it’s fun.

Didn’t have any misses. Maybe software, but I’d have to think about it.

#23

You need a proper usb midi host to make it work with DIN MIDI (Octatrack, etc)

#24

Picked up an AR MK1 in March and absolutely loved it, sold though to fund an MPC Live. Like the MPC but really miss the AR. I just got up and running so quickly and that lovely VCO.

#25

Ah, ok, thanks.

#26

hit: A4 mk2. i absolutely love this synthesizer

miss: lyra. hate to call this a miss, as its beautiful and singular and i really respect the design and SOMA in general. if i was still 23 and making floorcore drone music it would be my favorite instrument. as it stands now it doesn’t really have a place in my studio practice

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#27

The Blackbox. It’s with me wherever I go now, through life and whatnot.

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#28

Hit - Roland Sh-01a. Love the sequencer and the sound on it is solid. Sturdy build and a great look. Even better, I paid only $200 for it because the portamento switch was snapped off.

Miss - Cyclone Analogic TT-606. Felt cheap but the sound was actually great. It went defective on me and went into this weird led, xmas lights, blinking mode that was impossible to get out of. Parted with it after numerous calls to Perfect Circuit Audio. I don’t miss it.

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#29

Elektron M:S. Bought at launch. Liked it but found it limited. Upgraded to a AR2 just before sample switching firmware. Sold.

Elektron AR mk2. Love it love it love. Don’t use it much. But still love it. Sold my Vermona DRM1 Mk3 when I got it, they share a lot of the same ground with the analogue engines. I still miss the DRM1.

Yamaha TG77+PL88 patch library - Hated it at first. Onboard effects are bad and programming it is a nightmare. Starting to grow on me, especially when put through my mixers internal effects. Got more soundbanks with the PL88 than I know what to do with.

Prism Callia DAC - Replaced a Dangerous Source. I previously couldn’t hear a difference between converters. I can now. Keeper.

Soundcraft SI Impact - Replaced a Qu-Pac. A huge step in the right direction getting faders and knobs to control everything. 32 inputs. USB ASIO drivers are rock solid and low latency, almost as low as my Marian AD2 PCIe card. Screen and GUI info not as good as the Qu-Pac, everything else is an upgrade, I even love the onboard compressors.

x0xb0x - Better than buying a £3000 scratched up dirty pot 303 off ebay. Shame it doesn’t do triplets or cut & paste patterns.

Behringer Crave - sounds ok. It’s like a really bad sounding 303 with a terrible interface and programming method. I guess I can’t complain much for £140 but maybe should have spent the money on beer instead.

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#30

I’ve been clean for 6 months but have an Analog Heat MK2 on it’s way!

Hits

Allen and Heath PX5 (Simultaneous MIDI clock (Din and USB) for Daw and Octatrack
Octatrack MK2 (more than a sampler (sic!)
Aturia Keystep (Surprisingly solid)
Maschine Mikro (To replace blocs wave on ipad and not limited by 7 sample categories)

**Misses

Prophet Rev2 8 Voice Keys (Patch Selection Bug)
Toraiz AS1 (very bored of a lot of analog synth sounds)
Tb03 (devoid of any character)
Zoom UAC2 (Logic Audio MIDI Bug)
Digitone (money for Octatrack)
Analog Heat Mk1 (Screen annoyed me)
Behringer XR18 (Miss physical faders)
I pad pro (Not suited for chronic hand eczema)
Digitakt (add timestretch and slice and it would be perfect)

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#31

My last purchase was the Op-1, but I think it was late 2018. I have a lot of hardware & by far it’s my favorite piece, it’s a never sell item. It’s one of those things you either love or hate. I happen to love everything about it.

After purchasing the Op-1 I told myself I wouldn’t buy anything new unless I sell something. I have never sold a piece of hardware, so went all of 2019 without a purchase. Proud of myself!!

I’m planning on selling a few things that I have too many of (ie: selling a few MPC’s), so I’ll have some new purchases in 2020. I’m excited :sunglasses:

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#32

Hits:

  • Fabfilter Mastering Bundle of plugins: Pro-L2, Pro-MB, Pro Q-3, Pro C-2. Amazing amazing tools. Making everything better.
  • Bastl Thyme ‘Tape Robot’

I bought some other serviceable stuff too, and managed to avoid any misses this year.

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#33

Award for the most fun instrument I’ve played in the past year goes to : Roland MC-707

Award for the most disappointing plastic-y build quality and slow O.S. for a gigging unit goes to : Roland MC-707

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#34

What USB host are you using to hook it up to the OT?

I’ve been considering that as one of the options to add some manual tweaking control to for my Zoia and iPad apps.

#35

iConnectivity ICM-0101

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#36

I’m new to Elektron - started with a digitakt this year and fell in love with the creativity it spawned. I have spent a lot of time in record stores for weird old things to sample - loving records from the early 60s full of “explorations of Asia”, and weird stereo sound effects / stereo demo discs from the same era. Pulling those samples into the digitakt and messing with LFOs and bit reduction is super addictive.

*Digitakt - HIT

I also recently picked up an Analog Four MkII and I’ve just started layering base and leads atop my Digitakt creations, and it’s sounding quite satisfying thus far.
(p.s. Sweetwater has some B-Stock units for under 1K USD)
*A4MKII - HIT (so far!)

I also checked out the Arturia Drumbrute Impact and Arturia MicroFreak:
As far as the Drumbrute Impact, the sounds were charming, but I discovered I can’t go back from the flexibility of the Digitakt and Elektron Sequencer / Sampling / Saving Presets… not willingly anyway. It was released from my collection for now.

The MicroFreak was fun to play with, but my A4MKII confirmed that I really prefer to play with Analog bass/leads. Super cool keyboard/arpeggiator and the matrix system enables some very neat things. Still… it went back.

I think I might be turning into an Elektron Fanboy.

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#37

2020 already seems like it’ll be a good year for new synths. Excited for you, too. I’m turning 40 in 2020 which is causing an internal debate as to whether to consider a unicorn gear purchase or to continue down the current path of enjoying what I have, which is working well (more or less :grimacing:).

As for my 2019, there was a lot of turnover (more so than I was expecting, I need to get a better grip on that…)

Here are the highlights:

  1. Octatrack (mk2) - took a flyer on a great deal from a fellow forum user and it was the best decision. The OT really is a fantastic tool. It can go to almost any place (musically) that I can conjure up.

  2. 2 FX - Meris Mercury 7 and Chase Bliss Audio MOOD - lumping the two best FX units I picked up this year. Mercury 7 is just the reverb I was looking for. Pure gold. The MOOD is every bit as fun and happy accident as it seems in the videos. I haven’t gotten to the “samey” territory with it, but I haven’t had a ton of time with it yet. Even so, the textures and sounds it provides are welcome in the kind of music and jams I want to make.

One “Miss” for the year:

  1. Dig Dug DIY Purple Rain - a very niche lo-fi fx unit. It turned out to be too weird and lofi for me. Fortunately, I sold it for the same price as I got it. It seems like a fun unit, just not for me.

There were some items that have a neutral disposition:

  1. Microfreak - cool, served a purpose, but not sure if it’ll stick long term
  2. OP-Z - lots of fun, portable, cool, but was just different enough that I didn’t have the wherewithal to keep looking up the manual every time I went to use it
  3. A couple FX pedals that just didn’t prove useful enough to hold on to / take up my limited space.

Then there’s the Analog Drive that I haven’t even plugged in. I got it on super sale, but haven’t had a chance to use it… yet!

Writing this post had the unexpected effect of making me realize how much time and effort went into the gear trade this year. While I do wish I spent more time working with the gear that I have, I still think the experiments were somewhat valuable because I think I have a better understanding of what I “need” to achieve my musical goals, given the time and space constraints I currently have. I do have some stuff incoming at the moment, so maybe I’ll have to pop back in this thread with an update when I have had a chance to test out those items.

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#38

Loving my new Model:Samples. Underrated piece of gear IMO.

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#39

Miss for the JHS Colour Box v2.
Sent it back the same day just last week. Tried it on guitar, Bass guitar and the Prophet Rev2. I’ve used proper 1073’s in the studio and this pedal isn’t anywhere near the league of a BAE or Neve. My fault, I was ridiculously hoping for that blanket of warm drive you only get from a full size rack unit. It’s decent a preamp for sure, and the tweakable EQ is cool, But has its own colour of dirt when driven that just sounded too hard clipped and really annoying to me; not my cup of tea.

DSI-Pioneer Toraiz AS-1 was the big Hit.
Didn’t expect it to sound exactly like my Prophet-6. I could easily live with 3 of these and the AR alone. (Caveat, I don’t use its sequencer.)

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#40
  • DN + AH Mk2 - both of these are hits

The DN took a little while to find its place. I probably expected it to be more immediate but also didn’t put enough emphasis on my sound being so rapidly evolving given i just really started down the rabbit hole of making semi-organised noise. The AH Mk2 on the other hand, that was an instant hit for both ITB/OTB use.

  • 01/IV drum synth - not really a miss, just neutral

This was a 100% spur of the moment purchase and have had it for maybe 6wks. I have neither fell in love with it, nor do i dislike it but (as expected) it just doesn’t fill the desire I have for a top tier drum machine.

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