Hits: A4 MK2: Deep and rich sounding. Strong identity when mixed with ITB vst’s. More opaque. Meris M7: Fantastic on Synths Meris Polymoon: Fantastic on Synths Meris Heydra: Got specifically for my PRS guitar. Complex and unique. Meris Midi I/O: Works great and using Digitone can change Presets and Controll CC’s. PRS S2 Semi Hollow 22 fret Guitar: Very nice guitar with great versatile sound. Very well made, somewhat bright sounding and surprisingly the tone control works really well. Line 6 HX Stomp: No complaints. Compact and perfect for apartment dwellers. Strymon BigSky: Whats not to like. I use it with my HX Stomp. Mackie 802vlz4: Love it. Well built, lots of functionality, perfect for my dawless setup where all my inputs are line level (HX Stomp), Digitone and A4 MK2.
Near Misses: Meris Midi I/O: This thing must be powered to work. They never include the power supplies! I had thought initially it was passive but not true. PRS S2 22 Semi-Hollow Guitar: These can really vary in weight. Another pound or two can really make a difference. I had hoped my would be close to 6 lbs but mine is closer to 7 lbs. Would have liked the Pickups to be somewhat warmer (classic rather than hi-fi. Still the guitar plays easily, sounds great. Splitting pickups give some nice single coil response but not like Tele or Strat. But usable none the less. HX Stomp: Nice but abit cramped when editiing from front panel. The AC Adapter for it is HUGE.
Hits Digitakt (in love, bought in Aug) Octatrack MK II (again in love, bought in Oct) Yamaha TX81Z - So cheap and extremely impressed with the great FM sounds! Especially for house DBX 266XL Compressor - Gives a nice bump, still trying to sidechain correctly Korg Triton Rack Roland Fantom X8 88 key ($700 used from a local shop, old wedding band keyboard woo!) Mackie 24 channel 8 bus - No more playing with wires all day!
Misses Alesis 3630 - Got it for the Daft Punk style sidechain effect and dirty compression, but purchased the DBX shortly thereafter leading me to almost never use this. I may try it again one day. BBE Sonic Maximizer - Still getting a feel for it, but unsure it was totally necessary. Also read that apparently in “bypass” mode it cuts certain frequencies so it feels like use it totally or you just need to unplug it)
Sold a bunch of pedals and other gear that sat around, which were misses but sitting for a couple years.
Try the version without the built in LFO and instead drive the sweep with an external LFO tied to an attenuverter. This give you complete control of the sweep similar to an EHX Stereo Polyphase.
I disagree, DAWless is just as valid as DAW, It’s not a foolish term, its a music making philosophy. Physical controls, the temperature of the room affecting your sound, the ability to make an entire tracks on your way to work on the subway.
We can talk about the right tool, for the right job until we’re blue in the face but people should do what inspires them.
WINS
TX81z - So cheap and still sound amazing all these years later, its does all the dirty FM stuff my Digitone doesn’t
Mordax DATA Multifunction Utility sure there are a million oscilloscopes out there, but having this one, in my case and being so well designed has made learning Eurorack, so much easier in 2020.
Mutable Instruments Rings great for texture and sits well in the mix. I’m not afraid of it like some other modules in a live situation
Intellijel Designs Atlantis I sold this in 2019 and immediately regretted it and bought it back. (I’ve never done that before)
Sequential Circuits Prophet-6 I had a AS-1, fell in love with the sound and got one of these. I sold the AS-1 and kept this I use it all the time, it just sound lovely
AFX Station Its so easy to use, love the Overlays. Novation Designed a wonderful mono and after 7 years, the BassStation 2 still sounds great.
TR-06 Im a huge sucker for the Roland Boutiques and i really love that 606 sounds. Roland did a good job with the TR06 and it shows, i find when I’m trying to sketch out an idea very quickly i reach for the TR06. I might replace those sounds with something else later , but I find its the thing that captures the rhythmic idea in my head.
The Voltage Research Laboratory I kick started this thing and received it at the beginning of the year. It’s such a great module to get into Eurorack. It’s effectively 12 modules in one with a nice blend of components that lend its self to both east and west coast synthesis techniques.
MISSES
The Polyend Tracker I preordered it and the firmware still feels very incomplete. I’m not going to sell it this year, I’m still waiting for the next firmware update. This thing does not play well with my Cirklon or my Elektron sequencers, which is a bummer because it does sound great on its own.
I also disagree. The term might be recent, but what it means is not… Nothing wrong with a DAW, but for me it more about getting inspired by a certain workflow, setup or gear, than it is about being able to create the sound I have in my head.
Whatever gets your creative juices flowing… with or without a DAW.
I do agree that you shouldn’t “go dawless” because it’s cool, when you will miss the daw…
Anyways…
HIT:
fmr rnc and strymon deco. Foolproof compression and saruration on the master for those who are not good with this (me).
Roland tb03. So much fun. I listened to goatrance a lot a long time ago, and I can lose myself under a nice blanket of nostalgia just tweaking around.
Also mis, because I tend to use is on all my songs now…
MISS:
I wouldn’t really call it a miss, but I sent back the behringer td3. I missed cc controls, and trying the tb03, I just liked the overall experience better on that one.
I have had a pretty modest year in terms of gear purchases until December (I’ll get to that in minute).
Mostly I traded guitar pedals on Craigslist and burned through quite a few with not many hits.
Misses
Fairfield Circuitry-Shallow Walter and Meet Maude pedals. Damn, I wanted to love both of these pedals. I had a great time playing the Meet Maude in a shop one day but decided to pass on it only to realize I really would like to have one. When one came up on CL I went for it. Unfortunately, when I got it home the magic was largely gone. I believe both these pedals are great, it was just a missed connection for me.
Same with the Electronic Audio Experiments Hypersleep. All the demos I saw made me think I’d get on with it but again, not to be.
So in December, I think I made my two potential
HITS.
I say potential because I am still waiting to receive both.
First, the Sequential Prophet 5 rev4. I was largely ignorant of this synth’s history and had zero nostalgia associated with its sound. But, from every demo I heard it just sounded like what I have always wanted a synth to sound like. I’ve never felt as connected to an instrument just from YouTube videos as I have this one. It sounded great even with sounds I would never use in my own music. I did everything I could to talk myself out of buying it (it is the largest amount of money I have ever spent on an instrument and will probably always be the most expensive instrument I own) But based on everything I’ve heard from demos it will be a synth I own forever.
The other potential hit is the Finegear Dust Collector. Again, I am waiting to receive this one but I hope it arrives the same day as the Prophet and they are a match made in heaven.
In terms of actually making music this year, the biggest hit was discovering my kid’s little Yamaha nylon stringed guitar. Because of Covid it was often the only instrument at my disposal and in terms of cost versus how much production I got out of it it beats out any other equipment I own.
Not a really big gear-year for me, but that’s a good thing. I spent a lot of time with the OTmk2 and Peak I got in 2019 and actually finished more tracks than in 2017, 2018 and 2019 combined. Still that’s just 12 tracks but I’m happy to have a small setup that I really like and to be able to look at other/new gear and think ‘nah, I don’t need it’.
So I did get some stuff this year of course haha
HIT - D’Angelico Premier Mini DC guitar - Gorgeous double cut hollow body with a super smooth modern neck and a really good sound. Perfect combo with my thinline tele.
HIT - DSM & Humboldt Simplifier - Awesome souding and compact amp and cab sim with lots of different sounds and a sweet effects loop. I got so tired of the amp sim VST I was using. Really nice to have this thing in front of me in stead.
HIT - Ableton Live 10 Standard - I was running an Ableton crack for years and always felt a bit bad about it, especially now that I actually made a little money with my music this year. So I finally got myself a license when they announced Live 11. Feels good going legit.
Also sold some stuff off. My trusty old MPC1000, which I kinda regret letting go now that it’s not here but I wasn’t using it anymore so yeah. And I sold my Fender Thinline Deluxe Modern Player. Great guitar, but not as great as my 72 thinline and I had to make some room for the D’Angelico. I tried to sell a couple of guitar pedals, but no one seemed interested to I guess I’ll just hold on to them for now.
i bought a MIM fender telecaster so i could have a guitar to share w my young children and i love it. great guitar and it’ll make a great project for my nerdy 6 year old and i to swap the pups.
FMR RNC: has put me at peace with the word “compression”. Just works on my master inserts. To the point I am actually mixing into it (most of the time in the “really nice” mode). Best buy of the year for me
Waldorf Blofeld: had been hesitant for years (seriously) regarding it’s complicated matrix. I was wrong and just found out
Audiothingies Doctor A: being in the market for a hardware FX box is quite complicated. Even more when you actually cannot “hear it for yourself”. Prices for the boutiques are on the expensive side (Specular Tempus, Strymon, Timeline, Collider, Empress…).
I was also in the market to buy a more “bread and butter” rack for basic reverb/delay.
So I took the plunge: instead of buying what is most common (see above models/brands), I went for the Doctor A and a more “basic” Yamaha SPX990.
Well OH BOY that Doctor A is sweet
The SPX990 does its job nicely as well (gates reverbs pretty nice).
Edit: AS-1 not to be forgotten. One voice of a Prophet at that price + some really good FX (BBD and Chorus especially) makes it a really good mono synth. Interfacing with it is a little tedious but I made a template for a Kenton controller that gives me instant access
Hello, sorry I got a question ( only if its easy answerable, very ok if you say reality is complicated)
-when you use your pro 2 to control arturia obxa, you map it via that nks plug in or other method and the mapping stays also if you then map it to another softsynth in that or other project?
when you use your NI m32 for your arturia and other nks synths, how about filter/amp envs, lfo etc, is it easy/fast to reach those things?
(Why i‘m asking:)
I bought synapse obsession vst after demoing because to my surprise when klicking right mouse on a knob to midi learn it to my bass station 2 it stayed also after changing project. But then I saw when i map another synth it doesnt stay mapped to obsession.
I tried per preset and permanent mapping with other softsyths in bitwig setup, doesnt stay mapped… scripts are awailable only to dedicated controllers, a flexi script exists but seems not to work good. Didnt try nks plug in, couldnt find a manual related to bass station or similar in the net.
Bs2 (or pro2) with mapping to the knobs seems a great way to control simple vintage vsts with similar knobs. just doesnt work for me permanent.
Only the big controllers have many knobs and faders and they are not dedicated( cutoff etc)
Thanks a lot
Btw U-he offers repro and other stuff on sale
via NI website, also why I‘m asking…
Pioneer SP-16. Underwhelmed at first. No 32 bit sample import. No odd numbered step lengths. But wow though. When inspiration strikes, this box keeps you there.
VPS Avenger. Please don’t laugh or clown me At first, yes, it’s super cheesy and totally “cheating” BUT, when you get into it, it’s crazy deep. I’ve come up with not only intentional, but also totally random by-chance old school and new school techno sounds. A friend told me to look for ways to “break” it and use it the way it WASN’T intended to be used. I tried that, and wow. Great VST!
Yea, both Arturia and U-he products save the mapping inside the plugin. So you only have to map to the plug-in once, if using something like the Pro 2.
You can map it in the NKS or the VST. NKS is almost like a wrapped for the VST. So either way it gets saved to the VST.
The M32 with any NKS compatible synths makes fast control and access of the parameters you list. There are usually divided by pages. And the more you use a particular VST, the faster you get with accessing those parameters (muscle memory).
I lean on the NKS in Komplete Kontrol with the M32 when I am discovering sounds from the libraries.
I lean on the Pro 2, controlling Repro and OB-Xa V when I creating patches live.
Wow super fast thanks a LOT
That mapping inside arturia plug ins doesnt seem to work for me with bs2. Knobs just behave crazy with midi learn. inside bitwig it doesnt stay. Think i tried eveything, maybe i make some stupid error, miss something.
Have a nice day
At first, yes, it’s super cheesy and totally “cheating” BUT, when you get into it, it’s crazy deep. I’ve come up with not only intentional, but also totally random by-chance old school and new school techno sounds. A friend told me to look for ways to “break” it and use it the way it WASN’T intended to be used. I tried that, and wow. Great VST!