i’ll certainly report in MS-70 threads here and on GS when it’s ready.
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So, so good. I wish I’d have been allowed to buy the review unit I had in.
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I love this thread!
Hits:
Subharmonicon - It has its own charm. It’s spit out interesting progressions, short decay percussive layers, slow attack, evolving pads, wild time gate outputs for other modulars… I don’t fully know what I’m going to get out of it, and that’s why I like it.
which led to…
DFAM - I like multi-tracking it, and I see why many people have two. It really opened up for me when I used Ableton to create longer gate patterns to advance the sequencer. 8 hits can do a lot over a period of time.
0CTRL - I was a fairly early adopter of the 0Coast. The 0CTRL really opens up my Moog Semis and my 0Coast. I’ve treated it more as lanes of modulation than I have a pitch sequencer.
Morphagene - I’m just cracking the surface with it. It’s my first “module” “modular,” as I’ve gotten first into the semi-modulars. It definitely needs a little more gate and clock divisions than I have at my disposal, but the things it’s thrown at me are really fun.
Blooper and Mood - I got a Blooper, then 3 weeks later, a Mood. The quantized clock and quantized speed make both of these instantly musical. I created an album of one-take tracks out of them. The Midi capabilities of CBA pedals open them up quite a bit, but there’s still a great hands-on feel when you want. This is much different than the feel of using my H9s… which are more stage utilities than inspiration magnets at this point. I’m fearful of wanting more CBA gear… they’re not cheap.
MidiHub - Finally arrived after a long wait on the preorder/crowdfunding. It’s everything I thought it would be. It simplifies my live rig between MIDI stuff on my pedalboard, and on my keyboard stand. It opened up my FaderFox UC4 for much much easier control.
Samson S-Patch Patchbay - Why, oh why didn’t I get a patchbay sooner in my life? I rewired my whole studio, and the fact that anything is available with a patch cable was not the “too many options” scenario I thought it would be. Instead, I no longer avoid getting an instrument into play, because it’s ready to go. Yes, the excess of cables required for the backside of these things can add up, but it’s worth it. I might get a second one soon. The bonus I didn’t expect was that I set up several effects loops of pedals I haven’t been using. Having them back in the studio mix is really enjoyable. Highly recommended!
Gear of the brain…
Lessons with a Grammy winner - humble brag… the pandemic led to killer musicians having extra time. One such sax player made themselves available for lessons. He shook my brain around, and helped me find the best use of practice time. I’ve gotten off a plateau I never thought I’d be able to leave. It was hard to take some of the early steps, and I’m still forming better habits, but damn… it was something to go through.
Misses:
Moog Sirin - This is going to become a hit. It’s only a miss because I snagged it on a whim at a low price, and only half-explored it. It crosses over with my Minitaur quite a lot, and I thought I would use them in a live setup. …which might be why I’m mildly sour on it… I haven’t put together that live rig with both since… you know - gigs.
I’m mostly selective with gear… I think about things for awhile, and stew on possibilities. I abandon more online carts than I follow through on. Pretty proud of my choices this year, and am very frightened of the modular dive. Taking my time there.
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Hits
Moog DFAM - Absolute beast of a synth, can basically cover an entire rhythm section on it’s own.
Erica Bassline DB-01 - It’s a 303, a 101, a 202, a Pro 1, a Polivoks and can even do a pretty tidy impression of a drum machine.
Model:Cycles - Very pleasantly surprised by this. I’ll admit, you either like the sound or you don’t, but I like it. I love the distortion on it and have been making increasingly cavernous snares with it over the past few weeks.
Yamaha DX7 - An absolute classic. Can’t call myself an FM nerd without owning one of these, so bought one off of here in the summer. Love it.
Miss
MFB Dominion 1 - Doesn’t really count because I’ve only borrowed it off a mate but I’m surprised at how little I like it. It’s obviously an amazing synth but I’ve not gelled with either the sound or the workflow. All subjective of course, but it’s kind of confirmed my opinion that, for me at least, the future is FM.
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Hits:
Yamaha Stagepas 400 bt, small PA for small events.
MPC One
Arturia Mini LAB (good choice imho)
Miss:
nothing.
Waiting for Osmose , still highly interested in it.
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HIT! Digitakt. My first step into hardware, super fun, do not regret a thing!
Hit 2! Ipad. I wanted a versatile companion to DT!
I dont have any miss, which is nice! 
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Hits:
- Nord Rack 2: Stone cold classic. Besides the inviting interface, arpeggiators, 4 independent layers and output options, the thing that always impresses is a precise sonic signature that can be fit into the most dense analog-dominated mix. Run it through a Midiverb II and you have THAT sound. An audio scalpel.
- Lyra 8: This may be the greatest new electronic instrument design of the last decade (or millenium?) A guitar for a new era.
- Landscape Stereo Field: Just got this and starting first experiments, has a similar potential for sonic mayhem as a Lyra but with a very different character and in true stereo. And running a Lyra through it… holy f*ck. A secret weapon.
- Mutable Ambika: I’ve been aware of this for a while now but that @BoBSwanS demo really pushed it over the top. Definitely a programmer’s hybrid synth, with a depth and flexibilty not unlike the A4. As soon as I got it I immediately decided to sell the ESQ-1 and Juno 1. A future classic.
Misses:
- Model:Cycles: It’s amazing for what it is. Just using it as a drum machine or a drone box it’s worth twice the price. The tonal variety baked in by @Ess was inspired. BUT… for the noise/ambient sounds I was looking for, I realized the Lyra was a better fit. Sampled the hell out of it before I sold it though.
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I keep on nearly getting one of these, and probably will at some point.
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It has been a challenging year that had most of my workflow re-thought. Almost no access to the studio, still limited access…
Went into super small setups for most of the year and tried to make the most of it. Most of the music made this year was based on synths/modules sampled onto Digitakt then curated ITB with Overbridge.
Hits :
Model Cycles :
Love the fact I could go anywhere with a small battery pack and was able to get interesting ideas in no time.
Retrospectively, it is a little limited for my taste, but I still get nice chords or fm stabs out of it although I am not using it a ton.
It will end up being a gift to my son at some point. (Main reason I keep the Model Samples too). Also wont sell it because without Ess there wont be anything close to it from Elektron I suspect.
MC-101 :
Bummed at the beginning. Then learnt it with Roland online class with Jay Crippnipp. It is so easy to have beats going in no time. 3000+ presets and random tone generator keep things interesting.
Not a fan of the drums on it, but with FX and various clips for variations it gets deep easily. Wont upgrade to 707 for the bigger footprint. Love it that it is so small and so deep. Such a keeper.
TR6-S :
My Analog Rytm MK II got sent to Elektron for warranty so I figured I could try the new TR6-S since I had just sold my old Electribe and had a few bucks to spare.
Dope form factor, like the MC101. I cant wait to load samples onto it and play with the FM sounds. So far so good, classic Roland drums sound fat and the FX really makes jams interesting.
Hits and Misses :
Polyend Tracker and Dreadbox Typhon
This might be the trend that I dont like nowadays. Companies release products without firmwares to be fully ready or bugs ironed out. I get it from a marketing / sales / strategy perspective. I dont get it from a user/musician perspective. Granted these arent the most expensive boxes, but still. Have them gathering dust while waiting for firmwares kinda cancels the excitement of having both products early. Early in time, but early in their development stages too.
Microfreak :
Havent had the time to dive in, love its sounds though. I traded a couple volcas for it, very happy about the trade. I feel like the MF’s time will come but I have other projects to finish before.
Miss :
OP-Z :
For all its famous reasons. shaky build. Firmware not there yet. Synth engines not as good as OP-1. Still buggy. It is not a 2020 purchase but it will be sold in 2020
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Couldn’t agree more about that Polyend/Dreadbox trend, it feels like the early access games philosophy is infiltrating the synth industry
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Hits:
DFAM Super fun, cool sounding, now I need to integrate it better into my setup.
MPC One My first MPC, and it’s ticking a lot of boxes for me. The firmware update has made it challenge my Pyramid as my main sequencer.
TR8s The drum machine I had been looking for. I still kind of want a RYTM, but for half the price this does what I want and has a ton of sonic flexibility. If the 6s had been out at the time I might have gotten that instead–only downside is that the 8s is so huge.
Zoia Still delving into its mysteries, but definitely has potential to be my main pedal and so much more.
Volca Nubass The acid sound I wanted in a nice little form factor.
Faderfox EC4 Got it to be able to control parameters on my Kawai K5000w and Zoia. Seems solid so far.
And finally…
Summit Folks on a thread I posted here about finding a good poly convinced me to get this, and I’m really glad I did. So much still to learn, but really loving the sound, build, UI, etc.
Undecided:
Microcosm It’s definitely cool, but like some other users here I’m annoyed by the lack of transparency about what each algorithm is actually doing. Still, I need to play with it more.
Ndlr It’s a lot of fun to noodle with, but not convinced that it’s really useful for making actual tracks. That might be ok, though…
Misses:
Bass Station II Nothing really wrong with it, but totally redundant and I never really gave it a chance. Bought it new on a deep discount, sold a few months later for basically what I paid.
Korg Prologue 8 Again, a perfectly good synth, but sits in an uncomfortable place between high and low end. Nice build and sound, but cuts too many corners to be a main poly. I got it new for $800 and didn’t lose much selling it, but can’t compare to the Summit.
uAcid8 Hard to know if this might have been a hit since it arrived defective, but I suspect anyway it is too fiddly and the 8-bit engine doesn’t do it for me. The Nubass is much better for my purposes, and didn’t cost much more.
A4 MkI Closing the list, again a great-sounding synth but I just didn’t gel with it. Paring down my setup led me to pass this on to fund the purchase of the Summit, which was the right choice for me.
Bonus hit: selling off a bunch of other stuff to slim down my setup and reorganize my studio. Next year’s list should be much shorter now that I’ve made my collection much more streamlined and intentional.
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Early adopter frustrations look to be common.
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Hits:
Drawmer 1978 - great compressor, has a certain sound, fits the AR, smashes everything
Elysia Xfilter - very clean and musical
Probably hit: Waldorf Iridium - waiting for arrival
Financed by selling a bunch of gear
Middle: Behringer TD3 bk, just with fx awesome
Miss: Digitone - can’t help but not my cup of tea
Summed hit: reduced gear
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Breedlove Discovery Concert CE NY - nylon string guitar bought used. The acoustic volume is fairly low - just loud enough for practice in a quiet room. Might be a tradeoff of the action being lower than the action of all the other nylon/classical guitars in the room where I tried it. Plays well and sounds decent enough to my ears for the money, and it can be plugged in if I need volume from it.
Industrialelectric RM-1N - Nice dirty sounding Belton Brick reverb with pre- and post-gain distortion circuits. Lately I’ve been using it as a distortion pedal. Even my Strat sound thick and bassy.
miRack - Finally made some progress in creating and modifying modular patches. This is a very friendly environment for doing it. Dev has been responsive with updates and bug fixes too.
The only real miss I have is not having as much time as I’d hoped to work on electronic music. I’ve had to spend more time studying and prepping for technical job interviews, and now that I have a job again I’m spending time on training/learning unfamiliar technologies.
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Hit:
Microfreak: my first keyboard synth since forever and loving the immediacy of it.
Goes well with hit number 2: Zoom MS-70. Still lots to learn about it but it already looks like a hit, especially after adding the distortions from other zoom models.
Model:Cycles just super fun and extremely playable, but I struggle to make it play with my other gear as it ends up taking up too much space.
Maybes: Korg NTs. Sounds great as an effects processor, like really great but no patch memory and the fact that knobs have no pick up mode make it difficult to use sometimes.
Miss: Novation Mono Station. Great sound, just not for me.
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These both really put me off getting one - the lack of patch memory for an all-digital device in particular seems odd.
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Been looking at the breadloves, they are beautiful. Good luck with it!
Hits:
TR8S - When my TR707 died, I was left with a row-of-sliders shaped hole. This makes up for that loss and so much more. It sounds great, has all the x0x drum sounds I want easily accessible, and I don’t have to compromise on drum tracks as I was when using just the OT for drums. If they killed the giant tempo knob and pad trigger and gave it a 707-sized LCD with matrix pattern display and better UI, it would be perfect, but I still love it and how hands-on it is.
Nord Rack 2 - Great sounding poly at half the price of others? Yes, please. Give me those knobs.
And a few recording-related items…
Scarlett 18i20+Octopre - 16 inputs and minimal real estate. Works.
HS5 pair - my first true monitors, be nice. Tiny, but good enough for a small space to reference along with a couple pairs of headphones. Speaking of…
Beyerdynamic DT770 - they sound great. Very comfortable.
Misses:
Haven’t really had any misses this year, but did sell off quite a few things (remaining Volcas, Micron, 16 channel mixer, MS20 mini). If I had to pick one, though,
TD-3 - It looks kind of nice just sitting up there on the shelf. I haven’t really used it since getting it, tbf. I think I like the MB33 better – metal case & funny, not-quite-303 sound.
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My wonderful other half is getting me an Arbhar for Christmas this year. Love the way Instruo go about designing their modules. Definitely want an Ochd in the new year.
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Hit: Buchla 208c, Ive always wanted an easel and this new version made it obtainable for me. I absolutely love it!!
Misses: Polyend Tracker, I got big gas for this and scooped one I saw off of reverb. It just wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I absolutely hated the user interface for programming stuff, and the tracker sequencer wasn’t the breath of fresh air I hoped for. The poly playback of samples was my fav feature, nut I’ll stick with my octa for sampling.
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