2020 gear purchase: Hits & Misses

The Lounge General Discussion
#61

Hits so far this year:

DN Keys: Wonderful synth in its own right, lovely keybed so makes for a great controller keyboard too
Moog Subharmonicon: So much fun to jam with, works really well with my other semimodular stuff. Sounds lovely (mostly).
Blokas MIDIHub: Amazing, solves so many MIDI routing issues, built like a tank, easy to use

Maybes:

Meris Ottobit Jr: Lots of fun, but probably not going to end up on that many tracks, really. More useful once I got it MIDI synced, and so might end up on a gigging setup if we can ever do such things ever again, so staying for now.
Poly FX Beebo/Digit: Really cool little visual multi-FX unit. Has lots of possibilities (4 ins and 4 outs! MIDI! crazy modules!), but Iā€™ve found it a little buggy and the UI can be pretty laggy. If that gets sorted out, it could be a hit.

No real misses this year (apart from missing going to gigs, meeting up with friends, and going on holidaysā€¦)

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#62

Bought it a month before the pandemic hit. Iā€™ve enjoyed having it during the lockdown times.

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#63

Hits:

SSL SiX - moving my monitoring away from my audio interface and using a mixer again has been wonderful and has helped me get into hardware again after a few years mostly ITB. This SiX brings everything together and lets me easily decide between using a hardware setup, my computer, or a mix of both. Itā€™s the cleanest sounding mixer Iā€™ve heard and the bus compressor is great for many things. I canā€™t imagine owning a better mixer.

MXR M81 Bass Preamp - great clean preamp I use for clean tones on my P-Bass. I should probably try running my Minitaur through itā€¦

OTO Boum - wanted one of these for years and it has not disappointed. Best compressor and saturation/distortion device Iā€™ve had the pleasure of ruling. The filter on it is so smooth. The perfect complement to the clean SSL mixer.

Not a Miss but also not a Hit:

UPDATE: changing this one to a Hit

Digitone - itā€™s awesome and sounds great but itā€™s not my favorite way to program synth sounds. I havenā€™t had the same energy this year as I have in the past, likely related to the impacts of covid/social distancing, so lately I prefer things that are quick and easy to work with. Digitone has a great interface which makes FM very accessible but I feel I need to be in a very awake state to get into it and Iā€™m usually pretty tired these days, so stuff like my SH-01A is more my speed. Digitone is a great synth, but if Iā€™m to spend my time using an Elektron synth I prefer my Monomachine because Iā€™m so familiar with it I feel like I donā€™t need any brain power. Maybe someday Iā€™ll have the energy to take on the Digitone again.

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#64

Hits:

Maschine Plus: Build quality blew me away, best build quality of any music gear I own or have used. Love having standalone massive and all my expansion packs. Still buggy, but they should be able to sort it out with updates

Misses:

MPC Live 2: I owned the original and I was very disappointed they didnā€™t do more with the mark 2. The added speaker just made it way too bulky and ruined the ergonomics for me. They didnā€™t add much needed ram or add a tilt screen or any other real improvements minus CV. I bought it on an impulse since I had sold my MPC Live 1, but once I got the Maschine Plus I sold the live 2 as well.

MC-707: Where the Maschine Plus has the best build quality I have used, this is hands down the worst. My 1 year old has toys that are better built than this. For $1k it the cheapest plasticky piece of gear I have ever used and the viewing angles of the screen are worse than my gen 1 gameboy. I Literally could not see the screen in my setup and returned it within 24 hours.

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#65

Hit OTO Boum

No real misses. The only gear I bought this year. I am just DIYing atm.

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#66

Big Elektron year for me. Thankfully, Iā€™m done for a while. Did a lot of selling, and also came into a little money when my mom unexpectedly passed away (Iā€™d rather have her back than stuff, of course). She valued creativity, and music has been a wonderful way for me to heal, especially given how COVID has prevented some of the more traditional ways (funerals, get-togethers, etc.).

Hits:

  • Analog 4 MK II - Favorite synth right now. It replaced both a Minitaur and Circuit Mono Station for me, and I never looked back.
  • Analog Rytm MK II - Replaced the Digitakt, which was good, but this is better. I loved kits on the A4, and they are really important for making my workflow efficient. Plus, I do like the analog engines as well.
  • Octatrack MK II - I am blown away. Just blown away. It is super powerful, but the best part is how it accessible it makes other gearā€¦ My OP-1 went from zero use to being really important, and I am actually recording guitar/bass parts now instead of just letting sound without being recorded. Time-stretching is a game changer, regardless of the fact that it definitely isnā€™t transparent. This will be a device that people still talk about decades from now.
  • Strymon Iridium - This is convincing me to go fully ampless (just need a bass amp/cab sim).
  • Fender Time Machine 1960 Jazz Bass - It has been about a decade since I have had a bass guitar. This is like coming home. Iā€™ll be using this bass forever.

Not sure yet:

  • Zoia - It is super powerful and I like the interface, but I didnā€™t use it as much as I would have hoped. I think itā€™ll become pretty pivotal in my OT workflow though.

Misses:

  • Large Condensor Mic in an untreated room - Just donā€™t do it. Get a dynamic or SDC if you donā€™t have a good space, otherwise youā€™ll just be recording random room noises. Iā€™ll revisit this someday when I am able to well-treat a room first.
  • iPad - I love the device, I use it for almost everything, but hate it for music. Dongle-hell is real, and I just ran out of patience. At some point, I felt likeā€¦ why donā€™t I just load up Ableton on my PC instead.

Biggest lessons, trade up and upgrade to nicer stuff that is conducive to your workflow, resist chasing the newest kickstarter/release, and only keep what you use and like. Also, trading on this forum is amazingly easy and highly recommended!

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#67

This gave me a good chuckle. So very right!

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#68

My thoughts exactly. I have hundreds of dollars worth music apps on my iPad - and I like the apps - but the dongle stuff gets annoying, not mention routing apps within the iPad. I feel like I only enjoy it for music when Iā€™m using one app only (and no hardware), like Samplr or a groovebox or whatever. Once I start connecting midi controllers, hardware, and other apps, then all the fun goes out the window.

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#69

Oh! For any guitar players, I got the DSM & Humboldt simplifier zero watt amp. I think it sounds great, and is perfect for pairing with the octatrack! Definitely recommend!

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#70

Hits:

TX7 - crazy versatile, deep & compact

Digitakt - just wanted a versatile drum machine, got that & much more

Pro-1 - My favorite. paragon interface, gnarly sound

EHX Small Clone - Great chorus

DOD Rubberneck - Great delay

Misses:

TD-3 - Fun harmless little purchase but itā€™s just a dust gatherer

Matrix 1000 - Wasnā€™t easy to let go of but programming is too much of a bitch & the sweet spot is too small

Epiphone Les Paul Tribute Plus - Total letdown, slim taper neck didnā€™t fit my hands & the vintage style pups were too gritty. Sold at a loss to cement the bitter experience

Rockman Stereo Chorus/Delay - Charming but too noisy and inflexible

#71

I finally got used Digitakt only two weeks ago. Sold lot of bass/guitar related gear earlier this year, but other things swallowed gained funds. Luckilly my first step in hw (besides short Novation episode 15 years ago) seems like a hit so far. Now I wish I still had that synth, because it was 4-timbral and sure would be fun to sequence with DTā€¦ Probably will try the Blofeld sometime next year, because they are quite cheap used. But main purpose is to jam on bass with it.
It was also sold to me with the Retrokits RK002 cable/midi processor, but didnā€™t have time to try that yet. Looking forward to mess with euclydian patterns and some physical modeling samples (Chromaphone).

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#72

This was year 2 of my transition to a predominantly hardware-based setup, so lots of buying.

HITS:

ARMK2
A4MK2
Novation 49SL MK3
Fender JMJ Mustang Bass
Earthquaker Devices Rainbow Machine

THE JURY IS STILL OUT:

Model: Cycles
Novation Launchpad Pro MK3
Yamaha MGXU16 (maybe too big for my needs)

No misses this year (so far) :joy:

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#73

BIGGEST HIT
Yeah this is not gear but Iā€™ll put it here anyway. Earlier this year I sold more than half of my record collection (around 1,500 LPs and CDs) and some other collectibles to fund the biggest treat ever: a 3-month leave from work, which Iā€™m obviously gonna spend writing and recording music. Started this Monday and will go back to work on Feb 1st. Couldnā€™t be happier!

HIT: Audient iD44
Used to have a Soundcraft 12MTK as my interface and the difference is just immense. Was thinking about upgrading for a long time and Iā€™m really glad I finally did.

MISS one: Pioneer Toraiz AS-1
Nothing wrong with the sound, just couldnā€™t stand the UI. Wanted it for a jammable mono synth to go with the DFAM but often found myself grabbing the Boog D instead. Sold!

MISS two and three: Chase Bliss Mood / Meris Polymoon
Iā€™ll bundle these together because theyā€™re misses largely due to me often asking too much of pedals in general. If a pedal doesnā€™t click pretty much right away, itā€™s most likely not a keeper for me. Mood was a nice texture generator but it quickly became samey for me and I can do similar things and a lot more on the Octatrack. Polymoon did absolutely nothing for me.

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#74

How do you use this in conjunction with the OT?

#75

I can run it straight into the octa for looping and such. It gives you a good micā€™ed amp tone at line level.

#76

Hits for me:
Syntrx - outstanding build quality, really fun digitally controlled patch matrix, sounds great. Basically a play ground of sound processing and a weird mono synth all wrapped up in a ball. If price wasnā€™t factored in and I could just magically own one I would still take it over a Synthi just based on the digital matrix and the ease of having midi and duophonic CV for pitch tracking, makes it easily used for some more classily musical sounds aswell. I suppose it is its own thing though. Its too expensive for me not to consider it a luxury synth but if I lost my whole set up digitakt and syntrx would be the first 2 things I would look into replacing. So much can be done between a sampler and the syntrx.
Pico system 3 + 0-ctrl + CV.OCD - when my syntrx order was delayed a good deal I got a bit antsy and moved some old gear and pick up this little west coast set up. Love it to pieces, was feeling some limitations at first trying to wrap my mind around how to best take advantage of the 3 mixers and attenuating signals. Every time I build a patch on it I get inspired to finish a song. Its one heck of a semi modular deal.
Model:Cycles- still love it, but I have been sampling it more than using it as part of my live recording setup at this point. I still think it is great, really wish that battery pack would get releasedā€¦ Iā€™m not traveling as much lately due to covid so its not a huge deal but just being able to grab it and move about while creating would be quite nice.

Miss for me:
Just one
korg nts1- I got it hoping to add a little bit of extra FX for a live show I played early this year and it in some preliminary tests it pretty much fell down on its face for every practical function I wanted it to do. Still havenā€™t sold it though, Iā€™ll probably find a use for it eventually, its pretty dang cheap.

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#77

So basically as a pre-amp for the OT input?

#78

Yea pretty much. Its a preamp, postamp, and cab/mic placement simulator in pedal format. It has stereo fx loop and lots of routing options. Beats using an overdrive pedal or mixer as a preamp, like I was.

#79

Seconded! My amazing Rivera Quiana 50w 212 is hidden in a corner under an amp cover now. (sad amp noises)

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#80

Hit: Ok it was Dec 2019 but the honeymoon bliss returns every time I crack the case open:

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NAMM Ltd. Custom Shop 1963 Journeyman strat in sunburst sparkle.

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