Yes, returned mine last year. Such a shame; great concept, but poorly implemented.
2021 have been my first year out of the box, after more than half a decade inside it (and my box is hella stuffed). So :
Hit :
- Digitone. Finally having fun creating patches from scratch and enjoying a real instrument. I spent so many hours with it, either for killing a quarter making beepboop on the couch as for spending an entire afternoon modeling morphing sequences to support my ITB-shenanigans.
This box was (and still is) an awesome experience, even if the timbre could be somehow redundant through times and 8 voices could be a bit short for chords+drums, which leaded me to …
Miss :
- Digitakt. Okay, “miss” is a bit strong, it was a cool experience. I got my goosebumps when I was fluent in laying beats on its grid without thinking, coming from the box where I used to do it by mouse there’s no comparison.
But, in the end, I felt a bit restricted by it capacibilities, found the sampling almost useless and all my beats ended up sounding the same due to how ctrl-all works. I felt the need of looking elsewhere for drum duties, and I recently went down…
On the fence :
-
1010music Blackbox. Cool looking, handy, small, ergonomic, but… Yeah, touch screen, lame effects (this reverb is scaring me), and as much as I found its live looping capacities awesome, I’m disapointed by using it for drum duties. I guess I couldnt see how gifted I was with digitakt and its modulation capacities. Im sure I wont keep it, but it’s only due to my small budget : awesome tool, lame instrument.
-
Micromonsta 2 : probably cool, it’s always enjoyable when I take time to set it up. But as I dont have a stable studio room for now, I too often left it behind when I grab my DN for small jam session. Sound cute, might sell it later.
Ok tier :
- Arturia Keystep. I plug it, it works, it’s cool.
In the end, playing out of the boxe is as much hassle and as much pleasure as expected. I have almost no regrets, major ones is my first gas eruption and the hours I’ll never get back reading stuff on this forum (which is a pearl in the Internet sea).
3 Likes
Arbhar and Beads are so wildly different from each other. It’s as if both took Clouds, and granular synthesis in general, as a jumping off point but went in opposite directions. FWIW I have both in my rack as well as an original Clouds.
Would love to experiment with a Lubadh one day. Not sure I’d click with it but would have fun finding out.
2 Likes
Hits:
-
Eurorack: After resisting for years, I took the plunge into Eurorack and I’m having loads of fun with just about all aspects of it: making music, conjuring up new patches, researching modules, getting into the history of modular music, learning and experimenting with different aspects of synthesis. I’ve even designed and built two cases.
- intellijel Metropolix: I feel this module has stood out as one that has been extraordinarily engaging. For me it strikes a powerful balance between immediacy, expressiveness, and the ability to let you stumble upon something musical. It’s built upon using Stages of Pulses to compose a sequence, which while not unique to the Metropolix, is an interesting approach to sequencing. I use it for techno basslines and polymeters. Features like mod lanes, probability, and accumulation can keep even a 4 stage sequence sounding fresh.
- Elektron Digitakt: I have had other Elektron gear for a while now so the Digitakt was really easy for me to pick up and get started with. I made the choice to keep most percussion out of my Eurorack rig so Digitakt picks up that role. I’ve used the new external input to mix the Eurorack with the Digitakt’s percussion and drums
4 Likes
Hits
Analog Rytm MK2
Should’ve gotten this one way sooner. Always seemed too expensive and the complaints about its limitations made me hesitate. Instead I got all sorts of other stuff including a whole Eurorack drum section which all turned out to be far more expensive and less satisfying. Love the Rytm.
Selling my Eurorack
Slightly reduced my Eurorack from 2.000 HP to 64 HP. I kind of miss the sheer madness of it, but I’m far more relieved it’s gone. Shouldn’t have sold my uO_c and Xaoc Moskwa II. Future rebuys…
IConnectivity mioXL + Squarp Pyramid
Together (and with a little help from the OT’s arranger mode) these two devices allow me to control almost everything I have lying around. Before owning these, I used the OT, DN and A4 sequencers plus various Midi merger+thru boxes but it was just such a hassle. Also, the mioXL let me discover the magic of Midi RTP.
Behringer PX2000
An old patchbay, oh the excitement! But this one’s unbalanced! And places all my synths’ various cv/gate/lfo/vcf in/control/etc jacks which I could never be bothered to patch right in front of me. Having to use 6.3 to 3.5 cables is a minor inconvenience but I still had a bunch of them anyway.
Roland System-1m
Got it used at a friendly price. It looks stupid but it just sounds so good! Simple, immediate, good layout. Lots of nice little features. Underrated device.
Undecided
Moog Subharmonicon
Yeah, it’s cool, but I’m not sure it’s for me. Sold it.
Dave Smith Evolver
I’ve wanted this for so long. Finally got it and… forgot to make sure it has the current firmware before buying. Turns out it’s still on 1.X, half the features from the latest manual are missing and Patch Base doesn’t work with it. On top of that, the firmware update chip I ordered from Sequential was returned to sender for some unknown reason after a two month journey across the pond. Still waiting… off to a bad start, Evolver and me.
2 Likes
Stick with that one! I’ve only had one for about 6 months, every time I turn it on it’s spits unruly craziness back at me. I love it!
2 Likes
Second attempt at this…
Microfreak - hit
Got this after buying an OP-Z as a synth to sample from or sequence over midi. (Imagined this pairing to match my old one of mpc2000xl + ms2000—but that is for another post). Capable of so many types of sounds both useful and wild and easy to tweak. It is great! My only regret is not spending more time building patches from scratch and the mod matrix. I pair it with zoom CDR-70MS for mega-ambience, which is also a hit.
Bastl MicroGranny - hit heading to a miss?
This is very fun and quirky, and capable of monster sounds with the crush turned up. Massive storage, but limited saving of “presets” for tweaked sound sets doesn’t make sense. It is kind of noisy so recording with it can be frustrating with pops and clicks. I guess I will keep it though.
MicroMonsta 2 - probable hit
Need to spend more time with it, but it sounds seriously powerful from jamming with a few patches. Love the compact form factor and the UI seems quite intuitive. Very excited by this.
Korg NanoKey Studio - hit
Great paired with the OP-Z to break out different functions into one UI. Highly recommend to anyone with an OP-Z.
1 Like
Wait I have a korg nano studio and opz!! How do you connect the two? I’d love to know more!
1 Like
Two options:
-
get a usb-c to micro usb cable and plug it directly into the op-z. It works for mine. Not sure how quickly it drains the op-z battery though.
-
Use a powered usb-c hub. Plug the hub end into the op-z and the Nanokey studio into one of the ports on the hub. It needs to be powered.
Not gonna lie, it can be finicky about connecting, especially if other midi gear is plugged in to the hub. The order things get switched on is important.
You can customise what each parts of your nano controller do in the Korg software. So on my nanokey studio I have knobs assigned to each track filter, pads for punch-in effects, x-y pad for master filter, keys to play whatever track is selected. Plus you can have different scenes for different setups. It really opens the op-z up!
Give it a go, and let me know…
1 Like
A late addition to my list before starting a no new gear for year challenge…
Modal Electronics Cobalt8M
Being able to quickly flip through so many different multi-oscillator algorithms is pure bliss for me. Things that would take a little bit of work to set up on other synths are just instant. Plus it sounds so fat, warm and fizzy. I really love the auto chord inversion stuff too.
3 Likes
I kinda think since few if any of us want to never buy gear again, some of us are gonna stack up now til dec 31st 2021 and after jan 1 2023! Thats when the moog one and rhodes get bought! 
3 Likes
HITS:
-
Arturia MicroFreak
I got this for $250 on EBay, I have spent so much time enjoying this plastic synth. -
1010Music Bluebox
Downsized, literally from an Allen&Heath Zed Series. Such a great mixer, and the effects are pretty good as well. -
Monome Norns and Grid.
Easy to use, immediate scripts like o-o-o are so fun to play with, community is great, I did have to upgrade the Rasberry Pi CM3 for more memory, but worth it.
MISSES:
-
Synthstrom Deluge
So much hype, The built in synth engines, meh. The effects, meh. the sampler, meh. The circa 1990’s bowling alley LED display - thats a hot mess. Waiting for an OXI One to replace the external MIDII and CV/Gate sequencing that I ultimately used the Deluge for. Sold on Reverb today. -
Moog Subharmonicon
The patches I attempted, sounded flat, off key, uninspired. I like the idea of polyrhythmic sequences, feeding off each other, but I struggled. Learning curve is too steep for me. -
Qu-Bit Bloom
Wanted to use it as a generative module, that I could nudge along like MI Marbles, but didn’t gel with it. Lack of a decent UI, doesnt help a maddening complex sequencer.
6 Likes
Adding to my previous list of hits:
M8 Tracker- I’ve already sung it’s praises before, but wow, this thing is a work of genius. To top it off, Tim (the m8’s sole creator) has continued to take an active role in the small discord community of M8 users.
I’ve never known a company (especially a one-man company) to update a firmware with bug fixes and additional functionality so regularly.
Minilogue + MS-70CDR- These two make an amazing combo for creating warbled BoC/Library Music sounds. I didn’t even know that I’d be using them for this purpose initially, but now that I’ve landed on my magic recipe, I don’t think I’ll ever need another method for culling out dreamy lo-fi synthscapes.
Btw I bought both of them used for a total price of $380 usd. Best value of the year!
5 Likes
Hits:
Roland MC-707: I never enjoyed ROMplers before, but combining the ROMpler side with a drum machine, looper, and sampler somehow turned this into a powerhouse for me. It’s a groovebox workstation with a number of great workflows for finishing tracks
Octatrack MK2: I was always intrigued by the OT but the legendary learning curve scared me off. I finally took the plunge, and I was making cool stuff within a couple of weeks. Sure, I’ve made some boneheaded mistakes and lost some projects because I didn’t know how to save things properly, but wow…good ideas just fall out of this machine
3 Likes
I keep seeing MicroFreak on peoples Hits list… am I alone in having one of these and not really liking it at all??
I’ve still got it, but not sure why… I’ve had the same underwhelming feeling about the DrumBrute impact… BUT I do really like Pigments and the Keystep Pro, and I’ve been ogling the PolyBrute for a few weeks now…
1 Like
You are not alone. It will be one of my misses. It sounds all right if I put it through the Source Audio Collider and the Analog Heat… but then just about anything would, and those together cost three times as much as it did.
1 Like
Adding to the list:
HX Stomp
Replaced a Tech 21 Blonde with this, and it is really awesome. I already had an HX Effects, so the Stomp is being used for amp/cab/room sim duties and excelling at the job. Total hit!
1 Like
Some good effects definitely help. I like mine through a nice cheap transparent overdrive pedal and a Rubberneck delay. Makes magic.
Not to mention the bonus CV outs and a surprisingly good keyboard.
UPDATE -
Hits:
AS-1 has made it to Hits from Undecided. Sounds great, high pass filter cleans up the mix in a live situation, and while the lack of physical controls sucks, that’s helped along by…
Faderfox EC-4 - what a swiss army knife controller. Wish my Midifighter Twister had that deep functionality and NRPN!
14" M1 MBP for finishing tracks without crashing nearly as often.
OXI One sequencer. I don’t have the space here to gush about all the things I love about it, but it’s the seq I’ve been dreaming of in so many ways. Super innovative and invites experimentation, even live.
Undecided
SE-02 is now in Undecided. So versatile, but hard to use in a live situation due to lack of pickup mode for pot values. Keeping for now as a ‘studio analog mono’ - the sound design is fun and it’s nice to have an analog minimoog clone around. (AS-1 on the other hand is a ‘live analog mono’ preset machine, because sound design on it is a terrible experience )
Nowhere near a miss, but just not feeling it anymore:
I’m probably going to sell the Novation Peak. I just haven’t touched it in ages and could use the cash. Definitely backing up my patches as there are some I’m really proud of and I might get one again someday. For now, I’m alright going ITB for all my dreamy digital poly needs, and even some of my analog mono needs (just picked up Pigments and Diva;)
3 Likes
Hits:
Korg Modwave - Killer digital synth that has truly creative features. My go-to for sequencing chords and complex sounds.
Arturia BeatStep Pro - Perfect for sequencing VCV rack, and literally anything else all at once
TBD:
OP-1 - It’s so inspiring and portable that I’ll probably keep it, but some aspects (difficult to connect via midi for me, easy to clip the synth engines) make it a bit ostracized from the rest of my well-integrated setup.
Misses:
MPC Live I - too big! and the touchscreen felt a bit unresponsive