All ‘sweet spot’

I realise I’m a very lazy producer in that I prefer synths and drum machines that are all sweet spot. My ideal gear always sounds good but still needs me to dig in to find unique sounds. I’m talking about my DFAM and drum machines I’ve had in the past (Perkons, 808 and 909 clones). In terms of synths, my 303 clone is also just twiddle a knob and see what comes out, but it always sounds good. I find these sweet spot machines are what I needs for improvising as well, they allow me to get something going and then I start to find those unique sounds the more I learn them.

So, let’s hear what are your favourite ‘sweet spot’ machines?

Edit: I should add, my Swarm falls in to this category.

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Single oscillator core stuff usually plays nice, no need to worry about such a wide range of gain staging. Sh101 is a classic, I did a diy of the edp gnat recently and it sound great, just a weird little thing, some how both aggressive yet tame.

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It depends on the patch naturally, but I can always just grab my Yamaha Reface DX and immedietely be productive with it. It’s a really versatile and joyous synth to play with a surprisingly great keybed for being on the petit side. The on-board looper is easy and fun to use and the two assignable effects are like chili flakes and vinegar to whatever sound you’re crafting.

It’s just a shame that it’s not compatible with old DX7 patches like the Volca FM.

Regardless, the Reface DX has made its way onto more recordings I’ve made than any other synth or drum machine I own, I think!

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My
Octatrack
SH101
X0xb0x
Pittsburgh SV1
Monotribe
Lyra 8
TR-8S
Vermona Retroverb Lancet
Quadraverb
My drum kit
Dannysound Dynamics (wot I built)

All my other gear can be a bit fiddly.

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weirdly the 0-coast. Even though obviously, like, semi-modular, so possible to make it totally silent or do something completely atonal. It just sounds great though.

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I have a couple of Denon SC6000

They never miss.

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Apologies for any offense, unintended.

Just my sense of humour!

I guess my Typhon is pretty sweet-spotty if I had to pick.

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Actually it made me laugh.

Id say the Prophet 5.

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Roland juno 6/60/106

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Matriarch
Waldorf M (unless there’s some bug with post-release features occuring, at least)

I don’t have one anymore but the Motas-6 also sounded good pretty much all the time despite the huge modulation and gain-staging possibilities.

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Juno’s, SH101, Prophet 5, OB-6.

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Novation Peak for me - it always bring a smile to my face, such a juicy gorgeous sound (not to mention the look and feel, so it’s very tactile too).

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All the Rolands I‘ve played as plugin or boutique so far (101, Jupiter 8, Juno) except for JX8P/JX-8.

It’s remarkable for a relatively complex engine as the Jupiter 8 in particular that I just always appreciate what the movement of each knob/slider does. Weirdly enough, I hate most of the demos and presets showing it off, but when playing around with it myself, I can leave these funky/80s pop territories so fast and get somewhere interesting.

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Dreadbox Typhon
Prophet 12
Pioneer Toraiz AS-1 aka Prophet 6

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  • Vermona PERfourMER
  • Sequential Take 5
  • miniKORG 700FS
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I predict that the longer this thread will go on, the likelier it is you can rename it to “Name a Synth” :smile:

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TD-3, SH-01a, Monologue, TR-8s. Simple machines with character and not much to fuck up :slight_smile:

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Haha, I was thinking that, basically another “tell what you have” thread

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Well, my Digitone is definitely not a sweet spot machine. It goes from a dreamy, lush pad to a fart in two seconds :laughing:.

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You need to wear lush pads to capture unfortunate frequency modulations.

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