It’s all about what’s gonna get used to make music, for me. There’s an upper limit on price since I don’t have limitless cash, but there’s no lower limit. I have a couple of machines (Roland S-1, TT-303) that ran me about $120 each that sound fantastic and are quick and easy to turn on and use. I got nothing against any Volcas either, I just don’t currently have or use them in my setup.
Meanwhile there are a ton of “premium” synths I would never utilize enough to make them worth buying, even as used prices for those drop.
Digitakt is an awesome box I got recently once prices plummeted. However, I’m realizing more and more that I’m not really getting a lot of use out of it. At $400 - $500, that’s still a lot of money to have “invested” in something I barely use. So I may end up selling it, and I’m considering cheaper options for sample playback. Even to the extent of a Volca Sample.
This is a hobby for me, ultimately. I don’t mind spending money on a nice device if it looks like something I would really use, but I also don’t like having a lot of my money tied up in gear if there’s a cheaper option I could still use and have fun with. So I expect I will always be interested in the cheaper offerings of the market.
Some of those cheap boxes sound good. Good enough to sample into my MPC or DT2. The big difference (IMHO) is sequencing. The number of patterns you can save, song mode, the depth of the sequencer. That is usually the most frustrating thing for me. That and very limited polyphony.
Takeo Watanabe is nice with the humble gear. He also gets a lot of mileage out of the Volca Drum and the Model:Cycles, which coincidentally are also my submissions to the OP. Those two are my budget keepers.
You could always get “better” used gear for similar price as new budget stuff, yet many people still buy new, either because they want new (warranty, longevity…), prefer simpler gear… I don’t think DT/DN will change this.
I have the Impression that Gear is getting cheaper. Moogs are also cheaper now. Since all those massive price hikes during corona some things came down again.
I almost stopped buying gear because of that. Got a push 3 on black friday.
Op-xy is nuts. I don‘t think it will sell well. I have not seen much good use videos of it on youtube.
Watanabe on Volca Drum or Model:Cycles is the shit! Really cool stuff. And it always reminds me that you really don‘t need much.
I use a lot of budget gear, along with some vintage and modern gear that isn’t considered budget - Elektron, Roland, Korg etc.
I don’t think budget gear necessarily sounds worse, in fact some of my favourite sounding gear is budget gear, and no matter how cheap something was if I did not like the sound I would not keep it anyway. I have also got rid of non budget gear because it did not sound how I wanted - I hesitate to say it sounded bad because it was just a matter of preference rather than audio quality.
When I was young I used a lot of cheap gear, radio shack bbd reverb, shitty old pedals, cheap synths*, cassette recording, lofi by nature rather than intent, but I still like that sound.
*though these cheap synths did go on to become classics - maybe some of todays budget gear will be tomorrow’s highly sought after vintage mojo.
I‘m still intrigued by small synths like the Roland boutiques or Nymphes/Typhon. I prefer having something compact that probably even has a battery to a big module or even keyboard. Chances I will use something are much higher when it doesn’t take up too much space. Most poly synths are way too big for my table, even as modules or if they‘re considered compact but still having keys (like Take5/Teo5).
I also don’t think the boutiques I know or the Nymphes sound any worse than something like Rev2 or Nina I‘ve owned or owned. Honestly, I even prefer the sound of many of the smaller ones.
The problem is that the more complex polies usually come with some caveat when they’re too compact. The format works fine for something like SH 01a. But the controls are a bit too small for JP 08 and the menu system is a nightmare and Nymphes has crippled ADSR and preset management. If there was something a little bit bigger from Roland or Dreadbox that solved these issues, I‘d prefer that any day over the bigger units.
I’m against some budget grooveboxes only for built quality issues. I had an urgent gig that required batteries operated synth, then found out that the Volca sample and Monotribe stopped working due to switch quality, etc. while the Electribe sampler, luckily, still work well. Surprisingly enough, all Pocket Operators continue to work! Agreed that sound doesn’t depend on prices.
I cycled through a bunch of cheap Roland and Korg grooveboxes when I started. It’s all gone now. Over the last decade, I was able to find good deals on all the Elektron boxes I want, so that’s the heart of my workflow. Add to that a guitar and a good hammer action keyboard, and I’m pretty satisfied. I’ve settled into a good way making music within a few different setups. I don’t see myself getting back into low end grooveboxes. They’re just a distraction.
If I were new to gear and have no money, I will certainly save to get an used DT1. I think it’s the best ratio price / performance on the market by far.
I really think you can make good dam music with cheap gear.
The issue I find with them is, for a beginner I think it’s not good. And can give this beginner a feeling of going nowhere. Because the scope of the instrument is really narrowed, and the learning curve is too fast but then goes quickly Everest.
The good music we can hear on them are most of the time made by people which had tons of gear and years of experience before using those one. So yeah, with years of experience you can make impressive music on a potato.
I’m sure a guitarist with 20 years of guitar can make an awesome track on a ukulele.
And a Korg Volca sample can make banger in good hand.
That’s really good that newbie will be able to take a DT1/DN1 instead of toys.
