Best music hardware of 2019 so far?

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

So, I was wondering what you all think is the best music hardware released so far during 2019. This can also include any gear that has seen an incredible firmware update this year to transform its functionality!

Hopefully we can get a discussion going and see some recommendations for gear that we might have missed. For example, I only read about the Black Box for the first time over the weekend and it’s been out for months!

My own recommendation is the Empress Zoia, the modular pedal that’s for guitar, voice and synth. You can create so much awesome stuff on it, with the only limit being your imagination (and… er… CPU power). It’s so much fun. Hours melt away as you try stuff out! Empress Zoia

Also, I’ve been beta testing the Synthstrom Deluge’s 3.0 firmware update which adds live looping, and it’s incredible. Can’t wait for that to be released so I can uplad some videos of it in action.

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#2

I’m going to have to second the ZOIA.

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#3

Thirded.

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#4

Bracketing the price range on this:
Arturia μFreak
Sequential Prophet XL

Not out yet but should be soon and fairly expensive is the U·D·O Super 6. But we’ll have to wait a little to see just how good it is. Also in the wings will be the Waldorf Kyra.

The competition to the μFreak on the low cost end might be the Modal Craftsynth V2, but i’ll go with the μFreak.

Sure thing on the Zoia too.

ADDED: I missed the Moog One on the high cost side. Oh and how about the Novation Summit it’s a lot more than just ‘twin peaks’. And the Moog Matriarch.

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#5

Strymon Volante
Minilogue XD
Empress Zoia

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#6

Op-z sampling

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#7

If I had the desk space…pioneer toraiz squid.

Runner up. Akai force.

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#8

Mod Devices ModDuo X ?

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#9

Didn’t try it, but judging on demos… Novation Summit

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#10

Zoia hands down. probably for years to come

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#11

Octatrack :slight_smile:

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#12

I bought it in 2019…

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#13

Zoia does seem amazing, but I just got into eurorack a few months ago and have enough patching headaches for now!

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#14

Id go for the moog matriarch
this was hands down the best sounding synth @superbooth in my ear. leaving the moog one in the dust.

on the module side the wmd metron is really cool
Im also curious how the makenoise mimeophone will play out.

other gear: fostex 909 headphones, I now barely use my monitors for mixing and mastering decisions anymore …

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#15

Holy crap, for the price, I would hope they render your monitors obsolete. :eyes:

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#16

yes, they mostly do. I still do doublechecs with different monitors, but most parameters for compressors, reverb, eq etc. i can better adjust with the 909s.

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#17

Arturia microfreak.

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#18

MPC Live latest updates

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#19

What did they add?

#20

Holy crap, that looks great. How’s the usability?