I’m looking for the absolute easiest, thoughtlessly simple gear that could be used to live jamming by someone who knows NOTHING about synthesizers or music. Ideally there would be a melodic elements, but locked in to a shared scale.
What are your favorites?
This is an extension of my quest to find the best gear for my kids to use. I’ve simultaneously come to the conclusion that I don’t like making “serious” music on hardware, but I love live-jamming with hardware - but I don’t want to think or do any sound design.
My current top contenders (I own some but not all of these):
Synthstrom Deluge - my kids accidentally create magic with this
Pioneer EFX-500, EFX-1000, RMX-500, RMX-1000 - you don’t need to know anything for these
TR-8, TR-6s - And any drum machine with sliders (LXR-02 a surprise hit with the kids but too complicated for me)
Metropolix Solo - instant melodic elements with a lot of sliders and buttons to randomly mash, you don’t need to understand or be able to read to get something weird happening
Big Ass DJ Mixer - the kids liked the Xone DB4 but it was too fancy, considering a DJM-450
DFAM / EDGE - this was a hit, no need to understand what is happening
Moog Labyrinth - I don’t own this but it seems like a contender with scale mode
Things I’ve axed
Novation Circuits (including Mono station) - these seem simple, but the kids get confused and atonal chords are rampant
Kaoss Pads - The only one that they clicked with was the KP3 but they kepts accidentally using the loop record feature and got confused, plus the loops don’t stay in sync anyways. KPQuad almost does the job but they don’t like it
TD-3-MO - too many knobs, I don’t want to do sound design I just want to filter sweep, octave jump, and mess with Decay
Okay that’s it for the info dump. I feel like I’ve looked into everything on the market so far, but would welcome suggestions. Imagine you sat a person with zero musical knowledge in front of a geat setup and said to randomly press buttons - what gear do you pick?
any 303 clones.
TD-3-MO does not count — it’s a clone of overcomplicated 303 mod with extra bells and whistles.
but classic 303 is the entire sweet spot – very few controls and impossible to make sound bad.
another similar machine – very few controls and really hard to make sound bad – is Waldorf Rocket.
PS. Circuit / Circuit tracks is a cool sequencer when your gear doesn’t have onboard one (like, well, Waldorf Rocket).
take this with a grain of salt, but brain dead simple means basically everything 80’s vintage that can produce noise and focused joy over fancyness. You get this stuff like junk (used/second hand of course) for less then 100 bugs. In example the Yamaha PSR series, same later models even have Midi (in/Out). And the available sounds are so hilarious punchy they are actually fun if not right out glorious.
But the best part, they are so simple you are left with only one option: improvise
Old: Yamaha DJX, a super fugly home keyboard style but it has some knobs a touch slider and more importantly the same sound engine as a CS1x but with more dancefloor-oriented samples and arpeggiator patterns
Roland MC-505 if you want to go large - lots of controls, super easy to jam on, tons of preset patterns, you can just rock out solo for hours without ever missing a beat
New: a Microfreak, it’s scale-lockable and you already have effects. The touch-strip keys are very pleasant to play on. You can do sound design on it but you absolutely don’t have to
Elektron Model:cycles and Model:samples are affordable used and unlike other Elektron gear there’s no menu diving, the 12 knobs and some buttons are all you get and all you need to know.
I think that the TB-303 (well, a clone) is a great shout, as long as you like that acid sound.
But the thing that will probably get you furthest is a good sequencer that takes the leg work out of the music theory. You can then pair that with any synth - as long as you can easily manipulate the envelope and the filter then you’re away.
Something like a NDLR or an Oxi One, or a Hapax would be ideal.
I actually think a Digitone MKII could be a great option too, it has lots of sweet spots, great presets and you have great sequencing tools that won’t require you to learn the works of Bach to have fun.
Another fun option could be a Nord Drum 3P - you can load up the pads with synth style sounds (rather than drum style sounds) and bash away - it’s visual, fun, easy and doesn’t require any sequencing at all.
Ableton Live and a controller, lock to a scale, use a stock synth. Tickle the ivory’s and make sure you spin a few knobs on the controller ever so often so it looks like you’re doing something.
Just don’t bind those knobs to anything or you might screw the whole pooch live on stage.
Anyone mention the Seqtrak yet? Can fit in a backpack. If I were a kid I’d have hours of fun with this. and you don’t have to worry about computers or messy wires
Maybe one of the SH 101 clones available. Should be a lot of fun to just move the sliders around and shape the sound while having an arpeggio running. Juno might also work.
Oxi’s great, but it does have an initial learning hurdle for someone unfamiliar with sequencing/MIDI/synths. Also, the octave pagination/scrolling is awful IMO. I told them they should have a column dedicated to selecting the specific octave instead of scrolling or having to hold down the note and then turn a knob
