What are your favorite, dawless music creation devices that provide way more value (and fun) than they cost?
1 Like
The Arturia DrumBrute Impact is kind of astounding for its price. Mostly good sounds, two types of sounds per track (via the “colour”), tons of knobs, smart randomization and roller bar for performance, and all for very cheap.
21 Likes
PO-33 is a beast on a budget!
12 Likes
VCV Rack is free modular, it’s amazing.
(You said dawless, not computer-less!)
16 Likes
i like the volka drum and roland s1
6 Likes
oh and the multicassa ofcourse
1 Like
The Woovebox punches above its weight for sure. It’s only $250, yet it rivals way more expensive grooveboxes.
5 Likes
1010music Tangerine. It’s a tiny, versatile and reliable sampler with an excellent sound.
4 Likes
Volca Drum, Volca Kick, …
11 Likes
Audiothingies Micromonsta 2. Duo-timbral polyphonic synth for that price is pretty insane. Sounds good too, really good filters.
20 Likes
Does Minilogue XD count? I feel like I will never buy another synth until I finally retire and go all in FIRST for a Juno…
4 Likes
As soon as my Twisted Electrons Blast Beats come in, I’m really hoping I can report that here.
Ita hard to find a drum machine that leans heavily on sound design(rivaling the Machinedrum) so as soon as I heard the demos I had to have it.
Thats all I got. Plenty of other synths I’ve tried that work but are pretty on par with their cost. Minifreak is cool, but it seems reasonably priced- microfreak seems to have a greater bang for its buck
1 Like
I quite like my Roland Aira S-1. It’s like a complete polyphonic sh101 in a tiny box with a few extra aces up its sleeve.
In the Bo Beats best of 23 video, Bad gear guy Florian picked it as his favourite synth of the year. I think that’s a pretty big endorsement from a openly synth critical guy who knows what he is doing.
Personally, I only had to add some tall trimmer toppers to the knobs from thonk.co.uk, because they were originally so tiny, hard to see the current value, and a bit uncomfortable to use. Now it’s great 
Edit: Added a pic of the knob-mod. So much more readable.
Edit2: I cut 2-3mm of the bottom of the trimmer toppers with a fine saw. Now they fit more snugly and dont scrape on the S1 when turning any more. I would say it’s a perfect mod now, and I would recommend it 100%.
20 Likes
I would love to get one of those. If they ever get back into stock 
The Microfreak can do a lot of crazy stuff and sounds amazing. With the last update it even became a sample synth.
13 Likes
Interesting…
The cheapest thing that get the most use time…
-
The PO-33 K.O. Is definitely up here. That thing is pure fun.
-
Volca Drum: that thing packs a nice depth in: synthesis +effects +performance mode.
5 Likes
Model:Samples + battery bank. just took it on vacation for some standalone jammin’ and had a blast.
6 Likes
I always liked the Typhon in this category. Absolutely gorgeous sounding synth, with nice effects, and fun even without something controlling it. Otherwise agree with many suggestions here so far. In the Typhon’s case it has a quality to its sound that I would usually attribute to something more expensive. Quite an impressive little guy really. I think the Nymphes is probably similar, but may less flexible?
6 Likes
TE EP-133 KO II and Roland Sh-4d. Both offer a lot and definitely punch above their weight if you get along wit their quirks.
3 Likes
Elektron Analog Drive (86,- at Thomann)
I think even that power supply is 29,- 
every circuit is wonderful
4 Likes