Yes, the Synthstrom Deluge!
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Yeah, limited track count is also an issue with the DigiTone :-/
Although it doesn’t seem to be a problem for this guy: BASECK - LIVE DIGITONE set @ go wavy club - YouTube
(I got a PE Track as well. Found it great but too programmy for me and, yes, sample-based.)
M:C, hm, why not?
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Indeed, I had forgotten about this one.
Not so many knobs, though. You don’t have access to so many parameters from different tracks at once.
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Yes, but you can get around that easily with an external controller. I’ve been using it with a launchkey mini and it opens up a lot of possibilities, while still retaining a portable form-factor.
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I’m now left with just the A4 and the AR! Got a keystep as well but not really using it that much for the A4.
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Ideally, everything should hold into one single box
(sorry I’m being picky)
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At one point this year I had a synth covering every square inch of my studio space. They were all plugged into a few patch bays, it was so beautiful and well-organized. And it was really stuffy and uninspiring.
I tried a mini-station set up with a little modular and a Matriarch in one corner, an Iridium and Pro 2 in another corner. Also not productive.
What works now is to pick two or three synths total to have in the studio. Otherwise I’m spending time plugging and unplugging things, I hate it.
I make mostly guitar music with the drums and melodies being synths. It works for me to say ‘for this album, for this EP I’m just going to use the A4 and the Microfreak’ for example. I might get to a point where I’m like ‘oh my god its taking forever to get a bass out of the A4’ or ‘the pitch bend on the Microfreak is a joke’, but then I adapt.
Going to be moving soon, probably letting a bunch of synths go. I never miss them.
For someone who wants to do most with least I’d suggest the A4. If you tried that and don’t like it, get a RYTM. If you’ve got space for a second synth get an OP-1. Actually get 3 OP-1s because the first two will break.
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Cool, but that’s 2 boxes, ha ha
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I’m not a samples-lover too, but I can say: give to the DT more than a chance! Most of the times I forget it is sample-based, beacause the workflow is filer/amp/envelopes oriented and the single cicle waves make it a true subtractive synth, with all the sampling goodies as ice on the cake. It’s a great groovebox.
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I’m “just” DN + BIM + BAM + Heat at present. I have an OT but never use it. I suffer from the 4 track limitation a fair bit. I’d like just a couple more tracks. I keep thinking second DN, or an old Mk1 A4, cos I just can’t get into using the OT (or samples in general?) as the extra voices (yet?)
EDIT to add this, my only “release” (except Current Sounds). A couple of nice people have said nice things to me about it. Just DN + OT Dark Reverb
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For me, adding a Model Samples was a great way to free up Drum tracks on the Digitone and add a track or two for FX or Vocal samples.
Freed up the Digitone to focus on Melodic duties
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I haven’t got any solo releases yet, just various snippets of dubious quality in the Current Sounds thread, but I love minimal setups. And I love minimal music that slowly evolves and is focused on little details. So having minimal gear helps this a lot plus it’s excellent for recording in one take with slow knob movements and LFOs doing the evolving.
My favourite setups so far were one sound source and a sampler. My most productive times (tho they were still a little missing something) were Digitakt and either Ether or Subharmonicon.
Right now, I’m using two 0-Coasts (plus Bitwig for recording and FX). When I can afford it, I will add Subharmonicon again and possibly a DFAM. The 0-Coasts will be doing their off-kilter bass/rhythm duties, Subharmonicon slow chord sequences (and maybe feeding some polyrhythmic stuff to the 0-Coasts on occasion), and DFAM for some straight kicks and/or hi-hats to ground the polyrhythmic stuff going on. That’s the plan anyway!
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I tried model:cycles, but did not get along with it.
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I just packed up some boxes yesterday! I’m down to a Push 2 (plus Ableton of course), OP-Z for sequencing, plus an iPad and iConnect box for send FX.
All my stuff ends up in Ableton in the end, for arranging and so on, but then I tried it with a Launchpad and found I liked creating in Ableton too, once it wasn’t tied to a mouse.
The last box to go was the Octatrack. I was keeping it around for FX, but found it to be a drag.
The Octatrack is fantastic once you get it set up, and are ready to perform. My music is more about playing sounds (guitar, synth, field recordings), sampling them, and then chopping them around. I don’t really have a set way of working, so I felt I was always setting it up, instead of playing it.
Anyhow, super happy with this setup, and all the extra desk space. There’s very little mental overhead when playing around, and the hardware aspect of the Push helps to keep Ableton’s own option paralysis at bay.
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Love it!
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DN+DT was my first out of the box combo, it was awesome but what’s pushed me to trade my DT was the lack of perfect loop recording option on it… Wasnt handy to transfer DN voices to DT on the fly.
But on every other aspect it was super dooper.
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I never understood why they didn’t implement this on the DT, a sampler released in 2017, while it’s possible on the 15+ year old MD
(but I’m not going to start a rant about this again)
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I’m doing No Gear New Year and I cut this:
Down to this:
I’d reached a point where I didn’t;t even want to use any of it.
Still haven’t had time to put together much coherent output, but I have removed:
- Option paralysis
- MIDI chain hassle
- Cabling nightmares
- Guilt over kit I don’t understand or use
- General apathy toward music
- Quite a chunk of debt
- Almost certain electrical overload
The bar is much lower now for turning everything on and starting work. No more wondering which of the 10 synths to turn on or why there’s no sound coming out of the complex routing. Plus aesthetically it’s a big improvement. I’ve had quite a few pleasant 1-2 hours sat here marvelling at the depth of these 3 boxes and starting to learn them a bit deeper.
Plus I still have a few of the other synths in the first picture for when I need a shake up. Gotta keep the GAS at bay…
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I just scaled down to Mpc Live only and I’m super productive. I might add a midi keyboard with aftertouch or use the Microfreak but overall I’m there.
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I’ve sold off most of my large gears over the past 6 months.
here’s some photos I took earlier this morning. the Z as sequencer for ios apps is really flexible. also have an m8, which is fairly compact and doesn’t really need anything else tbh. can squeeze so much out of m8 by itself.
I very much like keeping things simple.
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