Been downsizing and re shaping the setup over the last 6-12 months. In some ways to downsize the budget tied in gear but mostly to simplify my gear to suit my workflow and goals.
Sold:
- Prophet 6
- Prophet X
- OP-1F
- DT2 (in progress)
I won’t go into my long Prophet history here. Still love both those machines but the TEO is keeping me satisfied for much less. It doesn’t feel like I had to “Settle.” It’s just a great synth.
Now have:
- TEO as my only synth
- Erica Perkons as my only drum / percussive unit.
Selling the Digitakt2 now. Great little thing but the culmination of my years of trial and error have reminded me I prefer simple things that feel more like instruments rather than hubs or brains that can do lots of things.
Especially since I still primarily do all of my work in the DAW.
The Perkons gets me a vibey rhythmic backbone that I want to add my other gear to. It’s easy to pilot and get happy accidents with instant mojo. The way it’s designed keeps me from getting overly committed to a pattern or kit. I just tweak, and save snapshots. I don’t care if I overwrite them or worry about naming a track. It’s always only 3 knob twiddles away from giving me something new I like.
That’s all I want and need from hardware.
On Digitakt (and most elektrons,) I’d often get sucked into groovebox mode and make full songs on them, not using the other synths I have that I like more.
Regrets:
I might have sold the OP-1F in haste, but it still had trouble getting useful material from it and found that I fought the workflow more than I’d have liked.
I had a short soundtrack gig that would have been PERFECT kind of vibe for the OP-1F but it ended up just being more of a hassle than a creative limitation.
That said it was still the best portable device I’ve owned.
Next up?:
I feel like it’s a good sign of my setup consolidation that the only things I’d want to add next are supportive items.
- Portable Sketchpad that’s also useful as single voice in the home setup.
- Realtime FX unit for perkons glitching
I’m thinking I can achieve both of these from the OP-XY. There’s much I liked about the OP-1F but that tape deck had me raging more than it had me inspired.
Well see though, at the current prices, it’s a far off “someday” item. Happy with what I have currently, but that feels like it could slot right in without stepping to much on anything elses toes.