Hello Elektronauts,
I’m using mostly my beloved DT II for producing my music. I do ambient, dub and mostly chill stuff (no hardcore techno).
I use mainly SC sounds for synth, samples obviously, and for polyphonic synth sounds I use Vital vst. Sometimes, I resample Vital but for pads and other polyphonic sounds, but I can’t make proper loops (especially with reverbs and delays).
So I look at harware synths to go along with my DT II (500-600 ish budget).
Idealy I would like a dawless machine, with at least bi-timbral and 8 poly minimum and not too specific (DN 1 could be too limitating for me, as I like analog sounds too). ARP mandatory.
I was looking at a used Hydrasynth module (mono timbral), used Digitone I (just FM), New Polyend Synth (CPU and MIDI IN problems ?), new Roland SH-4D, Used Waldorf Blofeld or Micromonsta 2 (impossible to find in France), Roland MC-101 (menu diving)…
I find my 3 main needs with the DTII are PADS, ARP and BASS. SO perhaps 2 or 3 devices instead of searching one to do it all ?
DNII? It has new machines that take it out of the FM realm a bit. I have both the DTII and DNII and I rarely fire up any other combo.
Other stuff that gels well in my setup with DNII is Roland S-1 (it’s a tiny synth with a massive sound) and the Minifreak (recently got updated with granular synthesis). I had the MC101 as well and used it as a preset player for the DTII – it was a really good machine because of the multitude of sounds available on hand, but I sold it to fund the DTII and never looked back.
Of the stuff I never had and comes to mind: maybe Micromonsta 2 or Dreadbox Typhon?
edit:
Potentially, the Ableton Move might be a thing. With preset creation in Ableton Intro (is free with the device), it can be a potent alternative. But it has crap MIDI implementation so do your research first.
Older synths tend to be multitimbral and have plenty of polyphony; no problem playing pads, arps, and bass all at the same time on three MIDI channels. Especially if you’re mostly going to use presets, something like a JV-1010 or AKAI SG01v is pretty awesome. Of course they could stop working tomorrow and there’s no warranty.
Blofeld great synth, sounds special to me, has a good midi implementation, all parameters can be controlled via external MIDI.
Tons of sounds to start with.
The Arp works with the sounds but can not trigger external modules.
Worth looking into the sample extension(if on sale) and the new plugin.
MC101, very flexible. Hugh Stack of good sounding Presets. A lot of sounds shaping Effects. Bit a steep learning curve but for 80% of the tasks not that menu divvy. Only if you want to start more detailed sound programming it becomes tedious quickly.
But great form factor - battery or usb powering for in the go is great. Like the Clip based approach.
ARP can also play external sounds.
MIDI implementation is 20/80 - meaning covers the 80% what people most often by focusing on the top 20% features.
E.g. using as a sound module, playing, switching/basic shaping of sound via midi is actually well done with ver 1.82. Also the sequencer is not that bad. But if you like to deep parameter programming via MIDI (requires Sysex) things become tough.
Used MPC One, the plugin synth are not bad and with version 3 the UI is much easier. Good pads (Polyaftertouch).
JD-XI if you like Roland sound. Deep ARP - shitty keys but better than pads to me. Also a bit menu diving. Good midi implementation.
2 Digital synth and a basic Analog synth.
Zynthian - lot of sound engine options. No keys, Pad. But has USB host capabilities. So adding a MIDI Pad or Key controller.
Yamaha SeqTrak - I once helped a guy( who liked to map his DT and he liked the combo.
It’s quite a bit above your price range but the Korg multi/poly should be pretty great for this use case, also in the long run. It’s a very deep machine, has up to four layers (also multitimbral if you want to) and has really nice effects builtin. And you’d also get a midi controller on top of that. But look for yourself: Korg Multi/Poly
Thanks a lot for all the suggestions.
After looking into it, I think that the small boxes aren’t for me (BloFeld, MC-101 etc…). I like a hands-on workflow.
And I don’t want to start my computer everytime I make music (I work all day on a computer so I prefer standalone hardware).
The DN II is tempting but I fear that the DT II would be too close on the workflow (the effects are the same, the SEQ is the same, etc…).
A big synth (Multi/Poly or other) could be in the same budget as a DN II too so… hum…
Anyway, if I go this way I will wait to have more money
Perhaps I should just buy a DN I to see if I bond with it and then decide for the upgrade or other gear…
But the Polyend Synth seems to be really fun though…
Aerophone (wind synth 1000s of Roland sounds). Wind controllers are a whole vibe and the expression cannot be duplicated elsewhere imo.
Roland S1. Tiny but Huge. Dog easy to program especially with a good controller with knobs (launchkey, Keylab)
Roland MV-1. This will likely be the best companion for DT2 in my workflow as Im infatuated with it plus I do a lot of vocals and I really love Roland sounds and FX.
Provides amazing vocal multi FX including autotune/pitch correct/shifting, 16 layerable vocal tracks plus 8 instrument tracks (1 of those is a drum kit track that offers 16 additional tracks), looper, TR-sequencer, clip launching workflow, iPad integration for big screen visualizing, onboard mic for quick sampling, same amazing Roland FX found on their flagships like Phantom/Juno, etc; 3000+ Roland synth sounds plus infinitely more if you have Zenology Pro. Slightly bigger yet much lighter than DT2.
IMO, there is no better instrument than the human voice to compliment a sampling workflow. Ok ok, enough about MV-1 lmao
Some sort of Virus (assuming you get on with the sound) generally seems to be the ‘right’ (if boring) answer to questions like this
Personally I’d be tempted to go for two seperate devices for the sake of sonic variety rather than one multitimbral… A dedicated pad machine and an analog mono. Maybe like a Hydrasynth Explorer and a Typhon or something along those lines could come in well below a Virus.
You say this like it’s something bad.
Same workflow makes it easier to operate, faster to reach what you have in mind.
Good thing with DNII is that it’s multi timbrai, so you can have many presets/sounds for the same pattern.
For this price, there are not many 16 voices/16 tracks synths. And it sounds real good.
If FX is something that bothers you, maybe external FX could be considered at some point.
Anyway, if you have the money, go ahead, you won’t be disappointed!
Yeah, I have a big Boss flagship pedalboard for external FX (GT-1000) so it could be good.
I don’t have the money yet for the DN II so I’ve got the time to think about it
As for polyphony and multi-timbrality, I don’t understand why the Roland devices like MC-707 or MV-1 are 128 voices for 8 tracks (some very old modules are even larger) and an Hydrsynth is just 8 voices polyphony and mono trimbral !!
The DN II is not a beast in that regard (16 voices total & 16 tracks) but good enough I suppose (if I resample the single lines a lot to save for the pads)
I’ve been thinking to get the Roland s-1. But I haven’t done much with the digitakt 2 midi.
My understanding is I can set midi cc and then name them. So I could pretty much control most of what the s-1 has from the digitakt ?
I’d love to just make a template and use the digitakt for everything.
One thing to mention: for some reason, DTII messes up the preset sound once you move the knobs. I have not explored the reason because I’d always go init and make something, but it happens. One of the reasons might be the way the S-1 and DTII treat knob states (S-1 catch mode vs. DTII’s jump mode). Not a big deal for me, but it might be for you.
who liked to map his DT and he liked the combo.
