Not so much of a secret weapon, but the shruti-1 is a bag of tricks. It has unusual oscillators modes, excellent sequencer and creamy filter. I don’t use it that much, but the few times I do, it’s always a hit, never a miss.
I tried using a camera connection kit to control it with my digitakt, but I either have a faulty cck or I need a usb midi host because I haven’t been able to get it working.
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Technically you only need 1 or 2 cards as the card can easily be backed up on computer then reformatted in the Repeater, a 256mb card will hold 25 minutes of audio approx, so if you wanted to fill the 99 slots then you could have a maximum of about 4 seconds per track per slot, but of course you can allocate the memory how you see fit.
You can find the cards on ebay, pretec are the best ones.
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Moogerfooger Cluster flux - at an eye watering prize, especially nowadays. But the sound makes me all giddy.
The cluster on the DN/op-1 plus some percussion run through a Knas moisturizer makes me feel complete
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For Sample pack / Loop people / construction kits
Octatrack is definitely a gems …
Eventide TimeFactor as a Looper. I don’t think that many people realise its wild mangling potential. Should probably do a couple of videos on it.
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Lots of great suggestions in the thread although I do think in this day and age with so many YouTube videos etc the concept of a secret weapon doesn’t make too much sense. Talking about lesser discussed gear and favourites makes a whole bunch of sense.
I can definitely get behind the Shruthi recommendation. I had one with a polivoks filter, then upgraded to an XT with the 4 pole mission and hopefully I’ll soon have the Shrolca that was kickstarted for a variation in a Volca format.
I’d also agree that the Volca’s are great fun an often unfairly derided…
They offer plenty of novel and unique ideas that reward hands on tweaking. Wouldn’t want to rely only on them but great to enhance other stuff with.
A big shout out for Permut8 too for being such an inspiring fx unit… I wish there was a hardware version with an analogue filter in it. The multiple firmwares and the interface which is a happy-accident machine are dead good. I reckon it must’ve made it onto about 75% of tracks I’ve done since it came out. Sometimes very subtley, other times less so.
Oh, the Clavia Micromodular too… so flexible, so nice sounding…
In some ways, the software world tends to have more things that get lost to the relentless march of progress. For me, one thing in particular is the Reaktor factory library. Indeed Reaktor ensembles in general given how a good chunk of folks liken the additional click or two to load an ensemble to a hook in the jaw compared to loading a vst. But, the older factory library is full of really nice sounding stuff like Carbon, OKI Computer, Vierring etc… plus the presets often given a real nostalgia buzz for early 00’s idm…
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It’s funny you mention that. I just sold mine. I learned everything about sequencing and composition on it. It’s slow and tedious at first but it’s like learning music in a new way. It forces you to visualize patterns in your mind. A lot of people probably would not like it, but simple patterns feel very rewarding when you write them with the MC-50 mkII
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Not necessarily a secret weapon but I will definitely never part with my kawaii k4. It’s so good for dark ambient pads.
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Harmonica mic - instant lofi vocals
Simmons SDSV - great analog module with enough control to get outside the typical Simmons sounds. Can be very techno
DJ mixer - quick and easy tweaks to sample fodder from turntable and cassette player
Korg poly61 - underrated, I feel, bread and butter analog that’s still affordable. I’m borrowing it from a friend and it keeps,making its way onto my tracks lately
Eventide modfactor - this is something I didn’t give a lot of thought to when I bought it. I made the mistake of going onto reverb.com after a night of drinking and did a bit of “browsing” the modfactor was a really good deal and I bought it because it matched my recently purchased timefactor and space. Turns out it sounds great on most everything I’ve run through it. I’m glad I got it although not pleased with my actions at the time.
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thought Id keep this thread going. its interesting
like many, midiverb2 is a real gem for me. old, grainy, noisy, low res, but so beautiful at the same time.
elysia mpressor is great for me.
and new on this list would be SPL Iron. its subtle, really subtle, but I dont know any other compressor with its features. its almost hard to have it not sound good, even if you can barely hear it. I would describe it as the compressor version of a good reverb. you dont really hear it, but miss it when its gone.
which leads me to my last one. seventh heaven reverb. bricasti emulation. the way I use it is to be more felt than heard. and I think its really good at doing that
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my boss RSD-10 delay/sampler always seems to inspire when i use it, the 12 bit sound and weird built in compressor is like no other FX i use, and things get really smooshy when used in conjunction with MD UW sampling sounds.
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After getting rid of all my Volcas, I now realize how awesome their sequencers can be. I could definitely see myself getting one of the drum machines and the keys for the cool tricks you can do, and modding them to send midi out to sequence other stuff. Definitely would be good secret weapons.
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came here to mention this, absolutely mental stuff if you use an expression pedal in the key track input. so far i’ve only used it with my guitar setup but it does the most beautiful digital textures. i’ve since picked up a few other units from that line and quite enjoy them.
my only real secret weapon aside from that is my max/msp sequencers. adds a nice wtf factor, especially when you show someone the laptop screen
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What will become a hidden gem/secret weapon - Roland MC707
I don’t think a lot of people are into the bigger MC, but it’s got some tricks up it’s sleeve and sounds great.
Maybe Roland will discontinue, and 2 years from now people will be like, that things dope. Miss it.
yeah, i’ve done some really mad stuff with an MnM sine wave track into the key input. haven’t tried an expression pedal! but the movement from that could be luscious.
midi translator/processor with elektron machines 
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yeah it feels like scrubbing through the memory buffer but its also shifting the pitches up and down. real autechre hours
Software wise, haven’t come across a VST which sounds as great as this one does:
Solorack
For hardware I’d say the Monotribe. Can be heavily modified, but dont care for it that much
Yeah I feel like an old sampler is a really under rated tool, especially for processing… find one cheap and just run stuff through it if you want some more contrast in your sounds. A few low bitrate samples can really add a lot to an otherwise Hifi sound.