Hi! What portable/compact hardware would you suggest for minimal/coldwave music? I was thinking about a three-piece setup: a drum machine, a bass synth and maybe a polysynth. I’m a keyboard player, so I’d prefer gear with keys, since I’m not great at sequencing keyless gear, haha. I might be ok with buttons for the bass one tho. Any ideas?
1 Like
Roland SH-4D
Or a TR-6S, Arturia MiniFreak, and pick your bass synth. A S-1 would be good.
3 Likes
An SH-4D and a keystep would really be all you need in truth (or a Digitone II and a keystep), but another really nice option would be something like:
Syntakt for drums and bass
Waldorf Protein (or Dreadbox Nymphes) for compact polysynth stuff. Any smaller than those is painful to use IMO.
A Tonverk or DN2 or Syntakt would all be pretty much fine on their own as long as you can embrace their sound palettes, though the syntakt would need a polysynth if you care about having that.
Personally I would try to just use a digitone 2 with a keyboard to handle everything and if you decide you need samples ever you can get a 404 or something.
Another option that would probably work perfectly here would be an MPC Key 37 or 61. A lot of coldwave stuff is heavy samples so you don’t especially need analog synths if you don’t want to use them for your own reasons.
2 Likes
Seconded TR6S for classic drum machine sounds that are ready to go. For your main synth if you’re multitracking I would go with MS20 mini or the 700s mini for something that’s inexpensive and period accurate. Preferably 700sm for the arpeggiator. You don’t even really need a polysynth, but maybe one of the roland boutique modules or one of the dreadbox modules, haven’t used them myself.
Maybe I’m out of touch with what coldwave means these days. I thought it was early 80s stuff.
2 Likes
modern bands like molchat doma, she past away, Lebanon Hanover etc are all arguably what “coldwave” is now but even the bands in the 80s were using samplers a lot.
1 Like
Coldwave? What the left tit is that? Like Coldplay but even more soggy and pathetic?
4 Likes
In the eighties coldwave was just french goth/post punk, then in USA was more synth/metal (otherwise they insist to mouse the word industrial), nowadays is just a plain dark wave, with monotone voice (thus the ‘cold’ and the band quoted before).
Roland SH 4D could do that, if you can live without a proper song mode, but a combination of different synth gives you a wider palette.
1 Like
What gear do you have already and what is your experience with music gear and music making in general? Those things will help people here recommend gear. How long have you been playing keys?
2 Likes
Huh, I thought those bands were just regular goth music with guitar and bass, like Joy Division. I thought coldwave was more synonymous with minimal wave or minimal synth. Basically gloomy synth pop duos who had one analog synth a drum machine and a vocalist.
2 Likes
I already have a Nymphes, which I love, but I mostly use it for recording since it tends to be quite menu-divey. I used to have a Digitakt, but I’d rather have fewer genre-specific sounds. As for me, I’ve been playing keys for about 20 years. I’ll have to look into the Roland SH 4D, which so many of you guys mentioned, looks promising indeed.
That’s exactly what I was thinking of! I get that all those genre names can be confusing sometimes, tho.
Subgenre taxonomy is a whole ass topic and I can’t speak for what OP wants but I think using just a sampler with the various modern tools associated is a perfectly valid way to get that sound as long as you have a good grasp of how to mix things the way you want them and then using an analog bass synth to get a little something extra would get you there. Like, a lofi 12xt and a volca bass would probably be more than enough for a very minimal and cold gothy sound with vibe to spare.
Personally I found that the 101 and juno modeling in the SH-4D sounded very nice and there’s some simple FM for cool 80s bass sounds. The drum machine is surprisingly deep and good sounding and the rigidity of the sequencer is probably not a big problem for this kind of music where metronomic/repetitive beats are normal anyway. The plentitude of choruses and whatnot probably a big help, though pattern management on the 4D is a real fucking nightmare.
2 Likes
Do you mean switching from one pattern to another, or changing one on the fly as you play?
I own an SH4d, it absolutely will provide the kind of sounds you would hear from early 80s minimalist synth works, including some of the more expensive toys they might have had access to in studios. It will absolutely offer you a wide range of drum sounds including the ability to synthesise drum sounds.
If you want a cheap analogue bass source for more angry sounds (the SH4d filter is a little polite), you could get a Behringer UB-1 Micro and sequence/play it via MIDI. You can even feed its audio through your SH4d. I also have one of them, and can be a beefy, dirty little bugger of a monosynth.
Have fun checking out plenty of other options!
1 Like
If you’re used the elektron style arranger on the digitakt and how easy it is to save patterns and their sounds on elektron gear the SH-4D will cause you to feel a lot of irrational anger at Roland UX designers until you get used to it and learn to practice acceptance. pattern saving is clunky, it doesn’t autosave anything, and there’s no true song mode though it has a pattern chain feature that is acceptable. I tended to just use it with an external sequencer and keep a pattern with instrument data but no sequencer data to use it as a sound module because I hated arranging on it so much. It does legitimately sound good and have lots of amazing sound-related features though. Many places to gainstage, multi band compression, tons of fx, etc.
2 Likes
I feel like go vintage or modern vintage reissues.
For drum machine tr8s or any sampler that could get some analog drum machines and also older eprom drum kits (dmx/linn/drumulator)
For a poly I’d also recommend vintage. The new Behringer Juno would probably be great or something along those lines.
I think in general for 80s music if you just buy what they used or emulations of them you’ll get close to what u want. You can also just look up what a lot of ur favorite bands used synth or drum machine wise
1 Like
I would get a Korg Drumlogue, a Pioneer Toraiz AS-1, and a vintage Korg poly synth, like the the Poly 800. Coldwave / minimal stuff benefits from a fairly restricted sound palette. Having a ton of choices is just going to slow you down IMO. The Drumlogue is great for these kinds of sounds. The AS-1 really nails that 80s bass sound and is super portable. And then the vintage Korgs have a nice dusty quality to them that I find things like the SH-4D don’t replicate. I found that machine pretty tame sonically. My 2c!
5 Likes
No, it’s decent music, at least the original, but modern takes are ok
1 Like
Since it’s Elektron-based forum, it’s strange nobody mentioned Syntakt [citation needed]. It has a lot for minimal wave, at least drum machine parts and analog basses are covered. Caveat, it’s not easy to tune it to sound vintage, it sounds too modern/precise and lacks effects to disguise it as vintage drum machine.
On top of that any modern poly or 90’s Korg or Roland workstation.
From Korg’s synths, I think that the original Minilogue has more needed character, not the XD
**
2 Likes
@jeffroman mentioned it in the second response.
1 Like