Moving on from synthesizers

The Lounge General Discussion
#41

I’ve moved on from having loads of synths sitting around, not to mention constantly buying and selling over the past 20 years. I still have a Nord Lead 2x rack on my desktop for when I feel like using a knobby physical interface. The Push 2 is used for somewhat of a hardware feel when using soft-synths.

As far as moving on from using synths entirely, I definitely have thought about it. I usually come up with more interesting sounds and textures just using samples, resampling, dropping samples into things like Reason’s Grain or Live’s Simpler and adding loads of fx. So sometimes I wonder why bother with programming synths at all? But sometimes there are just certain vibes I’m going for where a synthy sound is needed.

Also, with things like TAL Sampler and the (free!) Hollowsun collection, I certainly don’t feel the need to collect the classics anymore.

#42

yes, I use them a lot

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#43

After owning couple of synths, and grooveboxes I settled down with just Maschine MK3 + Xone K1 as the only hardware devices.
But even having such a little setup, sometimes I feel I could just use Reason 11 and get rid of everything else.
I think I’m being pulled into a vortex of excessive minimalism :smile:

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#44

Not a bad vortex though. Better than the vortex of modular synths! $$$$

#45

A couple of random thoughts in no particular order:

I’ve been through many different setups of vintage analog and digital synths, vintage electric pianos, some eurorack, the Octatrack, and several different DAWs, and I still find that I get most of my productive song construction done in Ableton.

I’ve moved a couple of times and did some massive sell offs – which I ended up regretting and re-buying some of the same equipment later. What I’ve realized is that for me, having a couple pieces of hardware that inspire me and (crucially, I think) push me to work in somewhat obtuse or different ways than Ableton or other DAWs might, helps me to create more interesting “building blocks”. But I always end up organizing all of the components and the final track in the DAW.

From a hardware perspective, I think finding a streamlined set of gear and really sitting down and developing a workflow with it has helped me the most. Before, especially when vintage gear was cheaper, I was constantly rotating equipment and never really learning how to use any particular piece of hardware in a compositional sense. I might have a full technical understanding of how to program a particular synth, but I never worked to actually make anything with it. It was more about the feature set and the sounds it could make than actually developing my ability to make music with that tool. The only constant tool during this time was Ableton, which might be why I find myself returning to it for the construction phase.

For whatever reason, I’ve never been fully satisfied with a totally software setup. I think a lot of it has to do with my background as a keyboard player before getting into electronic music – something about the tactility of an instrument “clicks” in a way that I haven’t been able to recreate with software alone. However, the times in which I had the largest quantity of hardware were actually my least productive by a significant factor. There were years when I was surrounded by keyboards and made no music at all. It was a case of analysis paralysis; too many options made it daunting to even get started.

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#46

I ran out of creative drive some time ago so switched to building/repairing synths :slight_smile:

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#47

Perhaps spurred from recently having a child, I did a massive sell-off of various guitar pedals and synthesizers and purchased a tighter set-up to get the most out of what I’m using. I’m pretty happy right now with:

  • Analog Four MKII in Black: Sold my OP-1 last week to buy this. Still early days for me with this, but it seems like boundless analog sound design, after feeling constricted by the occasionally frustrating (albeit fun) limitations of the OP-1. Fits much better within my set-up, and I don’t imagine selling this one anytime soon.

  • Digitakt: My first introduction to the Elektron and Synth world. I adore this thing…I keep toying with the idea of flipping it with some cash for a Rytm or an Octatrack, but always delete my ad after a few hours of contemplation.

  • Digitone: It’s an amazing counterpart to the Digitakt, but I haven’t gelled with it nearly to the same extent. Who knows, perhaps that will change. Maybe FM isn’t my thing. I feel like I’d end up flipping this with the DT for a Rytm if I could. I certainly prefer the analog warmth of the A4, but it doesn’t hurt having some variety.

  • Analog Heat: I run my entire mixer through this before it hits my laptop, and I cannot imagine ever selling this. It adds perfect saturation to the mix and “glues” together my various synths.

GAS is inevitable, but unless I flip the DT and DN for a Rytm (and/or whatever Elektron releases this winter – finger’s, perhaps foolishly, crossed for an OT MK3) I think I’ll be set with these for a while.

#48

I’m about to sell a load of gear that I’ve decided to let go of. The main reasons are a need to raise some funds for family and because I have so little time to sit and actually use most of it.

I look after our (nearly) 3 year old boys full time and although they are going to nursery four days a week in Jan I will have to go back to work to pay for it.
Once they are in bed at the end of the day my wife demands attention so I have no time for any personal hobbies!

I really enjoy buying/selling/swapping things and get a kick out of stripping it all down and setting it all up again and I do love those times I can use it all for more than an hour but the realisation has firmly set in that I’d be better off with just a few bits and a laptop running Ableton Live.

So because of this I’ve decided to keep:

Novation Peak (I cannot sell this as it was an engineering sample that was given to me)
Virus TI2 (this was my first choice to stay)
Elektron Digitakt (the only Elektron box I’m keeping)
Nord Drum 3P (really enjoy this and after watching a Red Means Recording video with it and DT it’s staying)
Novation SL mk3 61 key
Nord A1 keyboard. (Might end up going but I’m enjoying it for now)

What is going:

Elektron Analogue Four mkI
Elektron Digitone
Arturia Microfreak
Nord A1R
Mackie Onyx 1620i mixer
GFI Specular Tempus
A bunch of flight cases and pedal boards
Probably some more that I’ve forgotten about.

I’m feeling quite positive about this big shift and hope it can lead to more productive time spent when it allows.

p.s. I realise this thread is about moving on from hardware synths but a 50% cull is a good start. :wink:

#49

I am down to an iPad pro, an nts1 and some midi controllers.
If I would be creative as perplex on that would be enough for some good tunes.
But as I am not him and just me I guess I have reached the end of my creativity and that’s it…
It bothered me for some time, I bought and sold several elektron stuff, Roland stuff and software stuff, but this is all gone now. For good.

#50

Thanks, also for the workflow description.
I was thinking of the many seqs already built by the community and small companys for reaktor and vcv.
Not many ready for bitwig. One can use some from the generative polarity presets.
I somehow prefer his early next clip action ideas. Impressive anyway.
Problem with the official bitwig sequencer tutorial video is that i always fall asleep because of the nice bob ross voice.
I maybe made the most interesting stuff lately with happy sequencer accidents in vcv and its somehow an adventure to have to use the old bridge vst to record the audio.
In the grid with recording live sampler mode changes for example. Just experiments, structure is missing.

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