Currently in my studio… Hmm.
Well UGLY is my Yamaha MOX8. I tend to think all those big keyboard workstation vibes are ugly though 🤷 Also, my Yamaha MT400 4track is uuuugly! Seems Yamaha aren’t doing too well here! 
PRETTY is any of my woodwinds (1962 Heckel Bassoon, 1950 Selmer Clarinet, 1933 Conn Alto Sax). My Moog Sub Phatty and Soma Lyra (in Green) are pretty awesome looking too. Ooh, and my Sontronics Aria!
Nice! Looks lovely. What kind of playing have you set it up for?
I recently refurbished (stained and re-wrapped etc) a battered little Ludwig set to have as my studio kit. So I should add that to my pretty list, along with the Sontronics drum mics and braided cables I’ve got on it!
Funk, jazz, soul, grooves, I dunno, just what ever comes out.
The Bosphorous ride cymbal is totally addictive…
Lovely stuff! Yeah, that Bosphorous ride must be a beauty 
Ugliest - MFB 522 drum computer
Most Beautiful - Elektron Machinedrum
I’ve always loved how the Machinedrum looks. It’s unapologetically industrial looking , straight to the point, and laid out very well. Dunno if beautiful is the word though. I think my clear acrylic Ambika looks dope too. MFB 522 looks cheap (sounds great though), but I’ll say the ugliest piece of gear I ever owned was an old EMU MP7. It was purple and the one I had was beat up and smelled like old cigarettes. It was an ugly, abused piece of gear. It went to a good home.
i have two MP7 units and yes, that color is at least controversial.
but i also have their yellow sibling XL-7, and it’s soooooo cute
yeah MD is the best looking elektron imo
Prettiest: 606, 707, FR-777, MFB Nanozwerg, Minitaur, Sirin, Mother 32, Microverb II
Ugliest: Pro 3, Evolver Desktop (though charming), Volca Bass, Volca Beats, MC-50 mkII, Midiverb II
Bass Station II and Monomachine would be somewhere in the middle.
I’ve always thought the MC 50 looked okay. Similar to the R8 and Yamaha TG33 in that 80’s minimalist control knob vibe. Each to their own!
Ugliest: my right hand. Two fingers were sliced off and sewn back on. Broken multiple times and my right thumb was smooshed to where the bone had to reform. It officially goes as fugly.
That and my bs2, even though it’s not all that bad. It just looks cheaper than it sounds.
Prettiest: my eve audio sc207. I think they look really good.
How did you managed to do all this?
Ugliest: Hydrasynth (that logo and orange)
Nicest: Empress Zoia (small, colors and deep)
Agree with the MP-7 for ugliest
. Possibly going for the 90’s skiwear look. What were E-Mu thinking?It is one of the best sounding pieces of equipment I own though, so would be nice if there was a skin designed for it
Sorry to hear that dude. It’s not always easy being physically different to others and having to dealing with people’s reactions. I’ve grown up with a deformity to my face/head that people see before they see me. Several major complex surgeries later and it’s the best it’s gonna get which isn’t saying much!
Oddly the older I get the more it bothers me (I thought it was supposed to be the other way around as you grow to accept these things?!)
Ugliest: Pittsburgh Modular – Lifeforms Primary Oscillator. Really great oscillator, but I simply cannot have it in my main case because it is the only fucking beige module and the typography is horseshit. I guess they went for a kind of old school space station look with it, but sitting next to any other module, it just looks off. If I was going to space and the lettering on the panel of my capsule was misaligned like that, I would have an anxiety attack.
Prettiest: 0-Ctrl is my favorite right now because it looks like some weird summoning machine from Star Gate. Now I don’t have to go to space, because there is a portal right there. Also, the looks feels congruent with the poorly tuned sequences I can wrestle from it. Bastl’s little Kastle-synth (1.5) is pretty fantastic looking too. I like gear that looks impenetrable, and then leads to sounds that have the same feel.
I’m on my way to pick up the most beautiful gear I own on tuesday. A made in Japan Fender Jaguar in candy apple red. I’m trading it with an old friend for some gear I have no use/space for. At one point of my life I thought that all guitars are the same, they sound the same and there’s no point in owning more than one. Nowadays I realize that they’re not the same at all and they all have a different sound and personality (although not as much as different synths). I still don’t feel compelled to own more than one guitar, but the one I own is preferrably a beautiful one and a good one too. I don’t care for Stratos or Teles they’ve always been too vanilla for my tastes. Always leaned towards the Jaguars, Mustangs, Jazzmasters etc. Now I can sell my cheapo Ibanez away. It did it’s job.
The most beautiful piece of gear I have ever owned was the Moog Source. Just amazing retro futurism and use of colour and the sound was great too. It was not as bad to program as people usually tell. Not worse than an Alpha-Juno anyway.
As for the most ugly piece of gear I own, there is really nothing. I’m a graphic designer and an illustrator by profession so I tend to not buy things that I have a hard time looking at. If I somehow ended up with an Alesis Andromeda I’d sell it and buy something pretty in it’s place.
My dad is not very good at ice skating. That’s how the two fingers got cut. I was very young so it’s not that bad. They did have to drill through my whole fingers to fixate them.
My thumb got in between my bat and a 92 mph fastball that jammed me. It pulverized the bone, really smooshed it. They had to drill my nail to let pressure out. My thumb is about 25% bigger than the other.
Broke my hand here and there in sports and other activities. Be it skating bmx, handball. Or just goofing around doing stupid things.
Beautiful. I’ll buy one in a heartbeat when they start to flood the second hand markets.
Beautiful banjo right there. 
I’ve always loved the look of the Source. I was online window shopping the other day and saw one up for sale. Was very very tempted.
I’ve always been a Fender/Squier guy but a few years ago I scratch a long standing itch and got a vintage Ricky 330. Now I’d heard all the stories about baseball bat necks and cramped string spacing but I was so glad I tried a couple out before I bought. I’ve got shovel hands and sausage fingers but I found it so comfortable to play. Oh and it sounds soooo good!
