Currently: Syntakt
Soon: Hapax (hopefully)
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+1 on that. The T-1 and any other instrument is so fast to get stuff going, jam out, improvise. Took me a bit of time to figure it out at first but now it’s all muscle memory. Absolutely love it!
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OPZ.
In second place, Syntakt.
But nothing comes close to the OPZ for a quick pick and make music without thinking.
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Osmose, since it’s keyboard. One thing I tend to do : when I listen to/watch some jams, video, demo, music, I turn on the osmose, pick a random factory patch and play along what I listen to…I love to do just that !
I’m also considering a sh4d which seems to be up to the task.
Interesting topic.
I always wonder why I can’t start playing synth the way I do with my guitar by just grabbing it and let the ideas flow…
Too much midi, cables, configuration, presets, not enough simplicity, limitation, muscle memory etc …
I’ve very limited time to use my gear and I spend literally half of it setting it up each time. Frustrating.
I still want to do do electronic music and play synth but didn’t find yet the right set up.
Looking at this topic with interest.
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I hope this is not too general or old-school …
… practising - practising - practising …
After the muscle memory has been built, most instruments or gear feel like a natural part of our body/brain. That’s where thinking about “how the …” stops and imagination and creativity can directly be translated to sound and music.
AFAIK there is no shortcut to practising and knowing your gear 
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I don’t know if this is helpful, but even though I play several instruments and like to work with grooveboxes and shit, I can’t really point towards any particular thing and say “this is faster or easier to allow yourself to be creative with”.
What I can say is that when I buy something new and start to play with it, it will sometimes inspire me by way of serotonin or dopamine or something like that, but they don’t really bottle that kind of creativity and I’m not made of money so I can’t buy something every time I want to make music.
What I’ve found, is that having an idea and getting it down (whatever that may mean) as fast as possible in as simple a manner as possible is the key. Once it’s gone, it’s gone, you probably won’t have that same idea again. So, whether it’s humming a melody or beatboxing a little beat into your phone’s recorder, or if you’re in the stoodz with your stuff all turned on and about to give up on this jam and go get a snack but then an idea hits you, record a scratch track, do it 4 times or whatever, just to give yourself a memory of that inspiration and some options to put yourself back in that frame of mind later.
Sometimes I go back through old memos and find some little snippet I recorded, or find a single pattern and all of a sudden I’m back in the moment and it’s inspiring.
In summary, I don’t know that it’s the instruments that make the difference so much as having an idea that you like or enjoy enough to flesh out, because you can have something in front of you that you love every sound it makes, but still have no idea what you want it to sound like when you’re doing something with it.
Maybe other people want random probability first, or working in X key with Y scale and Z time signature, but for me it has to start with an idea, and whether or not that idea has anything else attached to it, or is inspired by jamming OR something that happened by random probability or whatever, that’s less important than finding a way to capture it before it’s gone.
Super basic stuff here but it’s helpful to acknowledge it sometimes.
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Any sampler where I can record something and immediately manipulate it, slow it down, filter, etc. Despite the Octatrack’s reputation I find it to be really fantastic for this.
And delay. Delay is an inherently musical effect.
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Digitakt
The fact that it starts where I left it is a big thing.
It needs thinking however, but in a creative and very pleasing way.
Also it’s a whole thing in itself. Every musical element can be achieved and one can create a song, a Live set or just random sketches without any other sequencer, arranger or synth.
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Anything that doesn’t “get in the way” this could be due to a wysiwyg operation, simplicity of operation, or practice and time invested in learning something so that using it becomes second nature.
Past couple of years the Novation Circuit Rhythm, Livens, Smpltrek, Seqtrak and Roland Aira minis have been fantastic in this way for me. My main setup is in a bit of disarray, my studio room is messy and going through a bit of a change, so chucking together a few of these little portable devices on the table allows me to quickly work on stuff, efficiently and without mental overhead. As a result I have quite a bit of music created that, once my proper setup has been sorted, will allow me to get them finished. I’m quite happy working this way, sort of separating the creative side and the more cerebral producing/arranging/mixing side.
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op1
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…remains the hardest challenge we all have to face…to just let go…getting into this mindset of realtime flow…
whenever it does not happen “naturally”, it does not matter what instrument u use and abuse, but how well trained u are with it, to overcome ur patterns…or how good u are in just picking/tryin’ something else right away to be able to fool around and play like an innocent child again, to never mind any old patterns, since ur just naive, totally blank and curious again…
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This.
Unthinking. Naive and silliness, I think that’s the secret recipe and I guess it’s what musical tools or tricks get us into that space mentally to let the good stuff through.
Bit more background, I’ve been making music since my teens, I’m in my forties now, and have mainly used electronic tech. I think there’s good advice and gold in this thread to just learn and practice stuff so that it becomes muscle memory and not a barrier to stumble through.
I can’t play piano even though I understand theory, I personally just trip up actually playing them rather than programming stuff, but I can see the benefits of feeling a way through music ideas rather than drawing them in.
I think set and setting probably also play a major factor, whether that’s either sat in the studio or on the toilet, an idea can come from anywhere, and these tools and instruments just need to get out the way of capturing great ideas.
And that makes me wonder about what is a great idea. I do turn off my mind for example with certain grooveboxes and something musical does come out, but I reckon majority of times I do that, the outcome I create is usually quite generic and will go off in quite random genres and styles of music. I guess it’s finding the ability and balance to have an intention before that creation, and help the idea appear.
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Really quite interesting to hear everyone’s responses.
Currently:
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Pairing of Digitone + Chase Bliss MOOD
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Soma RoAT
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Novation Circuit Rhythm (caveat being that well-prepared/fun ‘packs’ are ready to go)
…yep, the longer ur in, the harder it gets to overcome ur knowledge from time to time again…
that’s why the sampler remains the most innovative tool for me…
from my early beginnings, it was my instrument of choice, since it enabled me just fool around with any other instrument, room setting, my mouth, my hands, literally ANYTHING and then curate the golden pieces, the happy accidents, all the snippets i could find and then “just feel” their inner order of how it all can interact/line up to become music…
i can “play” all instruments and none of them at all…that gives me the freedom to discover endlessly…but even that’s wearing out…but at least, it takes decades…
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I actually owned a ukulele of reasonable quality for a while. Bought it for my older daughter when she was in high school. She was interested in guitar for social reasons, but had small hands. I got it back when she finished college. Tried it out a few times (I have small hands also) but didn’t stick with it.
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This is why I think Subharmonicon is an underrated masterpiece. It can do bass, inspiring rhythms and complex harmonies. I just love its interface for trying out things both rhythmically and harmonically, just tweaking to taste. It’s really trial and error, so all I’m thinking about when coming up with something is what sounds cool 
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