What was your first piece of gear?

[porphyry]

I didn’t see another topic like this on the board and I think it’s kind of interesting to see where everyone started and how that did or didn’t inform where you have ended up.

I’m pretty new and started with a Volca FM because it was cheaper and looked really interesting. I got it because I wanted something with some depth and don’t regret it. I most recently got a DN, wanted to stick with FM. I also got a Volca Drum and a Monologue along the way and liked them both, the monologue was a fun way to learn some basic analogue on.

Where did you all start? Where are you now? This can be pretty open ended I think but I’m curious.

[DoS]

@porphyry

I didn’t see another topic like this on the board

There’s this one that had a lot of discussion in it.

[porphyry]

Awesome thanks

[PeterHanes]

@porphyry

Where are you now?

Previously on Elektronauts:

Your Setups

We need a new Your Setups thread!!

[reeloy]

…back then, that was brand new, the hot shit from japan…
and ADSR was the synthmode…
when one of it’s presets gave the backbeat to DA DA DA, it was already considered old again…

[cLAss85]

The Kaossilator! That yellow box changed me forever, for the better!

[Doug]

I never got the Dr. Rhythm to go with it or any other sequencer for that matter. I used to use it with a tape deck. I would record myself playing the pads and then record that back into the machine.

From there, I switched to using my computer for that. I found a program called Internet Audio Mix. It was a multi track recorder. So I’d record my loops on there instead.

Eventually I got into Fruity Loops. For a while I just used the demo version to make loops that I would sequence in Internet Audio Mix. Then I actually bought the software. And that was my whole thing for a while. Then I stopped making music.

When I decided to get back into it, I wanted something more hands on like the 202. I tried the SP-404 and I hated it. I also tried a Yamaha SU10 and a Korg ES-1. I liked the ES-1 but I could never make a whole beat on it.

Then I got the Sampletrak. I loved it. But its sequencer is kind of broken. It’s great for making loops but you’ve got to use some work arounds to put them together.

Around that time the Model: Samples came out and it looked to me like a much better version of the ES-1. I really loved it. I went and got the Cycles to go with it. I eventually upgraded to the Digitakt and the Digitone. And they’re my main thing now.

I sold the Models to fund a Circuit Rhythm so I could have something portable. I’ve got mixed feelings about it. But I’ve made a lot of my favorite beats with it.

Along the way I also picked up some synths. For a while I had a Modal Skulpt and a Craft Synth. I sold the Craft Synth and the Skulpt died on me right after it was outside of the warranty. As much as I liked it when it worked, I don’t think I’ll ever buy another piece from Modal. I also got an Uno Synth and I was gifted an Uno Synth Pro after Noir Et Blanc Vie heard my tale of woe about the dead Skulpt.

So yeah, gear is fun.

[porphyry]

Gear is fun.

Thanks for the detailed response it’s cool to see the natural progression there. Clearly you know what you’re trying to accomplish and know when something is going to get you there or not.

[sacguy71]

Elektron Analog 4 MK2 and Moog Sub 37. Both I still own and use years later.

[Drummachinemike]

For me it was a Tascam four track and an Akai S900. Both are still with me and will always be in the studio. The S900 makes drums sound a way that no other sampler could ever sound like.

[SLiC]

30 years ago…Foster X26 (I think that is what it was called, 4 track tape). Guitars and a Boss Drum Machine of some type!

First synth was a Yamaha SY 22…loved a joystick then…now I have one in my modular

[Phurniture]

A Roland Juno-106 purchased around 1998

[plragde]

In pre-history: PAiA 2720, 1977.

In the modern era: Korg NTS-1, 2021.

(Not counting more conventional “gear” – there was a 180cm grand piano in between, for example…)

[Fin25]

Korg ER-1.

[Castor]

A radio

[bodymechanics]

I got a Frankenstein style guitar given to me when I was 16, around 1991
Played in lots of showgaze bands then.
Psychedelic shit.

The first piece of electronic gear I got was a Roland XP-60

I’d actually love to have another XP-60
The keyboard was nice.
Hard to remember if the sounds were any good.
I got a few sound card expansions for it.
I programmed tons of tracks in that thing.
Was definitely tedious

If I really wanted to go back, I had a Fisher Price thing I used to record with as a child.
Was cool to put almost dead batteries in it so the tape would record at a different speed

[pidgeo]

a pair of ariston belt-drive decks & a sh1t mixer around '95.

jeez they were bad. veneered chipboard, and would skip if you look at em
ah but I loved em. cut my teeth on em so to speak.

[J3RK]

First gear that I made music on (aside from the family piano) was my C64. Then Amiga, then a MicroMoog was my first proper synth. (though we did have the Synsonic Drum toy)

[plragde]

@Castor

A radio

Well, if that counts:

Crystal radio, 1970

[Edit: I still can’t believe this works, and am tempted to get one again. But do they still work? Does non-digital radio still exist? I have no idea.]

[J3RK]

Hehe, if we’re expanding this definition a bit, I did have a bunch of those spring-based and cube based electronics learning kits in the 80s, and I did build some noise-making devices on them. I think I did build the crystal radio project for one of them too.

Edit:

Just found the two that I had!

They definitely (aside from my Dad, Uncle, Cousin, and friends into all this) got me interested, but I didn’t actually learn much until I was in my 20s/30s, and really wanted to start designing synths.