Grabbed this classic this weekend for an absolute steal. Even came with an M256E memory card. I remember these coming into the shop I worked in when they came out, always loved the orange LCD and recognised the percussion in that awful Genesis song right away. Saw later it was a big hit with the electronic artists of the day (recall Dave Angel loving it and it being all over the first Ken Ishii album). Playing it today sounds like so many old tracks from the Trance Europe Express era (and Mario 64).
Broken plastic sides and one key needs its spring put back in but apart from that it seems fine, and no sign anywhere of any red glue, inside or out.
What?: TE EP-133 K.O. II bag (69 EUR) Whatfor? errm, dunno, thought it looked pretty cool.
What else?: TE Pocket Operator modular 16 (59 EUR) Why?: errm, to get free shipping and I seem to never have enough sequencers, and maybe I just think, the world is gonna end, so F it?
What else?: Kawai Q80 and Roland MC500 (really cheap) Whatfor?: did I mention I sort of never have enough sequencers? And I just had bought Jeff Mills‘ Growth EP (AX-10) and that had warped me again deep into polyrhythm territory (were a cool bag may certainly come in handy - and the polyrhythm-loop-wonder-machine Q80 of course) and I never touched an MC500 and love the clunky sound of the cash register (oh Freud) buttons (or my idea of it) and - did I mention, sometimes I think, lately more often for some reason, the world is going to end - so F it? 🥸
Just had a quick read of this MC500 review from '87…
“The machine has a stated memory capacity of 25,000 notes (or MIDI events), but in practice, if you record in step time with no velocity, aftertouch or pitch-bend data, you can push this up to over 30,000 events. Internal memory is 512K RAM, and each disk can store 2Mbytes of data, which allows you to store a lot of information (about eight songs’ worth, in fact).”
I thought the 2DD disk holds 720kB. But it’s a lot for Midi data! Never exceeded any memory limit on any hardware sequencer so far (maybe due to the fact it is minimal techno mostly and no SysEx or lots of CC data)
Korg ARP 2600M - $1150 was just too good a discounted price to pass up. Once upon a time, people joked about Korg making a Volca 2600 with super tiny sliders, magnifying glass 100% required. IMO, this is not the case with the 2600M. The sliders are still a decent size and the panel is still easy to read. The built in speakers can be surprisingly loud.
Starving Students M-PAR right angle Eurorack cables - 5 pack of 6" red cables and 5 pack of 8" green cables. One of the 2600M reviews stated the stock cables are long enough to hang on top of the keyboard, if you park your keyboard controller right in front of the 2600M, and so shorter cables were recommended.
Finally upgraded to the latest version of Studio One Professional today, since it is on sale. I have not read about all the new features yet, but the surround sound configurations caught my attention in the past. I might start using Studio One for smaller short film projects in lieu of Digital Performer.
That said, I have an R&B project well underway, and version 5 still does everything I need and more. Unless I discover a new feature that is highly beneficial, I will probably keep using the older version until it is finalized. I hate changing or upgrading DAWs while projects are unfinished.
I think my mixing is halfway decent, but I want to see if this can help me get another couple % further. Especially as I don’t have my monitors set up at the moment and mix exclusively on cans. Plan is actually to use it and not need it after a while as it should help my decisions
Yes, there is a reason why it hasn’t been (was not?, anyway) succeeded by its designated successor XD. The minilogue OG is one of the best sounding synthesizers I know 🥹😊
and I seem to never have enough sequencers, and maybe I just think, the world is gonna end, so F it?
oh Freud) buttons (or my idea of it) and - did I mention, sometimes I think, lately more often for some reason, the world is going to end - so F it? 
🥸
and no SysEx or lots of CC data)
