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wub wrote:Solution - only buy cheap hardware. Can't think of anything I've bought in terms of hardware that cost more than £100, and most of it was in the <£35 bracket (Montron, 3630, Midiverb, Kaossilator etc)

Ive got the montron delay hooked back up and am pulling samples from it again

fragments wrote:

wub wrote:Solution - only buy cheap hardware. Can't think of anything I've bought in terms of hardware that cost more than £100, and most of it was in the <£35 bracket (Montron, 3630, Midiverb, Kaossilator etc)

Ive got the montron delay hooked back up and am pulling samples from it again

Nice. Been running the Kaossilator through my Delay for a portable piss-around rig

Imo 2nd hand is the way to go with this kind of thing. I saved alot of money this way. I most cases you can even sell it for around the same price you bought it for.

wub wrote:

fragments wrote:

wub wrote:Solution - only buy cheap hardware. Can't think of anything I've bought in terms of hardware that cost more than £100, and most of it was in the <£35 bracket (Montron, 3630, Midiverb, Kaossilator etc)

Ive got the montron delay hooked back up and am pulling samples from it again

Nice. Been running the Kaossilator through my Delay for a portable piss-around rig

I have it running into a mixer with various configurations of guitar pedals, then recording and chopping bits out to use : )

Project EX wrote:Imo 2nd hand is the way to go with this kind of thing. I saved alot of money this way. I most cases you can even sell it for around the same price you bought it for.

Absolutely. Personally, I find eBay a fairly good place if you research prices and wait for a deal. Just know what you are buying, how much they usually go for and be patient. Check auctions that have sold recently. Pretty good way of getting a sense of prices.

Also, don't be afraid to let an auction end with no bids. Quite often the item will be back up within a day and the price will have dropped or they will offer free shipping.

I've bought and sold lots of gear on eBay. It's a great way to go. I've never had an issue with a broken or misdescribed item, but from what I understand from a friend who got burned, eBay refunded his money immediately then went after the seller themselves. All he had to do was prove he shipped the item back to the seller.

There's a few on my list, but at the top are

- Elektron Analogue Four

- Studio Electronics Boomstar

Am thinking about saving for an Analogue Four once I've moved next month, thing looks so much fun!

fragments wrote:I have it running into a mixer with various configurations of guitar pedals, then recording and chopping bits out to use : ).

Quick question - for the delay, do you find that if you leave the feedback up full without any notes playing it makes it's own static feedback loop?

wub wrote:

fragments wrote:I have it running into a mixer with various configurations of guitar pedals, then recording and chopping bits out to use : ).

Quick question - for the delay, do you find that if you leave the feedback up full without any notes playing it makes it's own static feedback loop?

I just discovered or rediscovered that. I think it's because of the really high noise floor. There is always white noise coming out of mine and I think when feedback is near 100% the whitenoise feeds back ;p

I was feeding that feedback loop into a feedback loop yesterday

The A4 is amazing, i highly recommend it to anyone looking for a very deep synth engine and amazing integrated sequencer. It's based on similar tech as the DSI product range, using FPGA's to do the bulk of the analog work, but i think it sounds much better than the DSI stuff. You can do things on it that sound like a hell of a lot more than just 4 voices at once, but it gets really amazing with resampling/overdubs. Plus the filters/overdrive/FX on it are really great for processing other material thru.

On a side note, I don't know why lots of people seem to think that analog synths sound like there is chorus on them, or why they think that adding some slight pitch imperfections will make it the same as an analog synth. Im not saying that analog is superior in all cases, or trying to resurrect the stupid hardware/software debate, but I often think that people who add up tons of effects on a soft synth trying to get it to sound like an analog synth don't really know what an analog synth sounds like in person. None of my analog synths have cyclic or random pitch shifting. Once a synth is on and warmed up, it pretty much stays in tune (even my cranky old MS20).

@Knobgoblin: I've only ever owned a Mopho, what don't you like about the sound? The Mopho is pretty raw, I'll give you that.

A4: Yes. I know a few guys on another forum who bought them and it is a very deep synth! I've heard things made on an A4 that I couldn't believe they did with four Osc. Also, its Elektron...from my brief experience with a Monomachine I can bet the A4 is an inspiring machine to work with.

"Analog Sound": Totally agreed. Even with the "analog slop" setting on the Mopho turned to 11 I don't get pitch shifting or chorus or anything like that.

I have a PolyEvolver rack, and tho I've always liked the sound, its never really screamed analog at me the way the A4 does. I also have never really liked their envelopes for hard or percussive sounds. I've only played with the rest of the DSI range at shops or briefly at a friends place, but I always felt like they sounded soft or somewhat muffled, even with proper gain staging internally. Not to say that I havent heard amazing things done with them, they just have never really grabbed my attention is all. Also, I may have been turned off to them thru having one of their worst UI synths. I had the desktop evolver before hand and learned it pretty well, but programming sound from the Poly Rack's front panel is so slow and not very inspiring. To me the A4 just sounds great from the get go where I felt like I had to work a lot harder to get the sounds I wanted out of the PE rack

knobgoblin wrote:I have a PolyEvolver rack, and tho I've always liked the sound, its never really screamed analog at me the way the A4 does. I also have never really liked their envelopes for hard or percussive sounds. I've only played with the rest of the DSI range at shops or briefly at a friends place, but I always felt like they sounded soft or somewhat muffled, even with proper gain staging internally. Not to say that I havent heard amazing things done with them, they just have never really grabbed my attention is all. Also, I may have been turned off to them thru having one of their worst UI synths. I had the desktop evolver before hand and learned it pretty well, but programming sound from the Poly Rack's front panel is so slow and not very inspiring. To me the A4 just sounds great from the get go where I felt like I had to work a lot harder to get the sounds I wanted out of the PE rack

I can agree with their envelopes, though I've learned to coax decent kick drums and noisy percs out of the Mopho. I thought about the Evolver series, but holy shit that seems like a freakin' pain. I don't mind programming the Mopho from the unit, but a Tetra would have be at least 50% off for me to consider one...all that menu diving!

I haven't worked with enough analog synths to know if DSI sounds muffled or not in comparison to other analogs.

Personally, I love the Curtis LPF though...I run all kinds of stuff through that ;p

I was thinking about adding another analog monosynth to my setup. Probably either the new MS20 or MiniBrute. I'm not very tempted by Moog (mostly b/c of price point, I don't feel like I'm getting anything extra for the extra money).

MS20 is also killer, and the new ones are stupidly cheap.

Decent Xox, one of the MFB Zwergs or Dark Energy II?

Can't decide.

AxeD wrote:Decent Xox, one of the MFB Zwergs or Dark Energy II?

Can't decide.

Dark energy. No contest IMO. XoX are cool...but meh...and the MFBs sound OK...but I'm not a fan of the build quality TBH. More bang for your buck with Dark Energy II, you can process external sounds.