2020 a year in gear (what have you/are you bought/buying?)

[tapper mike]

Zoom Livetrak-8

Audio recording and especially audio+video have been driving me insane recently. The only reasonable solution is to go under for audio recording, record direct to the mixer then sync with video in post production.

L8.jpg

[rob_lee]

ASM Hydra Synth Desktop arrives Monday from Anderton's, couldn't afford the KB version just yet but plan on having both by Christmas. This synth has to have the best FX Iv'e ever heard on a hardware synth. That reverb is absolutely fantastic. This will make for an excellent Ambient machine.

[foosnark]

Got my Disting EX yesterday. First impressions: the screen is tiny and the text is hard to read, given my poor eyesight and the way my setup is laid out (with modules generally at arm's length). I'll deal with it though.

The SD card is pretty difficult to get to since normal human fingers don't fit very well in the space between those knobs, but I didn't quite have to resort to pliers or tweezers. Also it's dangerously right next to the edge, and if you have any gaps at all between modules, beware dropping the card inside your case... but I don't expect I'll need to change the card all that often.

Navigation is a big improvement over the mk4. Dual mode still does rely on a reference guide to some extent but less so than before. I'll see in the long term how it feels to navigate things. Right now there's lots of stuff to re-acquaint myself with in dual mode as well as several new algorithms.

With some help from Scanner Darkly, I got i2c commands working from Teletype. Slewed values aren't supported, which limits the morphing potential of the matrix mixer, but there are still some possibilities. Probably direct control of parameters via the 16n is going to be the more exciting part.

I have enough delays that Augustus Loop as an algo isn't really grabbing my attention. But the polyphonic sample player mode kind of blew my mind a little in the context of Eurorack. Not something I'm going to use frequently in my music but it's cool to be able to bring it up when I want it.

I may have to get a MIDI breakout for it, even though I don't do much MIDI sequencing anymore -- Os is working on an auto-sampler similar to the original incarnation of DiscoDSP HighLife. I'm imagining sampling softsynths, the Reface and Eurorack voices and then potentially playing them back polyphonically (or with any of the other sampling modes the Disting has).

ASM Hydra Synth Desktop arrives Monday

Sweet! I love the interface on both models, and oh yeah the sound is decent too

[sprnva]

Ordered an oh-no-zero-control

[Distorted Horizon]

I'm very close to buy this..

https://www.thomann.de/fi/behringer_xen ... 02_usb.htm

Could have all my synths connected at the same time.

[rob_lee]

New arrival from Thomann just now.. it's beginning to look like a Behringer fest in here. I'll be poly chaining the TD-3's
Only waiting on the Silver one now then I got poly hehe

[robotmonkey]

Bought a new pair of small monitors as my very very old ones finally died.

Wanted IK iLoud Micros but eventually went with JBL 104's. As the original 104's are replaced with the new model with BT, they were 100£ discounted. I do not care about BT so they suited me perfectly. Due to discount the price difference was so big with iLouds I just could not justify buying iLouds even though they probably sound a bit better (but probably not 200£ better).

JBL's also have better design and ergonomics. Front panel volume knob, a decent headphone amp and the PSU is built-into the speaker so no powerbrick on the floor.

Still getting used to them. They sound very good indeed so no regrets at all for not getting the iLouds.

Hopefully will not buy anything else this year but might get a PCIe interface from ESI.

[pekbro]

Looks like I'll be getting a Sonicware ELZ-1 as they've got a special bundle deal for
backers of their Liven 8-bit Warps that's too good to pass up. btw, I bought the Liven
8 bit a couple months ago (via kickstarter).

[Vectorman]

So far this year, a long-overdue interface upgrade (Fireface UCX).

And also just picked up a Yamaha CP5 to use (mainly) as a MIDI controller, since I seem to have a renewed interest in doing piano-driven material lately. Probably a reaction to having just finished an album where every song ended up with 200+ tracks in the session and using every synth sound under the sun. Would be a nice change to simplify just a bit for a while.

[Distorted Horizon]

Would be a nice change to simplify just a bit for a while.

Easy. Just limit yourself and accept the results.

[foosnark]

Got my Angle Grinder today. No regrets whatsoever at trading the Filter 8 for it, because this is more my speed.

Vurt, you would love this thing. It's great for experimenting with, poking around all those unpredictable spaces, but it's also a pretty great straightforward filter/waveshaper or oscillator if you dial it in that way. I've gotten some chirping birds, dying toys, self-pinging filter noises, crackling radio noise, dot matrix printers etc. out of it, and it's pretty fantastic to feed a couple of other oscillators into the inputs for sort of psuedo-PWM-ish drone fun.

It makes me want to get their Interstellar Radio too, which is 14 HP... if I can figure out how to patch Angle Grinder as a PLL, which is rumored to be possible, then maybe I can let go of my A-196 to make room for it.

[rob_lee]

Just took delivery of the ASM Hydra Synth 10 minutes ago, plan to have a fun weekend with this. Built like a tank and love the knobs on it.







Also set up 4 of the TD3's with the MC-707

[perpetual3]

Erica Synths Zen Delay

[Digivolt]

@rob_lee curious why you went for all the TD-3's instead of just 1 ?

[Mushy Mushy]

Those TD3's look ridiculous