2021: A Year in Gear (What You've Bought or Want to Buy in 2021)

[justin3am]

I don't have one at the moment but I really love Steiner-Parker filters. I had a Frequensteiner which was pretty noisy but it had so much character. Then I built a DIY Steiner filter from CGS boards and my favorite part of that is that the HP, LP and BP each had their own input and when you fed different signals into each, it had a really cool effect. I think the TipTop version has individual inputs form HP, LP and BP, too.
Manhattan Analog stuff is super well built, so I'm sure you'll love it.

[justin3am]

Thinking about swapping my Focusrite Red 8Pre for another A16r and a RedNet PCIe card. My main studio computer is a Mac Mini, so I'd also need a Magma or Sonnet chassis. Anyone using a Sonnet PCIe chassis with a PCIe audio interface? They are a lot cheaper than Magma!
That'll probably be one for the 2022 thread anyway.

Brit just ordered appliances for our kitchen remodel. Demolition is supposed to start in January I think. There goes most of my gear budget for next year.

[pekbro]

The jam pedals Dynassor compressor is pretty nice, it's all about adding sustain, which it does
very well.

I guess I am high on the list for the SOMA Cosmos pre-order, just need to decide
if I wanna shell out for it. https://somasynths.com/cosmos/.

Seems like the Quilter Superblock is going to take a couple months, I guess they have to build it. Trying to see if I can cancel that and apply the funds towards the aviator cub combo amp instead, which would eliminate the cosmos thing, though I'm not sure that bothers me much currently.

[elxsound]

That Ripply Falls is still my favorite Pedal design. I’m enjoying Rattler and Delay Llama. I didn’t even look at Dynassor but I’m guessing I should.

[pekbro]

That Ripply Falls is still my favorite Pedal design. I’m enjoying Rattler and Delay Llama. I didn’t even look at Dynassor but I’m guessing I should.

The Ripply Fall is pretty sick, I love it. The phaser is really subtle and different than most I've heard.
It all works together very well, definitely right up there on the top of my recommended list

Did you see that Browne Amps has made a new pedal, the Carbon https://browneamps.com/thecarbon
which is just the John Mayer circuit side of the Protein. Seems pretty excellent.

[WatchTheGuitar]

Thinking about swapping my Focusrite Red 8Pre for another A16r and a RedNet PCIe card. My main studio computer is a Mac Mini, so I'd also need a Magma or Sonnet chassis. Anyone using a Sonnet PCIe chassis with a PCIe audio interface? They are a lot cheaper than Magma!

Not sure how much I/O you need, but if you can live with 32 tracks in/32 out at 48K then I can vouch for a RME Digiface and using 4 x ADAT to connect four lots of 8 channel MicPres. I use three Behringer ADA8200 for synths and a Focusrite Scarlett OctoPre for mic, guitar and FX sends. All in came to around a grand and I get 2.3ms latency at 128 buffers, very happy with it and love how I can create a virtual patchbay if I wanted to send some sounds via FX units I leave everything plugged in the same and make the routing in software.

[grrrz]

Got in a purchase frenzy with the pandemic since december 2020 actually; bought an *ahem* (this time) official version of ableton suite; bought a behringer neutron as a treat and first synth; then a keystep 37 to go with it; then a microfreak; a used midi interface (ioconnetivity 2x2; to replace my unsupported UM-3EX); a nakedboard MC-24 knobs controller; and last black friday I bought the entire V collections; pigments; FX collections; the multiphonics CV-1; a few waves plugins I needed (EQP1; Rcompressor); the izotope bundle with ozone; neutron and RX elements; and wires from audiothing. Also I'm waiting for my Make Noise strega from thomann (maybe in january?) and sometime next year I'll maybe start my eurorack setup; centered around generative IDM-style ryhtms and glitches. For now I'm trying a lot of different generative techniques in ableton; so we'll see. Also I bought a macbook air M1 to replace my mini from 2012. maybe I should slow down; find a bit more work; buy clothes and stuff; and make more music with what I already have. For now at least I'm cured from the need to buy an analog poly. for now.
Love making improvisation session with hardware (mostly ambiant; drone; experimental); but integration with the DAW as soon as I want sync is not ideal; and for composition I will always switch to DAW mode and give up hardware seq/arps.

[Shabdahbriah]

I confess, I've mainly had this stashed in a closet for at least a decade, but am breaking it out here as 2021 comes to a close, just to inspire you to imagine how awesome-cool and hip it will look in "let's see some studio pics" as the central hub, around which to place my eurorack system.

Elenco Model EP-130.png

[justin3am]

Thinking about swapping my Focusrite Red 8Pre for another A16r and a RedNet PCIe card. My main studio computer is a Mac Mini, so I'd also need a Magma or Sonnet chassis. Anyone using a Sonnet PCIe chassis with a PCIe audio interface? They are a lot cheaper than Magma!

Not sure how much I/O you need, but if you can live with 32 tracks in/32 out at 48K then I can vouch for a RME Digiface and using 4 x ADAT to connect four lots of 8 channel MicPres. I use three Behringer ADA8200 for synths and a Focusrite Scarlett OctoPre for mic, guitar and FX sends. All in came to around a grand and I get 2.3ms latency at 128 buffers, very happy with it and love how I can create a virtual patchbay if I wanted to send some sounds via FX units I leave everything plugged in the same and make the routing in software.

Thanks for the suggestion. With the Red 8Pre (which connects to the computer with thunderbolt), I currently have 64 channels in and 64 channels out between the interface and the computer. However, I can only feed 32 inputs and 32 outputs from my Dante network into the Red 8Pre. I have about 88 channels of I/O in my Dante network, between the A16r, RedNet 3, 1073OPX and H9000. With the RedNet PCIe card, I get 128 channels of I/O from/to the computer via Dante.

The Dante network has become pretty important to the way I work because it allows me to have multiple computers which can access the I/O on my network.

Running at 96k is also pretty important to the way I work, though I do use ADAT for the CV interfaces in my modular and for bouncing audio from my hard disk recorders.

[pekbro]

Got in a purchase frenzy with the pandemic since december 2020 actually; bought an *ahem* (this time) official version of ableton suite; bought a behringer neutron as a treat and first synth; then a keystep 37 to go with it; then a microfreak; a used midi interface (ioconnetivity 2x2; to replace my unsupported UM-3EX); a nakedboard MC-24 knobs controller; and last black friday I bought the entire V collections; pigments; FX collections; the multiphonics CV-1; a few waves plugins I needed (EQP1; Rcompressor); the izotope bundle with ozone; neutron and RX elements; and wires from audiothing. Also I'm waiting for my Make Noise strega from thomann (maybe in january?) and sometime next year I'll maybe start my eurorack setup; centered around generative IDM-style ryhtms and glitches. For now I'm trying a lot of different generative techniques in ableton; so we'll see. Also I bought a macbook air M1 to replace my mini from 2012. maybe I should slow down; find a bit more work; buy clothes and stuff; and make more music with what I already have. For now at least I'm cured from the need to buy an analog poly. for now.
Love making improvisation session with hardware (mostly ambiant; drone; experimental); but integration with the DAW as soon as I want sync is not ideal; and for composition I will always switch to DAW mode and give up hardware seq/arps.

Heh, one of the best things about eurorack is composition without arrangement, e.g. the performance aspect, no DAW necessary. IMO anyway... Be careful not to get carried away, spending 20 grand on eurorack is surprisingly easy, take my word for it.

[resynthesis]

Did you see that Browne Amps has made a new pedal, the Carbon https://browneamps.com/thecarbon
which is just the John Mayer circuit side of the Protein. Seems pretty excellent.

That's a fettled Bluesbreaker isn't it?

[grrrz]

Not bought the EC4 as it doesn’t have lit ring encoders.

yeah I considered it but the lack of led feedback plus the lack of customisation for the push part of the encoder dissuaded me. BCR 32 seems like a good option; with old school tape with marker it'll be fine. plus I want at least 32 encoders.

[WatchTheGuitar]

Thinking about swapping my Focusrite Red 8Pre for another A16r and a RedNet PCIe card. My main studio computer is a Mac Mini, so I'd also need a Magma or Sonnet chassis. Anyone using a Sonnet PCIe chassis with a PCIe audio interface? They are a lot cheaper than Magma!

Not sure how much I/O you need, but if you can live with 32 tracks in/32 out at 48K then I can vouch for a RME Digiface and using 4 x ADAT to connect four lots of 8 channel MicPres. I use three Behringer ADA8200 for synths and a Focusrite Scarlett OctoPre for mic, guitar and FX sends. All in came to around a grand and I get 2.3ms latency at 128 buffers, very happy with it and love how I can create a virtual patchbay if I wanted to send some sounds via FX units I leave everything plugged in the same and make the routing in software.

Thanks for the suggestion. With the Red 8Pre (which connects to the computer with thunderbolt), I currently have 64 channels in and 64 channels out between the interface and the computer. However, I can only feed 32 inputs and 32 outputs from my Dante network into the Red 8Pre. I have about 88 channels of I/O in my Dante network, between the A16r, RedNet 3, 1073OPX and H9000. With the RedNet PCIe card, I get 128 channels of I/O from/to the computer via Dante.

The Dante network has become pretty important to the way I work because it allows me to have multiple computers which can access the I/O on my network.

Running at 96k is also pretty important to the way I work, though I do use ADAT for the CV interfaces in my modular and for bouncing audio from my hard disk recorders.

Didn’t realise you had such a monster setup. When I initially checked out how to get lots of I/O into my pc I did investigate things like MADI and Dante, but it was way overkill for me, especially as it’s all just me playing and recording on it. It gets silly expensive though I did like the idea of being able to run simple ethernet cable to link units together.
Re RME I did slightly undersell the Digiface as you can link up to three of them together. May be worth mentioning they do also offer Dante and MADI versions.

[pekbro]

Did you see that Browne Amps has made a new pedal, the Carbon https://browneamps.com/thecarbon
which is just the John Mayer circuit side of the Protein. Seems pretty excellent.

That's a fettled Bluesbreaker isn't it?

I believe so yeah...

[justin3am]

May be worth mentioning they do also offer Dante and MADI versions.

I forgot about the Digiface Dante. But that's 64 input and 64 outputs via Dante and 64 inputs and 64 outputs via MADI! I'm also concerned about handling that much I/O via USB3 (though I suppose I shouldn't be, lol). There are a lot of good options in terms of Dante interfaces at the moment. I'm just looking for a setup that I can rely on for the next 10 years at least. I felt like a PCIe card with a Thunderbolt 3 chassis would be the way to go but I'll take a closer look at RME's offerings. I have a good 64 channel ADAT interface in the RedNet 3, so I'll probably stick with that.

I do some pretty big tracking projects but all that I/O really comes in handy when I'm mixing. I tend to use outboard processors before reaching for plug-ins and with a big project, I can eat up 32 channels without breaking a sweat. During my last tracking session, we used 22 mic pres (full drum kit, 2 guitar amps and vocals), 12 line ins (keyboards, DIs from GTRs and bass) and 16 channels of sends (mostly running through the H9000). It's amazing to be able to do this in my home studio, considering where I started!