2022: A Year in Gear (What You've Bought or Want to Buy in 2022)

[whyterabbyt]

Got all sorts of warnings from the control panel for my Emu soundcard this morning, basically thinking the Audiodock was missing, but also showing full-scale crap on the peak meters for the input channels. Looks like the dock is f**ked. There's a known issue where a particular couple of caps on the internal PSU blow, and opening it up it definitely looks like they're deformed.
But although I have various boxes of caps I dont have any of the right ones to hand (680uF electrolytics) so Ive had to order some. So that's my audio hardware purchasing for this week.

(Im hoping a couple of quid worth of caps saves me a couple of hundred quid worth of convertor ; if it doesnt fix it, guess Im in the market for a replacement. Pricing for the Emus second hand seems to have gone through the roof, wish I'd bought one when they were going for spare change. So a basic 8/8 ADAT box, probably a second ADA8200. Vaguely thought about swapping my old Expert Sleepers ES-1 for an ES-3 but that would cost just as much and I'd be down 8 inputs.)

[WatchTheGuitar]

Pricing for the Emus second hand seems to have gone through the roof, wish I'd bought one when they were going for spare change.

I've got an 1820m I haven't used for a decade. It's close to mint condition as I got it a year or two before I moved down to Southampton and it's still in the box I put it in.
Any use?

Though tbh I just read some stuff online that said all these units get problems eventually - bit like the Junos - due to using some shitty components. I imagine even if my unit looks fine there's a good chance the internal components have also degraded like yours.

Move on is probably the best advice.

[justin3am]

Cripes that sounds lush...

Lush is right. I'm scared to ask how much... there are no prices on their site.

I think I heard $2200 for the triple oscillator. It’s sounds mighty fine but probably not for me. It really has that Synthi character I love though.

[justin3am]

Got all sorts of warnings from the control panel for my Emu soundcard this morning…

That sucks! I gave my 1820m dock away a few years back. Switching to a new audio interface is the worst. Few things require as much surgery in software and on the patchbay.
Condolences!

[vurt]

Cripes that sounds lush...

Lush is right. I'm scared to ask how much... there are no prices on their site.

I think I heard $2200 for the triple oscillator. It’s sounds mighty fine but probably not for me. It really has that Synthi character I love though.

if you're gonna spend that on the oscillator alone, is it not just worth biting the bullet and saving for the synthi complete?
or have they gone up even more in recent years? they were around 8-10 last i looked.

id seriously need a lottery win to consider one, but if i did win the lottery, it would be the first thing id buy for me!
then maybe id look at a house.

[vurt]

next thing im getting is 16 days away
will be noisy as hell!!!
will scream like a baby!!!
will also shit like one!!
it's my second granddaughter

[vurt]

was discussing names last week with them

"we're looking for another r name"

ooh how about something exotic, ryl yeh?

"that's nice, what's that?"

it's where dead cthulhu lies, dreaming.

"errrr..."

[Shabdahbriah]

was discussing names last week with them

"we're looking for another r name"

ooh how about something exotic, ryl yeh?

"that's nice, what's that?"

it's where dead cthulhu lies, dreaming.

"errrr..."

{cough} ... Ruby.

[vurt]

was discussing names last week with them

"we're looking for another r name"

ooh how about something exotic, ryl yeh?

"that's nice, what's that?"

it's where dead cthulhu lies, dreaming.

"errrr..."

{cough} ... Ruby.

she already has a cousin ruby, i did suggest it though lovely name!

[WatchTheGuitar]

Out of all the R names of girls I’ve known I think Raewyn is my favourite, it sounds nice long or short (Rae) IMO.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t resist snapping up an Erica Synths Bassdrum module which arrived today. Having fun now I have analog kick and hats, using noise for snares and driving them all from Grids.

Embarrassingly it turned out my issue with Grids triggers was just because I’d been using the accent output by mistake. D’oh!
Also that Little Melody thing I got gets on really well with BIA as a bassline generator.

[whyterabbyt]

Got all sorts of warnings from the control panel for my Emu soundcard this morning…

That sucks! I gave my 1820m dock away a few years back. Switching to a new audio interface is the worst. Few things require as much surgery in software and on the patchbay.
Condolences!

Well, luckily the Emu isnt my main interface, that's a Profire 2626, and the Emu is connected to that via ADAT. But it is very handy having something with the internal routing flexibility of the Emu, including the Windows audio side, for all sorts of things.

Pricing for the Emus second hand seems to have gone through the roof, wish I'd bought one when they were going for spare change.

Though tbh I just read some stuff online that said all these units get problems eventually - bit like the Junos - due to using some shitty components. I imagine even if my unit looks fine there's a good chance the internal components have also degraded like yours.

Move on is probably the best advice.

Well, its 18 years old and has been continuously used through at least 3 systems, so Im not overly surprised. But yeah, seems like the PSU caps were a bit no-brand. Ordered Panasonic replacements, so if it works, that'd be a relief.
I am still running an 11-year old PC (massively overclocked i7 2700 running Win7 at about 4.5Ghz, but cooler than stock), so replacing that and losing use of the Emu and various other hardware (because of annoying crap like lack of Win10 drivers) is basically an inevitability, but I dont really feel I -need- to do that yet, so I'd rather not. There's probably a cost of a few hundred, maybe as much as a grand on top of a replacement system depending on whether I'd also need to replace the Profire, my control surface, 8x8 midi interface, even my keyboard etc etc.

[ErikHeirman]

I be bought a Prophet 600 an Vermona DRM 1 and two Kush Tweakers.Allhad a big impact on my sound.

[Constructed Identity]

I am worried I'll give in and finally get a eurorack set up. Something to fit a West Pest, matrix mixer, and potentially a Subharmonicon... Had the chance to really dive into one last weekend and it was really nice sounding. The kind of box that specializes instead of trying to appeal to a wide audience. Didn't like its sequencer, but that's why it should be in a eurorack. There are better options to sequence it.

[simmo75]

I picked up an Iridium Keyboard, it’s a fricking dream synth! Off to play

[WatchTheGuitar]

I am worried I'll give in and finally get a eurorack set up. Something to fit a West Pest, matrix mixer, and potentially a Subharmonicon... Had the chance to really dive into one last weekend and it was really nice sounding. The kind of box that specializes instead of trying to appeal to a wide audience. Didn't like its sequencer, but that's why it should be in a eurorack. There are better options to sequence it.

I’ve only used the VCV Rack clone of it, Substation, but it’s supposed to be pretty faithful to it and I really like its minimalist sequencer and how you can add in different time divisions. Helps if you add a short 3-to-1 sequential switch to flit between the three sequencer tracks.