2023: A Year in Gear (What You've Bought or Want to Buy in 2023)

[ghettosynth]

I confess, I have purchased the Behringer 2500 Ring Modulator. Don't laugh, I absolutely hate eurorack's "music should be like building a ship in a bottle" approach to cramming too much shit into too little space. I feel that Behringer has nailed it with the spacing and I will use a similar approach with my DIY kit.

Another favorite module of mine is the Maleko Heavy Industries VCO. As soon as my companion Roland VCOs arrive tomorrow, it will be DRONE TIME!

I suspect that I'm out here alone on obese-module island. If not, if you're taking that double dip in chunky-town, tell me what you like.

I'm not just about the obese modules though, pico-dsp from Erica is fantastic and doesn't need to be any bigger.

[AsPeeXXXVIII]

I placed an order for an 8-string guitar the other day. Looking forward to djenting on it.

[WatchTheGuitar]

I suspect that I'm out here alone on obese-module island.

I would love a bunch of fat modules with good spacing as it gets hard to plug everything in sometimes with a bunch of narrow modules, but I am really limited in space for my racks so I have to go for skinny ones or miss out on functionality. The first module I bought was the Behringer 960, a superwide hands on sequencer, but I can’t give it house room in my rack anymore as it takes up room I now use for half a dozen other modules.

Maybe you could investigate the world of 5U modular. It was the format most people used before eurorack and is still going.
https://youtu.be/jKjTT33c5BQ

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

I wanna sell some stuff and buy Zebra Legacy.

On the block are

Synthmaster one and two.
Ana2.5
Bazille
Tracktion WF 12

None of that’s hardware and this is a hardware forum thread

Oops

[ghettosynth]

I suspect that I'm out here alone on obese-module island.

I would love a bunch of fat modules with good spacing as it gets hard to plug everything in sometimes with a bunch of narrow modules, but I am really limited in space for my racks so I have to go for skinny ones or miss out on functionality. The first module I bought was the Behringer 960, a superwide hands on sequencer, but I can’t give it house room in my rack anymore as it takes up room I now use for half a dozen other modules.

Maybe you could investigate the world of 5U modular. It was the format most people used before eurorack and is still going.

Yeah, no. I'm well aware of 5U with the original Moog stuff and MOTM and Synthesizers.com modules. I considered going that route a long time ago and even demoed some systems, it goes too far. Moog was the worst with their football field sized modules with just a knob or two.

I flirted with 4U for a while and even built some serge like panels, mostly. What I discovered was that full width 4U is nice to play and ok to organize with well designed panels, but it is a DIY disaster. It takes forever to finish a panel and you end up putting it in the rack and then taking it out of the rack to work on it. Now 4U as a module format might be perfect, I think this stuff is absolutely beautiful and I love the details like the vernier drives on the frequency knobs.



But, no, I'm not paying over two-large, in euros, for a triple VCO. Also, there is not a readily available source of 4u panels and/or modules. One could adapt eurorack rails to this format, but you can't underestimate things like being able to easily buy pre-drilled blank front panels at low cost for DIY efforts. I only mean that the mounting holes are pre-drilled. I don't mind drilling holes for pots and jacks, if they're a little off, you hardly notice.

I like the size of (some) larger 3U modules and I'm sticking with that in a rack format where, if I feel it's necessary, I can also include 4u panels or even my own 1U or 2U panels if I wish. The latter is much more palatable and useful for some things, e.g., tube based modules are easier to manage in a 2U enclosure where it's not rocket surgery to build a reasonably priced HV power supply. One can use standard vintage transformers pulled from old gear.

I'm probably going to pick up one of those B-Sequencers. I like the big knobs and the skip feature on a switch. I've got it in the cart at Sweetwater along with more of the 2500 stuff.

[WatchTheGuitar]

I'm probably going to pick up one of those B-Sequencers. I like the big knobs and the skip feature on a switch. I've got it in the cart at Sweetwater along with more of the 2500 stuff.

If you’ve the houseroom it’s pretty good. Its neatest trick is you can optionally run the third row to control the timing of each stage, that sets it apart from most other sequencers though give me my ultra cramped menu divey Westlich Performer over it any day, it does so so much more.

[ghettosynth]

I'm probably going to pick up one of those B-Sequencers. I like the big knobs and the skip feature on a switch. I've got it in the cart at Sweetwater along with more of the 2500 stuff.

If you’ve the houseroom it’s pretty good. Its neatest trick is you can optionally run the third row to control the timing of each stage, that sets it apart from most other sequencers though give me my ultra cramped menu divey Westlich Performer over it any day, it does so so much more.

I get it, but I don't like working with modular gear that way. That's not too bad as far as being cramped, but it's just a computer with a very limited interface. It reminds me too much of working on 90s workstations or rack synths. I'm kind of done with all of that. I'd rather use reaktor with some CV ins/outs from a MOTU interface than buy a lot of digital eurorack gear. Some is ok, don't get me wrong, but that's not my MO with modular.

B-Seq is on Amazon Prime, so yeah, it's on its way...

[vurt]

just get your hands replaced with the hands of a capuchin monkey.

[ghettosynth]

just get your hands replaced with the hands of a capuchin monkey.

That would be ok, but I sometimes like to strip down to my birthday suit and rock out with some "three hand" patches. I mean, I suppose I could go all in, but I don't love analog gear that much.

[vurt]

you are uninvited to any synth jams i have

[WatchTheGuitar]

Well this took a turn.

[ghettosynth]

Well this took a turn.

Sorry, I didn't mean to convey that I'm uncommitted to analog gear. Please forgive me.

[cryophonik]

I think this is the last thing on my ultimate dream synth list and probably/hopefully a purchase in 2023 (Studio Electronics CODE/Omega). First, I need to sort out my space and connection options, decide which of my current synths may need to go, then figure out how I want to spec it (e.g., which filter models to fill those extra slots).

[ghettosynth]

I think this is the last thing on my ultimate dream synth list and probably/hopefully a purchase in 2023 (Studio Electronics CODE/Omega). First, I need to sort out my space and connection options, decide which of my current synths may need to go, then figure out how I want to spec it (e.g., which filter models to fill those extra slots).

I like SE stuff, but, that's priced like a Moog. I get that the filter choices are nice, but if I were at $8k for a synth, I'd be all about that 16 voice Moog One.

[cryophonik]

I think this is the last thing on my ultimate dream synth list and probably/hopefully a purchase in 2023 (Studio Electronics CODE/Omega). First, I need to sort out my space and connection options, decide which of my current synths may need to go, then figure out how I want to spec it (e.g., which filter models to fill those extra slots).

I like SE stuff, but, that's priced like a Moog. I get that the filter choices are nice, but if I were at $8k for a synth, I'd be all about that 16 voice Moog One.

I have three Moogs and they’re all great, but I prefer my SE synths over all of them. I had short bout of GAS for the Moog One, but got over it pretty quickly after hearing a lot of demos and seeing user reviews. It’s just not for me, not to mention that it’s a gigantic beast that I have no space for.