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

[Shabdahbriah]

psst 60 litre plastic storage boxes.
50 quid for 3 on amazon (then stick one of your teenage engineering stickers on it).

I keep all of the original 'little' product boxes flattened and stashed, and many of the small shipping boxes also. Last time I re-boxed my Eurorack modules for a move, it took four 56Qt/53 L containers. Another of the same, for studio, and rack cables.

... pita, but everything was 'safe'.

[ghettosynth]

psst 60 litre plastic storage boxes.
50 quid for 3 on amazon (then stick one of your teenage engineering stickers on it).

I keep all of the original 'little' product boxes flattened and stashed, and many of the small shipping boxes also. Last time I re-boxed my Eurorack modules for a move, it took four 56Qt/53 L containers. Another of the same, for studio, and rack cables.

... pita, but everything was 'safe'.

ALM has the best boxes. Work it out Pamela!

[elxsound]

Was just gonna say the same… I had all boxes flattened until Pamela came. ALM had to screw it all up!

I still accumulated too many boxes, so I tossed them.

[foosnark]

The box for Natural Gate is a thing of beauty. I can imagine Rabid Elephant shopping around for a place to do the box, and a separate place to do the custom foam insert in just the right shade of black.

The Mutable Instruments boxes were always pretty nice too.

I have this ottoman thing under my desk that's secretly a storage box. Most of my empty Eurorack boxes go in there. I've resold/traded way too many modules not to keep the boxes, and that ottoman is much smaller than the piles of books I need to sell or donate, or the junk in the basement. There's a dead inflatable hot tub and 3-4 broken chairs down there, and the spiders only need one chair.

[WatchTheGuitar]

I haven’t noticed anything about the boxes things arrive in other than the ALM ones.
Think what I was most amazed by was when I bought modules from Hampshire Electronics they came in nondescript boxes yet contained no plastic with the modules wrapped in very attractive eco-friendly shredded cardboard, wish everyone did that.

[ghettosynth]

I've resold/traded way too many modules not to keep the boxes, and that ottoman is much smaller than the piles of books I need to sell or donate, or the junk in the basement.

This, it seems that it's part of the Eurocrack ethos, like a kind of "drug rule." "I dunno man, seems like a fair trade, do you have the box?" You have to have the box. Maybe it doesn't matter for a Behringer module, but I'm keeping those too.

[ghettosynth]

The box for Natural Gate is a thing of beauty.

Well, looking that up didn't trigger my GAS, not.

[foosnark]

I've gotten plenty of used modules without the original box, and accidentally shipped out stuff in a generic box and then found the right one later... but it does matter to some people.

And yeah, Natural Gate is hands down the nicest sounding LPG I've ever heard. Those sliders make it really playable too. I tried one at KnobCon before they were released, and was one of the first buyers (the timestamp on my purchase confirmation is 8 minutes after orders opened). It was cheaper then, probably still worth it now though.

[styphonthal]

So I'm thinking about the Osmose. I have an unhealthy amount of hardware mono/poly synths which I would like to use MPE on, but have no MPE device. I'm also interested in using it with the SWAM software, which is why I originally bought it.

[ghettosynth]

I've gotten plenty of used modules without the original box, and accidentally shipped out stuff in a generic box and then found the right one later... but it does matter to some people.

And yeah, Natural Gate is hands down the nicest sounding LPG I've ever heard. Those sliders make it really playable too. I tried one at KnobCon before they were released, and was one of the first buyers (the timestamp on my purchase confirmation is 8 minutes after orders opened). It was cheaper then, probably still worth it now though.

This is something that I'm just coming to grips with with my modular. Eurorack is expensive and many modules are overpriced. That said, you can't just feature-comparison your way into truly inspired instruments. So, you have to decide if it a module is more than the sum of the parts and if that's worth it for you, or not. I've been down this road before, but a few poor decisions will make you gun shy. It's at least tolerable with modular as you can just think of the difference between what you paid for it and what you can sell it for as something of a lease payment.

[ChamomileShark]

I think the only hardware I'm planning to buy is a 10 inch reel of audio tape at about £80 per reel.

[WatchTheGuitar]

Reely expensive

[vurt]

not gonna get much recorded on only 10 inches...

[ChamomileShark]

not gonna get much recorded on only 10 inches...

My greatest hits from the last 40 years?

[ChamomileShark]

Reely expensive

I know but I think they were like £30 for Ampex tape back in the day (you know the kind that either sheds or turned to a sticky mess).