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

[ghettosynth]

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.

I hear you, but, for me, the thing that would push me into "more money for poly" is having three oscillators per voice.

I'm trying to decide what I want at the moment and it's WAY to easy to fall in a big GAS cloud where I think that what I need is ALL THE SYNTHS!

[Shabdahbriah]

you are uninvited to any synth jams i have

Definitely. It would tinge the whole "One Cable Short" theme, beyond redemption.

[cryophonik]

Nothing against the Moog One, but I’d take my PolyBrute over it any day of the week, even with its measly six voices and two oscillators. Personally, I don’t need three oscillators for a poly, particularly not when they have a subosc. Three oscillators makes more sense on a mono IMO, which is one thing I love about my SE-1X (and newly acquired Pro 3), but I can’t say that I find myself wishing that my 2-osc monos had a another one very often, if at all.

Also, I think that third oscillator makes the most sense when it’s offering something completely different, like the digital third oscillator on the Pro 3, or additional waveforms. Stacking a bunch of analog oscillators (especially in a poly with big chords) becomes an exercise in diminishing returns IME, where I usually end up having to EQ most of that thickness out of the sound to make it fit in the mix anyway.

Anyway, none of this is to say that I dislike the Moog One. It’s a certifiable dream machine for many people, for sure. But, it’s just not something that gives me the warm and fuzzy feelings that the Omega does. I’ve been lusting over that one for too long now.

[ghettosynth]

Nothing against the Moog One, but I’d take my PolyBrute over it any day of the week, even with its measly six voices and two oscillators. Personally, I don’t need three oscillators for a poly, particularly not when they have a subosc. Three oscillators makes more sense on a mono IMO, which is one thing I love about my SE-1X (and newly acquired Pro 3), but I can’t say that I find myself wishing that my 2-osc monos had a another one very often, if at all.

If only the poly-brute had 12 voices...we can dream.

Also, I think that third oscillator makes the most sense when it’s offering something completely different, like the digital third oscillator on the Pro 3, or additional waveforms. Stacking a bunch of analog oscillators (especially in a poly with big chords) becomes an exercise in diminishing returns IME, where I usually end up having to EQ most of that thickness out of the sound to make it fit in the mix anyway.

I suppose whether this is true or not depends on the modulation options or how you use it. It doesn't necessarily have to be adding "thickness."

Anyway, none of this is to say that I dislike the Moog One. It’s a certifiable dream machine for many people, for sure. But, it’s just not something that gives me the warm and fuzzy feelings that the Omega does. I’ve been lusting over that one for too long now.

I understand the lust, I find mine comes and goes, depending what I'm lusting over, of course. I haven't bought a new analog poly in years and I've mostly been using soft-synths. With hardware it's rather an expensive pain to make the wrong choice.

[cryophonik]

If only the poly-brute had 12 voices...we can dream.

Yes, if only. Well, NAMM isn’t too far off…

I suppose whether this is true or not depends on the modulation options or how you use it. It doesn't necessarily have to be adding "thickness."

True, good point.

I understand the lust, I find mine comes and goes, depending what I'm lusting over, of course. I haven't bought a new analog poly in years and I've mostly been using soft-synths. With hardware it's rather an expensive pain to make the wrong choice.

If you’re ever in town, stop by and spend a few hours with my PolyBrute. Also, I think I mentioned it to you in another thread, but I would strongly consider a Rev2. It gets a lot of bad press, mostly from people who know shit about synths and just seem to think that talking out their ass about a synth somehow makes them seem like an authority, but it’s a great synth that covers so much ground. I guess the good news about that is it keeps the secondhand prices down. I just saw a near new 16-voice keyboard version sell for $1300 here locally. Oddly enough, the module version seems to retain its resale value better than the keyboard.

[vurt]

you are uninvited to any synth jams i have

Definitely. It would tinge the whole "One Cable Short" theme, beyond redemption.

yeah, ocs is definitely a trousers on type of act. classy!

[ghettosynth]

you are uninvited to any synth jams i have

Definitely. It would tinge the whole "One Cable Short" theme, beyond redemption.

yeah, ocs is definitely a trousers on type of act. classy!

There's just no way that you can get the full fidelity of the rear facing oscillator with trousers on. I get it, not everyone is committed to the full analog experience.

[elxsound]

XPO arrived last week (ordered last year). I haven't even tried it yet, but looking forward to jumping in this week. I still need to go back to the Make Noise video with patches using QPAS and XPO.

B-day was yesterday. I was considering buying myself something but I think I'm good so far.

[vurt]

happy birthday
and happy patching!!!

[cryophonik]

B-day was yesterday. I was considering buying myself something but I think I'm good so far.

Nice!

Happy birthday, dude!!!

[ghettosynth]

Happy Birthday. I really want to like the Make Noise stuff more. That said, the XPO could be my path to that. I'm a big fan of working directly in stereo. I like the Udo Super-6 for this That said, $399 sigh. I have such a hard time convincing myself that any analog module is worth $400. The relatively new oscilloscope in my shop was less than that.

Also, I hate their font. Hate!

I did enjoy fiddling about with their little west-coast all in one at a friend's house for a few hours.

I'll just keep on being cheap for a while. I will read the manual though and see if I can take any inspiration from it, Behringer style.

[Shabdahbriah]

XPO arrived last week (ordered last year). I haven't even tried it yet, but looking forward to jumping in this week. I still need to go back to the Make Noise video with patches using QPAS and XPO.

B-day was yesterday. I was considering buying myself something but I think I'm good so far.

Congrats. Was pleased to see that Erica Synths has picked up Hexinverter Électronique modules: Mutant Brain, Mindphaser and Mutant Machine, after the Hex dude (sadly) called it quits.

[foosnark]

Got the West Pest. I only played with it for a few minutes (got some other stuff to do first), didn't learn the sequencer or patch it with anything else yet, but first impressions:

- The front panel is honestly not as ugly as I thought it would be. Knobs feel solid. Buttons are... not my favorite, kind of clicky, but they don't feel like they're gonna break.
- It doesn't like my USB power thingy, ah well.
- It was in some weird mode at first and I had to figure out how to do a factory reset to get it working. Now I know how Tony Rolando felt when he first encountered Clouds and it was in some weird easter egg mode.
- There are some really sweet, full-sounding timbres on there, depending on the oscillator mode and range and dynamics level. That's the gold I was looking for
- Not sure why they grouped resonance under "Waveform Contour" when it's part of the dynamics section, but eh, all right.
- I don't like how the LFO range works -- there's not much overlap between low and high rates, and the break between them is right in a prime useful area.
- I'm going to have to find a good place to set it up. I don't think there's much chance of it replacing the Minibrute 2S -- on the contrary it would probably be a very nice partner for it, as well as 0-Ctrl and Strega of course.

[ghettosynth]

- I'm going to have to find a good place to set it up. I don't think there's much chance of it replacing the Minibrute 2S -- on the contrary it would probably be a very nice partner for it, as well as 0-Ctrl and Strega of course.

A partner for the 0-control, or an alternate to the 0-control as a partner to the 2s?

[foosnark]

A partner to the 0-Ctrl. Oddly I haven't used the 2S with 0-Ctrl that much, even though I keep thinking how much more I enjoy 0-Ctrl over the 2S's sequencer.