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

[Shabdahbriah]

I think I have to keep Akemie's Castle. Trying to imitate Mystic wasn't all that successful, but my second patch with it just now was gorgeous in its own right.

[...] I'll see how that goes.

Yeah, I have more than enough to do whatever I want/can think of doing, but Mystic is interesting. I enjoy running Weather Drone trough a number of things but particularly the feedback/looping on the MakeNoise Echophon, with a reverb in that loop.

Here's some un-manipulated/self-generated examples of its tones.

https://youtu.be/HR-01uVu2Vk

[WatchTheGuitar]

A wafer thin mint? Oh go on then…

[meanmedianmoge]

2022 was a busy year for me in gear - I acquired and sold a lot, got more into software/iOS, and settled on a setup that allows for quickly recording ideas and streaming tunes.

The big ticket items:
- Fender JM. Wanted one for a very long time and the model I wanted finally became available so I snatched it up fast.
- Eventide H90. Easiest upgrade I've made, it honestly feels like cheating considering I was also able to sell my old H9 Max to cover a good chunk of it.
- Octatrack mk2. Still learning this machine, it's not too difficult but the question remains how it'll fit with everything else.
- Pigments. A true workhorse synth that has dominated my time and recent tracks.

Stuff I got rid of:
- A lot of pedals, mostly ones where I had a big overlap or just wasn't using them to justify their space/price.
- All of my eurorack. Got out of that game, thankfully. It was a fun a rewarding experience though.

[WatchTheGuitar]

- Eventide H90. Easiest upgrade I've made, it honestly feels like cheating considering I was also able to sell my old H9 Max to cover a good chunk of it.

Is it basically like two H9 Maxs together or is there more to it? 'cos it seems to cost more than 2 second hand H9 Maxs right now.

[meanmedianmoge]

- Eventide H90. Easiest upgrade I've made, it honestly feels like cheating considering I was also able to sell my old H9 Max to cover a good chunk of it.

Is it basically like two H9 Maxs together or is there more to it? 'cos it seems to cost more than 2 second hand H9 Maxs right now.

It’s two H9 Max’s with a single stereo/two mono FX loops included, plus the 10 new effects, major improvements to the older effects (thanks to the updated hardware), and an actually useable user interface. I’d say the value comes out on top, especially since they said that new effects will be added in the future and the H9 is end-of-life/max’d out.

[WatchTheGuitar]

Ah fair enough, I guess it’s also much better if you’re able to save dual effect presets.

[elxsound]

I mentioned in the 2021 thread that I’d like to finally pick up Arturia’s Microfreak and the Korg NTS-1.

I’ll likely get the Berhinger Edge if released in 2022… there’s a chance I might just get the DFAM instead though.

Erbe-Verb is possibly in my 2022 future.

For pedals… it’s probably whatever Pekbro posts next. It’s just as scary as a Shabdahbriah post.

And definitely more cables!

2022 is a wrap for me. No new gear until 2023!

No Edge, no Erbe-Verbe (I almost pulled the trigger on used ones several times).

I did get both the Microfreak and NTS-1. I’m not a fan of either of these except to occasionally mess around with but that’s about it.

Elektron boxes, OTO boxes and a Pulsar-23 pretty much dominated the year for me but those are all purchases I still like.

I traded for an SP-404 mk 2 that’s been sold because it’s f**king slooooow. I get why people like them but not for me.

I need to offload the OP1 also acquired in a trade. Still happy to have scratched that curiosity itch.


2023: OTO Bebe Cherie and Make Noise XPO.

[WatchTheGuitar]

I think I spent at least ten grand on gear this year. No booze, gigs, no eating out or take aways plus continuing to stop smoking and it didn’t really hurt.
Basically it’s much easier to buy gear with no social life.

Next year has to be selling things to fund purchases, for one thing I have no more space for anything right now even if I wanted to buy it.

[foosnark]

For 2023 I think I might do a Depth Year.

I'm finding that every time I hear a demo of something cool, I can get in the same territory by patching what I have already. Maybe not exactly, but right for my musical purposes. I did it with several different tempting modules this year, and right now... there's not really anything that I want badly enough to give up something else to make room for it.

I like the idea of consolidating all my Euro modules in the big case and ditching the overflow pod again, and I can do it if I sell off a couple of my lesser-used modules that I won't miss.

The one thing I really want to fix is my sloppy bass playing. I don't need to be flashy, just able to consistently play clean and confident.

[justin3am]

Yeah, I'm in the same boat.
I've been spending a lot of time learning to replicate the functions of complex modules with building blocks in my Serge/Frac system and I plan to spend some time developing technique with the Music Easel clone.
I have outlines for a few videos I'd like to do in the coming months and I've recorded a ton of bits and pieces for my next release. Now that they are done working on our kitchen, my studio will no longer be overflow storage.

No plans for gear purchases next year but of course, that could change. Mostly I'm saving to do the garage conversion to build a new studio space, in the next year or so.

[vurt]

2023 will be "the year of paying bills!" by the looks of things

luckily, before the economy died, id just about filled the racks, and have a system that can now create many different textures, with lots of options for control too.
a system that im very happy with, don't see this changing any time soon.
new things may happen, im weak, but im now not going to be searching for things and discovering even more things...

so if i put shabi and pekbro on ignore, i should be ok

[Shabdahbriah]

{ahem}... Speaking of 'noise' and 'drone' maker alternatives.

A couple of things I've strongly considered picking-up in kit form for several years, are now made by someone else (arguably more capable than I), for 'less' than the PCB/panel kits combined with the original Bastl's Kastle kits, would have cost... sooo, @$149.00

eurokastle.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0s9uD_dtZ8
Different tones and textures than above: skip to @5:25

https://youtu.be/z19E2thxSZs
Available here:

https://calsynth.com/collections/calsyn ... -sound-lab

And the Drum version firmware, with a drum relevant panel:

drum_kastle.png

Here:

https://calsynth.com/products/drum-kastle-drum-synth

[WatchTheGuitar]

I remember looking at the built drum kastle on the maker’s site and their sole description of what it did was “upgraded from version 1.5”. Gee thanks for the vivid description.

[Shabdahbriah]

I remember looking at the built drum kastle on the maker’s site and their sole description of what it did was “upgraded from version 1.5”. Gee thanks for the vivid description.

Yeah, info was pretty scarce, its just the same guts as the regular Kastle v.1.5, with a firmware revision, and text changes on the panel. The eurorack versions (both) use the same components, but soldered on a eurorack scaled PCB.

kastle_drum1.png

Kastle Handheld Modular Synthesizer (v1.5).png

The details:
Kastle is an open source project with all resources obtainable from GitHub. Given that anyone can do anything with the code, we cannot provide any support for user upgrades from Kastle v1.5. All information is easy to find online for curious users, but please understand that we do not have the capacity to help you with that process.
Features

8 drum synthesis styles
”noises” output for less tonal content
DRUM selects drum sounds
acceleration charge dynamic envelope
decay time
PITCH control with offset and CV input with attenuator
voltage-controllable clock with square and triangle output
stepped voltage generator with random, 8 step and 16 step loop mode
2 I/O CV ports that can be routed to any patch point

https://youtu.be/-wj1_NOucN0
Kastle Drum - every feature explained - modular glitch-drummachine

https://youtu.be/12swhHgedlU

My interest in it is simply for unusual percussive sounds that I won't have to use/dedicate something else I have to making them. I deliberately avoided getting into any of the available eurorack 'drum' modules, as I can make drum sounds with many of my other things, plus 10's upon 10's of thousands of samples I've made and/or collected over 40 years, and dozens of virtual drum machine/synths/samplers,etc. I opted for a 1010 (v1), and the QU-bit Waves (x2) for playback.

[WatchTheGuitar]

Ah so it’s less something that lets you play distinct drum/noise voices and more a generator of pulse sequences where you feed it clock and triggers? Yeah not my thing, but imagine it’d be fun to play with.