Your Favorites pick-ups & Let gos of 2021 (hardware, software, instruments, effects and fish)

[elxsound]

The rules, there are no rules!

Just list your favorites of 2021, purchases, freeware, hardware, software, instruments or effects (or obligatory fish if you had no favorites). List 1, or list all.

Mine:
0-Coast. This thing is packed with features! It was hard not putting Strega down here, but 0-Coast is a Swiss Amy Knife of a synth!

Polyeffects Beebo. Another multi-tool that keeps getting fresh updates and new tricks. I love the convolution reverb (and thank you JRR/Eric for the Lex IRs that I’m still using).

Trillian - Another not new, but new to me. I finally bought this and I wish I had bought it when it was released. I have too many bass libraries and plugins that add up to more than the cost of this, but none (for me) work as easily as this does.

My favorite thing I sold away was Chase Bliss Audio’s Blooper, but the sell-off still makes sense. It’s better in someone else’s hands than mine.

[vurt]

all of em!

stand out modules: mimeophone (make noise) the ultimate in reel to reel delays for frippery? maybe!
nebulae (qubit) its just awesome, can be so many, many, things!

the 3 make noise desktop units i grabbed over the year, individually, would be awesome, the 3 together! it was moider!

software: gong amp from audiothing, niche but fun and cool!

fish: a nice piece of cod i had in summer mmm...

[cryophonik]

2021 was the year I made a move back to a primarily hardware synth workflow (but still hybrid) and I’m loving it. My fav purchases have been by far my Prophet Rev2, Novation Peak, Moog Sub37, and Moog Slim Phatty. I have several other synths that may need to eventually find a new home, including my Arturia MB2S, Korg Minilogue XD, and Moog Minitaur - all great synths but either too redundant with my other hardware or just not my cup o’ tea.

On the software side, my best purchases were Atlas 2, Fabfilter Timeless 3 and Volcano 3, Devious Machines Infiltrator and Duck, and Other Desert Cities.

[Jafo]

Hardware

Fscking midi controller died -- first the top octave, then today the power... no more M-Audio for me! I might heat up the 'ol soldering iron later. (btw, new tips and thin solder ftw!)

Peavey makes really damn good inexpensive guitars -- highly recommended! They'll need magnet if not pup swaps, though (I use UOA5 in bridge, A3 in neck).


Software

PSP's Spring Reverb is pretty sweet; picked it up on sale, never put it down.


That's all the $¢€₹₤ I spent on music this year.

[foosnark]

I'm trying not to do the favorite gear thing this year, but... how about, stuff I got that has served me really well?

VCV 2 Pro -- a great companion to my Euro stuff and Bitwig Grid. Worth getting even just for the effects, and it does a lot more than that, including MIDI processing and some cool oscillators I don't have in Eurorack, kinda wish I did now, but also don't need to get in Eurorack.

Sideminder ZL -- makes fixing stereo phase correlation stuff a lot easier except in extreme cases.

OPS7 -- I'm surprising myself by creating patches from scratch for it.

Vital -- free, very Serum-like but with a different twist.

Launchpad X -- I'm not even using it to control Bitwig, just as a MIDI controller and I love it for that. Honestly I like this better than I liked the Polyend/Dreadbox Medusa (except for some tricks Medusa can do with voice allocation).

Minibrute 2S -- super fun and I love its vibe.

In modular, this was the year I went semi-heavy into Xaoc Devices and Noise Engineering. I won't go into that much detail except on demand but I love every piece of their gear that I have now (despite giving up on some of their other modules in the past). Also, Mannequins Just Friends is genius and Beads wins "new module of the year."

Upgrading from Behringer UMC1820 to a 3rd gen Focusrite Scarlett 1820 was a great move. Latency is way down, random glitches are gone.

Newest toy is a Hadean UKB-23 fretless bass ukulele. This is pretty close to my ideal stringed instrument -- it's relatively small but plug it in and it sounds HUGE. I've been having a blast with it just jamming and playing stuff by ear. It's hard to put down!
I predict that I'll wind up with a second u-bass, maybe a solid-body 5-string?

[vurt]

Upgrading from Behringer UMC1820 to a 3rd gen Focusrite Scarlett 1820 was a great move. Latency is way down, random glitches are gone.

happy that worked out for you! i remember being one of the ones championing it after id grabbed one at the end of last year

[Dirtgrain]

Hyperion sold by Tracktion.
Rift, by Minimal Audio.
Repro, by u-he.
Bukhu, a Kontakt Library by Evolution Series.

[elxsound]

Upgrading from Behringer UMC1820 to a 3rd gen Focusrite Scarlett 1820 was a great move. Latency is way down, random glitches are gone.

happy that worked out for you! i remember being one of the ones championing it after id grabbed one at the end of last year

Mine started with scratchy pots when adjusting the headphone levels. I still love it though. I haven’t reached out to focusrite yet, but that’s my next step.

[Shankiphonic]

Vital -- free, very Serum-like but with a different twist.

I just picked up the Vital last night on a friend's recommendation.
As for 2021 hits, this one has sneaked in just under the wire.
Wavetables with a incredibly intuitive & robust modulation workflow. Very deep.
Hoping to find more presets out in the world, or might just throw $25 at it to get 175 more.

Pendulate - the Free Chaotic Synth from Newfangled Audio (aka Eventide) is a pretty gnarly monosynth. It boasts a wavefolder. The give away is to attract buyers to paid the poly version
I've also only had this a few days and it's become my starting point for crunchy, deep bass lines. It's fun to tweak. Modulation config isn't hard at all, but they seem to be prioritizing a eurorack patching style experience. I find it a bit clunky in this respect. All said, it's got just the right amount of "knobs".

[vurt]

Upgrading from Behringer UMC1820 to a 3rd gen Focusrite Scarlett 1820 was a great move. Latency is way down, random glitches are gone.

happy that worked out for you! i remember being one of the ones championing it after id grabbed one at the end of last year

Mine started with scratchy pots when adjusting the headphone levels. I still love it though. I haven’t reached out to focusrite yet, but that’s my next step.

bugger that's not good
touch wood no issues here yet, is it possible it's dirty? get some condensed air and give it a good "ppsssst!!!!"

[elxsound]

Upgrading from Behringer UMC1820 to a 3rd gen Focusrite Scarlett 1820 was a great move. Latency is way down, random glitches are gone.

happy that worked out for you! i remember being one of the ones championing it after id grabbed one at the end of last year

Mine started with scratchy pots when adjusting the headphone levels. I still love it though. I haven’t reached out to focusrite yet, but that’s my next step.

bugger that's not good
touch wood no issues here yet, is it possible it's dirty? get some condensed air and give it a good "ppsssst!!!!"

Hmmm…. Dirty Pots might need to be my new artist name in 2022

I’m going to order some compressed air to see if that fixes it. NYC (Manhattan) dust is legendary.

[elxsound]

Vital -- free, very Serum-like but with a different twist.

I just picked up the Vital last night on a friend's recommendation.
As for 2021 hits, this one has sneaked in just under the wire.
Wavetables with a incredibly intuitive & robust modulation workflow. Very deep.
Hoping to find more presets out in the world, or might just throw $25 at it to get 175 more.

Pendulate - the Free Chaotic Synth from Newfangled Audio (aka Eventide) is a pretty gnarly monosynth. It boasts a wavefolder. The give away is to attract buyers to paid the poly version
I've also only had this a few days and it's become my starting point for crunchy, deep bass lines. It's fun to tweak. Modulation config isn't hard at all, but they seem to be prioritizing a eurorack patching style experience. I find it a bit clunky in this respect. All said, it's got just the right amount of "knobs".

I’ve ignored Pendulate, but now I’m curious to give it a go!