so I bought a new hardware synth

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chris.innocence Wrote:^ want

E-Mu Morpheus
Future Retro Revolution Rev.2
and traded the Shruthi for a SammichSID

are you able to actually walk around your abode? lol
beats are there to be broken http://musicindevon.org/
yeah, chris is clearly winning the arms race!

Hahaha

still well chuffed about that delay, bargain.
Paradigm X Wrote:yeah, chris is clearly winning the arms race!

Hahaha

still well chuffed about that delay, bargain.

says the man with a 909 and more delays than a cave of echoes :P
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Yeah, i know ive got a ton of nice bits. No question. Quite surprised how much dusty old boxes i could get for all the software id bought.

just you seem to go thru about 3 or 4 a week!

Mrgreen
Gear Acquisition Syndrome, or the replacement of one vice (records) with another Teef
It's just nice to come home and knock out a quick idea with some synced up hardware and a mixer after staring at a computer screen all day - no distractions and instant gratification.

There are still a few bits I would like to get my hands on. A good 909-clone would be nice. MFB-503 or an XBase09 would fit the bill.
A Siel Cruise would be awesome as well.
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Pretty sure my next purchase will be the Korg Volcas, at least the Beats & Bass.

Shipping dates keep slipping in the UK (and everywhere else outside of Japan basically) but me and B are heading to Japan in September so hoping supplies have ramped up by then so I can grab them cheaper than they'll be here.
They're selling for about £98 in Japan compared to £120 here so could get all 3 for under £300 Chin
^ do it, then you can tell us how good they really are in time for the UK release Wink

offloaded the Monomachine (not that great in the end), replaced it with a Korg M1R and an EMU e6400 Ultra
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What didn't you like about the MM Chris?
I have it on relatively good authority that the Korg Volcas will be arriving in the UK the last week in August, although they're not officially on sale until mid september, a few people will be honouring pre-orders before they're due to go on sale because of the delays.

So if you get a pre-order in now, chances are you'll have them before the month is over Xyxthumbs
Wilshy Wrote:What didn't you like about the MM Chris?

most things in the end. Not the greatest build quality (buttons were very worrying), and the knobs needed 5-10 spins to do a complete sweep which made fx and sound design very tedious. Simple enough to use, but not what I would call user-friendly. Individually the sounds are thin, and in an ensemble they sound muddy. Some of the synth engines are not that hot either, so rather than excel in one particular area it kind of did most things half-arsed*. After a couple of weeks it was the only thing I have regretted purchasing, and it was not cheap by any stretch of the imagination - I would expect more from something that expensive. Perhaps a MKII with UW+ would be better overall, but I would be wary of dipping my toes in again.

* In defence of this comment, I was comparing it to the gear I have, i.e. 4-op and 6-op FM pieces, and despite whatever flaws they have they all sound good in their own little way. I have a SammichSID as well, and that is the rudest little thing I have heard. It packs a huge punch for such a little box (similar to the Shruthi).



This weeks new toy is a Blackdeath Noise Synth, and I just missed out on a Siel Mono (which has pissed me off no end).
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Good to know. Been eyeing some Elektron stuff (A4 to be exact), but the heavy tags don't have me jumping.

Trying to hunt down an Akai Miniak to use as a pad machine. Was kind of considering the MnM as well, but heard this about it elsewhere. Really just want something polyphonic with onboard sequencing... and not super complicated to program like the MP7 (unfortunately).
Roland SH09 !
^ nice - clocked that, but I cannot collect from Manchester or I would have battled you for it Wink Had to let an EmaxII go begging because I couldn't get to Coventry or somewhere similar.

I'm going after old samplers, for the 8-bit/12-bit cruch. Have lost out on an Akai S612 and I really want one for the filter. I keep telling myself I don't need an MPC60, but I've seen a couple of cheap ones recently and they are such lovely things.
A Mirage looks quite nice as well - passed up a rack-version a long time ago, such a fool...

Still waiting for my e6400 Ultra to arrive (specs unknown, but does have the 128-poly board), but I might have secured a e5000 Ultra with a hard drive to use as a slave.
Also chirpsing an Ensoniq ASR-X from SOS, but the seller is not replying to emails (I emailed the day it went live :/). I want that crunch.
done
My akai ax73 has an input for the s612, so you can route samples through the analogue filters, its great, can use any combo of 6 samples, or six synth voices, or any combo. S612s seem to be dead expensive now.

Yeah the sh09 is lovely, its not even as bad as he made out, and sounds lovellllllllly, so phat and warm, a true example of why old analogues are so desirable. bunged in a dual channel midi2cv converter for an extra £30 too. Really nice bloke, had a ton of nice stuff.

Yeah, i travelled all the way down to london for my mixer, and to brum for all those fx units i grabbed, worth a drive. theres a roland 501 space echo near me too, but again hes not responding. I want. Might sell the PTDelay to obtain.

Cheerz
emu arrived - 128MB, no hd, and I broke the poly board when putting it in (snapped a pin) - FFFUUUUUCK
At least I got it for cheap.
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is it fixable? i can do you some soldering if you need?

either way, i guess youll neveuse anything like 64notes poly? I dont think i ever ran out of 32 even when all i woned was the s2000 and a bass-station!

Did you get my pm re the scsi drive btw?
I did, have sent you the cash just now. I'm also curious about the Rumour.
It might be, I will have to look at it later this month when I get back, so thanks for the offer Smile
It's good to get a rare add-on every now and then, if only for 5 seconds. The emu is currently in bits on my desk at work, and my colleagues probably think I'm having a small breakdown, screaming blue murder at a various electronic peripherals whilst brandishing a screwdriver.
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Roland R8 - wanted one of these for years.

Really shouldnt have bought, since im skint, but it was under guitar effect pedals again, and got a bargain! £103.

Need to sell the kurzweil, and possibly even the PT delay/ucrusher...
Scored a Miniak off the bay for a reasonable price (for some reason everyone's looking for another $100 over what they were going for a couple weeks ago, had to be patient). Looking forward to adding some textures/pads to my sketches.

I'll be uploading some stuff, found a happy workflow with the ESX, shruthi and x0x. Just needed some textures in my life. Would love to hear some more output from you guys!
I'm back...
just grabbed an Ensoniq ASR-X upon my return, very happy with that.
forgot to mention my roland sbf325 flanger too.

Lovesmilie

sooo nice.

Absolutely skint now tho but sounding immense.

chris im going to post that scsi drive tomorrow, sorry man, been a bit manic again recently.

Xyxthumbs
^ no worries, post it to my home though, I no longer work at the other place.
Sorry about the Rumour as well, I only flew back last week, and have been off-grid more or less the whole time I was away.
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interesting couple of bits this week, all really cheap (which is weird):
Emu E4x (128MB RAM, FX board, 128-poly), Novation KS-Rack, and a Yamaha CS2x.
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Korg Volca Bass & Keys.

They're really good fun and very playable.
The bass is capable of some truly huge sounds (based only on headphone play in Tokyo so far but back home now, so will get them hooked up to the studio tomorrow)
I'm pleased to say you can get a lot closer to a typical 303 than I've heard on any of the Youtube videos. It's the harsher screaming end of the 303 sound it can get close to though, not so much the elastic smooth low end stuff, although as I said I've only really given it a go over using headphones.

Keys is really tweakable and quite a bit of fun.
The non-switchable waveform could prove a killer for some people but you can do a remarkable amount with filters, expression and delays. Then add in the ability to record all your nob tweaks and it's great fun.

One word on the built in sync option. All it does is sync tempo, it won't send any transport controls. If you want to hit play on one and have the other(s) play, you'll need a MIDI splitter and something to act as a master as they've all only got MIDI in (not actually checked if you can do this even.. I did play all 3 in a shop and they were all playing together when you hit play on 1 of the 3 so not sure if I'm doing something wrong with the sync, or if I missed that they were all connected up to some kind of MIDI clock)

I'll write some more once I've had a chance to use them connected up to monitors and really put them through their paces.
Nice one Ben. Tempted by the keys having seen Snicstates review. The waveform part is a bit of an issue.

You can record the modulation of the filters etc without a sound, then play the sound in afterwards. There seems to be some nice touches here and there but some frustrations elsewhere. But for just over a ton, they cannot be knocked.

Maybe do some sound demos Ben Smile

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