Oh, yes. I bought an Analog RYTM a few weeks back, and while I love it to bits, I just jam with it. In order to use it for more, I feel I need to buy more hardware, which would end up costing thousands. That aside, I was never into audio hardware back in the eighties or so (computer geek even then), so while I love the tactile aspects of buttons, knobs, and sliders, everything seems overly tedious and slow (just the act of loading a sample is cumbersome). And cables, and covers, and power plugs, and tiny displays …
I think maybe I should buy a complex controller, like that Ohm RGB mentioned in the other thread, to get the best of both worlds. I don’t regret getting the RYTM, and could sell it for almost what I paid for it, but I’m thinking that I would regret it if I went down the hardware path further.
I kind of regret the Zoom H6, because my Sony PCM-10 was sufficient for what I do and I even prefer it, but at least I use it sometimes. Unlike that ribbon mic that I thought I needed for recording a kalimba … or the contact mic that was not better than the built-in pickup.
My Korg R3 never got used, since I got cheaply last year it’s been sitting on the drawer only as an occational midi keyboard. I found that when I need some fast synth sounds I’ll just fire up a blank instrument and draw a single-cycle, plus the modulation set can do nice subtractive trick, the result is often fun and unique. While Korg did provide a computer editor, in Renoise everything is just so instantly and fun-ny over the Korg, heck, I probably developed an allergy to seperate windows and turning virtual knobs with mouse.
This week I finally got around to jot down some ideas with R3 sound, but every time I hook the instrument midi port a thought would come up wondering if it’s really needed? With hardware you’re dealing with patch management, extra maintainence, loss of physical space etc, that reminds me my guitarist days with too much pedal and too little accomplishment… There’s an Brain Eno quote I always loved, about working fast and cheap to achive creativity, and extra effort just ended up being generic.
(but sometimes you WANT to be generic isn’t it? the whole genre thing?)
But another thing I’ve been thinking, computer stuffs kinda make everything plain and boring, and people ended up developing “emulated uniqueness” like filters in photo-app or every console plugins; hardwares, with their physical/logical limitations, force you to form a certain perspective toward them, and that may ended up being the uniqueness you want.
i have some keyboards, mpc, and some toys really not using them much. hardware setup sits in the corner for fun jams, i use them as a toys i got sick of midi dropouts and reassambling wires because everyday i want to do something different but i cant have everything run smooth, so my table is cleaned, i have pc keyboard and renoise and maschine, it is everything i really need i hate setups whitch song i created today not working tomorrow
I find that I don’t regret the hardware I get, at least the quality stuff. Even if I set it aside for a while, I may come back to it after a few years and find myself newly inspired.
This is definitely true of my OP-1 which I put down and rediscover periodically. Recently I’ve dug out my old DS evolver which I hadn’t touched in ages and found it pretty inspiring.Quality acoustic instruments are also evergreen - guitar, violin, ukulele. Every once in a while I take these out after not playing for a long time and I’m so glad I didn’t get rid of them.
I do find myself regretting the cheapo-budget stuff. My electribe ES1 doesn’t get much love because sample transfer is too much of a PITA. Kaoss Pad 3 poops up the sound too much (not in a nice way, in a where-did-my-bass-go way) to be worth the trouble. One exception was that I had a love affair with the kaossilator 1 up until the touchpad died. However, the kaossilator 2 has been a massive disappointment so far.
. One exception was that I had a love affair with the kaossilator 1 up until the touchpad died.
i love mine 1st kaossilator, lost back cover, and a little dude stabbed a pen into touchpad, but everything still works, also one of the most loved things is my casio sa-1, an awesome 100 presets in super micro keyboard are you kidding me? best thing ever!
Interesting to know I’m not the only one, some stuff I’d never get rid of but a recent purchase made me reconsider – yeah I bought an Akai Rhythm Wolf – when I saw it announced I thought it looked great. I didn’t read any reviews. What a pile of rubbish. I was going to use my ancient Casio CZ1000 the other day, one of my kids knocked it over and broke it so another disaster.
I’m going to sell some of my stuff (including above named abomination) – enough is enough. I’d rather concentrate on writing songs rather than waste time wiring it all up (and keeping the dust off it)
Mind you that Sequential Prophet 6 at NAMM looks cool……
I love my hardware I’m trying to figure out how I can fit a rack in my studio for outboard goodies. And a giant modular synth when I get thousands of dollars I don’t really need.
So the Rhythm Wolf is garbage? I’ll have to read up and check out the demo they have set up at my local Guitar Center. That’s a bit disappointing considering how solid most Akai stuff is.
The Roland TR-8 is awesome, though. GC has one set up in their MIDI controller room and I got to twiddle knobs for a good 20 minutes or so. I don’t know if it’s $500 worth of awesome.
So the Rhythm Wolf is garbage? I’ll have to read up and check out the demo they have set up at my local Guitar Center. That’s a bit disappointing considering how solid most Akai stuff is.
I kind of like it fine for what it is in terms of drums sounds (very old basic analog sounds) and I knew this when I bought it. The unit looks good and is well built. The problems I’ve got are:
Despite the range of knobs per drum, you can’t really change the sounds much. For instance the high hat tuning knob doesn’t seem to do anything.
Midi drop outs when playing from Renoise or an external sequencer (other people have reported the same on the Akai support forum so it’s not just mine)
Bass synth – Akai released a software download to get this working as the tuning/scaling was out. This works but half an hour later it drifts out of tune. I’ve warmed it up for over an hour and it still does it. The bass is not that great sound wise; the filters no good and if you turn up the res it more or less cuts the sound out.
It doesn’t copy patterns properly
It has a ‘howl’ which is supposed to make the sound more aggressive – it turns it into a hideous hissing noise.
Enough people are moaning about it over on the Akai forum – maybe they can release a firmware update for some of the problems.
It’s fun for messing around with but try the demo and see what you think. If you still like then you might want to wait until the price drops (shouldn’t be long)
hardware rocks, no doubt if you ask me.
just got myself a cyclone tt-303 replica and OH MY GOD. you just can’t get that “grit” with rebirth, BassLine vst, etc.
I had a few hardware synths, but didn’t really used them much for actual music production… just to much work to nicely fit them into my workflow with a DAW. I started making music with computer, so I guess I’m just spoiled with having nice controls layed out in a nice screen and all that, so I find fiddling with various menu systems on harsware synths prety clumsy. But they are great for improvising, tweaking them live and generally just having fun playing them live. And they generally also sounds really good (at least my (ex) AN1X and present R3 does).
I did use some sounds from my X50, but I didn’t sequence them - I played it live and sampled the result.
Lately I started using different kind of “hardware” - iPad Some really nice sounding synths on it. And controls give sort of immediate “hardware” feeling when tweaking them, but still have a nice visual interface. I doubt I’ll ever buy a hardware synth again (also thinking of selling R3), except maybe some simple and phat true analog machine.
Hardware is best. I don’t think music made with software synths is real. You can’t replicate music made on one daw to another easily like you can do just using hardware synths imo.
Feed your hardware synths signals into each other and twiddle!
Hardware is best. I don’t think music made with software synths is real.
I think it was Bob Moog who had pointed out that many traditional instruments were reflecting the state of technology at the time of their invention. A piano, once at a time, wasn’t much different from a complex software synthesizer running on a high end PC now.
Sounds are just sounds. Music is the combination and arrangement of those sounds, and what they_express_. I feel that the medium that produces the sounds is secondary: more like a pen than the story.
I think it was Bob Moog who had pointed out that many traditional instruments were reflecting the state of technology at the time of their invention. A piano, once at a time, wasn’t much different from a complex software synthesizer running on a high end PC now.
Sounds are just sounds. Music is the combination and arrangement of those sounds, and what they_express_. I feel that the medium that produces the sounds is secondary: more like a pen than the story.
Wise words. My gripe with VST music is that the one constant I’ve had with new computers is the lack of continuity with software versions / licenses and operating systems. Effectively orphaning tracks each time with each new device. I like to be able to use different computers for the same tracks. It’s just what I prefer.
Wise words. My gripe with VST music is that the one constant I’ve had with new computers is the lack of continuity with software versions / licenses and operating systems. Effectively orphaning tracks each time with each new device. I like to be able to use different computers for the same tracks. It’s just what I prefer.
thats why i have chosen renoise! my finished tracks allways is everything resampled and no external vsts just all native xrns, and tracks i made 6 years ago still works as charm! can i say tracker arrangement or interface is better that piano roll? no! sometimes it is pain in the bottocks, but it is stable and absolutely works for me! what i cant say for native instruments stuff saying ‘’ hey! we have an update for you, so now half of your custom sound groups is not working anymore, but dont worry, that was shitty groups anyway! good luck reopening all your projects and reassigning everything’’
so yea you are in big trouble if must move to another pc, however renoise files is like a bank. you put your songs in a safe and have a good insurance on them, that no matter what, they will be safe! everything else hardware synths and shiny midi toys is just a soundsource, good for sampling
I had a bunch of hardware, and gotten the redundant ones. Now I have a smaller kit, but it feels a lot more “personal”. I know them inside and out. I can get results quickly with them. Plus I got some pocket money to spend on other things. Like a brand new chair!!
Devil’s advocate: I love my hardware synths. Loooooove. Will be using them till the day they (or I) die. My 30yo Roland JX-10 is a particular favorite now that its firmware has been homebrew-updated. Love my Microbrute and Kawai K1 also. Even my D-50, corny as it is. OTOH, I have “buyer’s remorse” for buying Massive and Sylenth1 a few years ago. They’re good, don’t get me wrong, but I never use them because I like the sound of the hardware better. I’ve tried getting VSTi’s to make the kind of sounds the JX makes right out of the box, and failed, and I’m a pretty good synthesist. I’ll admit that dealing with wiring and latency can be a bit of a problem, but not near enough to inspire me to ditch hardware.
Edit: actually should add, I only use VST FX, never hardware. That includes on-board FX on my hardware synths, I invariably turn them off and only use VST. Also, I own the Korg Legacy VSTs, they’re fantastic, and actually sold my hardware M1 when I discovered that the software version sounds almost exactly alike and is much easier to use. The MS-20 VSTi is the weakest, doesn’t really sound like an MS-20, but is still good in its own right.
i hate setups whitch song i created today not working tomorrow
I’m trying to figure out how I can fit a rack in my studio for outboard goodies. And a giant modular synth when I get thousands of dollars I don’t really need.