Oh man so I decide to pop into the Long and Mcquade today expecting to look at some midi keyboards and low and behold a Moog Little Phatty is in the store. I’ve had my eye on one for a long time but i’ve never gotten the chance to get hands on with one. Let’s just say i’m in love. I’ve had a MicroKorg XL for a while but just never found myself getting too lost in it, the Little Phatty on the other hand; I didn’t wanna leave, I just loved twisting those fat knobs and the whole front panel just made sense. Nothing hidden in submenu upon submenu like the XL. Also as much as I love the Komplete lineup of synths nothing beats having those knobs to put your hands on.
What do you guys think? Are moogs the definitive synth? For the price is there something better out there?
Very helpful points in that post. I really loved the flow, which is something I could probably achieve with a good midi controller/mapping for ableton and my Komplete synths. And yes the line is getting very blurry between soft/hard synths and the functionality and portability of soft synths is definitely not something to pass up. I’m also a huge fan of design though and I just love that keyboard, even if I could have OS X in a pc configuration or iOS in another tablet I couldn’t do it cause it’s the apple design that wins me over.
Yeah…a lot of tools can do the job. I’ve said it a million times, the way to judge a tool is how well it gets out of your way.
Mascine and Pro Tools (followed closely by Logic) do that for me in the computer world. But I’d love to get my hands on a hardware synth or two and a good groove box. Computers are really freaking cool and everything…but when you have to think about how someone’s going to physically access the controls to your “thing,” you tend to put more thought into the interface…at least, that’s the way it seems to me.
The few hard synths I’ve played with are a very different experience than all the soft synths I’ve tried. Even more complicated ones like the Virus…good sounds just come out. I have yet to have that experience with any soft synth.
like above mentioned, dave smith is quality. ive owned 2 mophos and the table top version of the evolver. if you check out the mopho its worthwhile to shell out the extra money for the keyboard version. the desktop version of the mopho only has 4 knobs so while it does sound great its strength is either using it as a voice expansion for the keyboard version or for playing back patches programmed on the keyboard version since its a chore to program on the desktop version. a plus though for the desktop is that the knobs assignments are saved to the patch so for performance it is really cool being able to save a patch and have the knobs be macros assigned to stuff thats relevant to that patch.
the dave smith desktop evolver is awesome to program on, while it only has 8 encoders theres no menu diving because the assignments are shifted with a really clear cut assignment matrix.
oh and the dave smith stuff has got some crazy ass modulation assignments, like we’re talking options that used to only be available on pricey semi modular synths
really cheap and nice interface - i really enjoy the korg ms2000r, same engine as the xl but dedicated surface.
u-he makes some great sounding softies. ACE sounds really great and is supposed to be a long the lines of an old MS20. of course the quality comes at a cost though as when you change the voice quality to accurate it really gobbles up CPU. also have a freebie they made called the tyrel n6, basically something like a juno 106 or a korg mono/poly. great sounds but eats up CPU like a glutton. its free so its worth checking out ( http://www.kvraudio.com/db/tyrell_nexus_6_by_u_he )
Totally agree with everything you say, but the desktop versions do have a software editor you can use. I wouldn’t dream of actually trying to program program my own patch using just the hardware interface. I would use the knobs more performing and adjusting a few parameters on the fly i.e. filter, res, decay and so on.
The dave smith stuff really is really pretty. I’ve seen videos of the Tempest before and been really impressed. Same with the prophet, I think. Not really sure…I remember it looking a lot like a Virus Desktop.
I’ll give the tyrel n6 a try, but for me it’s less about the sounds (I can find those) than the interface. I find myself using sampled stuff that came with Maschine or Transiter Punch a lot more than the soft synths I own (mostly freebees) because the scribble strips + knobs are just enough closer to hardware to start to bridge the gap. It’s still annoying to go through that many presets/patches to find a nice start…but it’s a heck of a lot better than Live’s boring-looking instruments (which were pretty good, just boring) or Logic’s completely unintelligible synth interfaces.
I really need to get around to generating simple waves to see if I can use Maschine’s Sampler as a subtractive synth in a more straightforward way than the sub-synth plugins I have.
I’ll probably buy the other 2 maschine expansions before I spend money on anything else (besides tracks) but if music ends up anything resembling a career, some of the dave smith stuff will find its way to my bedroom pretty quickly. Same with one of the 303 clones that a lot of people have been making.
They’re all just toys in the long run, but I kind of think that synths, drum machines, and groove boxes are like orgasms…they’re better when they’re real. Even if the fake ones are way easier and cheaper.
I’m not arguing that everyone go out and spend money on stuff they don’t need. I know better than many how hard that is to justify, having had a line of expensive hobbies (shooting, photography, cycling, DJing, now production too) that seem to keep getting worse. And it’s definitely not necessary. There’s just something about using hardware that I don’t think software has caught up to. I think that’s why I’m so sold on Maschine. It feels like a really really awesome version of the crappy hardware groove boxes I’ve played with that has a really expensive headphone/monitor amp attached to it (the laptop).
Maybe I just need to give AutoMap another try or see how much I can abuse Maschine’s Sampler…but there’s something to be said for even remotely tactile controls. As fidgety as it is, I enjoy technobox2 on my iPhone more than any software 303 clone I’ve used on my computer.
yeah i feel you man, right now as a matter of money i dont have any production hardware other then a shitty amp and some mics i use for some filthy sounds. sometimes i miss it but i feel like maschine and a busted remote sl is a good middle while i get other shit in order. only thing i miss is a decent mixer. especially after using a shit computer for a long time and mixing in the box. its taken a long long time for me to get used to keeping stem recordings as stems instead of bouncing them to a single file. drunk ass jam sessions get recorded into a single muddy mixed track
I actually found a guy selling his for 900 locally! What do you guys think? That’s pretty significant savings. No shipping and no taxes which probably saves me about $500-600
It is only a stage 1 which would drop the price a little, and the guy was recently selling a microkorg and launchpad, so i’m assuming he just decided this gear wasn’t for him.
He is giving me a piano stand with it 2. And I think it’s more then fair price. If I had to ship it or pay taxes on a new one I’m pretty much lookin at 1500-1600
If you think it’s a good deal and want it for $900 then buy it but you could probably get him to sell it for cheaper and it’s a fair price but not a good deal.
If you look you can get a stage 1 for cheaper though and I’ve seen them go for $700. I’ve seen a Stage II go for $750 and I hardly look out for synth deals.
I’m in Canada and big items like this usually jump to over $100 in shipping, not sure why but. I feel bad now since I basically agreed at 900 already, I didn’t really think to shop around for prices on stage 1 since all I ever see for sale are the stage 2’s, the only difference is the USB panel right?