The Hardware Synth Thread.

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Sherbet Head
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Thought I'd come here to brag about my material possessions.

Here is my list of gear:

Minilogue xd (I recommend it a lot!! I made this track using only the minilogue xd, even the drums! (used audacity for mixing))
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Behringer Neutron / fun, specially with some reverb!!
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Behringer Model D
Volca FM
Volca Sample
BASTL KASTLE
Yamaha Reface CS


Misc (Video synthesis gear):

3TrinsRGB+1C Video Synthesiser / You can see it in action here (Funnily enough this was a month before societas X tapes and I used ILLUSION as my second track in the video :P ):
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Wj-AV5 Video Mixer / It does this if you plug it into itself! :
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Video Title Maker 2000 / Makes title over analog video, but I've had trouble making it work with video colorwise, it's got a hard time syncing with the video and the colors go wonky on the text.

Sony Handycam CCD-TR23 / I like the way analog video looks, so I had to buy it when I saw it
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JVC Gx-S700 Tube Camera from the 80's / I bought this one on ebay for 50$ with a whole pack of small lenses and tapes with tape cleaner, the guy bought it off in an auction, the girl who was selling it said it was owned by her grandfather who was a cameraman for a news station in Cheyenne in the 80's.
It looks really nice and weird when you boot it up!!
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Dayvan Cowboy
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mechanismj wrote:Nice to see you are still around, Harpoon!


Thanks heh yes, I'm still here.. just a ghost on the sidelines most of the time..so busy these days.

TheStatPow, the video synth stuff is super cool! And yay for the Neutron and Minilogue XD, have tried them both and they're a ton of fun--great sounds :mrgreen:
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Sherbet Head
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I think it's great if you can do restoration work yourself. I've got a Juno 60 and SH101 that could use some love. I want to get the Juno 60 into a worthy wood chassis. The particle board is garbage. Mine also needs some slider work, some of the buttons are sticky and some of the notes double trigger. The sh101 is fine for the most part but the last key doesn't work and the power supply is going a bit wonky so its tuning is off sometimes. I sold off a few of the other old analogs I had because I either didn't totally click with them or their basic underlying tone wasn't for me (CS10). I have a few older digital synths as well. Those generally have held up better imo and none of mine have any problems.

I moved to being almost totally hardware based about 8 - 10 years ago. Some of it was preference and some of it was because I was finally able to do that. I just became less and less interested in software as time went on though initially I was almost all software. I'm about 50/50 digital vs analog and poly vs mono though I have more analog monos than digital monos which makes sense and more digital polys than analog polys. Also quite a few reissues and clones and plan on adding more. As time has gone on I've found myself preferring analog monos and digital polys anyway.

I live in a pretty remote area for most of this last decade and it can be hard to try things out as there are no synths within 300 miles of me. I'm actually going to Superbooth in Berlin this year and really looking forward to trying all the things.

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New Seed
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Can't say I collect any retro synths (sadly), although I was lucky enough to find a poly-800 collecting dust in my teacher's classroom and took it off his hands for 75$ :). Cool find, although the severe lack of nobs makes programming a chore.

Otherwise, the only other analog (mostly) synth I own is the minilouge xd, I can't reccomend it enough! I've had a total blast working on it.


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Happy Cycler
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machinea wrote:I think it's great if you can do restoration work yourself. I've got a Juno 60 and SH101 that could use some love. I want to get the Juno 60 into a worthy wood chassis. The particle board is garbage. Mine also needs some slider work, some of the buttons are sticky and some of the notes double trigger. The sh101 is fine for the most part but the last key doesn't work and the power supply is going a bit wonky so its tuning is off sometimes. I sold off a few of the other old analogs I had because I either didn't totally click with them or their basic underlying tone wasn't for me (CS10). I have a few older digital synths as well. Those generally have held up better imo and none of mine have any problems.

I moved to being almost totally hardware based about 8 - 10 years ago. Some of it was preference and some of it was because I was finally able to do that. I just became less and less interested in software as time went on though initially I was almost all software. I'm about 50/50 digital vs analog and poly vs mono though I have more analog monos than digital monos which makes sense and more digital polys than analog polys. Also quite a few reissues and clones and plan on adding more. As time has gone on I've found myself preferring analog monos and digital polys anyway.

I live in a pretty remote area for most of this last decade and it can be hard to try things out as there are no synths within 300 miles of me. I'm actually going to Superbooth in Berlin this year and really looking forward to trying all the things.


Your Juno-60 sounds exactly like mine. I also have a dead battery that needs replacing. I am hoping I can learn how to do most of these repairs myself.

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Sherbet Head
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I think I’m going to buy a cherry wood chassis for my Juno 60 and send it off to be overhauled. It deserves all the love. I think the SH101 is more of a fix it myself task.


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Sherbet Head
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Lately I bought an TD-3 (303 clone ), MS-1 (Sh-101 clone) and an MFB-301 Pro (Small analog drum machine)

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Sherbet Head
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How is that MFB? I’ve been curious about it.

I had the MS1 and it’s the obit synth I ever sent back though I thought it was well built - it just didn’t sound like my 101 in the higher registers and the noise and resonance were completely off. I think the pro one and boog are actually closer.


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Sherbet Head
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machinea wrote:How is that MFB? I’ve been curious about it.

I had the MS1 and it’s the obit synth I ever sent back though I thought it was well built - it just didn’t sound like my 101 in the higher registers and the noise and resonance were completely off. I think the pro one and boog are actually closer.


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MFB-301 is worth all its money!! 150$ for an analog Drum machine is a no brainer. and already it paid for itself to me!
(Only slight issue is the noise that the usb connection gives as you can hear on the audio. but using the right usb to wall adapter will take care of that.)

I'm enjoying the ms-1 very much as its own thing. didn't get it because it was a clone though, I do dislike the sequencer though.
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Sherbet Head
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Don’t get me wrong I think the MS1 sounds good it just wasn’t what I was wanting for a replacement for my SH101 which is having some issues. I dislike the boutique format but I’ll likely end up with the SH01a.


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Sherbet Head
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If you use the B-brand, it's time to have a rethink;


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https://www.musictech.net/news/is-this- ... criticism/

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Sherbet Head
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Sherbet Head
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Still gonna buy behringer. I want cheap synth clones :oops:

Korg's nice too for affordable synths but I have them already :mrgreen:


Before y'all jump on the antisemite bandwagon just google Peter kirn and look how he looks like ...

You have to smell whine before tasting it, and the french person with a big nose smelling whine is also a stereotype. not only jews are stereotyped as having big noses.

Still very childish for a company yeah, but it ain't as bad as anyone is making it out to be.
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Sherbet Head
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Uli would be wise to have someone on his staff just filter out the noise on the internet because he can't seem to help himself when he faces criticism. He invariably does something petulant and puerile. The Peter Kirn jab was just stupid. I didn't take it as inherently anti Semitic and ended up in a few heated debates about that. Kirn isn't jewish and the reference isn't to being jewish but a cork sniffer. Uli said it wasn't intended to be anti-Semitic, I'll take him at his word even though it was still really a lame and in exceptionally poor taste. In any case I own a few of his synths. I try to buy other re-issues when I can. I have the Korg MS20 and Odyssey reissues. I really wanted the Arp 2600 reissue but they didn't release enough and I balked at spending 4,000 for a synth that does sound awesome but really doesn't have that many features. And then they were all sold out within an hour of hitting the preorders on different sites anyway. Korg said they wouldn't do a mini version of the 2600 which leaves Behringer as the only other option.

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Friendly Stranger
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I'm not that interested in buying really old synths, but I've got the Korg Minilogue, The Waldorf Blofeld, and a Roland JV1080 with the vintage synth expansion board (which is well worth tracking down if you have a JV1080).

Those three things give me way more choice than I need, so am trying desperately not to buy any more. I like the Korg Microkorg but I really don't need one.

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Moderator
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I bought the Microkorg in 2012 and barely touched it. Its interface is God awful and I never got used to it. It actually turned me off so much that I've exclusively worked with soft synths since. I May finally sell it...but what's a good replacement for around the same price?

EDIT: Ha I basically said it was shit in this thread six years ago.
PLEASE LISTEN TO MY QUEER ELECTRONIC POP MUSIC: 2020k.Bandcamp |Twenty20k.com

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Sherbet Head
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2020k wrote:I bought the Microkorg in 2012 and barely touched it. Its interface is God awful and I never got used to it. It actually turned me off so much that I've exclusively worked with soft synths since. I May finally sell it...but what's a good replacement for around the same price?

EDIT: Ha I basically said it was shit in this thread six years ago.


Almost anything is better in that price range imo. I think it's got an awful interface too. I'd rather save some more money and get a nord lead 2x or something along those lines because the interface is so easy to work with. I don't like the Korg Minilogue much but that seems an obvious choice for a lot of people.

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Eagle Minded
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I'm thinking about buying a Deepmind, seems like the best synth at its price. Any of you had any experience with it?

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Sherbet Head
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Seems cool. if you can get the desktop version a decent price go for it. but I personally wouldn't buy it at the MSRP price.
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Friendly Stranger
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i want 3 Volca Drums running simulaneously with my mother-32 and some recorded ambient strings in cubase tweaking the volca drums. when i bought the mother-32 i got a ride to a gas station to play a 3 digit lottery came home looked at the tv... got the message i won went to my room worked on a tune, then went straight to bed... woke up the next day checked my ticket online and wont $160 any order my numer was 774 it came up 747. i don't know. i see sometimes.

Before my dad hank died, i was at another gas station and he was standing over talking to the cashier and i played a 5 dollar jumbo bucks scratch off and he said.... that's a winner! won $75 cash on the spot.

that 747 number was a shocker maybe g-d. hank died 2012. :( he played the guitar and had a webbed hand on his picking finger.

imy grnadmother took thalidomide for monring sickness. dhank?

i'm on that hill.

chill out pepole i walk that hill good neighbors though. i mainly walk to get smokes. hah

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