Slut of the Month Should Get a Prize!

I’ve had a good month. I bought Cubase Pro during the 30th anniversary sale but hadn’t dived in too deeply until last weekend. It was one of the most frustrating experiences I have had with the creative process. I have a room full of synths and the workflow just fell apart very quickly for me. I bought Bitwig Studio and believe I will be happy. For all my other needs, there’s Reaper. Now I just have to figure out how to resell my 10.5 pro License to fund a new controller!

I got a killer deal on an “open box” Erica Synths DB-01 that was never actually opened-the person who ordered it refused shipment but the box was opened to inspect the return. It sounds amazing! Finally, I also received my KeyStep Pro which I am still figuring out.

A poignant purchase this week of all weeks, my friend - gorgeous

wow, that's an absolutely immaculate specimen. congrats



but didn't JD use ARP Omni 2 ?


what you got is original Dutch made Eminent Solina rev2, sold and re-badged by ARP in the US. it uses original TCA350Y BBDs, just like the 310U.

Omni-2 came later, when ARP added a parasynth and bass, and re-designed ensemble to use SAD512 Reticons. (Omni1 was Panasonics MN.)


my bandmate has Omni II unit. i played it a few times, and while generally similar to my Solina, it did have a sound of its own specifically in string section. and that bass voice was fantastic.

Thanks! Yes, this one is a Solina rev2 and yes, that's correct, they used mostly the Omni-2 - I have the Omni-2 as well, but in a few songs (like "Atmosphere" and "Love Will Tear Us Apart) they used a Solina that Martin Hannett had. There's a slight difference between the strings on the Solina and the Omni-2, with the Solina being more "ethereal" when used in the high violin setting, and the Omni-2 being "chunkier" - for lack of better terms... there's an interview with Bernard Sumner in the documentary "Synth Britannia" which I'm sure you have seen already when it came out a few years ago, where he mentions the Solina.

Now that I have both I'll make a video comparison between the two!

Btw if you're interested, I have a video on the ARP Omni-2 where I show the classic voices used in "Closer":

Last night I sat on my foliage adorned balcony porch watching a beautiful Sunset with my headphones on and my new Yamaha Reface CP, For almost 2 1/2 hour just improvising damn this thing is really nice mini keys aside, Driven by Midi And sequence by my Digitone keys, makes the small mini keys quite handy as well as the batteries to take out on my porch love this thing and it sounds wonderful better on headphones into a system but still it’s got speaker still in the price so although on an earlier part of this month I announced that I had purchased this I just got it in the mail I just ordered this because I have a really good battery rechargeable battery charger there’s multiple sizes I lack in something to organize the damn batteries so I ordered this 14 bucks even has its own little battery tester:

Hey, it’s gear FOR gear, right!?

I bought a subscription to Groove3. Their video tutorials for Cubase are excellent. It is getting me up and running quickly. They explain everything in detail and in a path that goes in a logical order. These tutorials will take the mystery and frustration out of working with Cubase. Do yourself a favor and give it a try.

Just ordered this from Thomann. I probably won't have it until June but I figure I'll mention it in the May new gear thread.



I probably won't use all 6 tiers but I figured I'd buy them now and have them for any future expansion. One can never have too many gear arms regardless of # of tiers.

Took a few backs and forth... first attempt triggered a fraud alert on my CC so I had to confirm that with the bank, then resubmit the order, then they had to give me an updated shipping cost due to the size/weight. It's a shame these stands aren't stocked by any US distributors.

With this I'll have room for any future additions to my setup, including the Osmose this fall or so.

They already do: They have gear.

Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately my issues seem to be based around how Cubase is built to handle hardware instruments (only a single instance and you can’t reuse the MIDI port even if you freeze the track). I was also never able to get bounce in place to even run for a hardware instrument which in theory would have let me free the instrument up. I found several forum posts where other had the same bounce problem with no solutions.

This just arrived yesterday for my Prophet 6 and OB-6

I highly recommend groove three tutorials that’s what helped me dig and still is helping me dig deeper inside my choice of DAW reaper very good prices and another place on iOS platform askaudio, they have great Elektron tutorials for instance, good prices as well.

XKEY25

Finally! I no longer have to resort to Logic's "musical typing" (playing a QWERTY keyboard) when testing/playing my plug-ins in Logic! XKEY25 to the rescue! Most importantly, it complies with my number-one studio rule: NO MINIKEYS! That it's velocity-sensitive and also supports polyphonic aftertouch are added bonuses.

For a while, I had my IK Multimedia iRig Keys 37 (also with full-sized keys) in front of my iMac's keyboard, and as compact as that is, it reduced clearance to my Apple keyboard making typing difficult. With its full-sized keys, Apple-friendly aesthetics, and ultra-slim profile, the XKEY makes the perfect desktop AU/VST keyboard:

I have two 6 tier racks like this - 150 and 120 inner width. I turned them both into 5 tier racks, and spaced them evenly at maximum span from lower mounting point to upper most position. In my opinion this is the only way for comfortable programming of synths. And for comfort at top rack I am holding only Sub-37 and MS-20, because they have tilted panels, without obstructing my view with their keyboards of lower tier.

I also have this one. And maximum number of keyboards from my recommendation is three. Also: my cat made my DeepMind 12 fall from this one, so watch out for animals, if you have any. No problem with heavier synth vs lighter animal, but my cat was 4 kg so he was in lower range. :]

It's better to extend its holding arms to the point, when they reach front edge of your synth, thus keeping synths center of weight away from base contour (this is my non native english speaker translation - what I mean is contour that is shortest line around all supporting points). This is not only to protect agains animal accidents - it will also stabilise your playing.

Cheers!

@ normanion thanks for the advice. Luckily I have no pets.

Got an X-Touch for Logic, much nicer than mousing about


Sold my Nord Rack 1 and got a Nord Rack 2 - waiting for ears


System-1m - with SH-101 plugout


Novation Peak - whipped off the cheeks (curious magnetic attachment system) and the postman's had my "bespoke" rack ears for 2 weeks now..


Some rack gear..
Klark Teknik 1176-KT
Klark Teknik EQP-KT
Funk Logic NCC-1701 (hah) rack adapter holding an FMR RNC 1773 (with space for another)
oldskool MXR 31-band EQ x2
Electrix Warp Factory


Argon 8M - only complaint is that despite recessed ports on the hardware, the supplied PSU & USB connectors don't have an angled plug so in a rack it pokes up above 3U wasting 1U.. will have to fix that


Dynacord DRS-78 digital reverb delay - nice old dinosaur


Oh and finally got this spaceship..

Wow wagoo! That's a TON of fun stuff! You're gonna love the System-1m!

I think Wagoo just won every month's prize till 2023

I bought this and I have a 2nd Analog Four incoming...

Whoa dude you are really going for it! Congrats on all the stuff!

I’m kinda big on the quality of monitors Presonus has been making recently. My Spectre S6s seriously made me weep because of how good they were, and the smaller Eris monitors I have from them are great and very inexpensive. Not as flat as I’d like for reference but revealing enough to mix with for the size and price.

Not too get too deep or sad or anything, I just want to say that I miss your charismatic doggo putting his tongue on everything and hope you’re doing ok with that loss, as it has been a minute. I loved the pics of that pup and miss him vicariously.

Cheers for remembering I still miss her and my husky too (she was called Scarlette, he was Onyx).. got them both 1 week apart in 2006 so they grew up together

Here they are snuffling about in the snow

I finally gave into impulse, and got the three Teenage Engineering “Metal” series Pocket Operators (PO-32 Tonic, PO-33 K.O., and PO-35 Speak), with cases and some other goodies. While I have a lot of gear and am a big fan of the early Elektron machines (and as far as I understand it, many of the early Elektron engineers went to TE), I’ve never owned anything from TE, but I’ve been following them since long before I got into hardware with the OP-1 and dig their aesthetic, so I’ve been itching to get a taste of their approach anyhow, and I had some gift card money to offset the cost.

The “impulsive” element is the fact that, quite frankly, I still enjoy smoking, cigarettes or otherwise. I like to sit on my patio in nice weather. I’ve got battery powered gear like Roland Boutiques etc, but I’m not willing to smoke around them. $60 Pocket Operators seem almost too good to be true for generating ideas when I’m just relaxing, and that’s why I’d regard it as an “impulsive” purchase. But at the same time, in quarantine, three cheap ass pocket samplers with sequencers that I can always bounce to something else almost feels like an essential purchase.

today is the 2nd anniversary of my joining the Axoloti sect.
and today i’ve got 3d printed Axoloti cases that i’ve ordered before quarantine. coincidence?

The sound is impressive, the dynamic response is really decent for such a cheap little speaker. No way on earth I'd get rid of MSP5's for these, but then they're x10 the price, it's just a bit of a surprise how close they are for the price (not that close but much closer than they should be)

I really like those, if it only had real midi in/out ports i would be all over it..

couldnt decide, so in classic GS style got both

and a plugin