He might have grown tired of our penchant for rambling. He could have tried the "ignore" feature, or thought it was too much of a hassle, or didn't know it existed. I didn't find out about it myself for quite a while.

I don't use it often, but the last time I tried it, I got the error message:

"We can't help you ignore yourself."

Gotta love admins with a sense of humor!

Sure, you can edit sounds on the MODX, but it's an exercise in masochism. It's a truly punishing experience wading through the multiple levels of menus for each layer of sound.

Demonstrating sound design on your average synth is a quick and easy process. Set the oscillator, dial in filter+resonance, add some FX, and you're off to the races. If you edited a patch from scratch on the MODX during a demo, it would be a huge turn off. I'm sure most potential buyers would "Nope" out. That's why they just rely on the Super Knob to show off whatever preset macros are under the hood.

Another brick in the wall…

And now for something completely different

My biggest takeaway from NAMM was this book recommendation (turns out it's also available as an audiobook for those who hate reading)

Mark Isham Performs at NAMM 2023 for MIDI's 40th Anniversary

I guess the "lite" versions of those flagship synths are sort of "cheap"...but not really IMO. The MODX+ are about $2000.

Fantom 8 - $4000
Montage 8 - $4000
Nautilus 8 - $2400
used Kronos 2 88 - still about $2000 I think

My earlier, longer post, in short was to suggest that "good" Romplers (Specifically Yamaha) are not just "poor man synths". I'm saying they (Yamaha) are excellent Synthesisers in their own right.

I can't afford a Montage. I could, just about, after a few weeks of overtime (double bubble) afford a MODX. If the end game is creating "Synth Sounds" there's not a lot it can't do.

Some people already know this, but I suspect there are far more who don't.

They've heard that the MODX does good Piano, Rhodes and Organ, and assumed not much else. That's Yamaha's fault primarily.

I'm saying to "poor synthists".... look at the MODX. F$%# the Pianos, Jazz Rhodes, Jazz Organ, String pads. They're just a sideshow.

Have a listen to some demos by Dom Sigalas, and others.

Listen to demos of the cheap libraries from Easy Sounds... "Nostalgia", "Analog Experience", the free KaPro "CS80". Can anyone here afford a real CS80?

NAMM23, with no "new" Synth offerings, Yamaha had an opportunity to re-market the MODX+ for all its Synth glory.

Since the CK is Yamaha marketer's new baby (eclipsing the MODX's Jazz Piano, Jazz Rhodes, Jazz Organ) now might be a good time to take another look.

It's 24TRK maximum, nobody forces anyone to use all 24 if they do not need em all (but it scales up nice). It's still only 1RU + a cable loom. Plus whatever MIDI cables your synths need. You get that cable loom go into XLR, you can interface with a stagebox directly from the unit. Your local FOH guy will confuse you for a Pro lol

Kind of funny to read people objecting to having too many tracks - usually its always the other way around over here

I would've expected some affordable small stereo channel mixers (at least 6 channels) or summing boxes at NAMM but I think there were none.

Does anyone know why that is? It seems like a product for a pretty big market but there's hardly anything the market today.

https://bastl-instruments.com/instruments/bestie

Although it has five channels, not six.

The bastl is also a bit too limited besides the 5 channels. The only current product on the market I can think of is the Teenage Engineering TX-6 or the 1010Music Bluebox.

There are tons of affordable mixers on the market from Mackie, Yamaha, A&H, Behringer and others

Just those aren't small.

How small do you want? They certainly ain't big

They new 6 channel from makie sounds great, but man that reverb is drop dead!! It seriously sounds very good.. it is really small.

What "big market" you believe needs that?

I think Yamaha updated their small 6-channel mixer to Mk2 (and raised prices).

So nothing new from Korg ? Thats pathetic. No new Updates for the Opsix, the last big Update was in Oct. 2021 and there are still Bugs here. Where is the Wavestate SE?? No Replacement for the Prologues, no new Electribes/Grooveboxes. No new Workstation like an OASYS 2, no new Physical modeling Synths like Z1. No Sequencer Updates for Korg Kronos and Nautilus, i mean the Sequencer in the old Korg M3 has already a Pianoroll Editor but not in the Oasys,Kronos and Nautilus. No new Synths from Korg with complex Multistage Envelopes , they are still hanging around with ADSR Envelopes. Or a new Synth based on A.I. Sound Generation. Something interesting like NI Massive X or Reaktor in Hardwareform. A new Karma Keyboard?? No korg updater for IOS tablets to make updates for all actual Korg Synths quick and easy, plug and install, like the Modal App.

Bad Times….

Everyone loves small desktop gear these days which they can take with them. Mixers however are hardly taken into consideration, all mixers out there are too big too bulky to throw in your bag. The preamps, EQ strip per channel, long faders etc all making it too large for on the go. TX-6 and Bluebox are extremely small though. I wish there was something in between.

They usually take up space for at least 2 or more devices.
If you're on the go, or just don't have much space on your desk a mixer adds up quickly.

The other route is using an audio interface but those usually don't have the hands on control for everything which forces you to use either an editor (so a computer becomes a must) or another controller needs to be added which also takes up space.

A very nice compact mixer is the Behringer Xenyx 1002FX. It's 7.5 inches wide and 9 inches deep so it's the same size as two Volcas. It's really a great mixer as it has 4 stereo inputs and 2 mono inputs plus a great onboard effects section. You can easily run six synths into this little mixer. Highly recommended and can be found for less than $100!!

I just picked up a Radial Key Largo for shows.

No more Behringer for me. Besides not being a fan of the brand I had a couple of Behringer mixers including that one I think but they all went crap pretty fast. Either they were leaking to other channels or the connectors went bad or something else. And it came with a power brick that if I remember correctly weights even more than the actual mixer. Others might have no issues with them but it's clearly not for me.

I would prefer something more premium. From what I know it's just down to the TX-6 and Bluebox. The TX-6 is just too ridiculous small so I guess I'll have to give the Bluebox a try.

To each his own I guess

I can't imagine not having a mixer that has decent faders, EQ, sends, pans, etc

16 channel rack mount sized mixers, don't take up much more space than a laptop, but they are the heart of my setup

Next year I'll probably be traveling in a camper for a long time which means I got less space than a small bedroom producer.

Looks like a couple Korg Volca mixers might pack some punch.

3 faders with mute and send, lo and high cut
2 mono in, 1 stereo in, 1 stereo Aux in
LED meters
compressor, widener
clock

The Radial stuff sure looks great. Sadly, while they say they are class compliant, they won't work with iOs. Which is the exact use case I'd want them for.

For me both are too expensive, and both are digital. So not for me. I prefer simpler analog gear.

This is my new travel setup. Would be great for use in an RV. Roland SH-4D gives you 4 synth parts plus drums. Dreadbox Typhon gives you an added analog voice. Both controlled by the Arturia Keystep 37. I've also added my Akai EWI/USB wind controller, but of course that is not needed. If you substituted an Arturia MiniFreak instead of the Keystep, you would add even another poly synth voice. With a MiniFreak you would have a six synth plus drum machine setup in a very small footprint.



And here is my other portable "mini-key" studio setup. In this setup I use the Behringer mixer I mentioned here earlier. I have 4 synth sources. Roland JD-Xi, Arturia MiniFreak, Arturia MicroBrute, and a Korg Kaossilator. It gives me three poly synths, two mono analog synths, a drum machine and a sound FX box. Another great compact portable setup that actually gives you three independant keyboards to play on!! It's lot's of fun!