Who here uses hardware synths and what are they?

stuck80s

DW8000
JX8P
ESQ1
TG33
TX81Z

jolico

@gsm909 said:
Roland tr909
Tb303

You win.

slicetwo

Digitone, 0Coast, Virus C, and rarely, a Fatman. Love running them through the iPad.

[Deleted User]

Man I’m loving this topic , some really great set ups here 👏

Keep them coming.

[Deleted User]

The one area hardware synths cant compete (yet?) is granular.

Sergiu

Dsi Tetra
Toraiz As-1
Digitone

All connected with Mio10 , sequences on Live

rs2000

@auxmux said:

@dendy said:

@vitocorleone123
Roland SE-02. It's one of the best synths for the money you can buy

This ! It never stops amaze me !

Can you live with the knobs? I want one, price is right esp on sale.

I've worked with one, the tiny knobs are downright annoying even for lean fingers.
If it wasn't for the preset capability, I'd go for Behringer anytime - or Viking
An old second-hand Minimax ASB might be a good alternative, sound-wise.

Oh, and there's the Sub37 which is a joy to operate and it has presets and a cool sequencer too.

SanMateo

@mungbeans said:
Just curious who here uses hard synths, and what they are, and do you use them instead of a softsynth or in conjunction with them?

[I'd been a soft synth user (on Mac) for about 20 years until I got an iPad, then after playing soft synths on an iPad I loved the immediacy and hands-on-ness of using your fingers and a touch screen instead of a mouse. So decided to buy a hardware synth to take it one step further and gets hands-on with physical controls rather than virtual control. And have discovered that for me, being able to turn knobs and sliders physically is as important as the sound and features of a synth itself.]

My current list:

• Virus TI desktop
• Novation Peak
• Hydrasynth module arrving tomorrow
• Blofeld

iPads had the same impact on me. Started with hardware 20+ years ago. Moved to software and due to iPads I became interested in hardware again.

Minilogue (although probably going to sell or trade it)
JP-08
SE-02
TR-08
Digitakt
Digitone
Analog 4
Octatrack
DeepMind 12D ( just got it second hand, i’m surprised by how much I like it.)
Mother 32
Blofeld
O-Coast
HHTC (not a synth but a lot of fun)

Everything is running through my Mac which I use as as tape recorder and midi/audio patch bay. The digitakt is used as the brain while I use Ableton to “song sequence” the whole deal.

Oof writing all of that down makes me realize I have way to much.

MrSmileZ

Want analog:

Moog sub37
Waldorf pulse2
Korg minilogue xd
Korg volca modular
Ik mm unosynth

Want digital:
Arturia microfreak
Asm hydra desktop-or-modal Argon 8 (haven’t had enough hands on)
Osmose

horsetrainer

It's in my closet and would use if I had the room...

Korg M3

vitocorleone123

@auxmux said:

@dendy said:

@vitocorleone123
Roland SE-02. It's one of the best synths for the money you can buy

This ! It never stops amaze me !

Can you live with the knobs? I want one, price is right esp on sale.

The knobs have never bothered me. I think they'd only be a problem if you're trying to perform live OR if you don't have reasonable dexterity in your digits for whatever reason, OR maybe if you have huge hands like a pro basketball player.

It also makes a great controller (e.g., for Repro, The Legend, etc.).

The ExtBox is a luxury, as it takes the synth (which I recommend buying used in Excellent/Mint condition) close to around the XD Module... but is SO worth it to get that silky cutoff knob, plus the ability to use Drive and the HP filter. I also have the headphone out into the external in, turned up to about 25% for additional beefiness - beyond that and it can start distorting or over-coloring the sound.

Don't get the cheap arse 25 key that comes with it - the synth can make some use of aftertouch, so at least have a Keystep. The desktop editor and VST are nice to have so you can see what the patches are set to, though it costs a bit extra on top of things.

You CAN make it Moog-like, esp. if you 1) turn down the volume in the Mixer section on the oscs to 50%, 2) turn down the output of the unit a bit, and, bonus points, 3) have the ExtBox to add Drive. If you want to sound that way, that is. The SE-02 is generally more "clinical" / modern than a Model D - it has fewer harmonics by default. There's only a couple minor annoyances with it (some settings are per patch rather than global as they should be, such as the destination of the sequencer, etc).

Studio Electronics intended it to be Moog-like at the root with the ladder filter, but then also borrowed concepts/sound from Oberheim and Roland (of course), and possibly some others. It's unique. And it's analog (except for the digital delay).

Elvisthenrodent

I recently bought a circuit, tons of fun.

gdh

Korg Radias
Prophet 08
Fantom X6
Juno60
2 x JD 990
JP 8080

qryss

Jupiter-6
Juno-106
MS-20
SH-101
Novation BassStation
Yamaha SY99
JD-800
D-110

dendy

@auxmux
Can you live with the knobs? I want one, price is right esp on sale.

no issue with knobs.. at the end, they are bigger than on Volca )

thatguysmitty

Moog Grandmother
Roland MC-707
Roland MC-303
Korg Volca Keys
And the trio of Roland/Boss samplers (SP-202, SP-303 & SP-404A)

Eschatone

have: Deluge, MPC Live,
Neutron, MS-101 and Deepmind-12d

Want: Elektron Machinedrum UW+, Pulsar 23, Korg 2600 clone
Behringer 808, OTO Biscuit

gsm909

@jolico said:

@gsm909 said:
Roland tr909
Tb303

You win.

Bought both about 20 years ago, paid £500 for the 909 and £500 for the 303.

Svetlovska

@dendy said:
Blofeld, TD-3, MicroFreak, SE-02x, Neutron, Minibrute, Volca Keys/Bass, soon Mono Station )

My method of using HW synths is creating multisamples on different notes, then i load them into sampler and apply another envelopes, lfos, modulations... So i have very strictly divided my workflow to sampling part and production part ..

Hi, interested to know what your sampler and sampling process is? Do you use Synthjacker? I have a small collection of hardware (Volca modular, bass, sampler, Neutron, some FX) but I too am interested in primarily using the hardware as sample fodder in a two step process. Hardware sampling is new to me though, so I’m looking for tips.

dendy

Hi, interested to know what your sampler and sampling process is?

Nanostudio Obsidian

Do you use Synthjacker?

Not much. I used it but then i returned back to my "in the box" process inside Nanostudio - i simply draw some notes (f0, f1, f2, .. etc) in NS sequencer, select loop region, then i go to recording, enable sequencer playback and hit record .. then i cut recorded sequence to small "per note" samples ..

I usually sample stuff with no AMP or FILTER envelope - so i can loop small portion of recorded audio (something line "single cycle waveforms", just they are not really single cycles but rather from 10 to 100 cycles, to preserve movement in sound) and then i use it effectively as "oscillator" - so i apply Obsidian modulation to it ..

CRAKROX

Just an OP-1and a Monotron Delay I’ve had several others (Circuit, Bass Station, CZ-1, Monotribe) over the years but the OP-1 is the only one I would never part with.
I have to admit the OP-Z is getting more tempting too !

pauly

@gsm909 said:

@jolico said:

@gsm909 said:
Roland tr909
Tb303

You win.

Bought both about 20 years ago, paid £500 for the 909 and £500 for the 303.

Bought mine 30 years ago for $80 and $180. Sold them a few years later and doubled my money

Best HW synth I've ever owned: Matrix 6 ... Or maybe Roland Series 100.

jolico

@gsm909 said:

@jolico said:

@gsm909 said:
Roland tr909
Tb303

You win.

Bought both about 20 years ago, paid £500 for the 909 and £500 for the 303.

Great.
How are they holding up?
Did any parts need replacing over the years?

kinkujin

I started to write out what i have and frankly became embarrassed as mostly what i use now is on the iPad, due to time in studio and convenience factor. Would love to remedy that in the coming days/weeks/months/years ahead.

enc

95 percent hardware these days. Occasional use of iPad for drum machine and composing.

enc

And here’s my shrine to Behringer for all the haters

https://imgur.com/bhjIlod

jolico

@enc said:
And here’s my shrine to Behringer for all the haters

https://imgur.com/bhjIlod

🤮

enc

> @jolico said:

@enc said:
And here’s my shrine to Behringer for all the haters

https://imgur.com/bhjIlod

🤮

DatGood

I envy every last one of you MFs

RUST( i )K

@mungbeans said:

@RUST( i )K said:

@mungbeans said:
Just curious who here uses hard synths, and what they are, and do you use them instead of a softsynth or in conjunction with them?

[I'd been a soft synth user (on Mac) for about 20 years until I got an iPad, then after playing soft synths on an iPad I loved the immediacy and hands-on-ness of using your fingers and a touch screen instead of a mouse. So decided to buy a hardware synth to take it one step further and gets hands-on with physical controls rather than virtual control. And have discovered that for me, being able to turn knobs and sliders physically is as important as the sound and features of a synth itself.]

My current list:

• Virus TI desktop
• Novation Peak
• Hydrasynth module arrving tomorrow
• Blofeld

Interested to here about the Hydra....I am interested in import of ones own wave tables eventually as well as for more Granular synth stuff.

Peak is another on my not exactly short but potential list always kind of there in my cache.

What do you use the Peak for and how?

What are you triggering much of these with ?

These days I'm into sound design rather that music creation so I use the Peak and the others for that. The Peak I'd say is the least deep out of all these, its fairly limited by comparison, but its the best for immediacy and hand-on tweaking on the fly with little menu diving.
I'm into ambient, soundscapes, drones, long slow evolving pads, but with the Peak it encourages you to get into all sort of other stuff, experimental and weird, self generative modular sounding sometimes, getting to places nothing like ambient at all.
For the genre I'm into its the least suitable but its my favorite synth for just having fun with.
I used to just trigger it using a Keystep, but after recently getting a NDLR and using that with it I decided to dust off my iPad which I had been neglecting for a very long time and use what's on there instead. So I trigger it with:

• KB-1
• Xyntheziser
• Aphelian
• PolyPhase 2
• Fugue Machine

Different sequencers sound better with different synths and different sounds within a synth, so I tend to start them all and flick back and forth between them depending on the particular sound playing in the Peak at that moment.

Today I'm going to give Thesys a whirl with it as I've had Thesys installed for years but never really used it.

But most of the time I'll just use KB-1 in combination with latching on the Peak. I hope one day the add custom wavetable import to the Peak.

Cool.

To answer you original post:

Digitone
Microfreak
Novation Mono Station
Novation Circuit
Digitakt
Octatrack
Elektron Model Sample

This may be subject to change...lol