The Epic Hardware Megathread

[White_Noise]

Moogs are great. I wish I didn’t sound like fanboy, but they just do what I want when I’m using them. All the controls scale super well.

Have you used powerful computerized FX pedals before? Think Zoia, Meris, Eventide, etc.

I had a Line6… something or other for a couple years, and it was good sound-wise. I just wasn’t really using it because setting up all the FX and FX chains on the pedal was a pain, and I didn’t want to use a computer. I’d be interested in something like an H90/Meris, but I’m afraid I’d have the same problem unless I got something like a dedicated ipad to run pedal companion apps. And at that point I’d rather be using the killer reverbs I have in my DAW (SP2016, Arturia Lexicon emu, Sparkverb, etc).

I even traded that for the Boss 500-series pedals, and had kind of the same issue programming them.

So for me, I’d prefer pedals that do one thing and do it all on the face of the pedal. Think Memory Man, gamechanger audio optical spring, Waza Craft CE-2. Real basic bitch pedals.

How do you get on with the various kinds of fx pedals? I was thinking of getting a handful to play around with like the ones I mentioned above. Curious about your experiences because I know for a fact you have played around with a lot more than I have in this realm.

[ReWIR3D]

@White_Noise

Just like with Synths, I hate feeling like I’m menu diving. So I do like more straight forward and hands on but… I am a glutton for misery, so I still get equipment that requires in depth on the menu diving end.

I’ve messed around with the Line 6, fucking hate it . Honestly I would suggest anything Erica Synths, they are basically just playable pedals and are almost a synth in themselves. Zen Delay, Echolocator, Nightverb, etc.

I haven’t gotten into anything like the Meris or Evantide yet and that is my drawback, the stopping and disruption of inspiration to menu dive but I might just have to get a Meris or two. Not interested in the Evantides anymore tbh, used to fanboy over them, now I’m over it lol. Zoia does not appeal to me at all, looks like a huge eyesore and pain in my ass… I’m sure these are all great effects units but not my style except for the Meris pedals, those definitely would be worth my brain rot of tweaking parameters.

Also look into Walrus pedals, they are basic but nice and won’t break the bank. Those gamechanger audio pedals are pretty fucking cool looking, a couple are on my wish list. Chase Bliss pedals are very intuitive pedals and are top notch. We have the mood mk2 and it’s dope, easy to use, instead of menus, you have a ton of dip switches, love that.

I have an electro-harmonix dual reverb pedal, it’s alright.

Honestly with us all having the amount of software we do, it’s hard for me to straight up tell people to buy pedals when you can just run your synths through software effects and get nutty with it but something about a nice pedal just sounds sooo good and twisting knobs on the fly is satisfying. I didnt really answer your questions. I’m like you, I like the basic bitch pedals for playability reasons and not disrupting my flow or vibe to stop and tweak, and like you, all the heavy computerized style pedals are an instant turn off, I usually don’t last long at all with them.

[ReWIR3D]

I hate menu diving so bad that I finally just dove into my Roland - Mverse that I bought in 2021. As expected, it has halted my productivity because it completey changes the way I perform, I’m gutting through it to get this performance locked in and I do enjoy it, but it is a pain in my ass to stop and read tiny led screens and tweak shitty parameters lol.

Now that I’ve gotten my hands on it, it is a cool machine but I’d never recommend it to people, at the same time, it will become a staple of my setup going forward

[ReWIR3D]

And just like that, the Roland TR-1000 looks fucking amazing now that more videos are popping up. Steep price point, still have plenty in my bucket to get first but will be eyeing it for a future possible impulse buy

[White_Noise]

I haven’t watched the videos, but yeah I’m super interested too. I’ve never had a drum machine and I was basically considering something like a TR-8s plus something analogue so I could try out both sides. Now, this thing does it all in one box.

The only other drum machine I’d still be interested in is the Pulsar 23 (I swear, give me that and a mixing desk for the individual channels and I could make an entire album on there).

[ReWIR3D]

Up until I finally seen more under the hood of the TR-1000, I was going to get the TR-8S. Now I’ll just wait until someone has a mid life crisis, gets in bad with some mob bookies, gets threatened and doesn’t want to lose his fingers, sells his gear off for pennies, and I get the TR-1000.

The Pulsar 23 would be amazing! Erica Synths Perkons is a beast too!

[ReWIR3D]

I just can’t stop buying shit

[White_Noise]

I was offered a Perkons as part of a trade last year during my purge ™ and I didn’t take it. I don’t really get that one, maybe I need to watch more demos or something. I get the playability of all the knobs, but I’d be more interested in playing with the posts and routable pads on the Pulsar

[ReWIR3D]

The problem is finding a good video. I swear, I go to watch a video, it’s either someone talking for no fucking reason… or, and this kills me every time, it’s some fucking moron trying to do a sound demo, hits play, it’s all tuned up, and out of the entire synth and knobs and functions, they all reach for the fucking pitch knob… immediately fuck up tuning, than you can just see them panick and play it off but can’t sweep back into tune because they are twisting it back and forth too fast lmao. It’s a staple of youtube gear videos

[ReWIR3D]

What was the trade? What did they want?

[White_Noise]

I think it was for my Matriarch, they offered a Perkons and a RYTM or an Analog 4. Not sure, but it wasn’t just the Perkons and I remember it was one of the bigger Elektrons because the guy was on Elektronauts. Anyways, I wasn’t interested in trades because I was focused on downsizing, so I found a cash buyer.

[White_Noise]

I’ve tried to do demos too, it ain’t easy. I keep mine audio only and I still think they’re pretty iffy.

But no talking in mine, I don’t even run a mic. Just me noodling on various patches, for better or worse.

[wayne]

@White_Noise you ever play with a tempest

[wayne]

This is that bro at a party who tells you he’s in “boutique vintage synth trading” and you kindly ask to demo what he’s selling

“Yes as you can see here… there’s two O.S.C. Which go from 0 to 127… what a number right who chose that”

[ReWIR3D]

Oh fuck yeah. I forgot about the Tempest. Looks like I’ll go down the tempest rabbit hole today later. I was watching a bunch of ‘Udo Audio Super Gemini’ videos last night because that thing is a fucking beast. $5000 makes it a hard pass because I’m not that guy, but if I was, I would pick it up instantly

[ReWIR3D]

I was trying to hear how the Moog Messenger sounded when it first came out and the top video was a dude playing it, recording on his phone (for video is totally fine) but he was recording the audio playing out his speakers into his phone and uploaded it that way lmao. Like how tf can I even begin to know what this thing sounds like if you can’t even do the basics of recording

[wayne]

@ReWIR3D

I forgot about the Tempest

i wish i was a fly on the wall for the development of this gem
oh roger

[morphic]

@wayne

@White_Noise you ever play with a tempest

[morphic]

@ReWIR3D

I forgot about the Tempest.

[White_Noise]

I’ve never had the chance. That would be on my short list as well!

NGL, I do browse Reverb for them every now and then. But that’s one that I would want to set aside more time to dig into and do a lot of sound design on the analog side.

If nothing else, having 6 mono DSI voices from that era (kind of same time as Pro2 and Rev2) would be interesting. I know the filter resonance on some noise makes a decent analog kick. Don’t get fancy with it, just use that envelope and have fun!

Probably would be the most fun to play out of all the machines I want with all those fat squishy pads.

My dream drum machine rack would be the Pulsar 23, a TR-1000, and a Tempest. I basically am there with my synth rack, so if I keep working towards it I might have it all in the future. I know that’s SO overkill, but I feel like you get the wild performative aspect with the Pulsar, a slightly less odball item with the Tempest that you can still do some very unique things with, and then the TR I would massively under-use to just do the 909 boots and pants thing XD