I personally find the Tempest good for anything but 808/909 style drums.
Problem with a lot of new stuff is auto quantize. That’s why I stopped using the Electribe 2’s sequencer. That and the fascination of 64 steps that companies seem to push out on everything. 4 bars, really, And pattern chaining and swing are not the same thing.
You could get a Korg Pad Control, and plug into the Digitakt, although that’s gonna add to your budget.
If you need to get away from the computer, and you do housey stuff, get an old groovebox. I know for a fact the Yamaha’s don’t auto quantize anything. You wan’t that you have to go into jobs and do it. None of 64 step BS either.
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I guess I should clarify a little, the no screen thing isn’t like a “Imma be blind in 3 months if I don’t avoid all screens for the rest of my life”, it’s more of a “let’s get off the computer some of the music process so this isn’t an issue in the future”. I’m still going to be recording into a PC and mixing ITB for sure, no way around that in the space I have. But you guys have brought up some good points so far. I hadn’t considered the Deluge, which is a bit on the expensive side but does throw a synth in there. I also have a lauchpad pro laying around, so I could conceivably send midi from that into the Digitakt and get velocity that way, which I hadn’t thought of (and no impact to the budget). Both are fine ideas. I’ll do a bit more research and see what I like.
Will the Deluge sequence other stuff? That is a bonus for the digitakt.
The only thing I can add is the Tempest is a really weird beast and Ive never heard a good 909 or 808 from it. On paper I think the Digitakt is still your best bet, you can sample your synth sounds into it even. With sample locks I think 8 tracks will sort you. Even w the the A4 having patch locks per step made it a whole other machine.
Despite my love of groove boxes the Deluge has never interested me, but that is pretty subject and based on the little I read after its release.
Would be more than the Digi but the MPC @Auto-meh-geddon has seems like it might be a good option? It seems damn powerful these days.
Yea RYTM might be a good one too…
So did ya’ll hear that Teenage Engineering is bringing back the OP-1, but are charging $300 more “because the used prices were higher than original price” lol…its like $1100 or $1200 new now…
I’d heard the issue was that they had to source a new screen because the screen size they use is from cellphones and those change every few years so their supplier quit on them, more or less, because cell phones have been going bigger and bigger. My guess is they just have to flat pay more for the screens because no one really wants to make them that size right now.
I have a hard time believing that would cause a $300 price increase? Not saying you are wrong as I don’t really know. But that means they are probably paying an extra $150 per screen per unit? I dunno, I don’t work in a biz were we manufacture things really, but it seems like it would be better to just move on to new product if you had to charge that much more.
was basing my comment on this: http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2019/02/14/the-good-news-is-the-teenage-engineering-op-1-is-available-again/
edit edit: I also realize I’m extrapolating a lot from the synthopia article
Gas-ing for a TR8s but it’ll have to wait until im back in the states as i’d be raked over the coals here in Australia.
That and it’ll be good to cool off for a bit first as I’ve been fine producing without one for about 15 years now…
…and I’m going to need to get into a new computer this year. That new mac mini all souped up isn’t going to be a cheap thing.
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I promise I won’t tell you all about how much I love mine <3
You’d be surprised how easy it is for a slight change in the BOM to really impact price, because that one part has to be bought/sold at least 3 times before it gets to you. So a $10 or so increase in BOM could be $50 price difference at the street. To put some actual numbers I kind of know about this “expensive” power delivery vs. cheap ones is a price difference of $40 vs. $10, but it can inflate the final cost of the product $80-$100 (this is from what I know of computer parts).
That said, a price increase that big, I hope isn’t permanent. Based on what I know of Teenage Engineering, it doesn’t seem like them to pull a move like this, but I could be totally wrong too. I don’t think it’s cool of them to price like this if they intend to bring it back down later, so I fear the worst here. Hopefully their customers (potential or otherwise) and the community bring them in line or get a good explanation from them as to why this must be.
Yea, like I said, I don’t know much about this shit really. It just seemed a crazy cost increase–but again, as you say, a part changing hands a bunch of times, the price will start to go up really quickly…that I DO get lol.
I guess another way to look at the used versus their new price–maybe they were thinking they could charge that much if people were willing to pay 1100 or 1200 used they would pay that much new?
Looks like they had to bail on some newer products as well…
Axoloti Cores are supposed to be back in stock tomorrow. Thinking I’ll pick up a couple and see what I can do with them. Seems something like the OP-1 might be mimicable given the right controllers. Also, tiny portable modular effects rack sounds like it’d be sort of cool. Lots of neat stuff in a wee box.
ah man i know its a sick box, just a matter of needs vs wants vs cost vs value.
i’m hitting a wall w CPU on a couple of projects having to do some unnecessary freezing/bouncing to finish projects and its killing my workflow.
Totally serious comment: best buy that new computer then, I’d say. I’ve pretty much always just made due with CPU power, but it is a buzz kill when you are flowing with a track and have to save a version of a project file and print some shit to audio or w/e (I think Ableton does some fancy “flatten” thing FL Studio doesn’t do…).
it does, and its convenient, its just when i have people working in my space it feels like a waste of their time/money when im having drop outs and have to stop working to decide what makes the most sense to freeze.
basically my addiction to Waves stuff is crushing my CPU.
:shakes fist at sky:
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Last night I realised that having Pro Tools grade effects on a standalone groove box takes away my excuse for shitty sounding mixes.
Now I can’t blame the box anymore, I might have to learn how to mix better…
I’m happy that the MPC has the AIR plugin suite, but now it’s my fault, like sucks when you run out of excuses.
@White_Noise back on the groove box topic, the Deluge is actually a really good groove box and maybe the best step sequencer I used, what bothered me was how it was a master of everything in one screen, now it even displays the waveform on the buttons.
Another + great sidechain, assignable to pretty much everything, not just volume and triggered as midi, not volume.
MPC Live is really good too, especially after the latest mega update, synths, effects, editing, looping clips, I love mine, but just for drums seems an overkill.
The native ableton effects are really great for utilitarian stuff, i lean on their eq8, compressors and multiband dynamic effects pretty hard, and also their reverb.
The issue i have with them is that they lack some character when you compare them to Soundtoys or Waves, PSP… the list goes on.
with EQ’s if i am doing surgical cuts or doing a highpass, Ableton’s EQ8 is great, when i get to boosting stuff I prefer to go with the more “colorful” plugs.
different ball of wax all together but I’m also considering getting a 500 series chassis to start populating with pre’s eq’s and 2 comps to have a really sick front end to track instruments into. My work with Tycho has taught me a lot in regards to that sort of mentality, get the color on the way in…
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That absolutely makes sense man. Especially from a biz standpoint!
I need to see more demos of the Deluge. So far it doesn’t sound all that great to me. I get that it does a ton of deep stuff rather intuitively, but it sounds exactly like what I’m getting right now, minus a daw. The digitakt otoh sounds great in most demos I’ve seen. IDK if they did something to the sound engine to make it better or if they just load it with awesome samples from the factory or if users just can sample with it better somehow, but it just seems deeper and cleaner in a way that won’t need as much polishing in my daw.
If the Digitakt FXs are anything like the A4 they are pretty usable and sound good for onboard FX. I think the Digi allows high sample rates as well? Also, I am pretty sure the Digi only allows mono samples–but personally I wouldn’t let that slow you down as you can pan and add stereo FXs. People were getting super bent out of shape about no mono samples and I kinda don’t see their point personally.
As much as all in one groove boxes are great, they have to do a lot to be an all in one. You are going to make sacrifices to keep the cost down. I’ll have to listen to some Deluge demos today.