The Hardware Megathread

#3057

It’s not a one box track machine, that’s for sure.

#3058

HA! Mine just showed up as well. Still need to mess around a bit but first thoughts are-

Money spent.

I’m hoping I can add some flavor to the DFAM with it at the least

#3059

Hey one more question, with the OS update is it possible to stream audio from an iPad into the mpc/ force via USB?

#3060

I’ve kind of poo pooed the DFAM…do you get a wide range of sounds out of it?

#3061

It’s underwhelming for me. Makes some nice kicks, maybe some funky sounds but it’s sort of bizarre for the price . AND 8 steps? Why?
It’ll make a nice tool for layering percussion, (mostly because I already have it here) but jeez, on its own, idk.

#3062

Wasn’t terrible. They’re small and kinda a pain in the ass, but totally doable. I ended up getting 10m of RG174 and a hand full of jacks, so nothing special. Maybe Neutrik or Switchcraft are easier to solder, but I doubt it, mostly everything’s just smaller.

The center wire is tiny and fine like horse hair and a little hard to work with without breaking strands. Otherwise it builds like any other cable, just more delicate and tedious. Easy enough to crank them out once you get the feel for it.

I didn’t really save much over buying premades because of the cost of the amazon jacks, but I’ve got enough wire for lots more and 10pk of jacks are like $3 on ebay, so I may go that route if I end up needing more.

#3063

I promised you guys some Super 6 sounds. These are all mine. First time I’ve tried recording a synth in like a year. And you know what, it wasn’t half bad. Made a recording template while I was doing this so hopefully I start to actually use my synths in my music more. We’ll see, I have to get midi figured out (and this thing doesn’t have USB midi yet).

#3064

Nope.

#3065

Darn!

#3066
#3067

Polyend tracker is worth a mention it samples, i like it more than my Elektrons (Takt/Tone/A4/Cycles)

#3068

Theres a young lady called antagonicamusic who does some cool jams on instagram with the Microfreak

#3069

So, since @moodorf’s question about older gear, and thinking again about the missed opportunity I had to buy a MS2000r back in high school, I’ve since become determined to track down a unit.

Now, there are units out there, but I’m not looking to just get one to get one. I only want to get one if I can get a good price on one, and I’m thinking I may be able to find one under $300, cuz there have been others sold around that price. I may even be willing to go up to mayybe $400, but much more preferably less than that.

So, as I was scoping around different sites on the internet to track down what’s out there, I came across a guy selling one for $250 (who’s willing to let it go for $200 if you also buy the Slim Phatty he also has, but I’m not looking to buy two synths). The only catch is he says it’s “janky”, and thinks it has a grounding issue. He says it cuts out at times, until you hit it, then it comes back on. I’m thinking I’m relatively comfortable enough with opening things up and checking out electronics to at least entertain the idea of fixing it, but I am kinda hoping to talk him down closer to $200 for it.

Otherwise, he says it works fine. I don’t know how often it cuts out or whatever, but I’m wondering what kind of issue I might be looking at. I imagine it could just be a short somewhere, but I would like the unit ultimately to be working, and I’m probably gonna avoid having it repaired because then I’d be back up to paying $400 or whatever, which there ARE ms2000r’s out there for that price.

#3070

It’s more than likely a loose solder joint somewhere. Electronic components themselves don’t generally respond to whacks unless you beat them with a hammer, so something is coming apart and back together and it’s probably not on the PCB itself. Probably vibration from actually playing it is enough to do it. Could even be the jack itself.

There’s a slight chance that a SMD component has a bad connection, but those are almost never loose because of how they’re attached. If it is an SMD part, it’s a huge pain in the ass to track down and fix.

If you have a soldering iron and a spare cable to make an audio probe, this is likely a great deal and a piece of cake. Might be a bit time consuming, but I’m seeing MS2000rs all over Reverb for like $450-500, so if you could snag it and fix it for $200 I’d say it’s a hell of a deal.

#3071

After my introduction and me talking about how I look forward to not talking about hardware - here i am talking about hardware! :smiley:

I just had a bit of a funny night last night while making music, I’m lucky to have a few bits of nice / expensive hardware but it all started with a Volca Sample (I went OTB some years back after my laptop was stolen when I got burgled)

I installed Pajens’ Firmware onto the Volca Sample a while back and yesterday I was experimenting with sending CCs to it in novel ways from Architect and some of the techniques I discovered using the new CCs added in that firmware were a proper AHA! moment in regards to music making in general and serves as a reminder to myself that even the cheapest / simplest bit of gear can lead to groundbreaking results if you truly learn it in and out and get creative with its’ particular set of features.

So yeah, I really recommend grabbing one of the V1 VS’s mentioned above with the custom firmware, they’re actually ridiculously good.

#3072

Something she said really resonated with me, that she started electronic musicing because she liked synths.
Same here.

#3073

One does not exclude the other, we can still talk about hardware and techniques that go with it.

But mostly it’s about praising/dissing gear…

#3074

Yeah I meant nothing by it other than poking fun at myself of making a point of it when I joined and then only to go on and chat about as my first ‘contribution’ hah, I don’t mean to put anyone down which is what I realised my first post could’ve come across as. This place seems great and I have no complaints :slight_smile:

As another contribution to this thread - Along with the Volca sample mentioned above being one of my favorite pieces of gear that’s heavily shaped my sound / methods, The Motas-6 has been another one, playing around with all the possibilities with all those LFO’s has lead to discovering a lot of interesting ways to create patterns within pads / textures / bass / whatever that can groove along to the rhythm of your track. I thought I’d mention as not many people even know it exists and if anyone’s in the market for a high end monosynth, I don’t think it gets much better than the above.

I can’t diss hardware at all as the circuitry of it all is a huge inspiration to me!

#3075

man if only i weren’t poverty stricken since i was born i could contribute to this thread. Oh well. nothing like spending all of your cash on basic essentials and trying to keep your gf from leaving you.

Go Capitalism

#3076

I know how it be, I had nothing at all when I left home and still had a nothing many years later after having to move suddenly several times and leave everything behind.

I’ve had a few years where I’ve pretty much not lived life outside of working and scrimping on spending everywhere I can, so very sick of that now though!

If you do ever get into hardware, I recommend keeping an eye out for good deals on 2nd hand stuff, I managed to slowly buy and flip things for better things over the years because anything I bought was always at a below average price.

Anyway… I hear people making amazing music with software, and you have a lot more possibilities with it, I’d be using it too but my £150 laptop can’t really handle anything other than running Architect (which even it can run flawlessly!)