The Hardware Megathread

The Studio
3595

I’ve spent a week cheating on my MPC with a Maschine+ It’s… better in some ways, worse in others, and NI is just cancer when it comes to third-party content (your user content folder has TWO LEVELS of folder structure max… someone from NI said this won’t change). I’m a little salty mk3 owners get more content on the software side of things, but oh well. I guess I got a free license for FM8 out of it and a buttload of expansions.

But I got a Reaktor ensemble from the user library working with all controls exposed to the 8 knobs and multiple pages of them. It’s JP-4c, a super saw emulator. This is not officially supported by NI at all, and could be broken with an update, etc, etc. But that’s what pushed me over the edge to take the plunge. Less ins/outs than the modern MPCs, but you can plug in class-compliant audio interfaces to a USB port, so that makes up for it and you get to choose what you want/need.

So now I finally have a reason to dig deep into Reaktor since it seems like I got myself a stand alone Reaktor host. And having access to 128 parameters via the pages thing is much nicer than Akai’s 16.

3596

A quickie i made tonight

I used to work at a coke oven plant for 25 years, back in the 90’s i took my Yamaha SU10 sampler on a night shift and sampled machinery and radio communications. I put them samples in Polyend tracker and ended up with this, whats funny is the “Bleep” of the clocking off machine i managed to make a melody out of it :rofl:

4 Likes
3597

I used to love my tempest, I often regret selling it.

1 Like
3598

I regret selling my Monomachine. I wish they’d release a mk3 with modern Elektron aesthetic and sequencing; I would buy one immediately.

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3599

There’s a minty fresh TX81Z for $200 I could get my hands on. It’s tempting. But a Maschine+ with FM8 isn’t that far off, though those 12-bit converters and 12-bit internal processing do add a little magic dust…

I’m trying to figure out how to build Reaktor ensembles to use as external synth programmers. I have to say, though, that having things like Kontakt choirs on a hardware device is pretty nice…

3600

With all their new gear…all the FM…all the analog…surely they could come up with something that would be as cool as the OG Monomachine

1 Like
3601

Yes a MnM mk3 and MD mk3 would both sell like hotcakes if you ask me.

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3602

FM8 is great but there is definitely some majick in those converters.

Not the most convenient editing tho, thats for sure. I’d love to be updated on your Reaktor builds, I myself have done nothing but fail in that environment. I’m able to frankenstein patches together but thats about it. The low level stuff really does my head in (dyslexic) and I get to a point where I’m like… Chase just make some fucking music.

3603

Well, that TX81Z is gone, and so soon after I mentioned it :eyes: Fine, I’ll make my own FM synthesizer, with blackjack and hookers… I would also like to request a ban if anyone posts bragging about scoring a minty TX81Z off eBay within the next few weeks XD /s

As for Reaktor, I’ve converted/adapted some existing ensembles’ controls to the Maschine knobs (and I get 16 pages of 8…). It’s easier for some and daunting for others. It should, in theory, just be a matter of having knobs that send MIDI CC values or something. Maybe NPRN? I haven’t been able to find any ensembles that already do this, which is either worrying or they’re just tricky to search for (or I am bad at it).

Of course then I have to load that ensemble into the Maschine+ and get it to send MIDI data out the DIN port…

3604

Where do you find the patience to program from 16 pages of 8 knobs per page?

I made on the Force a template to control the CraftSynth, just 2 pages of well organised CC values and names and I almost died.

3605

In Reaktor you just click a knob/parameter on the UI or in the editor and there’s a panel that shows the ID. Maschine’s knobs are IDs 1-8, 9-16, 17-24, etc. I save a pic of the UI on my iPad and draw numbers next to the controls.

3606

Well, these became a thing…

image

I kinda like them and kinda don’t? I’m usually one of those weirdos that doesn’t want wood on everything electronic music related… though it grows on me at times.

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3607

I think this code is good for all of eBay? PICKSUMMER15 for 15% off. Though it took me to a tech area and I’m not able to check more atm

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3608

Well it looks nice but I prefer my stuff without wood.
Is that yours? How is it?

3609

Just a picture from their site. If they had a lighter wood option like birch I might be more tempted, so I can stain it to match my incoming Output Platform desk

3610

I’m not particularly picky about wood. I have a Jaspers rack in black that all my stuff is on, so I’m not trying to match anything. Actually, the thing I want to do when I have a bit more space is put some nice LED lights that can at least change color temperature on the bottom of each tier to light up the level below. I feel I’d get a lot of mileage out of being able to see everything clearly and change the lighting to go with my mood or the music I’m working on.

1 Like
3611

I’ll pretty much be right beneath some RGB lights that I can change color and dim on demand. I can’t wait.

3612

DSI stuff has got wood. It definately makes the synth more unwieldy but with practice you can still hit an intruder with it. Its all in the swing.

2 Likes
3613

There is no way I could hit anyone with a 61 key synth. I can barely pick up my K5000S and it’s not analog or knob per function lol… Maybe that’s an excuse for a Prophet V or PolyBrute: bench-pressing them so that if the time comes to clobber an intruder with one, I’ll be ready.

3614

Do you even lift… Prophets bro :rofl:

1 Like