I have not.
PreSonus dropped new Quantum interfaces today, the ES and HD. The front inputs say they’re for passive instruments only, which is a bummer as a bass player with nothing but active basses and tbh I can’t believe they didn’t include a pad switch for actives, but I have a DI. So mostly just an annoyance and kinda big inconvenience.
But with the HDs you get a Studio One+ Hybrid pass which means at the end of 12 months you are given a perpetual Studio One Pro license even if you don’t renew for the $180
I’m tempted by the HD 4 as I can afford it (lol) and I don’t really use all my 18i20 is capable of very much.
if only the MOTU Ultralite mk3 Hybrid I have kicking around had ADAT. Obviously I can ADAT it to the 18i20, but I’m looking for another half-rack device with more inputs or even a small patchbay…
I dunno. I use Studio One and have been eyeing Plus Hybrid after my singer-friend finally moved away from Waveform (I found out by telling her I bought v13 
). But that’d basically made it a $320 interface that’s in some ways better and some ways worse than the 18i20 (I’ve had the instrument inputs fart out with distortion while still orange on the meter…).
If there was an HD6 with just two more inputs and outputs I’d be in business. But I can also run my tape deck through the S2400 if I really want to…
I should just save the headache, buy the HD 8 version, then sell my 18i20 and Ultralite.
or just keep trucking along with my trusty 18i20, I guess. Still not overly fond of its instrument inputs, but at least it has XLR on the front for a DI.
If you don’t have a patchbay already, get one the next time you have money. It’s a fortune in time and cabling to set up (seriously, budget as much as you pay for the patchbay in patch cables, and get them all labeled if you haven’t already), but ever since I got one it’s so nice. I have the Samson one with switchable routings. I use that all the time as hard mutes if I want to do something like use one synth’s keyboard to control something else and I only want to hear the something else being controlled. Super nice to not have to mess with the levels on my interface, I just switch the routings to through on the PB and since I usually don’t have something plugged in the front side it just cuts the signal for any channel I want.
But then if you want to go to half-rack stuff, IDK. I have 5U of a 14U rack filled and I’m pretty happy. I could see myself using another 2-3U in the future, but that’s about it. Right now, I have 2U in my 18i20 and Octopre for my inputs, 1U in the patchbay, 1U in a midi interface I have never used, and 1U power strip just to keep it off my floor. I can only see adding a different interface with another ADAT input to get up to 24 input channels and another patchbay to accommodate the extra channels, and that would only be if I got into drum machines and needed a ton of inputs (which I don’t have the money, time, or space for right now - do still want a Tempest someday though).
1 Like
I have a Samson S-patch and just no real place to put it. Unless I sold the 18i20 and got the HD 4 and put the S-Patch in the 18i20’s 1U slot.
My ADHD makes it INCREDIBLY hard to do something like wire up a whole ass patch bay and then have to remember how to patch things into. I’m sure I’d get it eventually. I just like having it all hooked up at once.
Which means the Arturia AudioFuse 16 is probably the interface I should be looking at. 16 line inputs would have me sorted forever. But it’s $1300 and I feel like it was $1000 when it came out. I could be wrong. Either way, too much damned money lol.
I will look into redoing/reorganizing my desk. Right now the S2400 and a tape deck take up two of my 3 3U rack bays. I could move the S2400 or the tape deck to a side furniture to free up space on the Platform desk and then I could have a patchbay.
The chore of trying to cram functionality but also not be cluttered 
I’ve been eyeing the Audiofuse 16 too, then I can get 32 inputs out of 3U.
It’s expensive, but if I’m going to upgrade from the 18i20 then I figure I’m probably going to jump a price bracket anyways. Everything is more expensive these days, it bites. And yet, somehow, when I go to look at selling my OB6 I bought used a few years ago it’s now worth like $400 less than what I paid for it. How does that work?
1 Like
oof. Yeah I went to sell a guitar and it was a few hundred less than the last time I checked. I’ve been told it’s due to parts shortages/delays/backlogs being done with or something along those lines.
I hadn’t thought of that, I can see that. Probably doesn’t help that the OB8 and the Behringer OB have both come along and pulled people who are interested in the OB sounds into a couple of other synths, so probably less demand now.
I sat down, I started to shift things around on my desk, and I went “no way in hell am I rewiring all this for a long, long time”
And really thinking about it, how the hell does PreSonus justify $1000 for the Quantum HD8? Unless they’re really pricing it as an $800 interface with the year of software. But even then it’s still more expensive than their previous top tier interface and the now-$600 18i20. Those preamps and converters better be a really good upgrade.
Meanwhile I can’t help but think of the GearSpace shootout where everyone picked the Behringer interface/converters as sounding the best in a blind vote
Guitar Center has a MS2000R for $250 
I got the OsTIrus plugin working (after scouring the internet for a ROM file because no one dares tell you where).
Also found the Virus C ROM which is ridiculously easy since I guess Access just doesn’t care.
Apparently the TI is discontinued officially so maybe that one will be freely available soon, too
I don’t think we have a hardware sounds thread, so just going to drop Moog One patches I’ve been working on here. I sat down and wanted to see if I could make a drum kit on just the synth (I think I did OK but not great, that sound is in here) and since I had all my recording stuff set up I went ahead and demoed some other sounds I’ve worked on in say the last 8 months or so. Unfortunately, the noise patch at around 2 minutes sounds totally different recorded from how it does in reality, maybe an interface limitation or some normalization error or something, because the resonance is much more pronounced in the studio.
1 Like
My Super6 has to go for service. Thankfully, UDO has a service contract with a local shop and the repair (issue with the onboard flash memory) is going to be covered by them. Only downside is the shop has already told me it will be a 6-8 week wait, so I picked up a 3rd Wave to try out while the Super6 is away, see if I miss it or not.
It wasn’t an entirely spur of the moment thing, I have been saving for about 18 months and a module version came up on Reverb for like 20% off the new price.
So, despite the general consensus on the Korg Kaoss Replay I decided to give it a shot as send FX unit on my DJ mixer. It is at the price point of other DJ sampler/fx units. I had been thinking about the DJS 1000, but already owning the SP-16 it seemed like just duplicating what I had in another form factor. I had also considered just getting a third CDJ, but all that gives me is looping.
I think people have been wrongly comparing the Replay to the SP-404 et al. when it is really more of an update of the KP3 and was never intended to be a full sampler.
I also considered the Elektron AH+FX, but it offered less in the way of what I was looking for (and tap tempo hidden in menus) and of course no sampling.
I definitely see why no one making music with hardware is interested.
1 Like
I came to the realization last night that I think I have too much stuff. Being trapped in my room for a week, I realized I wish I had more space and I didn’t touch about half my gear while I was trapped in here. I think I’m going to slim down - not everything, but about half my stuff I think is going to go. My goal is to consolidate everything onto one of my Jasper’s A-frame stands
I’m thinking I’m going to drop my OB-6, Matriarch, and Matrixbrute. That will free up a lot of space, several interface/patchbay channels (which will mean I don’t feel like I need to upgrade my interface for inputs), let me sell a Jasper’s stand, consolidate all my gear into one part of my room (which means no more 20 foot cable runs!) and make my room feel a lot less like some sort of industrial rehearsal space.
If you’re interested in any of my gear (and are in North America), DM me. I want to give first dibs to fellow IDMfers. Not looking to walk away rich and fund some further purchase, just looking to declutter and refocus life here, so I might be able to work with you if something feels out of your price range at first glance.
2 Likes
I’ve been super happy with just the Toraiz SP-16 and my DAW. Just feed it sounds from where ever. I never made less music than when I had the most gear.
2 Likes
Thankfully I still make music, but I use even the gear I’m keeping in almost none of my finished music. I do still like to sit down and do sound design or writing at a keyboard, but the synths I’m going to sell just don’t really fit into that paradigm. Hence, why I realized I’m not using them and I don’t expect that to change.
1 Like
Well, in like 20 years of buying music gear I have never bought a piece of used or new gear that arrived a lemon, but just got a Korg Kaoss Replay yesterday and the output volume is ridiculously low. Device volume at max, and DJ mixer channel trim at max and the volume still can’t match my CDJs…return it is!
I had a Kaoss pad once upon a time. Didn’t much rate the sound it produced at its output. So i sold it
1 Like
or, Access site went back up and you can just make an account (tell them you don’t have a TI) and download the software to get firmware.bin
It me. I recently cleared off part of my desk and I’m much happier. Trying to fill the real estate was dumb lol. Now I just have myself set up to plug in a controller on the left if I want, and on the right my 18i20 has inputs and a USB for sampling/recording external gear.
Akai just dropped MPC 3.0, they are embarassing NI with updates lol. The Maschine+ had a lot of potential and NI basically ignore it 90% of the time it feels like. but hey, maybe it’s what kicked Akai in the rear to rise up so hard.
The KP3 would have been amazing, but the fx/sound quality was pretty awful.
1 Like