I would try Mod Wiggler or Elektronauts. I sold a bunch of non-modular stuff recently and Elektronauts is a pretty large active community of people who are likely to be interested if you are motivated to sell (read: priced to move). Be prepared for some trade offers though, no matter how much you tell them you want out.
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Yeah, Rean is Neutrik’s consumer/lower priced option, Gibson’s Epiphone if you will. I’m sure they’d be fine. Probably anything would be fine. Once you walk away from the Planet Waves marketing hype that this stuff will make you sound like a rock star, it’s really down to build quality, and I think for a bedroom setup anything that conducts electricity will work. If you’re making a living on stage night after night with beer and sweat and stompy feet, the real nice robust ones make sense. Otherwise I’d err on the side of cheap because they just won’t get much abuse. Even $0.60 AliExpress specials will stand up to the normal wear and tear of a bedroom studio because they’re mostly just hunks of metal.
If you haven’t, check out Redco audio. I’ve ordered from them several times to great success. They’re usually price competitive and have wonderful customer service. Mouser may still be the better deal these days but worth a look.
As far as soldering and irons go, temperature adjustment is nice but not mandatory. You usually want a good sized puddle on the ground which is made easier with some extra heat.
Don’t use the tiniest tip in the box. None of these things are heat sensitive like electronic parts so the faster you heat up the faster you’re done.
Do yourself a favor and don’t get lead free solder. It’s awful to work with. You’ll also want a sponge or brass wool.
If you’re doing a bunch of these, invest in some helping hands. Even the cheap $5 one from Harbor Freight is better than nothing.
Test continuity with a multimeter while flexing the cable.
Look up what a cold joint looks like and be prepared to fix them. You just need to reflow the solder, but if you don’t you’re going to have a bad connection that looks fine at first blush.
The biggest piece of advice I can give you specifically for cables is when you’re doing the second end, make sure to slide all the backside crap over the cable before you solder anything, for obvious reasons. Even though I’ve told you this, you’ll still miss it once or twice if you do enough of them. It happens. It’s a great chance to practice more soldering. 
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Relevant to our interests, the Zoom Livetrak L6 digital mixer/recorder $299
I second everything that @Artificer has said about soldering. Especially lead free solder. I think a decent soldering iron makes the job easier. You don’t need to buy the most expensive one but, just don’t get the cheapest. Use a pointy tip, not a flat tip.
Make sure you have somewhere safe to rest the iron when you’re not using it, because you’ll be picking it up and putting it down a lot and you don’t want to burn your desk or worse.
Puncturing a cardboard box with the tip while it’s hot is the quickest and easiest way to clean solder build up from it. I like doing this instead of using the brass wool.
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It’s funny, the less time I have with my synths, the more I notice all the little friction points in my setup and discover things like this.
Seems like the perfect time to set something like this up since I’m going to be making those new cables (ordered everything last night and expect to start next weekend, shipping permitting) and upgrading my interface to an RME UCX II with the money I got from selling synths (nothing against the my 18i20 btw, still works great I just have lusted after an RME for years).
I’m actually even thinking about rearranging my rack, I have the patchbay on top right now so that I can read top mounted labels, but if I put it on the bottom I can patch cables into the front inputs of my interface without getting in the way of anything. Small victory I suppose.
also, thanks @Artificer for the Redco suggestion. I saved like $70 getting my connectors from them instead of mouser. Really helped with the budget on this endeavor.
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In the coming months I’d like to get a hardware synth again. I have very limited space, but would still like something knoby-ish, but understand I’ll have to deal with some menus and/or dual button pushes etc. On board physical step-sequencer would be ideal. I don’t care about analog/digital. On board FX a bonus but not needed.
Asking because I’ve not kept up with what is out there for some years now. I have no brand loyalty or hatred.
If you think it matters, making house and techno these days. Would be used for leads, bass and chord sounds.
Budget is ??? Let’s keep it at or under 1,000USD. Could be well under this. Was considering trying the Roland S-1 Tweak.
I’ve been tempted by the S-1 for a while.
I’ve heard good things about the dreadbox typhon, it has a solid analog voice with some good built in FX - idk if it has a sequencer or not.
The Korg Monologue is a killer little bass synth with a step sequencer on board, but I think it’s only 16 steps.
Korg Miniloge XD will get you basically a 4-voice monologue with some FX.
Arturia Minifreak? That does a little of everything and its gotta have a sequencer.
Those are my best guesses. Ooof, forgot to think about space.
TBH S-1 might be the best move. IDK of anything else in that form factor that can do everything that can do.
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Thanks!
Yea was looking at the Minifreak and Miniloge as well. But honestly, for the money/size/features, the I might just go with the S-1. I haven’t given a “mini synth” a try since the Volcas first came on the scene.
I had been looking at a few Dreadbox offerings. The Nymphes (spl?) looks cool, but the shift/alt functions look confusing as hell. (and no sequencer).
I’ve finally admitted to myself I just don’t use V Collection. I like the idea of it more than I will ever use those synths. I only got it because I wanted Piano V as I wanted a modelled piano and it was only $50 more at the time to get the whole thing. I like the digital synths more than the analog, but still. I never use these plugins, and tbh I am kinda salty that Arturia did the OG Minibrute V so they can just release a Minibrute 2 V for more money down the road. Or update Minibrute V in V Collection 12 to the 2 specs.
I honestly think they are running out of ideas/synths to recreate. Many V Coillection updates have been adding those Augmented line synths.
As of now I’ve started using my Proteus 2000’s pianos and I like it a lot. I have it set up so I can drag a “plugin” from the browser and into the DAW like any other plugin and my Proteus is ready to go.
there’s always one of these:
TL;DR - open source groovebox kit powered by a Raspberry Pi
Heck, the MPC One+ or Keys 37 is within your budget XD
I didn’t get that memo first time around. My options don’t really seem to have physical step sequencer buttons >_>
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HARDWARE?
Oh no… OH NO…
I don’t have any hardware aside from the laptop that I use to make music, ha ha…
Well…
I do have some things.
I used to use a apple midi keyboard back in the days, but now I basically only have a soundbar and subwoofer
BOSE SR-1, good quality stuff. There’s an annoying feature on it that makes the audio fade out and in depending on the volume though… (As in, if there’s little sound, the soundbar will only play quietly, and vice versa.)
I am saving up to buy a nice pair of Røde NTH-100 Headphones, because the pair that I use are LITERALLY $30 (AUD).
Not hardware for me, but I like to use the v collection EMU sampler as a kind of ROMpler plugin. And I whip out the prophet on occasion because that’s the Prophet emu that I have since selling my actual Rev2.
I am thinking about picking up a JoeMeek VC5 because the kind folks at Acustica actually responded with a helpful link when I asked what the red EQ plugin I love so much is based on. There’s not a ton of them hanging around out there, but they aren’t expensive units either and I know I love the sound.
In fact, the hardware is more functional than the software because it has a sweepable midrange. The software’s is fixed at 1.8k which is just the middle of the midrange options on the actual unit.
When I was first looking into FMR hardware, JoeMeek was on my radar, too.
I need to get off my ass and hook up my FMR RNLA in such a way that lets me process mixdowns through it. It’s pretty easy to do, I just need to, well, do it. I can set it on top of my Quantum HD 2 and use short guitar patch cables for it.
unrelated, my old Furman PL-8C has protected my gear TWICE since I moved to where I am right now (May 2023). At 137V AC a relay inside breaks connection to everything plugged into it. This second time I don’t remember there being a storm or anything, either. I came out and had no sound from my computer, was worried it was my new Quantum that died lol, but then I noticed the angry red light.
Quite glad to have it, now.
Honestly, MPC with soft synths isn’t a terrible idea – and it isn’t X0X style, but I’d count that as a physical sequencer.
I might have a peak at that other little guy. As long as I only have to know a few basics about Ras Pi, that might work.
I don’t think you need to know anything more than connecting it into the enclosure and putting the Zynthian OS onto the SD card.
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Cool. I’ll defo give it a look-see.
Maschine 3 dropped, and Maschine Central adds Razor so it should be coming to the Maschine+ along with a bunch of Kontakt libraries mapped to the Maschine Sampler. I can’t find WHICH libraries, but some of the Play instruments are going to be available in Maschine Central. Choir: Omnia was mentioned along with Straylight and Session Strings.
Maschine 3 is only $29, Central is $49, or both for $69 ($62 at Thomman)
They say “ASAP” for the Maschine+ but I’m not buying a thing until they release for the Plus. I’m tired of their attitude towards the people that paid $1400 for their Maschine having to wait. I know the Plus is saddled with a shit CPU for this sort of thing and they’re already asking a lot of that poor Intel Atom, but yeah.
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Hello
Picked it up today. Walked into my favorite used instrument shop last month and it was sitting there waiting for me. I had to have it. Novation’s V Station VST was always a favorite go-to plugin of mine, now I have the hardware it was based on. Gotta figure out how to integrate this into my setup and find a place to put it.
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