I don’t know eurorack well enough to recommend anything specific. I think dreadbox have some new cheap modules out that are pretty cool? And behringer I think cloned the whole roland system 500 and most of the old moog modules too just recently, and I think every module is like $50-$100. IDK how much carnage you could get into with that stuff though.
I do have a microfreak and it’s pretty fun (only bummer is the mono out as run through my interface comes out of just the left ear of my headphones, which is weird). The thing is a blast to play for me, I love the PCB keybed. The oscillators do give you a lot to work with, especially if you’re willing to share a filter and amp on one envelope, then you really have two lfos, one with shape that can be modulated/non-standard shapes, to send into your oscillator modifications. And you have the FM modes and such that don’t really need a filter, except you have that bandpass mode you can play with on those modes…
Also, just set a sequence off and tap randomly on the pitch bend strip, much fun to be had that way.
That would be a nice kit and with a few envelopes and an output I could be ready. But it would be in the £500 range plus the usual risk of Eurorack sinkhole.
Unfortunately I’ve been listening to the model cycles and boy does it sound nice?
I second the BIA or anything from Noise Engineering. Both the BIA and the Manis Iteratas would indeed be right up your alley. In that video I put up the oscillators used are those specifically. If I had to recommend only 1 it would be the BIA. The cool thing about those modules is they have envelopes and filters onboard so they’re complete voices. No need to have to buy envelopes or filters to accompany them. They’re also small, which is a plus.
Had an hour on Cycles last night, sync’ed perfectly with Ableton, sounds great, the 6 pads are crap had to set it to full velocity in the menu but for £284 i’m not complaining.
I have been watching vids on that thing all day at work. Leaning towards the samples though now…I am embarrassed to admit I thought you could not load samples into it…i misunderstood the bit about no sampling…anywho, the two devices really look epic, and I can sequence other gear like my Meeblip Triode or microgranny for added layers. my wife would legit kill me if I bought one right now though, just got the preen in the mail today.
Yes you would. Easiest option probably make noise Rosie. Relatively cheap, 2 mixable inputs, 1 send, headphone out. I quickly outgrew that module though so if you think that’s a possibility for you, you could also look into a small euro mixer.
I heard about that today, sounds neat. One could probably get by rather well with a powerbank though, as I expect the battery pack will connect via USB anyway.
actually if you remove the rubber plugs from the sides, one side reveals another power jack which is where the handle plugs into, the other side has a hole with a thread
It’s odd how using the Akai Force is making me wonder why don’t I just use Ableton Live with a decent controller and some gear?
I think I might just go back to Live or FL Studio and see what I miss.
Not like I played live much in the past decade so I shouldn’t worry too much…
At the risk of getting egged, that’s where I ended up - Live + outboard gear + awesome controllers. To be honest, I just can’t give up the screen real estate of a couple monitors these days. Old eyes and all that.
At the same time, I don’t think I’d be as productive or interested without solid controllers and interesting outboard hardware. I’ll never get over turning a knob and getting that ‘brrrrrrrrrrvrooooooommmmmmsmcRHREEEEEEEEEEEWAAAAAAAAAA’ coming at me. Visceral, real time sound fuckery ftw.
Yeah man. If the “cool factor” of a DAW-less setup is what you’re after MPC live or Force is great but…
Yeah, what you said. I’ve been on the road and sort of blueprinting a hybrid approach between my MPC2500 and Live. When I get home I’ll explore some possibilities. I just don’t see myself buying outboard that can compete w some of my plugins.
