-=[THE SYNTH ZONE]=-

I really miss my Machine Drum, original one with the sample loading. I can't remember what I paid for it 10-12 years ago but remember it was like an impulse buy price. Staggering what they're going for now! I wouldn't want to pay that much for something that old (well not old, but aging) that might be tough to repair.

i have the SPS-1 without the sample loading. Got it the week they announced they were cancelling it and they cut the prices in half. It was like 600$ new. They blew them out. Then the prices started rising.

yeah! I think I paid like 500. Honestly I could maybe almost imagine paying 2k if I was positive it wouldn't crap out and be unfixable someday.

does anyone have any advice on _EXTREMELY CHEAP_ MIDI foot controllers? under $100 but actually works? doesn't need to have a million features, just needs to be able to trigger/send MIDI to my 404A. my use case is that one group i play in uses the 404A for drum machine and occasional samples, and it would be really handy to be able to trigger those with my foot instead of reaching over for a tiny pad. also, i'm often doing weird stuff on multiple instruments, drums, etc, and being able to start and stop a sampler pad would be very useful and open up some possibilities, i think.

has anyone here done something like that, and do you have any recommendations or other ways to go about it?

damn, u/65TwinReverbRI has me covered in their answer here
https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/comments/uif6f0/foot_midi_controller_for_triggering_sampler_pads/

Guitar Center took in a used Melbourne Nina - the magnetic/motorized knobs are a gimmick but it's a great gimmick. Watching them turn when you move the morph knob is cool, always know where knob settings are with presets. Fine detail (trying to dial in 100 cents of fine tuning or something) was tough but I assume there's a shift modifier I didn't know about to make that easier.

I fell for the instagram ads (a first for me?) for Slate + Ash's Cycles plugin (for Kontakt) and started messing around with it over the weekend. It's certainly interesting, but it's a lot harder to get decent results with the sequencer than I expected. Seems very dependent on the material you're putting in - their sample presets work very well, but sometimes it doesn't seem to know what to do with drum loops that I put into it. But on the other hand it's been great as a sound processor/resampler for one-shots, its pitch shifting algorithm plus the crazy formant shifter (you can put it up to 400%, whatever that means) alone can get some really gritty, souped up tones.

I wanted something where I can feed in samples and get back unpredictable results, and it's certainly that, I just wish it could be unpredictable in the way I want it to, lol. Maybe I just need to watch some more tutorials (or like, read the documentation?).

I'm also curious about this Visco plugin, which bills itself as a sample-morphing drum machine. Mostly it seems like you can do all of that by automating other plugins, and I'm pretty over all of these new "all-in-one" combo plugins. On the other hand, the sample-based sequencer looks really sick.

Ok I'm liking Cycles more as I'm using it with harmonic material, and 'cycling' through the presets (not the sample presets, just the different loop and granular modes) rather than trying to construct from scratch, although that's worth doing too.

Also I got Visco and it is for real, it rules. Mostly for sound design that morphs between two different samples, and for the sequencer (very easy to use, and I like the random timing and swing options). It seems built around the internal sequencer rather than midi - quite weird to have a track with nothing on it (ie it doesn't even require any midi input) playing all this crazy shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5fWPBOdrY8

this experimental/still in alpha DAW is interesting - the workflow of manipulating sounds directly on the timeline is what I expected DAWs to be before I knew how anything worked. $3/mo subscription on Patreon to get in on the alpha downloads but it seems like a total "I wish I was Burial" playground.

Blockhead looks very cool! Thanks for the tip.

I found this thing while looking for Blockhead info...

https://www.cantorlooper.com

...not crazy about the interface, but looks fun to play, and it's free!

The new Moog poly sounds great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmYrB4Cg4Sw

https://surge-synthesizer.github.io

...this one looks like a beast...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohoQeAuSopM

I think this is hilarious, honestly more humor than I would have expected from TE

It's a paint job and some medieval samples. Could be funny if TE don't charge a premium for it on top of the standard unit. But I'm not TE's target audience anyway. I'm much more looking forward to AudioPilz' review video (presumably dropping this Friday).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvCxIeZqQ40

I’m honestly tempted but I know I could just sample a bunch of early music into my Digitakt with almost zero effort.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgYEuJ5u1K0

I bet if TE released a Monty Python version it would sell like hot cakes.