Your fave gear?

General
#1

Prompted by @KrisM comment on which he prefers OT or OP-1 (in the Elektron competition thread) made me think it would be cool for us to list our absolute fave gear, gear that you simply would not be without, cold dead hands stuff, gear that inspires you and you have a deeper connection with. Try to be strict on yourself and limit to no more than your very favorites.


Here’s mine (in no order!)

OP-1
Octatrack
A4
Bugbrand Modular
Monotribe
TB-303
Grendel Drone Commander



#2

I’m a bit retro:

  • Fairlight CMI Series IIx (samples do not compare to the real thing, trust me)
  • OP-1
  • Casio CZ-101 (for sentimental reasons)
#3

I don’t have a massive amount of gear so am going to be super restrictive with myself to enter in the spirit of the thread. For me, it has to be:

Op-1
MDUW
x0xb0x

#4
Korg Oasys *Sold this back in 2009 but hands down the best bit of kit i ever owned. Regret selling it terribly!
Korg Wavedrum. It's taken 25 years to find out I'm a natural with hand drumming.
#5

Minimoog voyager oldschool
Moogerfooger delay mf 104z
Yamaha spx 90. Fx 500
Teenage engineering op -1
Electro harmonix. 16 second digital delay
Squier jm jazzmaster
Boss dd-5 hm-2 rv-2 ph-1r

#6

Technics SL1200s/mixer/any capable FX(KP3s).
Jews Harp .
Op-1.

#7
OP-1
Nord Electro 3HP
Godin Session
T-Rex Reptile 2


#8

With the benefit of 16-18 years of uncontrollable GAS, I’ve pretty much refined my kit to be my favourite gear.


Moog Voyager. The machine that explains why people don’t buy a $300 violin and why there’s a market for ones that go into five figures. It’s an analogue synth, yes, like so many - but it feels like nothing else, responds in a unique way, and it’s just lovely to have.

Korg Karma. Lusted after one since launch and finally did a lot of deals to get one so cheap it may as well have been free. It does everything I want, if I could get a MOSS board for it then I think I’d never part with it.

The OP-1. It’s a sketchbook for those ideas before you get out the big canvas, but particularly with drums I find it gets used an awful lot. Plus it is as exquisite a machine as the Voyager, in a very different way.

Godin Multiac ACS with Boss GP10. I loved MIDI guitar, but am not a guitarist. I particularly hate thick-necked Gibsons and heavy strings. So the Multiac’s slim neck, nylon strings and hollowbody design make it lovely to play anyway. The GP10 is just crazy for what it cost relative to other, older GR system kit - it is responsive, it has 6-track audio, it can pull off the Roland GR300 trick very well but also makes the Godin sound like a heavy metal beast very easily. Or a 12 string.

Roland AIRA - I treat it all as one, so that’s what it is. The System 1 takes time to get used to - it can overdrive a bit too easily. It’s very immediate and useful, though. The TR8 is a no-brainer machine. The TB3 is the one i could live without.

I want a Nord Wave so much. There’s cheap one but too far away :confused:

#9

SP 202, 303, 404

OP1

yamaha QY70

#10

MPC1000
SP-404sx
OP-1

#11

OP-1, you know the drill


LGPT: dunno if a psp would count as “Hardware”, but this thing just feels natural to use. Its more intuitive than a lot of dedicated hardware sequencer/groovebox I’ve came across. The sound engine is so flexible, too (Tables FTW). Wish I had a GP2X to use it as a midi seq.

Strymon El Capistan: sounds awesome on pretty much anything. most versatile delay I’ve used. Can be used as a dirty, band-limited saturation effect (100% Wet, Delay time set to 0, Tape Bias all the way up), smooth reverb, and classic surf-like delay. love it.

Guitar.
#12

Octatrack - Inspiration machine, great audio mangler

OP-1 - Little inspiration machine

Microbrute - Simple UI and patching ideal for improvised noise/textures.

Nord Modular G2X - Lots of great patches/performances out there, including a Phonogene like sample processor (only 2 sec recording, but enough for my purposes) and other granular-ish stuff.

#13

Nord (micro) modular
MPC 1000
OP-1
Roland RE-201

#14
cheers @darenager hehe

OP-1 - There's just nothing else like it and it's incredibly inspiring.
Octatrack - was on the fence about selling it, put it away for a while, but then I take it out, turn it on, and turn the sound of a knife grinder into the voice of satanic deviltude and can't help but grin.

Really don't need anything else and I could be happy only owning one of them.
#15

Boring but true: I do not have enough gear to have favorites and probably never will. Everything I own I need for some particular purpose, except, ironically, OP-1. I did not buy it to make some particular kind of sound or for a particular stage of composition. I bought it, because I often work on interface design and I immediately recognized that its interface is pure genius from the first video I saw. (Obviously, this does not stop me from using it. Quite the contrary.)

#16

so isn’t the gear you have your favorite then? or do u secretly wish u were w/ another girl…err gear? :stuck_out_tongue:

#17
I'm a bit retro: - Fairlight CMI Series IIx

I may hate you. Just a tiny bit. I wanted one of these so badly - instead, came VERY close to buying a Synclavier to restore before common sense (and the discovery it had few voice boards so would be limited - IIRC it had an FM one and that was it) kicked in. Where’s the magic in the sound - capacitors and filters somewhere, maybe?


Got the iPad version. It makes clicks and whirrs.

Closest I got in the end was a pairing of Apple //e based AlphaSyntauri (mine is now it Bletchley Park computer museum) and BBC/Acorn based “Hybrid” system, which was very powerful - you programmed it, but it did not have a nice GUI.
#18

Easy question :slight_smile: OP-1, Octatrack, SL-1200 and SP404SX!

#19

Nord Lead 3: great breadth of sounds, oscillator modulations, filters, easy-to-use FM, and the best programming interface I’ve encountered on a keyboard synthesizer. I love how easy it is to set up (and see!) modulations from physical inputs such as velocity or key tracking.

OP-1: I originally got this thinking it would be a nice diversion while on a train or something to catch scratches of ideas that popped into my head, but have completed more songs on this unit that any other I’ve had. So versatile, portable,unique, beautiful.

Octatrack: Amazingly versatile combination of Midi sequencer/ control hub/ effects unit/ other-worldly sample mangler. I love that it is one of only a few machines I know that provides more than one way of doing the same thing without having any hard rules about the right way to do anything. It invites the user to create their own approach for using it.

Moog Sub 37: I know it’s new, but it covers so much sonic territory in the analogue mono synth realm with such elegant control over each of its functions. It is also frequently being supported with software updates that are adding features that would have been huge selling points on top of what already convinced me to buy it (like holding the mod button and twisting the destination knob of your choice). It’s new and it’s compact, but it has the same classy moog sound programmers have come to expect from the company with the addition of lush distortion and drive.

#20

Pretty settled on the op1 octatrack combo, it’s sweet.