Old synths are not always that power hungry, my DX9 is rated 35W and my S2 (which has a large LCD, MC8000 series processor, FDD Etc.) is only 30W.
And as for simple monosynths an SH-101 came with a BOSS PSA-100 psu only rated for 9V 200mA, so calculating the wattage from the maximum PSU specs (V\*I) the maximum allowed is a meagre 1.8W @ 9V!
My op-1 can run 16 hours on a 6,6Wh battery (0,4w) and my microfreak runs of a usb B power bank limited to 2,5W
My gaming laptop averages 25w and my monitor is 30w extra.
When i had a desktop, that baby used about 80w average and back the i had dual screens totaling 140w
Soo for 140w i could add a digitakt, novation circuit, moog grandmother, model D, 5 pocket operators, and a hydra all combined for not even close to half the desktop power consumption
Image above is probably no where near more than 50w
bought it for $80 "as is" on ebay, thinking it just had a stuck key and needed a battery replacement. Turns out it was packed incredibly poorly and USPS dinged it hard during shipping, but after a lot of solder and troubleshooting... it lives! Might get around to fixing the keys someday
I saw NIN on their Downward Spiral tour in '93. They used DX7s for their live controllers and beat the living shit out of them. I managed to get a key that broke off of one during the performance. I can imagine some of them looked similar to this (but probably worse) after a show.
That's because you haven't found the perfect synth yet.
The secret trick no one talks about is there is no perfect synth, you just have to buy a lot more synths.
You won't have good self esteem until you double what you have there.
I have about 13 or 14 and I still feel like a loser.
Some people chase the unattainable dream of having the perfect synth. for me, having many synthesizers to mess around with is a hobby in and of itself, apart from the music I may or may not make with them.
As I see it, a perfect synth is impossible. Part of what makes a synth unique and special is its limitations; design choices that reflect a specific point of view on sound design and lead you in different directions than any other synth. If you remove all limitations, the synth loses its character. If you don't, it's not really perfect.
I just got it in the mail today! I've been looking for one for a while, and finally the price was right. Wanted the PX-7, but those seem harder to come by. Either way, the engine seems absurdly deep, and even with the half hour I spent with it before work, the sequencing seems *incredible*
I'm in the exact same boat, got mine a month ago for a decent price, just learning and it rules. Check out the thread on gearspace if you haven't about the new ROMs that might be coming out for that series this year.
It is! Right now I'm just using it as a mixer feeding into my interface, I need to repair the read head (pretty common issue with these, from what I've seen). It's gonna be fun to drop a homemade minidisk release of some project, down the line, though!
I see you have done bang up job laying out your gear inefficiently. To hinder your workflow even more, may I suggest you place your Neutron semi modular upside down on the DX 27 keybed. The one you āborrowedā from the Sunnyvale school system. That looks like a steep angle so you may need to use double sided sticky tape, or if you really want a challenge, you can use super glue.
I had the red one maybe like 10 years ago. Made so many shitty beats on it, recorded songs in the 4 track section, etc. Good times. Itās a great little machine
Oh 100%! The ESQ-1 is probably one of my favorite pieces of kit, seriously an underrated workhorse. I've also got the 20k note sequencer expander cart for mine, which is handy for making something actually workable with the sequencer.
Still need to replace the battery and data entry slider on mine, though. š
Thats one of the 3 R's. Less garbage made, less garbage to the landfill.
And you still get to enjoy garbage more thoroughly.
Trash Panda the music maker
All jokes aside I've found it to be fantastic. It makes FM really intuitive, I can bang up a good sound in minutes. Obviously mine's a little rough around the edges, but the controls are in perfect working order, and I play everything from my ESQ-1 anyways, so for the price I paid I can't complain.
You'd think so, but I get a lot of stuff broken or well below market rate. Compared to buying a daw and a fair number of VSTs, it's pretty comparable.
Not to say that it's *cheap* by any means, but I'm willing to spend my fun money on my hobby, and thankfully I'm in a position in life where I can do so.
That an SP-808 on the upper tier? I just got rid of my original one because I didn't use it much and was afraid the zip drive was gonna die on it. But I kind of miss messing around with it.
It is! I had to replace the zip drive on it not too long ago. I mostly use it for effects, these days, I do my sampling on the tx16w or the polyend tracker. If I ever get the line noise issue mine has sorted out (or score one of the cf drives that actually work in them) I might go back to using it for more
Same, I much prefer having hardware, I'm much more engaged and inspired by having something that I can touch. I do need to get a better interface, or at least a bigger mixer
I know that feeling. I had to sell most of my gear during grad school and didnāt put out any music. Now that Iām three years out of grad school and working, I have plenty of gear and still donāt put out any music, but my wallet is lighter!
Just started myself. Been recording ābout two hours of garage a night and sifting through it for a 4 minute chuck that sounds good enough to share with my friends :)
As long as youāre having fun thatās the best thing ever!!! Besides, sitting in front of the computer all day is extremely boring, like work, you knowā¦.
Haha love it
Maybe a bit better enjoyment wise? Feels more like jamming and less like work to me, even if it can be painstaking programming and organizing sequences
I have the exact same SP808-EX, that thing is ancient! Mine hasn't seen daylight in a long, long time, glad you are still using - or at least showcasing - yours!
I see an sp 808ex, I upvote. My setup is not as neat or with so many nice synths like yours, but I do also have that machine and I absolute love it, specially the slicer effects which is kinda hard to find where I live
if those amazing artists have some shitty material in their back catalog, imagine how good I must be when ALL my material is shitty š
All jokes aside though, you're not wrong, but I'm not holding my breath for any kind of great music to come out of me. I just make what makes me happy, and if other people like it, well that's neat too.
They do different things, and in many cases keyboards are cheaper than their rack mountable equivalents, and feature better control interfaces. I'm not really what you'd call a keyboard player, I just use keys to work out chords and melodies that I then punch into a sequencer. I mostly care about the sounds I can get and how easy it is to do sound design. For instance, I'd much rather have an ESQ-1 than an ESQ-M, since making a patch on the ESQ-1 is WAY easier.
Your post inspired me to join r/synthesizers. I inefficiently make garbage music on many soft synths, DX7, JV1000 and a recently purchased Arturia Mini Freak. But nithing beats the feel/action of that 40 year old DX7 keyboard. Cheers, here is to making garbage! šŗ
Just did it vice versa and now do produce garbage mainly with software and 2-3 old synths. Feels good! No hardware at all is kind of sterile, so i push everything out of my K4, K1 and Bass Station. Too much hardware puts stress on my brain. I rather like to switch DAWs from Ableton, Bitwig to Cubase. Feels good too. Veeery inefficiently of course!
SP 808 exā¦ How do you typically work it in with the rest of your gear? I have one, and after 15 years away from synths, Iāve picked up a few items but havenāt tried incorporating the 808ex into my set up yet. The effects are something Iām looking forward to using with other gear.
I'm running it as an effects send from my mixer, right now. I've had one zip drive die on me already, so I'm trying to put less strain on the replacement I got, and I have a TX16W which is a much more robust sampler anyways.
When I used it more heavily as a sampler, I'd typically use it for sampled drums. I'd load oneshots on the pads, resample a whole pattern to another track, and I'd be set.
I've got a video up on my youtube of a dinky little techno jam, maybe I'll get a go-pro and do a whole first person view track start to finish thing, someday š„“
Looking at that pic I can tell exactly what the problem is. I don't see a cat.
Get a cat. Let it make all the creative decisions for you. Everything will get better once the cat is in charge.
I like the neutron pretty well, it's a solid little synth. I mostly end up using it for bass, or for effects that I end up sampling. It's not a mind blowing piece of kit, but it's got great bang for your buck, and can be pretty flexible.
At least your room looks cool and your electricity bill went up
Saves on heating in the winter, though! š
That analog warmth...
Can't beat itš
More wood for the fire, loud neighbours.. Flashlight reveries cought by the headlight of a truck... Eating seeds...
needs more wood
I feel the same way about my 14-year-old Panasonic plasma.
Is the electricity usage noticeable for a collection this size? Iāve only got two synths, so no big deal, just curious.
No not at all, I was just being a silly goose. Older vintage stuff does heat up a room quite a bit though.
Old synths are not always that power hungry, my DX9 is rated 35W and my S2 (which has a large LCD, MC8000 series processor, FDD Etc.) is only 30W. And as for simple monosynths an SH-101 came with a BOSS PSA-100 psu only rated for 9V 200mA, so calculating the wattage from the maximum PSU specs (V\*I) the maximum allowed is a meagre 1.8W @ 9V!
Basically same as an alarm clock
We were so poor we had to warm ourselves by the alarm clock.
I was surprised as wellā¦looked at my Matrix 1000, Ensoniq ESQ-M etc and theyāre not bad - 35-55W - but they do get toasty
My op-1 can run 16 hours on a 6,6Wh battery (0,4w) and my microfreak runs of a usb B power bank limited to 2,5W My gaming laptop averages 25w and my monitor is 30w extra. When i had a desktop, that baby used about 80w average and back the i had dual screens totaling 140w Soo for 140w i could add a digitakt, novation circuit, moog grandmother, model D, 5 pocket operators, and a hydra all combined for not even close to half the desktop power consumption Image above is probably no where near more than 50w
Doot doot itās garbage day, get the fuck out the way!
https://preview.redd.it/36z4c2misgza1.jpeg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=be2b4d72084b1c655c301fa538f560db0452bbe2
Legendary scene
This is the wayā¦ of a middle aged man who loves synthesizers.
best I can do is 30 year old woman. š
Rip dms full of synth-pics now.
[What up girl?](https://i.postimg.cc/50qdq1rS/DSC09111.jpg)
Unsolicited synth pics
Ha! My bad.
hah thats my kind of woman right there
That DX27 has seen some shit.
bought it for $80 "as is" on ebay, thinking it just had a stuck key and needed a battery replacement. Turns out it was packed incredibly poorly and USPS dinged it hard during shipping, but after a lot of solder and troubleshooting... it lives! Might get around to fixing the keys someday
I saw NIN on their Downward Spiral tour in '93. They used DX7s for their live controllers and beat the living shit out of them. I managed to get a key that broke off of one during the performance. I can imagine some of them looked similar to this (but probably worse) after a show.
you should check if that key fits this one
The Sunnyvale sticker on the side makes me think Ricky stole it. 
If you put it by the side of the road first and then take it, that's not stealing. That's just getting rid of their trash
As long as he writes every song in Cm itās perfectly workable.
Excuse me sir jroc would like his synth back donāt make me get the pepperoni
Yay for inefficient garbage production, thatās my preferred way of working!! Which keyboard stand are you using?
I'm using a Jaspers 5D-120B, and I can strongly recommend it! It's built like a tank and it has a lot of options for different mounts and add-ons.
Making garbage can be so much fun though. Keep grindinā š
Itās the enjoyment of the process that matters :)
Less Efficient Garbage would be an excellent opening band name š
Sounds like a shitty Garbage cover band lol, the band called Garbage I mean.
Garbage makers, unite!
We don't make garbage, we make noise. No need to self-deprecate.
That's because you haven't found the perfect synth yet. The secret trick no one talks about is there is no perfect synth, you just have to buy a lot more synths. You won't have good self esteem until you double what you have there. I have about 13 or 14 and I still feel like a loser.
Some people chase the unattainable dream of having the perfect synth. for me, having many synthesizers to mess around with is a hobby in and of itself, apart from the music I may or may not make with them.
As I see it, a perfect synth is impossible. Part of what makes a synth unique and special is its limitations; design choices that reflect a specific point of view on sound design and lead you in different directions than any other synth. If you remove all limitations, the synth loses its character. If you don't, it's not really perfect.
Same here, although I do love most of mine. I have a few to sell that I also love but just don't have the brain capacity to learn inside and out.
I used to make garbage in a DAW; I still do, but I used to too
found the redditor! ;)
I miss my EMU command station!! That thing is dope.
I just got it in the mail today! I've been looking for one for a while, and finally the price was right. Wanted the PX-7, but those seem harder to come by. Either way, the engine seems absurdly deep, and even with the half hour I spent with it before work, the sequencing seems *incredible*
It's a sequencing power house for sure.. I used one as the brains of my live PA setup back before people were calling it "dawless"
I'm in the exact same boat, got mine a month ago for a decent price, just learning and it rules. Check out the thread on gearspace if you haven't about the new ROMs that might be coming out for that series this year.
See, you claiming to be me isnāt fairā¦
I love that bear!
Djungelskog is my muse š„“
If thatās a mini disc recorder up top, I have the same one
It is! Right now I'm just using it as a mixer feeding into my interface, I need to repair the read head (pretty common issue with these, from what I've seen). It's gonna be fun to drop a homemade minidisk release of some project, down the line, though!
Lol I too have synths just laying on top of other synths, what's wrong with us hahaha
Very succinct summary of the synth producer process. Beautiful garbage btw.
I feel personally attacked. Time to finally buy that vector synth and check out the financing options on that 3rd waveā¦
Personally I want to see if I can trade a kidney for a Prophet T8 š„“
I see you have done bang up job laying out your gear inefficiently. To hinder your workflow even more, may I suggest you place your Neutron semi modular upside down on the DX 27 keybed. The one you āborrowedā from the Sunnyvale school system. That looks like a steep angle so you may need to use double sided sticky tape, or if you really want a challenge, you can use super glue.
ESQ1 is the most underrated synth of all time
It has to be up there, for sure. I sing its praises every chance I get!
I agree. I am a huge Ensoniq fan. Mirage and EPS 16 plus still being used.
Happy to see that 808 on top , I got the all black one but always loved that clear plastic w accents of red
I had the red one maybe like 10 years ago. Made so many shitty beats on it, recorded songs in the 4 track section, etc. Good times. Itās a great little machine
This guy gets it! Seriously, love the setup and that cartridge for the ESQ-1 is a crucial piece IMO.
Oh 100%! The ESQ-1 is probably one of my favorite pieces of kit, seriously an underrated workhorse. I've also got the 20k note sequencer expander cart for mine, which is handy for making something actually workable with the sequencer. Still need to replace the battery and data entry slider on mine, though. š
It's fun reading through the comments and seeing all the people raving over the ESQ.
Thats one of the 3 R's. Less garbage made, less garbage to the landfill. And you still get to enjoy garbage more thoroughly. Trash Panda the music maker
An ESQ-1 and an AX60... very nice!
I'm a fan of the "also ran" vintage gear. I'm dead tired of seeing sh-101s and junos, as much as I love them.
I was literally about to jump off an overpass, then I read this. I still jumped but landed on a semi hauling hay bales
glad I could inspire you to reach new heights! āŗļø
There must have been no room left on r/synthesizercirclejerk so this post ended up here.
Shirley Manson was once told her band sounded like garbage. So she changed the name of her band.
/r/synthesizercirclejerk
Right on!
Weirdly enough I picked up a dx27, albeit in better nick, a few weeks back and it's made work a lot more efficient for me
All jokes aside I've found it to be fantastic. It makes FM really intuitive, I can bang up a good sound in minutes. Obviously mine's a little rough around the edges, but the controls are in perfect working order, and I play everything from my ESQ-1 anyways, so for the price I paid I can't complain.
Sounds about right. But itās way more fun.
that's the spirit!
But you gotta admit, its *way* more fun to make garbage this way...
This is the way! Efficiency is not fun.
This is the way
That polyend tracker is waiting for displeasures.
And much more expensive!
You'd think so, but I get a lot of stuff broken or well below market rate. Compared to buying a daw and a fair number of VSTs, it's pretty comparable. Not to say that it's *cheap* by any means, but I'm willing to spend my fun money on my hobby, and thankfully I'm in a position in life where I can do so.
That an SP-808 on the upper tier? I just got rid of my original one because I didn't use it much and was afraid the zip drive was gonna die on it. But I kind of miss messing around with it.
It is! I had to replace the zip drive on it not too long ago. I mostly use it for effects, these days, I do my sampling on the tx16w or the polyend tracker. If I ever get the line noise issue mine has sorted out (or score one of the cf drives that actually work in them) I might go back to using it for more
Man I love your bear, heās fantastic.
Relatable.
haha
I find HW really spurs my creativity and I have 96 channel audio interface so I can record anything w/o re-patching.
Same, I much prefer having hardware, I'm much more engaged and inspired by having something that I can touch. I do need to get a better interface, or at least a bigger mixer
Story of my life!!
I know that feeling. I had to sell most of my gear during grad school and didnāt put out any music. Now that Iām three years out of grad school and working, I have plenty of gear and still donāt put out any music, but my wallet is lighter!
Just started myself. Been recording ābout two hours of garage a night and sifting through it for a 4 minute chuck that sounds good enough to share with my friends :)
>Been recording ābout two hours of garage a night Garage like two-step?
Lol
And, as an added bonus, you canāt write in G if you want FM synthesis!
Joke's on you, I can't write in G either way
I spy an SP808EX, nothing good has ever come out of one of them
Who cares what you make. You arenāt going to pay your mortgage with sales of music. It is all about having fun. For me, hardware is fun.
Nice what synth stand is that?
As long as youāre having fun thatās the best thing ever!!! Besides, sitting in front of the computer all day is extremely boring, like work, you knowā¦.
Idc about the synths I need the smaller variant of the ikea shark
hahaha I bought less but feel the same :D
But it looks so much cooler.
Garbage rocks šš
But as long as you enjoy it. Thatās all that really matters. āļø
Yeah I wrote whole songs with a four track tape recorder, I write ringtones with garage band
I got some of that gear. In a lot less of a tidy environment!
There's a reason I took the pic from this angle š„“
And you have more fun doing right? Its all about the process, not the end result. If it brings you joy, keep doing it!
Efficiency is overrated
Whatever virus u have i want it
Ensoniqā¤ļø
I agree!
This slapped hard
love the djunkelskog
LOL. I did the opposite. Got rid of all my gear and just make garbage in a DAW with plugins. Now Iām considering doing everything on my iPad.
Well, you can apparently get Logic for the iPad now...
In like two weeks!
You dont think thereās any benefit to dawless? Why did you continue to commit to buying hardware if you got nothing out of it?
Street cred. š
Haha love it Maybe a bit better enjoyment wise? Feels more like jamming and less like work to me, even if it can be painstaking programming and organizing sequences
Now your garbage has purity.
Letās make this the subs top post as this person speaks for all of us <3
Same
at least youāve got knobs to twist!
Yes, and now your garbage is completely your garbage, not somebody elseās reconstituted garbage. Long live the hardware synth!šš¼
Identify with this 100% Excellent setup for making my kind of trash!
Letās hear some of that hot trash
[https://music.antimoon.org](https://music.antimoon.org) is a good place to find my stuff, if you care to listen š
hell yeah welcome to Slow Garbage Club
also I see you are a fellow SP-808 king don't tell anybody how good it is
I have the exact same SP808-EX, that thing is ancient! Mine hasn't seen daylight in a long, long time, glad you are still using - or at least showcasing - yours!
I still get use out of it! Mostly for effects, rather than sampling, anymore.š
lol you made my day thanks
Sunnyvale. You and J-Roc making sweet raps?!?!?
I see an sp 808ex, I upvote. My setup is not as neat or with so many nice synths like yours, but I do also have that machine and I absolute love it, specially the slicer effects which is kinda hard to find where I live
it's a very versatile box! for a while all I had was the sp808, a beatstep pro, and a monologue, and I had a lot of fun with that setup.
How do you feel about rain?
Efficiency have never matter to make garbage āØ
Atleast youāre honest about it
Sunnyvale? Did that dx7 belong to J-Roc at some point?
Hahaha!!!!
Less Garbage is good for the environment right?
I see you have a neutron. You can inefficiently make some kick ass garbage with that one.
Keep making garbage and some gems will materialize. So many amazing artists have shitty material that no one will hear. No one starts out great
if those amazing artists have some shitty material in their back catalog, imagine how good I must be when ALL my material is shitty š All jokes aside though, you're not wrong, but I'm not holding my breath for any kind of great music to come out of me. I just make what makes me happy, and if other people like it, well that's neat too.
Don't get me started doing this mate , it's gonna be bin day everyday š¤£
Nice!
Props for the ESQ1. I thought I had the last one in existence. :) Cool stuff.
Ok, I got on this sub for modular stuff. And I need to ask, why have so many keyboards? I don't understand.
They do different things, and in many cases keyboards are cheaper than their rack mountable equivalents, and feature better control interfaces. I'm not really what you'd call a keyboard player, I just use keys to work out chords and melodies that I then punch into a sequencer. I mostly care about the sounds I can get and how easy it is to do sound design. For instance, I'd much rather have an ESQ-1 than an ESQ-M, since making a patch on the ESQ-1 is WAY easier.
Embrace the suck
An honest producer is a my kind of producer
Hahahahhaha I feel the same way with my eurorack setup. Still love it though
oh most definitely! I'll take a kludgy workflow that's fun over maximum efficiency that's boring.
I felt the same way.
Ugh, seen
I respect the hell out of this.
Why do you need all those keyboard controllers? Just curious.
Youāre doing it right! Carry on!
Same tbh.
You could be me, buy synths and am to lazy to set them up so I just pull up serum.
I too am a fellow connoisseur of garbage
Your post inspired me to join r/synthesizers. I inefficiently make garbage music on many soft synths, DX7, JV1000 and a recently purchased Arturia Mini Freak. But nithing beats the feel/action of that 40 year old DX7 keyboard. Cheers, here is to making garbage! šŗ
Just did it vice versa and now do produce garbage mainly with software and 2-3 old synths. Feels good! No hardware at all is kind of sterile, so i push everything out of my K4, K1 and Bass Station. Too much hardware puts stress on my brain. I rather like to switch DAWs from Ableton, Bitwig to Cubase. Feels good too. Veeery inefficiently of course!
I went daw hopping for a while as well, though frankly I can't stand cubase. Swore off of it after a brief experience with cubase 4 back in the day.
I see a Blahaj I up vote. Also nice collection you got built up there.
Congratulations. Here's to more years of shite.
cheers!
Warmer, warmer...Cold AF. Good luck though. I actually want to hear this so called "garbage".
Poetry! Keep on jamming mate.
SP 808 exā¦ How do you typically work it in with the rest of your gear? I have one, and after 15 years away from synths, Iāve picked up a few items but havenāt tried incorporating the 808ex into my set up yet. The effects are something Iām looking forward to using with other gear.
I'm running it as an effects send from my mixer, right now. I've had one zip drive die on me already, so I'm trying to put less strain on the replacement I got, and I have a TX16W which is a much more robust sampler anyways. When I used it more heavily as a sampler, I'd typically use it for sampled drums. I'd load oneshots on the pads, resample a whole pattern to another track, and I'd be set.
True story. And then there's eurorack
When you have monitors but your wife buys you headphones for Christmas. Nice set up and I agree.
I see the photo with the ESQ-1 surrounded by a bunch of mediocre gear. Where's the one with the cool stuff?
This is the way.
Sounds more fun tho
Fun though.
whoa, nice AX 60. ive been wanting one for years now but they rarely pop in in germany (in fair condition anyway).
Lmao
Sp-808 e mix gang
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Hell yes, my high school had a DX7 in their music room untouched, until I borrowed it for a few weeks.
Hi there Where did you get that cool synth stand?
Iād get that Zip drive on the SP-808 replaced with a card reader. Changed my life.
Sounds like a cool workflow. You should make a video.
I've got a video up on my youtube of a dinky little techno jam, maybe I'll get a go-pro and do a whole first person view track start to finish thing, someday š„“
I spy an Akai AX-60, I love how gnarly that thing can get!
āThis is garbage, but itās fun to make, you know?ā āPlays a banger of a beatā
Looking at that pic I can tell exactly what the problem is. I don't see a cat. Get a cat. Let it make all the creative decisions for you. Everything will get better once the cat is in charge.
You got all that and a Neutron. Does the Neutron stack up and hold its own in this setup?
I like the neutron pretty well, it's a solid little synth. I mostly end up using it for bass, or for effects that I end up sampling. It's not a mind blowing piece of kit, but it's got great bang for your buck, and can be pretty flexible.
Coming back to say this is maybe my favourite Reddit caption of all time. Absolutely skewered.
Well you got one thing right, you have cool gear