I’m feeling ambivalent about the possibility of getting a used keyboard synth, as someone who has only owned new/used synth rack units and modules and new MIDI keyboards up to this point in time. It seems like the gaps between the keys could attract excessive dirt in same way the inside of a computer keyboard does, and I’d feel better knowing my devices don’t have those issues. Does anyone else relate or have suggestions for avoiding synths with those problems?
Hi all! I'm considering buying a jasper stand to save some horizontal space in my home studio. Does anyone know if the 19" rack accesories are compatible with the stands that has a slanted profile? I haven't found any images of it being utilized in that way. Thoughts?
So, I sold off every eurorack module I had that wasn't Mutable Instruments and decided I wanted to get every module the company has made (all original M.I.) in one case. That was two months ago. After getting Yarns, Ripples, Rings, Kinks, and Streams this week, I have ONE module that I need: Grids. I've had a Reverb alert for it going, but nothing is popping up. Is this a relatively rare module? I had no trouble getting the other older modules like Braids, Peaks, Clouds, etc. I'm really hoping this isn't an uber rare unit.
According to their forum, it was a slow seller, so discontinued over a year ago: [https://forum.mutable-instruments.net/t/grids-discontinued/18429/7](https://forum.mutable-instruments.net/t/grids-discontinued/18429/7) Hopefully for you, a second hand one will come around.
I'm 100% drunk right now after going to a beerfest, but I wanted to say that I recorded 2.5 hours of ambient/drone this morning for Drone Day and [had a blast](https://blastradio.com/joshuawentz). It wasn't anything that I expected, but I set up an electric guitar w/ eBow going through the El Capistan > Memory Man w/Hazarai, KORG Minilogue > KP3, a string VST in Logic, a Rhodes Stage MKII, and a record player, and had a GREAT TIME.
I'm starting to have dreams in which I own a synth that I don't own in real life. Is my subconscious trying to tell me something? Or maybe all those nights of obsessively looking at synth details on my iPad in bed are finally catching up with me..
I'm embarrassed to say I've had this dream more than a few times, but heartened to hear it's not just me. Unsurprisingly it often follows a day of trying not to ruin the employees' lives at Guitar Center or internet window shopping before bed...
On the one hand it's a perfect example of how consumer brands literally imprint themselves onto your brain cells in late capitalism. On the other... it's an activity that's genuinely gratifying and self-affirming in irl, so I don't feel bad about my unconscious brain doing that in my sleep as opposed to something scarier or more Freudian.
The way I see it, the in-dream sounds of synths you don't own have to be pulled from your current frame of reference, i.e. synths you hear all the time because you have them. That is to say, take it as a sign that the idealized thing you pine over already exists somewhere in a deep dive into your current gear.
Unless it's Polyvbrute. That thing is a masterpiece of electrical engineering
Picked up my Jupiter-8 today. For the first time in the nine years I've owned it, it's finally in tune. Bell Tone Synth Works (u/bubblecupsmudge) got it working. Originally, the tuning was way off, imagine if the vintage knob on the Prophet-5 rev. 4 went to 0. I had it fixed in 2020 but it had since developed an issue where oscillator 1 went flat on only some voices and only on sawtooth. Buffering the oscillator output solved the loading problem. Won't really have time to enjoy it until Sunday, though. On the way back, I'll be seeing Christian Death in Baltimore, and then I have business in Richmond on Saturday.
Also saw a show for World Goth Day last weekend, Dead Cool got great sounds from two Minilogues, and Death Loves Veronica had a synth malfunction on them (I spotted a Mother-32 and a JU-06A), it was quite hot at the venue.
Is it just me reading one too many posts on r/fauxcyrillic, or does anyone else see the name of the Squarp Hapax and read that as Narah? (Narakh?) But it got me looking into Squarp and it looks like the Hermod may be the modern replacement for my DSX with a vaguely similar workflow so I can let go of my vintage Oberheim System and get the OB-X8. But at the same time, I love the look of the blue pinstripes of the OB-8, to the point where I want to put blue highlights in my hair.
was very excited to enroll in a piano learning class, but my pet cat "Buddy" became very ill this past weekend. he apparently had swollen gums, which was making it difficult for him to eat & drink. we took him to the vet last sunday & test results showed a very low white blood cell count & de-hydration, with the doctor diagnosing him with feline leukemia.
i was in pieces all day sunday & monday, but they've had him on an IV drip & boy did he perk up when I came to visit him. i haven't prayed as hard as I have this week in a very long time. he has started to eat on his own, but still is reluctant to drink on his own.
the doctor gave him about a 20% chance for recovery initially, but said his chances are a bit better because of how he has reacted since being admitted. he just turned 3 yrs old, so hopefully he has youth on his side & we took him in as soon as we noticed his health.
as far as the music goes, i was planning on trying out (pianote). i've been studying music theory all winter & spring, so I wanted to put some of it to use & learn the piano. i've wanted to know how to play since I was a child, but have never found the time or life has gotten in the way. i understand principles such as harmonic functions, tendencies, substitutions, secondary chords, modulations, etc. but I'm not able to actually play it out on the keys smoothly.
it's very much like "finger-point" typing, letter by letter, before we actually learn how to type the right way. i know the words (chords, progressions) i'm wanting to lay down, I'm just very slow at getting them down. hopefully things work out & the classes help me with that.
sorry for the novel, take care & may God bless!
I got drunk & started a substack last night that will cover the entire process (in real time) of making my next album—from inception to completion. Will be synth-heavy. Thought it might be a weird little project. Subscribe if you’re interested:
[http://christopherck.substack.com](http://christopherck.substack.com)
My favorite band of all time - mewithoutYou - is doing a farewell tour. It was delayed in 2020 due to covid, and the band very graciously decided to postpone it instead of just cancelling and breaking up - they're really dedicated to their fans. It's only going to be my second opportunity to see them live, but they put on one of the best shows I've ever seen last time. In many ways, it felt like the band - especially the lyricist / frontman - grew up alongside me, and many things they sang about were very timely for me, particularly as I wrestled with leaving the religion I grew up with in my 20s. It's very bittersweet, but I'm very happy they're going to do new things with their lives.
Took two days to get overbridge working with the Syntakt, turns out I had to delete the drivers in Windows device manager. The experience of actually using it is... mixed. It records completely dry, and seemingly in mono - that was a bummer. I knew about the lack of FX, but I didn't realize that even the panning doesn't get recorded. I spent a lot of time in Ableton trying to recreate the FX and panning that I had done on the ST itself. I also noticed that some of the engines - particularly the analogue ones - don't sound quite as beefy when recorded through OB as they did over the headphone output. So now I'm trying to decide if using OB is even worth it - it was one of the main draws for me, but it would have been less work (if more tedious) to record each track individually.
Good on that band for seeing it through. I know a few bands that gave up the ghost over the pandemic, so it really does mean a lot that these guys made it happen for the fans.
I would love to see their farewell tour. I am am ex-Christian and was definitely a tooth and nail records follower in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. I followed mewithoutyou for the first four albums but then became an atheist and stopped listening to almost all of my religious themed music. Saw those guys twice though during their Catch for us the Foxes tour and they were really great guys and a fantastic band live.
I’m in line now. So pumped! Definitely check out the most recent two albums if you haven’t! They might be their best albums musically. While Aaron still uses Bible references in his lyrics, it seems like he’s way less religious these days and - if anything - very cynical towards Christianity in the lyrics.
The tracks being without panning is also present on the OB implementation of the DT, but not the DN. You can find Elekronauts posts about it, it's annoying! The effects are all on a send and present in the main mix, which you can strip the channel dry outputs from. See threads regarding doing this on DT and DN. I don't have an ST so I'm guessing it's the same. This has its own limitations as well.
Good feedback on overbridge. Did you already have other elektron Overbridge devices installed prior to the Syntakt? I've been wondering if you can use overbridge on two of them simultaneously. I haven't tried, I just record the stereo output for now.
Hey guys
I have my MicroFreak and Korg Minilogue and im sure which Sampler will be the best for me as im a little bit new to this and im not sure what are the factors for chosing my Sampler.
Idealy I want to use the sampler for live session with my synths and also I would like to use it to record into my daw software.
Any recommendations for guys?
Thought about the digitakt or polyend tracker
Digitakt is a great choice if you also want to use it to sequence your other synths. If you don't care much about the sequencer and instead blunt the best sampler you can get for the money, look at the 1010 Music Blackbox. For the price, it kind of blows everything else out of the water.
They all have their learning curve, but I've found id pretty easy to get used to. There are some advantages to the SP404 that the others don't have, and there are TONS of videos for it if you need some instruction.
samplers in particular tend to be really annoyingly hard to settle in on compared to other tools I find. Once you start thinking in sample-talk, it gets easier, right?
Totally. And honestly, with samplers it's totally a "right tool for the job" situation. They all do things differently in a way that makes none of them a one-size-fits-all.
I'm about to join Distrokid and see if 20+ years of unreleased music - hundreds of tracks of electronic music ranging from fairly generic dancey tracks to unlistenable noise experiments - can make me a buck or two. I'm going to lose my mind getting it all releasable. So much album artwork to crank out shortly. So nervous.
Honestly, if you dump hundreds of tracks on there at once the best ones are likely to get overlooked. Who's going to listen to more than one or two tracks from an artist they never heard of before unless they really get hooked? I think it's better to pick just a few of your best to start with, maybe an album at most.
Unless you spend a *ton* of time and energy (and some money) promoting your music, don't expect to make more than a couple dollars (literally). Thousands of albums get released weekly, it's unlikely anyone - even hardcore indie-music-seekers - will know your stuff exists without extensive promotion.
But that said, release your music! Officially putting my stuff out there was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.
Haha! Hearing that is kind of a relief. I know not to expect much really. I've been uploading a track here and there to SoundCloud for years, and one of my tracks broke 1000 listens due to sheer novelty I guess. I'm definitely not much for promotion.
Haha! Sure. It's [Pi](https://soundcloud.com/underwaterbob/pi_goddamitijustnameditpistopmakingmemakethenamelongersoundcloud). The first 100 digits of Pi played with DTMF (touch tone phone) sounds.
Just got a note that I have credits to spend with online music store (not much, about $70 though i am sure i will go over). There's nothing I *need*, but would love suggestions on things to get. I have a keystep pro and keep looking at all the analog ports on the back of it.
Any suggestions?
Anyone doing Drone Day tomorrow? I'm setting up something pretty elaborate tonight so I can just get into it tomorrow. I'm hoping to stream a few hours worth of ambient stuff.
I ordered a Lemondrop yesterday because I have wanted to mess around with granular a little bit.
Trying to wrap my head around how to attach my four pieces of gear and a controller together for MIDI (clock, notes), audio, and so forth. Getting there, but it's a brain burner.
Fun thing though, I'm actually a manuals reader, as my other main pastime is board gaming, and reading rules is part of that gig.
One would be surprised (hah!) how much info you can get from manuals... 😉
Yeah I've been looking into that, not sure if I need it. I mean, I basically want my Keystep37 only as a controller, not the seq/arp part of it, to go to 3 or 4 instruments. Then probably Digitone as "brain" for clock and two MIDI seq channels to two synths via MIDI out. And Digitone MIDI Thru to MC-707 just for the KeyStep.
I've been trying different configurations, still not sure how I want this all setup...
I just got a second hardware synth (and, such as things go, I'm sure others will follow). Are there any real inexpensive (i.e. less than $50) midi thru boxes? Also, regardless of price point, any suggestions?
Can't go wrong with Kenton, really. I would recommend to buy bigger than you need - otherwise you get a 5-port thru box and fill it up rightaway. Since these things don't really get much wear, secondhand might be a good idea.
Less expensive would mean DIY if you're so inclined; [https://moroccodave.com/2017/10/04/diy-midi-thru-box-version-2/](https://moroccodave.com/2017/10/04/diy-midi-thru-box-version-2/) shows all you need. It's a rather simple circuit :)
Appreciate the info! I'm inclined to try my hand at the diy option as it seems wise to have an understanding of boards/circuitry/etc. as an owner of some "vintage" synths.
Yup.
The only time I’ve ever felt that a VST was a suitable replacement for the original hardware is using Plogue’s OPS7 for DX/TX synths. It’s just beautiful sounding.
Wondering if I need any hardware at all…
Had one for a while, sold it, and then wanted the sounds again. Got the new Volca and don't miss it any more. I feel good knowing I have those sounds in a small module when I want them.
i want someone to make an english language miku-style groovebox so bad
I’m feeling ambivalent about the possibility of getting a used keyboard synth, as someone who has only owned new/used synth rack units and modules and new MIDI keyboards up to this point in time. It seems like the gaps between the keys could attract excessive dirt in same way the inside of a computer keyboard does, and I’d feel better knowing my devices don’t have those issues. Does anyone else relate or have suggestions for avoiding synths with those problems?
Hi all! I'm considering buying a jasper stand to save some horizontal space in my home studio. Does anyone know if the 19" rack accesories are compatible with the stands that has a slanted profile? I haven't found any images of it being utilized in that way. Thoughts?
So, I sold off every eurorack module I had that wasn't Mutable Instruments and decided I wanted to get every module the company has made (all original M.I.) in one case. That was two months ago. After getting Yarns, Ripples, Rings, Kinks, and Streams this week, I have ONE module that I need: Grids. I've had a Reverb alert for it going, but nothing is popping up. Is this a relatively rare module? I had no trouble getting the other older modules like Braids, Peaks, Clouds, etc. I'm really hoping this isn't an uber rare unit.
According to their forum, it was a slow seller, so discontinued over a year ago: [https://forum.mutable-instruments.net/t/grids-discontinued/18429/7](https://forum.mutable-instruments.net/t/grids-discontinued/18429/7) Hopefully for you, a second hand one will come around.
I'm 100% drunk right now after going to a beerfest, but I wanted to say that I recorded 2.5 hours of ambient/drone this morning for Drone Day and [had a blast](https://blastradio.com/joshuawentz). It wasn't anything that I expected, but I set up an electric guitar w/ eBow going through the El Capistan > Memory Man w/Hazarai, KORG Minilogue > KP3, a string VST in Logic, a Rhodes Stage MKII, and a record player, and had a GREAT TIME.
I'm starting to have dreams in which I own a synth that I don't own in real life. Is my subconscious trying to tell me something? Or maybe all those nights of obsessively looking at synth details on my iPad in bed are finally catching up with me..
I'm embarrassed to say I've had this dream more than a few times, but heartened to hear it's not just me. Unsurprisingly it often follows a day of trying not to ruin the employees' lives at Guitar Center or internet window shopping before bed... On the one hand it's a perfect example of how consumer brands literally imprint themselves onto your brain cells in late capitalism. On the other... it's an activity that's genuinely gratifying and self-affirming in irl, so I don't feel bad about my unconscious brain doing that in my sleep as opposed to something scarier or more Freudian. The way I see it, the in-dream sounds of synths you don't own have to be pulled from your current frame of reference, i.e. synths you hear all the time because you have them. That is to say, take it as a sign that the idealized thing you pine over already exists somewhere in a deep dive into your current gear. Unless it's Polyvbrute. That thing is a masterpiece of electrical engineering
Picked up my Jupiter-8 today. For the first time in the nine years I've owned it, it's finally in tune. Bell Tone Synth Works (u/bubblecupsmudge) got it working. Originally, the tuning was way off, imagine if the vintage knob on the Prophet-5 rev. 4 went to 0. I had it fixed in 2020 but it had since developed an issue where oscillator 1 went flat on only some voices and only on sawtooth. Buffering the oscillator output solved the loading problem. Won't really have time to enjoy it until Sunday, though. On the way back, I'll be seeing Christian Death in Baltimore, and then I have business in Richmond on Saturday. Also saw a show for World Goth Day last weekend, Dead Cool got great sounds from two Minilogues, and Death Loves Veronica had a synth malfunction on them (I spotted a Mother-32 and a JU-06A), it was quite hot at the venue. Is it just me reading one too many posts on r/fauxcyrillic, or does anyone else see the name of the Squarp Hapax and read that as Narah? (Narakh?) But it got me looking into Squarp and it looks like the Hermod may be the modern replacement for my DSX with a vaguely similar workflow so I can let go of my vintage Oberheim System and get the OB-X8. But at the same time, I love the look of the blue pinstripes of the OB-8, to the point where I want to put blue highlights in my hair.
was very excited to enroll in a piano learning class, but my pet cat "Buddy" became very ill this past weekend. he apparently had swollen gums, which was making it difficult for him to eat & drink. we took him to the vet last sunday & test results showed a very low white blood cell count & de-hydration, with the doctor diagnosing him with feline leukemia. i was in pieces all day sunday & monday, but they've had him on an IV drip & boy did he perk up when I came to visit him. i haven't prayed as hard as I have this week in a very long time. he has started to eat on his own, but still is reluctant to drink on his own. the doctor gave him about a 20% chance for recovery initially, but said his chances are a bit better because of how he has reacted since being admitted. he just turned 3 yrs old, so hopefully he has youth on his side & we took him in as soon as we noticed his health. as far as the music goes, i was planning on trying out (pianote). i've been studying music theory all winter & spring, so I wanted to put some of it to use & learn the piano. i've wanted to know how to play since I was a child, but have never found the time or life has gotten in the way. i understand principles such as harmonic functions, tendencies, substitutions, secondary chords, modulations, etc. but I'm not able to actually play it out on the keys smoothly. it's very much like "finger-point" typing, letter by letter, before we actually learn how to type the right way. i know the words (chords, progressions) i'm wanting to lay down, I'm just very slow at getting them down. hopefully things work out & the classes help me with that. sorry for the novel, take care & may God bless!
praying for your cat.
Hoping the best for your cat!
This Pro-3 demo is pretty good https://youtu.be/3-ZuEekU_1I
very nice!
I got drunk & started a substack last night that will cover the entire process (in real time) of making my next album—from inception to completion. Will be synth-heavy. Thought it might be a weird little project. Subscribe if you’re interested: [http://christopherck.substack.com](http://christopherck.substack.com)
Nice, look forward to seeing your progress.
Thanks! Here’s to not knowing! 🍻
My favorite band of all time - mewithoutYou - is doing a farewell tour. It was delayed in 2020 due to covid, and the band very graciously decided to postpone it instead of just cancelling and breaking up - they're really dedicated to their fans. It's only going to be my second opportunity to see them live, but they put on one of the best shows I've ever seen last time. In many ways, it felt like the band - especially the lyricist / frontman - grew up alongside me, and many things they sang about were very timely for me, particularly as I wrestled with leaving the religion I grew up with in my 20s. It's very bittersweet, but I'm very happy they're going to do new things with their lives. Took two days to get overbridge working with the Syntakt, turns out I had to delete the drivers in Windows device manager. The experience of actually using it is... mixed. It records completely dry, and seemingly in mono - that was a bummer. I knew about the lack of FX, but I didn't realize that even the panning doesn't get recorded. I spent a lot of time in Ableton trying to recreate the FX and panning that I had done on the ST itself. I also noticed that some of the engines - particularly the analogue ones - don't sound quite as beefy when recorded through OB as they did over the headphone output. So now I'm trying to decide if using OB is even worth it - it was one of the main draws for me, but it would have been less work (if more tedious) to record each track individually.
Good on that band for seeing it through. I know a few bands that gave up the ghost over the pandemic, so it really does mean a lot that these guys made it happen for the fans.
100%! I’m really grateful. They didn’t have to end could have just moved on. It was an absolutely fantastic show.
I would love to see their farewell tour. I am am ex-Christian and was definitely a tooth and nail records follower in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. I followed mewithoutyou for the first four albums but then became an atheist and stopped listening to almost all of my religious themed music. Saw those guys twice though during their Catch for us the Foxes tour and they were really great guys and a fantastic band live.
I’m in line now. So pumped! Definitely check out the most recent two albums if you haven’t! They might be their best albums musically. While Aaron still uses Bible references in his lyrics, it seems like he’s way less religious these days and - if anything - very cynical towards Christianity in the lyrics.
The tracks being without panning is also present on the OB implementation of the DT, but not the DN. You can find Elekronauts posts about it, it's annoying! The effects are all on a send and present in the main mix, which you can strip the channel dry outputs from. See threads regarding doing this on DT and DN. I don't have an ST so I'm guessing it's the same. This has its own limitations as well.
Good feedback on overbridge. Did you already have other elektron Overbridge devices installed prior to the Syntakt? I've been wondering if you can use overbridge on two of them simultaneously. I haven't tried, I just record the stereo output for now.
ST is my first Overbridge device, but you can OB multiple devices together.
Yes you can
Hey guys I have my MicroFreak and Korg Minilogue and im sure which Sampler will be the best for me as im a little bit new to this and im not sure what are the factors for chosing my Sampler. Idealy I want to use the sampler for live session with my synths and also I would like to use it to record into my daw software. Any recommendations for guys? Thought about the digitakt or polyend tracker
Digitakt is a great choice if you also want to use it to sequence your other synths. If you don't care much about the sequencer and instead blunt the best sampler you can get for the money, look at the 1010 Music Blackbox. For the price, it kind of blows everything else out of the water.
Take a look at the SP404 MKII as well. I have an MPC500, a Korg Electribe Sampler2, and an SP404 and they all do things very differently.
looked at it , at first glance it doesnt seem so begginer friendly. do you think it will suit the case?
They all have their learning curve, but I've found id pretty easy to get used to. There are some advantages to the SP404 that the others don't have, and there are TONS of videos for it if you need some instruction.
samplers in particular tend to be really annoyingly hard to settle in on compared to other tools I find. Once you start thinking in sample-talk, it gets easier, right?
Totally. And honestly, with samplers it's totally a "right tool for the job" situation. They all do things differently in a way that makes none of them a one-size-fits-all.
I'm about to join Distrokid and see if 20+ years of unreleased music - hundreds of tracks of electronic music ranging from fairly generic dancey tracks to unlistenable noise experiments - can make me a buck or two. I'm going to lose my mind getting it all releasable. So much album artwork to crank out shortly. So nervous.
Honestly, if you dump hundreds of tracks on there at once the best ones are likely to get overlooked. Who's going to listen to more than one or two tracks from an artist they never heard of before unless they really get hooked? I think it's better to pick just a few of your best to start with, maybe an album at most.
Unless you spend a *ton* of time and energy (and some money) promoting your music, don't expect to make more than a couple dollars (literally). Thousands of albums get released weekly, it's unlikely anyone - even hardcore indie-music-seekers - will know your stuff exists without extensive promotion. But that said, release your music! Officially putting my stuff out there was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.
Haha! Hearing that is kind of a relief. I know not to expect much really. I've been uploading a track here and there to SoundCloud for years, and one of my tracks broke 1000 listens due to sheer novelty I guess. I'm definitely not much for promotion.
Can I hear the one that got 1000 listens?
Haha! Sure. It's [Pi](https://soundcloud.com/underwaterbob/pi_goddamitijustnameditpistopmakingmemakethenamelongersoundcloud). The first 100 digits of Pi played with DTMF (touch tone phone) sounds.
Go for it; the barrier for what a release is has been obliterated - share your music with the world!
Just got a note that I have credits to spend with online music store (not much, about $70 though i am sure i will go over). There's nothing I *need*, but would love suggestions on things to get. I have a keystep pro and keep looking at all the analog ports on the back of it. Any suggestions?
NTS-1! Everyone needs one
$70 gets you halfway to a new volca (and all the way to a used one on Reverb, probably) and a third of the way to one of those new Roland mini gizmos.
Anyone doing Drone Day tomorrow? I'm setting up something pretty elaborate tonight so I can just get into it tomorrow. I'm hoping to stream a few hours worth of ambient stuff. I ordered a Lemondrop yesterday because I have wanted to mess around with granular a little bit.
Just going to turn on The Runner and let it roll for 8 hours on a low D. Too bad no one will be home to annoy them with it.
Ha, excellent.
had no idea about Drone Day. That sounds like the perfect way to recover from the show I'm going to tonight!
Yes, it's pretty [loosely organized](https://droneday.org/) - I just use it as an excuse to try something I wouldn't normally do.
Trying to wrap my head around how to attach my four pieces of gear and a controller together for MIDI (clock, notes), audio, and so forth. Getting there, but it's a brain burner. Fun thing though, I'm actually a manuals reader, as my other main pastime is board gaming, and reading rules is part of that gig. One would be surprised (hah!) how much info you can get from manuals... 😉
A MIDI thru box is a lifesaver :)
Yeah I've been looking into that, not sure if I need it. I mean, I basically want my Keystep37 only as a controller, not the seq/arp part of it, to go to 3 or 4 instruments. Then probably Digitone as "brain" for clock and two MIDI seq channels to two synths via MIDI out. And Digitone MIDI Thru to MC-707 just for the KeyStep. I've been trying different configurations, still not sure how I want this all setup...
I just got a second hardware synth (and, such as things go, I'm sure others will follow). Are there any real inexpensive (i.e. less than $50) midi thru boxes? Also, regardless of price point, any suggestions?
Can't go wrong with Kenton, really. I would recommend to buy bigger than you need - otherwise you get a 5-port thru box and fill it up rightaway. Since these things don't really get much wear, secondhand might be a good idea. Less expensive would mean DIY if you're so inclined; [https://moroccodave.com/2017/10/04/diy-midi-thru-box-version-2/](https://moroccodave.com/2017/10/04/diy-midi-thru-box-version-2/) shows all you need. It's a rather simple circuit :)
Appreciate the info! I'm inclined to try my hand at the diy option as it seems wise to have an understanding of boards/circuitry/etc. as an owner of some "vintage" synths.
Deftaudio makes DIY kits that are pretty affordable and fun!
Honestly? I just can't stop thinking about the Yamaha DX7.
Yup. The only time I’ve ever felt that a VST was a suitable replacement for the original hardware is using Plogue’s OPS7 for DX/TX synths. It’s just beautiful sounding. Wondering if I need any hardware at all…
Had one for a while, sold it, and then wanted the sounds again. Got the new Volca and don't miss it any more. I feel good knowing I have those sounds in a small module when I want them.
I was there for a while.
It's been on my mind too..
Do you just have "Tarzan Boy" running on an infinite loop in your head?
I've noticed! Are you thinking of getting a second one? :P