This was great and isn't talked about much! It's not always GAS! It's about trying things out and learning that some gear doesn't click how you thought would, or how some gear unexpectedly clicks!
DAWs have a high value proposition and are a great place to start - in my opinion - for music production because they offer virtualizations of hardware devices for a fraction of the cost. Eventually though, most of us want a more immediate, more straightforward, more tactile instrumental way to create than what mouse/keyboard/midi controller tend to offer. Obviously something like the Push gets you there and others can as well.
Cool video! We all go through and still are going through this journey and it's different for everybody, nice trip! That Soma DVINA looks awesome and I am thinking of making one for myself. I currently have 2 Morin Khuurs, one is a nice acoustic Mongolian one that is about 30 years old and sounds incredible. The other is a practice model that I got off Ali Express and put a contact pickup on to for using effects. They both play great and sound amazing. Thank's for sharing!
Hi thanks for stopping by! I suppose the more things you learn then the broader your experience becomes. The lines between DAW and DAWless are so blurred these days, you could argue that with a range of MIDI controllers you could build endless bespoke hardware interfaces for your DAW! And a lot of hardware is just like a DAW in a box! Each to their own, but I do like to try out cool hardware! 😆
Really interesting to see. Love the work that you’ve been doing with the modular that I’ve heard on Bandcamp and Substack. There’s a lot to be said for not having lots of gizmos. I’ve been overwhelmed at times over the years and eventually stopped altogether. I’ve picked things up again very recently and have found myself going with the iPad and the Iconnectivity interface so I can hook it up to my computer and bitwig etc. It’s been such a different experience - also so much cheaper to add plugins and synths. And I love touch screen instruments like Samplr and Borderlands. Look forward to seeing what you conjure from your modular setup.
Hi Bill, thanks for that feedback, I really appreciate it. I've never explored the iPad/iOS music world there's definitely some very interesting software, good luck with it all. I too become easily overwhelmed if I don't keep things very simple, limitations work well for me! More modular work coming soon! 🙏
We have similar taste in sound gear buddy. Modal cycles has sensitive buttons for human touch and I wasn't thrilled with other elektron but Roland JD-XI has a magic feature that I've never seen anyone demo but someday this KING DADDI,👑🎼🧠WILL DEMONSTRATE.
This was a really interesting watch! And great production! I've used none of these pieces of gear before, but it was cool to hear your experience with them. Makes me want to make my own video doing the same with all the gear I've owned up to this point. Especially since I've been in a bit of a phase of impulse buying some new things and trying to sell off some old gear I haven't touched in a long time. One of my oldest synths is the OP-1 and I used the absolute heck out of it and thought it was the perfect thing for me. Years have passed now and I haven't touched it in so long and rarely feel the urge to pick it up other than out of guilt that it collects dust. I've definitely grown out of it, but it's one that I don't think I could ever sell because it really got me into hardware in the first place.
Hi there, thank for sharing your experiences! 🙏 I'd love to have some time with the OP-1, looks really interesting and probably frustrating in equal parts! You should definitely make that video! 🙌🎶
Hello and thanks for having shared. I liked to watch cause had a similar journey in 4 years starting from a classical piano and picking style guitar 50 years background. And now after having sold a lot I kept a Elektron Samples, a Roland MC101, a UnoSynthProX and a Korg OpSix. But also two pianos and a dozen of guitars. This last OpSix machine is really a good combinaison of a melodic gear and sound design ones, very clear and simple to use, sort of modular approach in the variety of what you can create and very musical. Among gear I bought and resold and that I enjoyed, let me mention the Yamaha MODX, the Korg Kross2, Elektron Digitakt and Model Cycles. What I have learned so far is: I cannot replace the pleasure to play a "real" instrument and I bought a bass and spent two years of private courses to understand and play.
Hi Bruno, thanks for tuning in and for sharing your own journey and thoughts, much appreciated! The Korg Opsix definitely looks like an interesting piece of gear, love to try one of those! 🙏
I also really like the MicroFreak. I liked it even more after spending eight months or so playing around with VCV Rack and other virtual modular and better learning how synthesis works, including modulation, and what different types of waveforms/engines can do (including the plait models that are in the MicroFreak), and now I like it even more. I find it has a lot broader variety of sounds it can produce and interesting you can do with it that don't necessarily come up in the popular internet discourse about it even though pretty much everyone agrees it's a great synth for the price (except for those who hate the capacitive touch keyboard).
Hi thanks for stopping by! 🙏 Yes it really is such a remarkable little synth. I'll be doing a few more "Patch From Scratch" videos I think to explore the possibilities further! 🙌
i built a synth and got a dfam then decided on mpc one( such low latency compared to a daw and has midi/8x cv out!) to run it all after returning an rd8 i also have a model 12 which it interfaces with to expand the outs yes its still a screen but its more like curling up with a book than sitting at a daw yoiu can hook usb hubs to it and connect all your midi with bidirectional usb if you want and it acts like an external drive so you dont have to do anything fancy to transfer stems (it even can save your mpc session as an ableton live set to export for mixing)
Really valuable listening to how you discovered your own personal flow. Most RUclips music production videos are just promoting the new hot thing. It was a hard mental pivot for me to actually commit to selling my unused gear, but it's become easier as I've developed my own flow and realized that it's okay to let things go that get in the way of it.
Thanks Matt, really appreciate you taking the time to comment and it's great my video resonated with you. I agree that if you're not using something it does get in the way, better to recycle and keep it lean, there are so many different and exciting things out there to try! 🙌
Very interesting video, thank you. I think trackers are for people who are very analytical (as opposed to maybe a bit more spontaneous - you certainly can be both). It's a lot like programming, not too much space for happy accidents for example. Elektron sequencers are very much like trackers I think, p-locks and such, very vertical, deep but need quite a bit of strategizing before actually fully using them. But much more forgiving than a tracker. Really depends on who you are, the music you do, your technical level, your geekiness level, money etc. I know I would never go modular for example.
Hi, thanks for the feedback 👍 It's hard to pin down isn't it. I liked the Elektron sequencers a lot but not the tracker, for me it was more about the interface I think, too many numbers on the tracker! 👾🙏
Really creative way to take us on your journey, lots of work but it kept me watching to see the next steps. It makes me think it’s time to sell some of my gear
I recently bought a Korg SQ64 sequencer because it also does CV sequencing, but I noticed that if I want to be productive I have to use Ableton. Ableton is just super quick for sequencing stuff and has a ton of options. I'm still using hardware, but I let the computer do all the work. I'll probably end up selling the SQ64 because I can't see myself ever doing anything other than just messing around on it. It's a very capable device, just not really made for me.
I use Koala Sampler in my phone. So underated. I can run it on my smart phone and my tablet simultaneously and it literally cost me $10. I rip samples from my Kontakt library and load them into Koala and sequence them. All my files are saved to Dropbox for east recall from anywhere. And it has midi mapping, so I run one koala with a Korg NanoPad2 and the other with my Arturia MiniLab2.
Hi, thanks for stopping by! 👍 iOS music setups seem pretty popular probably because, as you say, they are cheap and people already have phones and tablets. So many solutions. Great you're making it work. 🙌
May I suggest you consider the Perkons hd-01, I own both it and Soma. You run into the same non-save issues with the Soma (analog, sounds good). Perkons is easy save, way more versatile(digital, sounds good), and improv/performance interactive as well.
You dont have to record the Polyend in multitrack as you can easily export all the tracks as seperate files within the system. Neat trick if you want to create your songs and then master them in another software.
Hi there, yes the exporting stems functionality was one of the features that originally attracted me to the Polyend Tracker, unfortunately at the time I had it, the firmware was still very buggy and the export didn't really work! Ultimately though I just didn't get on with the tracker interface as much as I had expected. Thanks for tuning in! 👍
Hi, thanks for your comment! 🙌 I've been close to getting a Zoia a couple of times, but I felt I'd get frustrated by the small screen and lots of options combo, very powerful though! 👍
@@whirrings yes i thought the same thing but with 1400 already made patches online its pretty easy to find a template to start off in any direction or ignore that aspect altogether
Yes, that's a great way to go using MIDI controllers, the Beatstep Pro is a nice piece of gear. I do sometimes use a Launch Control to add Ableton Live effects to live hardware recordings which is quite handy! Thanks for stopping by! 🙌
Cobalt 8 is my keeper plus first Korg electribes+last blue red tribe but my WORkflow is modo. Music in el MOMENTO and zero rehearsal necessary after 25 years of search for no latency live and studio.
Hi, thanks for tuning in 🙏 I've not got round to using the Model 12 as a multi-track recorder much yet, although it was one of the reasons I bought it! I often add live processing in Ableton sometimes just eq/limiters but sometimes chorus/reverb/delay which I control with the Launch Control. I think if I had more hardware effects I'd probably try using just the Model 12. 🙌
Isn't is the case that to produce music easily and with quality that a DAW will always win - Ableton and Pigments can be configured to do all of this quicker and more cheaply and with more possibilities than hardware? But fiddling with hardware can be fun, of course.
Hi Mike thanks for watching and commenting 👍 Yes of course you are right in that you can do a lot with software - and with MIDI controllers you can even design your own hardware interface to all that power much cheaper! But I'd argue that there is just something inherently different about using some music hardware - limited in very specific ways, by design, with bespoke interfaces and materials that I think is very hard to replicate in a DAW. Each to their own I suppose! 🙌🎶
Yes the MicroFreak was one of the cheaper things I tried although the Model:Samples and Field Kits are about the same price. I've found very little correlation between price and usefulness! There will definitely be some videos with the modular soon even though it is in a constant state of change! I've written quite a lot about it on my Substack whirrings.substack.com/s/studio-notes Thanks for tuning in! 😎
Hello and thanks for tuning in! I'll still reconfiguring the modular a lot but there will definitely be some videos soon. I've written quite a lot about it on my Substack whirrings.substack.com/s/studio-notes 🙌
Beautiful presentation with the paper "hardware" pieces, what an idea! Very interesting to listen to all this. Thank you!
Thank you, really appreciate the kind words, glad you enjoyed it! 🙏
This was great and isn't talked about much! It's not always GAS! It's about trying things out and learning that some gear doesn't click how you thought would, or how some gear unexpectedly clicks!
Brutally honest and valuable video! Thanks for sharing!
DAWs have a high value proposition and are a great place to start - in my opinion - for music production because they offer virtualizations of hardware devices for a fraction of the cost. Eventually though, most of us want a more immediate, more straightforward, more tactile instrumental way to create than what mouse/keyboard/midi controller tend to offer. Obviously something like the Push gets you there and others can as well.
A lovely journey so far. We all arrive at our music making in different ways, and your story was very nice to listen to and watch, so thank you.
Thank you Richard, great you enjoyed my video, thanks for taking the time! 👍
Cool video! We all go through and still are going through this journey and it's different for everybody, nice trip!
That Soma DVINA looks awesome and I am thinking of making one for myself. I currently have 2 Morin Khuurs, one is a nice acoustic Mongolian one that is about 30 years old and sounds incredible. The other is a practice model that I got off Ali Express and put a contact pickup on to for using effects. They both play great and sound amazing. Thank's for sharing!
Thanks for sharing your experiences, I really enjoyed hearing about your journey. Need to listen to your music next😊
Thanks so much for watching! 🙏
I think even if you aren't dawless 100%. Having hardware can make you a better producer. I think everyone should have at least one thing.
Hi thanks for stopping by! I suppose the more things you learn then the broader your experience becomes. The lines between DAW and DAWless are so blurred these days, you could argue that with a range of MIDI controllers you could build endless bespoke hardware interfaces for your DAW! And a lot of hardware is just like a DAW in a box! Each to their own, but I do like to try out cool hardware! 😆
Really interesting to see. Love the work that you’ve been doing with the modular that I’ve heard on Bandcamp and Substack. There’s a lot to be said for not having lots of gizmos. I’ve been overwhelmed at times over the years and eventually stopped altogether. I’ve picked things up again very recently and have found myself going with the iPad and the Iconnectivity interface so I can hook it up to my computer and bitwig etc. It’s been such a different experience - also so much cheaper to add plugins and synths. And I love touch screen instruments like Samplr and Borderlands. Look forward to seeing what you conjure from your modular setup.
Hi Bill, thanks for that feedback, I really appreciate it. I've never explored the iPad/iOS music world there's definitely some very interesting software, good luck with it all. I too become easily overwhelmed if I don't keep things very simple, limitations work well for me! More modular work coming soon! 🙏
Very enjoyable video! And I totally agree that it's very difficult to pinpoint exactly why a piece of gear resonates with you.
We have similar taste in sound gear buddy.
Modal cycles has sensitive buttons for human touch and I wasn't thrilled with other elektron but Roland JD-XI has a magic feature that I've never seen anyone demo but someday this KING DADDI,👑🎼🧠WILL DEMONSTRATE.
I looked away for a second then the 2s appeared and I was like, “does this man have the biggest hands on the plan……oh” 😂😂😂😂
😂🎶🙌
This was a really interesting watch! And great production! I've used none of these pieces of gear before, but it was cool to hear your experience with them. Makes me want to make my own video doing the same with all the gear I've owned up to this point. Especially since I've been in a bit of a phase of impulse buying some new things and trying to sell off some old gear I haven't touched in a long time. One of my oldest synths is the OP-1 and I used the absolute heck out of it and thought it was the perfect thing for me. Years have passed now and I haven't touched it in so long and rarely feel the urge to pick it up other than out of guilt that it collects dust. I've definitely grown out of it, but it's one that I don't think I could ever sell because it really got me into hardware in the first place.
Hi there, thank for sharing your experiences! 🙏 I'd love to have some time with the OP-1, looks really interesting and probably frustrating in equal parts! You should definitely make that video! 🙌🎶
@@whirrings You've nailed it. It can do a lot of cool stuff, but it wants you to be creative. And if I do, someday, I'll be sure to shout you out!
Hello and thanks for having shared. I liked to watch cause had a similar journey in 4 years starting from a classical piano and picking style guitar 50 years background. And now after having sold a lot I kept a Elektron Samples, a Roland MC101, a UnoSynthProX and a Korg OpSix. But also two pianos and a dozen of guitars. This last OpSix machine is really a good combinaison of a melodic gear and sound design ones, very clear and simple to use, sort of modular approach in the variety of what you can create and very musical.
Among gear I bought and resold and that I enjoyed, let me mention the Yamaha MODX, the Korg Kross2, Elektron Digitakt and Model Cycles.
What I have learned so far is: I cannot replace the pleasure to play a "real" instrument and I bought a bass and spent two years of private courses to understand and play.
Hi Bruno, thanks for tuning in and for sharing your own journey and thoughts, much appreciated! The Korg Opsix definitely looks like an interesting piece of gear, love to try one of those! 🙏
I legit thought those cut outs were the real thing. 😂
Same
Thank you for sharing your experience! I really enjoyed watching this. Definitely useful and pleasant to watch
Thanks very much, I'm glad it was useful to you! 👍
I also really like the MicroFreak. I liked it even more after spending eight months or so playing around with VCV Rack and other virtual modular and better learning how synthesis works, including modulation, and what different types of waveforms/engines can do (including the plait models that are in the MicroFreak), and now I like it even more. I find it has a lot broader variety of sounds it can produce and interesting you can do with it that don't necessarily come up in the popular internet discourse about it even though pretty much everyone agrees it's a great synth for the price (except for those who hate the capacitive touch keyboard).
Hi thanks for stopping by! 🙏 Yes it really is such a remarkable little synth. I'll be doing a few more "Patch From Scratch" videos I think to explore the possibilities further! 🙌
i built a synth and got a dfam then decided on mpc one( such low latency compared to a daw and has midi/8x cv out!) to run it all after returning an rd8 i also have a model 12 which it interfaces with to expand the outs yes its still a screen but its more like curling up with a book than sitting at a daw yoiu can hook usb hubs to it and connect all your midi with bidirectional usb if you want and it acts like an external drive so you dont have to do anything fancy to transfer stems (it even can save your mpc session as an ableton live set to export for mixing)
Really valuable listening to how you discovered your own personal flow. Most RUclips music production videos are just promoting the new hot thing. It was a hard mental pivot for me to actually commit to selling my unused gear, but it's become easier as I've developed my own flow and realized that it's okay to let things go that get in the way of it.
Thanks Matt, really appreciate you taking the time to comment and it's great my video resonated with you. I agree that if you're not using something it does get in the way, better to recycle and keep it lean, there are so many different and exciting things out there to try! 🙌
Very interesting video, thank you.
I think trackers are for people who are very analytical (as opposed to maybe a bit more spontaneous - you certainly can be both). It's a lot like programming, not too much space for happy accidents for example. Elektron sequencers are very much like trackers I think, p-locks and such, very vertical, deep but need quite a bit of strategizing before actually fully using them. But much more forgiving than a tracker.
Really depends on who you are, the music you do, your technical level, your geekiness level, money etc. I know I would never go modular for example.
Hi, thanks for the feedback 👍 It's hard to pin down isn't it. I liked the Elektron sequencers a lot but not the tracker, for me it was more about the interface I think, too many numbers on the tracker! 👾🙏
Really creative way to take us on your journey, lots of work but it kept me watching to see the next steps. It makes me think it’s time to sell some of my gear
Thanks for tuning in Roly glad you enjoyed it! 🙌
What a great overview of your journey-thanks for sharing!
Hi and thank you so much for watching! 🙏
I recently bought a Korg SQ64 sequencer because it also does CV sequencing, but I noticed that if I want to be productive I have to use Ableton. Ableton is just super quick for sequencing stuff and has a ton of options. I'm still using hardware, but I let the computer do all the work. I'll probably end up selling the SQ64 because I can't see myself ever doing anything other than just messing around on it. It's a very capable device, just not really made for me.
Hi, thanks for stopping by! 😎 It's such a personal thing isn't it, what works for you! 👍
love this presentation... :)
Thank you for watching... 🙌
This Video is produced so well!
Thanks, I really appreciate that, glad you liked it! 🙌
I use Koala Sampler in my phone. So underated. I can run it on my smart phone and my tablet simultaneously and it literally cost me $10. I rip samples from my Kontakt library and load them into Koala and sequence them. All my files are saved to Dropbox for east recall from anywhere. And it has midi mapping, so I run one koala with a Korg NanoPad2 and the other with my Arturia MiniLab2.
Hi, thanks for stopping by! 👍 iOS music setups seem pretty popular probably because, as you say, they are cheap and people already have phones and tablets. So many solutions. Great you're making it work. 🙌
May I suggest you consider the Perkons hd-01, I own both it and Soma. You
run into the same non-save issues with the Soma (analog, sounds good). Perkons is easy save, way more versatile(digital, sounds good), and improv/performance interactive as well.
Hi, thanks for your input. The Perkins looks like a great piece of gear, love to spend some time with one! 🎶😎
I love this. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's very helpful as I'm on a similar journey
Cheers!
Hi, thanks for taking the time, I'm glad it was helpful to you! 🙌
Thanks for sharing your quest! Very useful!
Hi Marcel, thanks for watching glad you found it useful! 👍
You dont have to record the Polyend in multitrack as you can easily export all the tracks as seperate files within the system. Neat trick if you want to create your songs and then master them in another software.
Hi there, yes the exporting stems functionality was one of the features that originally attracted me to the Polyend Tracker, unfortunately at the time I had it, the firmware was still very buggy and the export didn't really work! Ultimately though I just didn't get on with the tracker interface as much as I had expected. Thanks for tuning in! 👍
also i highly recommend the empress zoia it doesnt get enough publicity its a full modular synth in a guitar fx pedal i got one used for around 350 US
Hi, thanks for your comment! 🙌 I've been close to getting a Zoia a couple of times, but I felt I'd get frustrated by the small screen and lots of options combo, very powerful though! 👍
@@whirrings yes i thought the same thing but with 1400 already made patches online its pretty easy to find a template to start off in any direction or ignore that aspect altogether
I like the hybrid approach like i use a Beatstep Pro to control synths and drum machines inside Logic Pro. Its the best of both worlds for me.
Yes, that's a great way to go using MIDI controllers, the Beatstep Pro is a nice piece of gear. I do sometimes use a Launch Control to add Ableton Live effects to live hardware recordings which is quite handy! Thanks for stopping by! 🙌
Cobalt 8 is my keeper plus first Korg electribes+last blue red tribe but my WORkflow is modo. Music in el MOMENTO and zero rehearsal necessary after 25 years of search for no latency live and studio.
Excellent, sounds like a lot of fun! 😎
excelent presentation and delivery
Hi there, thanks for that, I really appreciate the feedback, glad you enjoyed it! 🙌
Love your story telling and your calmness. Subscribed! Can't wait to see what's next for you.
Hi there, thanks for the kind words and subscribing - I really appreciate you taking the time to comment. Glad you enjoyed the video! 🙏
Great video, will you replace recording into Ableton for the Tascam instead..?
Hi, thanks for tuning in 🙏 I've not got round to using the Model 12 as a multi-track recorder much yet, although it was one of the reasons I bought it! I often add live processing in Ableton sometimes just eq/limiters but sometimes chorus/reverb/delay which I control with the Launch Control. I think if I had more hardware effects I'd probably try using just the Model 12. 🙌
@@whirrings Just out of curiosity - what are you using as an interface to do the recording into Ableton? I would assume it is the Model 12?
Isn't is the case that to produce music easily and with quality that a DAW will always win - Ableton and Pigments can be configured to do all of this quicker and more cheaply and with more possibilities than hardware? But fiddling with hardware can be fun, of course.
Hi Mike thanks for watching and commenting 👍 Yes of course you are right in that you can do a lot with software - and with MIDI controllers you can even design your own hardware interface to all that power much cheaper! But I'd argue that there is just something inherently different about using some music hardware - limited in very specific ways, by design, with bespoke interfaces and materials that I think is very hard to replicate in a DAW. Each to their own I suppose! 🙌🎶
In the end you kept the cheapest one? Good to know! Looking forward to the video of your modular synth. :)
Yes the MicroFreak was one of the cheaper things I tried although the Model:Samples and Field Kits are about the same price. I've found very little correlation between price and usefulness! There will definitely be some videos with the modular soon even though it is in a constant state of change! I've written quite a lot about it on my Substack whirrings.substack.com/s/studio-notes Thanks for tuning in! 😎
Thank you for sharing
Thanks for tuning in, really appreciate it! 🙌
give us a guide of your modular system?
Hello and thanks for tuning in! I'll still reconfiguring the modular a lot but there will definitely be some videos soon. I've written quite a lot about it on my Substack whirrings.substack.com/s/studio-notes 🙌
hahahha! "And I now have a modular system"
congratulations to breaking out of the pattern-music.
Yep, it's only on loan but I like it! Marbles is main sequencer! Thanks for stopping by! 🙌