Hello everyone, I've put in the work to find out what my next big gear purchase should be and have reached the limit of what I can glean without asking people who have used these instruments first hand.

Essentially, I am pretty happy with my current setup. I just want to complement it with one more synth, preferably with MPE support (I have a Linnstrument), and polyphonic, that can be a good addition to my melodic capabilities.

Here's the gear I currently have:

• Digitakt 2
• Digitone 1
• Microfreak
• Organelle
• Linnstrument 128 & Keystep 37
• Effects pedals I'm happy with, but don't like to pull out specifically for Synth work.
• Various VSTs. I like Pigments, but have always been more drawn to physical instruments.

Here are the machines I've considered:

1. Dreadbox Artemis - currently in the lead. Looks and sounds great. Looks pretty immediate, and easily transported. The built-in fx look great. Expensive!
2. Take 5 - very close second. Looks really fun and immediate. Just bigger and heavier than the Artemis, and less of a "unique" sound. Can be replicated with VSTs it seems (please assume I've included a ton of caveats to this. Yes everything can be done with a laptop, but i'm looking for a balance of versatility/immediacy/character specifically in hardware).
3. Digitone 2 - I'd sell my DN1 and buy this. A lot more tracks and good complement to the DT2. Even just presets sound great on the DN1, but I feel like analog is the only thing currently missing from my setup. Mostly happy with my digital offerings.
4. Analog Four - Elektron, analog, four tracks which is cool and I know the ecosystem. But I just couldn't find anything online that made this sound warm or un-metallic. I can already make plenty of those sounds with the DN and my laptop!
5. Dreadbox Nymphes - seems like kind of an Artemis-lite. Pretty menu divey but great built-in fx as Dreadbox is known for, and has great analog sounds.
6. Something by Waldorf - frankly I'm overwhelmed by how great some of these synths look. I know they're all digital, but I the recent protein seems to be a popular versatile choice and so is the blofeld (albeit menu divey). Still more interested in analog but I could be tempted if the sound is interesting enough...

I have limited space, which is a consideration. I need to be able to move the machine around shelves while not in use.

Anyway, thanks for reading all this and let me know your thoughts. Have any of you tried some of these and returned them? Would never sell them? Compared some? Have a completely different suggestion? I'm happy to hear it all.

Does the arpeggiator work on its own if I hooked it up to a module or does it only work as a midi controller? Thanks 🙏🏻

Hi everyone!

I currently own a Yamaha MODX7 and will hopefully be getting a Roland FANTOM 7 EX soon. I'm trying to figure out the best way to connect everything together, but I'm having some trouble choosing the right audio interface.

I'd like to connect both synthesizers to the same interface and listen to them simultaneously through my headphones and, eventually, through a pair of studio monitors or active PA speakers.

My headphones are Beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO (250 ohms), so I also need an interface with a headphone output powerful enough to drive them properly. I currently have some issues getting enough volume from my MODX7's headphone output without turning it up too much.

I'd also like to connect a microphone to the interface because I want to do livestreams and Discord calls. Ideally, people on Discord should be able to hear both synthesizers and my microphone at the same time, while I can hear everything through my headphones.

I'd also like to record my synths on my computer, preferably as separate stereo tracks in a DAW, rather than having everything mixed into a single stereo track.

So, ideally, I'd need an interface that can:

- Connect both synths in stereo (four line inputs in total).

- Connect a microphone at the same time.

- Drive my 250-ohm Beyerdynamic headphones properly.

- Send a mix of both synths and my microphone to Discord and livestreaming software.

- Allow me to record both synths separately in my DAW.

- Connect to a pair of studio monitors or active PA speakers.

- Ideally, handle audio routing and loopback without requiring too much complicated software setup.

I'm looking for something with good sound quality and reliable performance, but I don't want to spend a fortune. I'd really appreciate recommendations for an interface that can handle all of this without being unnecessarily expensive.

I'd also be grateful for advice on how to route everything correctly, especially how to send the combined synth and microphone audio to Discord while still recording the synths separately on my computer.

Thanks in advance for any help!

And also sorry for the big text.

>Just how far Kouthoofd is willing to take his philosophy becomes clear when Kouthoofd tells me that, as part of a reorganization last fall, he announced to his team he is planning to stop making synthesizers altogether. The OP-1 is no exception. Launched in 2011, it put teenage engineering on the map and has been central to its success ever since.
“Everyone was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ But I’ve come to the conclusion that, for us, the products aren’t the business,” Kouthoofd says. “We can be so much more than that.”

Not a particularly detailed statement regarding timelines or if that really means all current products will cease production (then again, it does say "The OP-1 is no exception"), but maybe I should get an EP-133 sooner than later...

I mean in a couple of ways:
- For manufacturers, now that we consumers know it's possible to produce affordable and capable synths like this, I mean it in the way that there may come up fancier but still affordable versions of it? Like with better keys n stuff?
- For us synthesis junkies, is an affordable and highly portable multi-firmware product like this going to open up what we can perform out there and also like in our beds?

I feel like it's a bit crazy what's going on, and it's not only hype anymore. Felucca's firmware is pretty capable (Baud Girl's was already pretty cool as well).

Haven’t seen anyone try this. But as soon as I saw the iOS release I had to give this a try. And it works perfectly. Buttons are easy to configure, and are quite responsive.

Controller is an 8bitDo Lite 2 used on an iPad Pro 11.

So this is a rant but I would like your thoughts on the latest developments.

I do have a Computer Engineering background so while I understand lots of things about synths analogue and digital I never gotten to deep on the internals. I have some Max/MSP experience but up to that.

So I was shocked to just discover how easy and efficient is to reverse engineer a firmware and extract some funcitonality out of it via Claude. My favorite reverb did not worked as a VST, and Claude build a VST out of a firmware file in 40minutes. It claims it has done bit for bit testing, but frankly as long as it sounds OKish(and it does) it does not matter. Previously this task was a matter of months of work and expertise.

SImilarly you might have learn about the AKAI Force and Octatrack modified firmwares. So how does this affect us as a community: on one hand, it gives incredible power to users, no longer dependent on companies, large teams, or roadmap priorities.

- It also gives new life to old designs; I am even thinking of buying an Octa again, which I sold for a combination of stability and poor performance problems.

But how does this affect the industry as a whole? In a time when you can extract via firmware any kind of niche functionality in software, is this another push towards analog, or towards digital platforms as things you buy as hw and modify via AI-assisted coding? Thoughts? I am currently kind of thinking that I could sell my Roland Boutique TB03 since it will be quite similar to run the same on another modded hw platform.

I believe that its a good thing for musicians and co. I am not so sure about synth companies and people working for them.