Can we talk about modular synths?

[Dark Barn]

Yeah! I’m stoked for Song Mode Ruiner!

I’ll be dropping in on the (Seattle) Signals 2018 synth meet later today, hopefully I’ll get a little alone time with the Piston Honda mk3. I’ll make sure to get some photos of anything interesting.

[behndy]

Song Mode YES PLEASE. going to try to work with the Deluge into Shuttle Control today.

hah. so, not totally used to living in an apartment vs a house. woke up because there was this faint repetitive noise. thought it was muffled music from someone else's apartment. but. didn't stop. finally got up to look at THINGS.

annnnnd in the closet in our bedroom, one of the cats got into my box of synth stuff i haven't unpacked yet and stepped on a Pocekt Operator. it was doing a loop.

a Loop Of Gentle Annoyance.

well played Dj Kit-Kit. well PLAYED.

[coldbrightsunlight]

[Ruiner]

Unfortunately i don't have this anywhere but instagram so you'll have to click the link if you want to check it out but MAN.... i'm so in love with the Addac Mel 9. I know it's expensive but it works sooooo much better in a eurorack setup than as a guitar pedal. Game changer for me. Also the Magneto is just incredible. I don't normally write happy songs but this just felt good today:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BhmufXDA73R/

[Dark Barn]

Well, Piston Honda MK3 was pretty rad, I guess I didn’t realize until I saw it that it is a dual oscillator that can be controlled independently or together. I’m little unclear on exactly how independent they can be, but at any rate it sounded pretty dope.

Other than that I snapped some photos of some neat gear but no eurorack.

[Muse FTW]

Shot in the dark, but has anyone here used any of the Mutable Instruments DIY synths? I've looked into some prebuilt/preowned Ambika's, Anshuri's, and Shruthi's and the prices are pretty decent. Thinking about it but don't know any of the recommended builders that are still making them. Also just wondering if it's worth it.

[behndy]

i had the Shuthri i think? got it off DoS'ehy before he moved?

sounded VERY cool. didna like the interface at all.

[behndy]

also, DivKid's Marbles vidja changed my mind. WANT.

if anyone got one on the first run and doesn't dig it, hit a homie up?

[D.o.S.]

i had the Shuthri i think? got it off DoS'ehy before he moved?

sounded VERY cool. didna like the interface at all.

Yeah a prebuilt Shruthi XT that I picked up from Ritz in our never ending synth swaps. That sounded amazing. Cosigned. Interface was a bit of a learning curve but I liked it. I think the closest analog out now would be a Blofield without the Keyboard... which I am lusting after now.

[Deltaphoenix]

i had the Shuthri i think? got it off DoS'ehy before he moved?

sounded VERY cool. didna like the interface at all.

Yeah a prebuilt Shruthi XT that I picked up from Ritz in our never ending synth swaps. That sounded amazing. Cosigned. Interface was a bit of a learning curve but I liked it. I think the closest analog out now would be a Blofield without the Keyboard... which I am lusting after now.

Blofeld is a wavetable synth, I guess it could do some subtractive synth but it really is awesome at morphing digital oscillator waves. It is an all digital synth. Does awesome pads/soundscapes.

My experience with Shruthis are minimal but yeah they have nice analog filter options - good sounding hybrid synthesizers. If they do wavetable stuff (can't remember) it definitely just touches on it. I think these are better bass and lead synths. I didnt like the interface.

If you dig Euro and other stuff that isn't very menu driven then I would say stay away from the Shruthi. I would say these are way more menu driven than Electron stuff which is about where I draw the line

[D.o.S.]

Oh yeah I meant familiarity with regard to interface, not sound.

[Dark Barn]

Some drool worthy gear from the Seattle synth meet:

[Inconuucl]

The behringer modules are going to explode eurorack.

[Muse FTW]

Thanks for the responses guys. Gonna keep thinking about it, but leaning towards not picking one up.

The behringer modules are going to explode eurorack.

I am starting to hate Behringer. I understand that the patents have expired and whatnot, and it's perfectly fine to sell modules for cheap (Doepfer manages to do it) but I'm fully expecting them to come out with a ton of no-innovation modules that copy everything straight from someone else without adding anything new.

Want to stick it to big ol' Moog for selling handmade Model D's for $3k or Korg for not reproducing the Arp 2600? Fine. One big man sticks it to another big man.

But what happens when they decide to release a module with the open source Clouds algorithm? What can anyone do at that point?

Tbh with their track record I wouldn't even get a case from them considering their QA history.

[Deltaphoenix]

RE: Behringer. I have owned a few pieces of Behringer gear in my music life, I currently own a summing mixer made by Behringer. I don't believe I have ever owned any rip-off gear of theirs (not sure if their sucky bass synth pedal was based off of the sucky Boss one).

Moog is barely on the map compared to Behringer, they probably have ~40 employees. They are handmade in the USA. I definitely would not call them a big man in the Music Instrument world, just well known. Having said that, in theory, I am not opposed to what Behringer did with their heavily Model D Based synth with a few CV connections. It would be cooler if they would have changed the look a bit. Watered down Moog look doesn't look good. People buying the Behringer Model D are not the folks buying the Moog one, so different markets.

What I don't like about Behringer entering the Eurorack market is that they could come in and hurt some really small builders by basically cloning their work. Behringer budgets for being sued when they release gear that is violating IP laws. This isn't their first rodeo and obviously they don't care if they get sued, as long as they still make a good margin post the lawsuit. Do some of the small Euro manufacturers have the means to take a giant like Behringer to court?

A few other thoughts:
Behringer has released at least 20 other models of future cloned synthesizers and drum machines. So far 2 have come to fruition.
Behringer is already in the Eurorack world...they rereleased some chips that are surely used in some modules.