biscuitdough wrote: Sun Oct 30, 2022 6:47 pm

losthighway wrote: Thu Oct 27, 2022 2:02 pm I kept saying I was staying out of synths. I have enough gear rabbit holes as it is and I've seen the scary Eurorack creations people get lost in.

Then I traded work for a little monophonic deal that's fun to play with and overdub with. Now I find myself staring at polyphonic stuff. I want something analog, versatile, good tone, but no hyper expensive, vintage whatever. I've been looking at these:

https://www.sequential.com/product/take ... poly-synth


Talk me out of it.

If you’re not using it with a band, there’s no reason not to just go with software.

Whoa, whoa, whoa... this isn't the "hot-takes about gear" thread. Some of us like owning dedicated one-trick-pony hardware which costs stupid money that would be better utilized elsewhere.

That being said, somebody talk me out of buying a broken Arp Omni.

Nate Dort wrote: Sun Oct 30, 2022 7:15 pm That being said, somebody talk me out of buying a broken Arp Omni.

That sounds exceptionally difficult to fix. You could probably hold off and get something that's ready to play that can get that vibe.

That's the best naysaying I have to offer.

Nate Dort wrote: Sun Oct 30, 2022 7:15 pm somebody talk me out of buying a broken Arp Omni.

I would be concerned about the availablity of parts for something that old. Plus if you manage to fix it, how long before another part fails?

Modern alternatives would be the Waldorf Streichfett (digital, but sounds pretty good) the Waldorf STVC (slightly better sounding Streichfett in a keyboard with a vocoder) the Behringer VC340 (a copy of the Roland VP330, so you need to be a fan of that particular sound) or the Behringer Solina which has been announced but is another of the machines that haven't made the market yet.

How suitable these are will depend on how closely you are tied to the Omni sound. If only an Omni will do then these probably won't cut it. If you're just after a lush string machine sound then have fun researching and choose which one speaks to you.

As a taster, here's one of the best demos of the Streichfett.

Number 1 on the list is additional Daking preamp channels. I have a one channel unit because at the the time I bought it, it was simply the nicest, cheapest pre I could find. They’re not inexpensive, I just found a deal on one used. I need another two channels at a minimum.
I use the one channel I have on the “primary” source, then the pres on a Midas board for other mics. The Daking sounds good, but now I want more for consistency’s sake, but they aren’t cheap. Talk me out of it

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Wed Nov 23, 2022 8:47 pm Number 1 on the list is additional Daking preamp channels. I have a one channel unit because at the the time I bought it, it was simply the nicest, cheapest pre I could find. They’re not inexpensive, I just found a deal on one used. I need another two channels at a minimum.
I use the one channel I have on the “primary” source, then the pres on a Midas board for other mics. The Daking sounds good, but now I want more for consistency’s sake, but they aren’t cheap. Talk me out of it

Enabler here. Fuck that - Daking are great. Jump on it,

Two things:

Any of those 1073 clones over $1000. I do not make money recording other people. I don't think I have the ear to pick out what such gear would do for my recordings. But when looking into "properly" recording vocals, preamps often come up. The old 1073 gets a lot of praise and the clones are getting pretty good reviews. But do I need this above something relatively cheaper for recordings which maybe a handful of people will hear? Probably not.

A Prophet VS.

Even more ridiculous. I have been slowly selling my hardware and getting more "in the box." Arturia's V9 collection is actually pretty great. Reaktor is great. But my irrational mind wants to put some of the proceeds of my hardware sales towards this overpriced ancient thing. No idea why. But if the stars line up financially, I might not be able to be talked out of it.

^ Before anyone buys more preamps I'd strongly suggest putting whatever models you have head to head, as in record the same thing twice back to back and listen judiciously. I very gradually acquired a respectable collection: Api, Chandler, Sytek, Great River. I painstakingly shot them out on a full song: drums, bass, guitar, vocals to hear them side by side. They were all soul crushingly close in sound with the pres on my board (Alan & Heath) sounding about as good as any of them. Subtle notes of more character on the Chandlers and something overall sweeter sounding on the GR (which is a 1073 style circuit) but we're talking 5% of a difference tops.

I'd say if someone were tone hunting and had workhorse mics and workhorse pres and some $1k burning a hole in their pocket I'd buy a fancy mic before a fancy pre. It will make a greater difference. Get a boutique tube mic, a cool ribbon, or even a hardware compressor with some character will do more for a broadcast mic vocal recording than a pricey mic preamp will.

Just my $0.02.

losthighway wrote: Thu Nov 24, 2022 10:06 pm ^ Before anyone buys more preamps I'd strongly suggest putting whatever models you have head to head, as in record the same thing twice back to back and listen judiciously. I very gradually acquired a respectable collection: Api, Chandler, Sytek, Great River. I painstakingly shot them out on a full song: drums, bass, guitar, vocals to hear them side by side. They were all soul crushingly close in sound with the pres on my board (Alan & Heath) sounding about as good as any of them. Subtle notes of more character on the Chandlers and something overall sweeter sounding on the GR (which is a 1073 style circuit) but we're talking 5% of a difference tops.

I'd say if someone were tone hunting and had workhorse mics and workhorse pres and some $1k burning a hole in their pocket I'd buy a fancy mic before a fancy pre. It will make a greater difference. Get a boutique tube mic, a cool ribbon, or even a hardware compressor with some character will do more for a broadcast mic vocal recording than a pricey mic preamp will.

Just my $0.02.

That is great reinforcement - I have essentially the second setup you've described, and I kept wondering if I should get a better pre- I don't think what I do is beyond the preamps in a focusrite scarlett. I have some decent microphones, one really good ribbon and a serviceable tube condenser and I have to remind myself to fill gear lust with songwriting because that's ultimately why it's fun

Agreed on mic pres. Preamps especially can have as much money as you want thrown at them with very very very marginal returns in sound quality. You MIGHT notice it more if you are using more gain-thirsty mics like ribbons but even then there are enough cloud-lifter devices on the market to help there for not that much money. Louder sources, more sensitive mics you'll hear even less of what makes a pre-amp "good" although you might get some reduced noise floor for extremely quiet sources w/ wide dynamic range (and even then some "fancy" mic pres have a surprising amount of noise).

One really good channel for your vocal or stand out tracks is about all you need. I think we've done a good job on this forum explaining how far along affordable preamps have come (maybe even earlier in this thread). There are so many options. Hell even some of the recordings I did 25 years ago using only A&H Mix Wizard sounds great to me.

Agree w/ the above, if you have money to burn, way better ways to spend it. If you have a few absolutely great channels already and then some other that are "fine" your money can go much further elsewhere.

pater_toma wrote: Thu Nov 24, 2022 5:58 pm A Prophet VS.

Even more ridiculous. I have been slowly selling my hardware and getting more "in the box." Arturia's V9 collection is actually pretty great. Reaktor is great. But my irrational mind wants to put some of the proceeds of my hardware sales towards this overpriced ancient thing. No idea why. But if the stars line up financially, I might not be able to be talked out of it.

There weren't many of them to begin with, fewer still of them have survived the past forty-odd years, and nobody can fix them when they die. The Korg Wavestate buries its capabilities at a tiny subdivision of the asking price with a vastly more accessible interface, and you can load your own fucked-up old samples into it.