What relatively inexpensive audio 'toy' do I want?
October 25, 2016 10:02 AM Subscribe
I'm in the market for a little piece of audio gear to experiment with and add live sounds to a fairly traditional three piece rock band. I'm having a bit of trouble working out what would suit my 'needs'.
What sort of sounds do we need? It's very hard to say as I'm hoping to a certain extent the gear will encourage experimentation. What I want: something self-contained that just needs plugging into a PA. Some kind of sequencing capability so I can create simple arrangements that can be stored in memory and triggered manually (via a footswitch?). Some kind of sampling ability. Possibly a conventional keyboard or similar to play notes in real time. And a strong selection of fully tweakable patches and voices. All in a tough, portable unit that's pretty easy for a beginner to understand.
Am I asking too much here? I really like Android apps like Caustic but realise that level of functionality is hard to come by in something costing 2-300 ukp (or less). Our band already uses loops and samples, but they're all programmed well in advance and then triggered by the drummer (and he's running out of hands). Our music (link in profile) is vaguely abstract indie-esque rock; new noises always take us in welcome directions. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
What sort of sounds do we need? It's very hard to say as I'm hoping to a certain extent the gear will encourage experimentation. What I want: something self-contained that just needs plugging into a PA. Some kind of sequencing capability so I can create simple arrangements that can be stored in memory and triggered manually (via a footswitch?). Some kind of sampling ability. Possibly a conventional keyboard or similar to play notes in real time. And a strong selection of fully tweakable patches and voices. All in a tough, portable unit that's pretty easy for a beginner to understand.
Am I asking too much here? I really like Android apps like Caustic but realise that level of functionality is hard to come by in something costing 2-300 ukp (or less). Our band already uses loops and samples, but they're all programmed well in advance and then triggered by the drummer (and he's running out of hands). Our music (link in profile) is vaguely abstract indie-esque rock; new noises always take us in welcome directions. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Sounds like the Novation Circuit would meet a lot of your needs. It's really fun and surprisingly flexible -- I love mine. You can plug in a conventional keyboard if you don't want to play the pads, you can use it to sequence analog gear, you can load your own samples. If you're interested, poke around on YouTube -- lots of people doing videos with it.
posted by neroli at 10:38 AM on October 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by neroli at 10:38 AM on October 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
I was going to suggest a Novation Circuit too. It's a very flexible groovebox and sampler, as well as having a great synth engine. Only downside is that it doesn't do live looping/sampling - all sounds have to be pre-programmed/pre-loaded, but once they're there you can play live, or trigger sequences (and you can tweak sounds/effects while playing sequences back too.) It's a very flexible bit of kit and Novation have been really good with bringing out software updates to make it even more powerful.
Alternatively, what you're looking for is a laptop running Ableton, but that's rather more than 2-300ukp.
posted by parm at 10:51 AM on October 25, 2016
Alternatively, what you're looking for is a laptop running Ableton, but that's rather more than 2-300ukp.
posted by parm at 10:51 AM on October 25, 2016
The Novation Circuit is indeed super fun and flexible! It can technically do sampling, but you need to load samples from a computer. The knobs are fun to twiddle but unless you know a bit about synthesis and also use the software editor, it's not necessarily obvious what role any one knob is playing for any given patch. It does not have a "song mode", so it will absolutely require some piloting, unless you are satisfied with 8-bar loops. If you have it all set up the way you like, you can get rather long A/B/B/A patterns going with a few quick taps. It's probably the best thing available now at your price point, but I wanted to list some potential limitations.
If you can stretch the budget a bit, you can get the Korg Minilogue. It has a mini keyboard and real analog VCOs, as well as (almost) one knob per function. This makes it very easy to learn how to design sounds you want. It has a built in 16-step sequencer, which can last rather a long time if you set it to pay thick warm whole note chords/pads.
Finally, if you have any need for cheap MIDI keyboards, keep your eye out for Rockband Keytars. They are surprisingly good, have a real 5-pin MIDI out socket (increasingly rare, sadly), and they can be found as cheap as $5 at thrifts stores, game stores, and pawn shops.
posted by SaltySalticid at 10:54 AM on October 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
If you can stretch the budget a bit, you can get the Korg Minilogue. It has a mini keyboard and real analog VCOs, as well as (almost) one knob per function. This makes it very easy to learn how to design sounds you want. It has a built in 16-step sequencer, which can last rather a long time if you set it to pay thick warm whole note chords/pads.
Finally, if you have any need for cheap MIDI keyboards, keep your eye out for Rockband Keytars. They are surprisingly good, have a real 5-pin MIDI out socket (increasingly rare, sadly), and they can be found as cheap as $5 at thrifts stores, game stores, and pawn shops.
posted by SaltySalticid at 10:54 AM on October 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
Moog Music Mother 32.
The Minilogue is neat too. :)
posted by luckynerd at 6:31 PM on October 25, 2016
The Minilogue is neat too. :)
posted by luckynerd at 6:31 PM on October 25, 2016
My thought was a Korg Kaossilator. The Kaossilator 2S can sample your guitar or whatever sounds you want. It is very much in the toy category -- you can make useful, real sound from it, but you play it by running for finger across a touch pad, so it's not exactly like a traditional instrument. It's just kind of funny and easy. If you want something more precise and more full featured, you could try the Kaossilator Pro.
posted by AppleTurnover at 11:23 PM on October 26, 2016
posted by AppleTurnover at 11:23 PM on October 26, 2016
Response by poster: Thank you to everyone for their answers. By a happy set of circumstances I now have both the OP-1 and the Circuit. The former is a lot of fun for experimenting with sound forms, whereas the latter is much more geared to beats and sequences. I love them both. Hopefully they will spur some audio innovation soon.
posted by srednivashtar at 4:07 AM on January 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by srednivashtar at 4:07 AM on January 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
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posted by TrinsicWS at 10:11 AM on October 25, 2016 [3 favorites]