Inexpensive Synth Thread

[dezb1]

They're more toys than synths but you can have some fun for some time.

That's what folk said about the TB-303

[oid]

They're more toys than synths but you can have some fun for some time.

That's what folk said about the TB-303

An overpriced toy capable of some useful sounds, but a toy nonetheless.

[dezb1]

Changed music as we know it... whole genres pretty much based around it.

[shadowplay]

Changed music as we know it... whole genres pretty much based around it.

Quoted for fact, I've probably not gone more than a week since 1983 without buying a record with a 303 on it. 808 and 303 go together like strawberries and cream.

Calling it a toy scores a solid 'Liam Gallagher' on the Disko Sucks scale glitter scientists have developed to stratify such things.

D

[Maggieo]

Changed music as we know it... whole genres pretty much based around it.

Quoted for fact, I've probably not gone more than a week since 1983 without buying a record with a 303 on it. 808 and 303 go together like strawberries and cream.

Calling it a toy scores a solid 'Liam Gallagher' on the Disko Sucks scale glitter scientists have developed to stratify such things.

D

Once again, you've introduced me to a treasure, David. Thank you.

[oid]

It is an instrument, we use the verb "play" to describe the use of instruments. Hows that?

That was a bit terse of me and I am not sure what my intentions were with that post, I was not trying to disparage the 303 or toys, both are fairly important to the world of music. I acknowledged its sound, but its construction quality is toy quality, designed around the idea that it would be grown out of before it breaks.

I can not recall the last time I listened to Chris and Cosey, I listen to Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV on a semi regular basis, but somehow I forgot Chris and Cosey?

[shadowplay]

I can not recall the last time I listened to Chris and Cosey, I listen to Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV on a semi regular basis, but somehow I forgot Chris and Cosey?

I've loved Throbbing Gristle since the records came out and even saw them live back then and a bit later on as a daft young teen I had designs to run away to join the Temple of Psychic Youth but there is no group I venerate above Coil and Chris and Cosey aren't far behind.

I can't tell you good it's been for me to see both groups finally get the recognition they deserve and while Jhonn and Peter are no longer with us I've been cockahoop with joy at seeing Cosey introduced to a new audience through her 'Art Sex Music' book and through C&C reissues. It amazing to me to see the tape only issues I love getting reappraised like Chris Carter's masterful The Space Between and recently Cosey'sTime To Tell which I always regarded as musically and philosophically important.

As for the 'toy' thing, I made some probably harsh 'do you even lift bro' assumptions based on this being a guitar forum.

Funnily this all brings us full circle to inexpensive synths given that when I was a kid the Wasp was thee 'inexpensive synth' and the likes of Thomas Leer and Robert Rental made whole albums using little else and Chris Carter used it extensively.

Going full circle part two....Colleen's amazing recent album A Flame My Love A Frequency was pretty much all Critter and Guitari Pocket Piano and Septavox. Bringing the noise with synths that look like toys, maximal minimalism.

French artist Colleen is fearless in her willingness to explore new sounds and new ways of creating music as a solo performer. On her new album A flame my love, a frequency she introduces the most drastic change to her music since she began singing on her fourth album. A chance encounter with a Critter and Guitari synthesizer at King Britt’s Philadelphia studio on the Captain of None album tour cracked the compositional model wide open. Colleen bought a Critter and Guitari Pocket Piano with the aim to use it through a newly-acquired Moog filter pedal to create new and interesting rhythms to accompany her voice and viola da gamba. But it turned out the sounds of this viola and rhythm combination was not what she was looking for, so in typical Colleen fashion, she set the viola da gamba aside altogether and picked up an additional Critter and Guitari synth, the Septavox, dug out her her trusted Moog delay and dove right in.

D

[Sauerkraut]

I bought a second-hand MicroKorg, removed all the presets (except the vocoder stuff) and replaced them all with presets made by this guy: https://www.thoracius.com/microkorg-patches/
Cost me 250 euros plus another 15 for the presets. Money well spent.

Here it is creeping its way into a recording (at about the 3:00 mark):
https://tmvf.bandcamp.com/releases

[StevenO]

I listen to Time To Tell at least once a week when I feel like zoning out. Lovely stuff that I could only ever dream of doing myself. C&C too, just wonderful.

Ugh, now I want an 808 and 303. I bought a Korg Electribe recently and it's OK but it doesn't react well (or reacts awesomely, if you like glitchiness and spontaneity) with the clock-in on my Roland SH-01a. I should probably get a Roland TR707. I don't know why but I love the sound of that thing.

I kind of hope my Behringer D (they missed the perfect opportunity to call it the 'Module D') shows up soon. I would love to own the Moog Model D but it's worth more than my car...

[oid]

Coil is another one that I have not listened to in ages, but I am working my way to them, I was out of electronic music for about a decade when life forced me to sell off the synths and listening to electronic music just left me pissed off that I could not spend the money to get a new synth. Been working on catching up on the folks who are still active, which is a sadly short list. Got Colleen's "Captain of None" and "A Flame, My Love, A Frequency" and Cosey's "Time to Tell" to listen at work tonight. Think I have heard Colleen before, but do not recall...

That Critter and Gutari stuff looks fun, the Organelle would have me if it was cheaper, $500 is a little steep for aesthetic, I can just keep runing pd on my laptop.

One of these days I am going to end up impulse buying a MicroKorg, have almost done it a few times now.

As far as the 303 goes, I really think something like the FR-777 should have killed the 303 to all but the collectors, it can get those 303 basses assuming you are ok with ignoring most of the knobs on the synth, and it can do so much more for considerably less, wish that thing would get a re-release. The 808, I can find no fault with, other then all the mods people insist on doing to it, might be the only piece of vintage gear I really want.

Behringer may really change the game if they keep on this path, they seem like they are actually trying to put out quality gear and not jack prices. I have a UMC404HD, and I am quite impressed, easily the equal of any of the home studio interfaces on the market at a fraction of the price, and from what I have heard the Model D is just as good. Hopefully I can play with one in the near future, still can not trust anything regarding that company, to much history there.