What 1st noisesynthdrone box, Deses Parva or Minimal Drone?

[doommeow]

So thinking of picking up some sort of sound generation tool, other than guitar and/or feedback loop....

I know next to nothing about this stuff, but hoping you cats will point me in the right direction. Looking for something that'll get me big heavy drone washes of sound, then to be manipulated with my board, that has an entry level price point and learning curve.

Top two contenders:

Skychord Deses Parva
Pros : known/respected manufacturer, can try it out in person
Cons : trying it out means going to Williamsburg always a pain in the colon.

Handmadeelectronicinstruments Minimal Drone
Pros : more knobs without being intimidating, (slightly, but statistically significantly) cheaper than the Skychord
Cons : can't try it out

I'm also looking at some of the other Handmadeelectronic stuff, but honestly haven't fully wrapped my noggin' around the differences between oscillators and stepped tone generators and why I'd prefer or use one over the other. Also on the radar is the Atari Punk thing and some of the Electro-Faustus stuff, but those seem to be less versatile to my untrained eye.

Help?

[theshoegazer]

I'd personally go with the Deses Parva. Its lowest pitched setting is just a massive, crushing wall of analog glory. Here's a rough clip:



Deses Parva into a Trogotronic 666 with some clipping and light filtering added in post.

[sonidero]

+1 on the Parva, all the Shychord stuff is the best... Jump in the deep end and just get a Zodiac, save your self some time...

[Ugly Nora]

I have a Skychord Zodiac. I really don't think there is much of a learning curve on these things. So don't worry about that. So I guess your main concern would be price, which the Zodiac is fairly expensive ($400).

When I buy stuff, music related or otherwise, I try to buy above what I may need now in anticipation of what I may want/need in the near future. For instance, say you bought that Deses Parva. Chances are you will enjoy it but find it limiting. Then you will go out and buy something better. So now you just "wasted" money on the first item. I don't know, that's how I look at things.

Here is a clip I just made a few minutes ago while waiting for my tea to steep. I call it "Waiting for my tea to steep". I am posting for no other reason than to show you it doesn't take much thought to put something together. I am not claiming this to be any great work of music. Just an example of turning this thing on, turning a few knobs and getting something going with zero thought or talent.

Zodiac>MF 108M>Tremolessence>MF 104M



Nora