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After thinking of leaving Ableton and finding hardware stuff to use, I'm thinking I may just use Ableton for sequencing and getting a few pieces of hardware to be controlled via Ableton. That way I have the physical knobs of the synths and not limited to whatever sequencer - or lack thereof - may be available on each piece of hardware.

I currently have a Novation K Station and a Volca Keys. I might get another Volca Keys, and I'm considering some other low budget hardware. What would you suggest? I was thinking the minitaur, perhaps.

Do you have a launchpad or anything to control Ableton?

For small stuff I have been thinking a lot about the Audiothingies Micromonsta and the Axoloti. One or both of them will probably be coming home soon...

At the peak of my sequencing phase I used a beatstep pro to sequence a x0xb0x and a volca keys, and the drum sequencer to sequence a Nord Drum 2 and sp404, and midi sync'ing a microgranny.
I liked the beatstep for size and ability, especially now it can chain patterns, but it's a bit of a bitch to set up the CC's on the control section. Well, not really a bitch, it's easy enough just time consuming.
Having never had one of these midi pad controller whatchamajiggers before the beatstep pro i was massively impressed (especially as it could work without a computer), but i don't know if it has any benefit over any others really.

I think they go pretty cheap now. I totally downsized in favour of more pedals, but i use the beatstep for the SP404 and volca keys still, and midi sync and CC a whole bunch of pedals from it

Since subject line said Hardwire I thought DigiTech was releasing a Hardwire sequencer and got excited hah

Octatrack is pretty cool

0-coast might be fun for you (plus cv to pedals...just use the attenuator). Minotaur is cool. Red Dark star (I think v2 is better) is always good fun and the korg ms2000r could work well. I like the way Mopho sounds too. Unless you are truly in love with volca keys, it might be fun to try something else. Way too many options.

What do you want to do? It is very dependant on that. Mono, poly, bass, pads, leads? Desktop, keys, rack? Versitility or specific sound.

0-coast sounds better and is way more fun than I thought it would be (tried one out). The slope generator is a big help to the whole thing and I think it can get pretty fat.

Hardware sequencing...future retro zillion, a cheap midi recorder, and keystep are what I've been enjoying.

alexsga wrote:Since subject line said Hardwire I thought DigiTech was releasing a Hardwire sequencer and got excited hah

Octatrack is pretty cool

I just caught that. Fixed. Sorry to get your hopes up.

In regards to what I want to do.

Some stuff I've made that I like is just like 3 parts looped of different Volca keys sounds. So something minimalist.

I'd use either Maschine or Ableton drum kits and then 3 pieces of hardware for keys/pads/bass.

Personally, I would go with some kind of polyphonic synth for at least one of the three.

Redsound Dark star will run you right around $200.

The third one can be a wildcard...go whatever direction you want. Might be neat to do those Mutable diy synths like ST. Or a volca FM.

Something like volca FM and Dark Star would be around the same cost as the minitaur.

Budget is a big part of this. Way way too many synths out there. Old kawai, Yamaha, korg, etc. FM, wavetable, analog, VA, etc.

I thought you meant you wanted a hardware sequencer, in which case I would suggest a Squarp Pyramid if it was midi sequencing.

Need more coffee.

Is the Microkorg out of fashion for low budget synths?

Try looking for a Shruthi as well if you can get one at a good price (or just build one).

MechaGodzilla wrote:Is the Microkorg out of fashion for low budget synths?

Nah, I just got the Impression he wanted to twist knobs and really didn't care about keys. For the price (microkorg used price is kinda high to me), in that situation, might was well go for the ms2000 rack.

Beatstep Pro is rad, love mine. You'll run into a couple of limitations here and there with it, but it's overall very easy to use and a huge bang for the buck.

Somewhere down the line I might consider upgrading to something a little more tweakable and polyphonic like the Social Entropy Engine, but that's more than double the price of the BSP.

Strange Tales wrote:Try looking for a Shruthi as well if you can get one at a good price (or just build one).

I don't get the impression that Faldoe is really looking to menu dive in the way that you have to if you want to use the Shruthi's sequencer, though.

Is he looking for a sequencer, or is he looking to use Ableton to sequence outside equipment through MIDI? I'm actually not sure now and wasn't sure because I was going to recommend that he build a MidiALF or MidiGAL with MidiSEQ firmware if that's what he was looking for.

I think in his last thread he said something about wanting something more tactile?

Could be remembering incorrectly, though.