2019 was kind of crazy for me in terms of gear:
- Started off the year by consolidating my two Eurorack cases into one, and replacing a bunch of modules with an ER-301 Sound Computer. It was a huge shift in how I approached modular, and I learned some cool techniques, but... we'll see.
- In the space that opened up, I went for maximum overkill in Eurorack effects.
- After a couple months I had second thoughts. I really missed my Hertz Donut mk2 and some of the other stuff.
- I realized that the most loved instruments have a
specific character and their limitations are really strengths -- it's part of a focused design.
- Dumped the overkill and the ER-301. Fumbled a bit through a transition period with several things I was curious about, but ultimately got my modular into a pretty good, fairly stable place. It was a couple of cycles of downsizing followed by filling in other things.
- Switched my DAW from Maschine to Bitwig. It suits me
much better and is what I should have done instead of trying the ER-301 in the first place.
Overall between those changes I sold 44 Eurorack modules and bought 31, sold 5 pedals and bought 2, sold one synth and bought two.
Favorite new gear of 2019:
- Soma Lyra-8 Organismic Synthesizer: it's super quirky and unruly, but basically perfect for me in a lot of ways. Definitely falls under that "specific character" thing.
- 16n Faderbank: neat open-source controller with 16 faders that send analog CV + MIDI + i2c. I thought I was getting it to control the ER-301 and Monome Teletype, but I use it for mix levels and timbre adjustments and it's now my favorite "live" controller.
- Make Noise Mimeophon: it's almost exactly the delay I always wanted. (If it had an external send/return with a compressor in the feedback loop it'd be perfect, but I can patch that externally.)
- Akemie's Castle: based on NOS Yamaha FM chips from the early 90s, it's dirty and grunky and really versatile. I need to explore this a lot more in the near future but the Lyra distracts me

- DDMF MagicDeathEye: a super musical compressor where there are no bad settings. It can't really do aggressive, but it almost always makes everything sound better. I don't have the hardware to compare it to, but the software version is definitely awesome.
- Wavesfactory Cassette & Spectre: both really good plugins for adding a little saturation and character, or for overcooking things a whole lot
Stuff that may not make it to 2021:
- Sequential DSM03 Feedback: probably redundant with the Mimeophon, definitely redundant when I get my SynthTech E520. I won it in a charity auction, so no regrets, but it's probably gonna go.
- Hertz Donut mk3: it's cool but I am not in love with it as much as I was the simpler, more immediate, noisier and less stable mk2. I have made myself hold onto it for a while, but I keep thinking I'd rather have the old one back.
- Instruo tanh[3]: I don't use it all that much, and the new Klavis Flexshaper seems a lot more fun.
- Make Noise Contour: this used to be my favorite envelope, but with the music I'm making now, it's not getting a lot of use. I'm thinking about replacing it with a Zadar, but to be honest, I probably don't need that either.