this synth has amazing bottom end and excellent build quality. Definitely a star of the show. I was super impressed with it. and the fact it can be controlled by CV… yes I will have to get this.

Livid known for beautiful and well built controllers is now releasing this mighty beast of a pad controller. build quality felt very nice. $399 to stand out with this one.

The pad sensitivity wasn’t blowing me away but remember there are still some tweaks to be done to finalize this unit. the touch faders felt brilliant and the solid construction make it really something that feels like it will last.

Yes arturia was at NAMM and showing a very nice compact controller for the Spark software check it out.

the controller felt very well built with a solid edge to it. I felt no flexing in the plastic and the pads were responsive enough. I found my self wanting this more than the full sized controller.

Spent some time tweaking away I really jsut wanted to show how grimey you could make this new MOOG sound. really an impressive synth. and at $999 I am very very interested in picking one up. just a fabulous moog sound with added distortion to grime things up a bit.

Here it is the New Dave Smith Poly synth…. the Prophet 12

the OLED screen is very very nice. the sound is classic dave smith. the built in effects really shape this thing into it’s own world. the oscillators are all digital which I found pretty interesting. the Knobs felt VERY well built. overall the unit had a very solid build and the paint looks good. just a beautiful synth. no cv 🙁

I spoke with the Bitwig crew

Off camera I was speaking to them about people calling them vaporware and rumors that THEY were ableton etc etc… as the internets like to do. So I decided to do an on the record video about them working hard on getting this project done. and getting it out to the masses when it’s solid. also the beta is still closed 🙁 understandable but still sad) the mapping system in bitwig looks really great and fast. the Nektar controller was being used at many booths this year and was very nice)

I had a chance to tweak out on the Mini ms-20 take a listen to how it sounds!

I had only a few short seconds to grab this unit and plug my recorder in so I could not really get involved with patch making, instead I just did some quick random tweaking to get some actual audio. I will say when it comes to build quality.. an MS-20 this is not. the knobs felt absolutely terrible. I mean really really cheap. the plastic felt like if u squeezed the knob you could break the knobs in your had. the unit is very light (plus for some negative for others) and the keybed and mod wheel felt very toyish. (good thing it can be controlled via CV inputs) the sound…. to be perfectly honest I am still on the fence about. it really didn’t grab me. In truth even though I believe it is supposed to be the same as the monotron… I think the monotron sounded a bit fatter to me. and yes I am comparing it to a $60 synth… silly. I still love the sound of the filter. and I can see myself wanting it, but the build quality really makes me hold back and want the other new affordable analogs that have been released recently. given it’s about the same price point as the arturia minibrute… I’d go mini brute.

NAMM 2013 thoughts

Ok so with NAMM in full swing I have been getting a lot of questions about what is the big show stopper. What is really grabbing attention?  The truth is this years NAMM isn’t quite the intense show it was last year but there are still some real gems.

First up I would call to attention the MOOG SUB PHATTY.  the Layout is gorgeous and the build quality feels great. It’s funny.. it seems a cheap moog is to the standards of an expensive synth by just about anyone else. the Knobs feel much better than the slim and lil phatty knobs (not as light/loose) and the body actually feels very rugged. Continue reading →