Apologies for any personal curiosity but did colourblind (+ synaesthesia?) cause outright nausea or was that more in jest and you moreso didn’t like how it looked? I don’t know how people may experience those things so I was interested to know more.
Hits:
- M8 it´s such a powerfull and immediate tool. I reallly dig the FM synth.
- Behringer Deepmind 12D My first polyphonic analog synth. It sounds great and is way more useful to me than the Roland Ju06a, which has some nice sweetspots.
- model:cycles I was not sure, if it fits in my setup. But the punchy fm drums are ace. It´s a perfect partner for my DN.
- Norns shield I absoluetly love this device. It´s an instant ambient machine and oooooo, barcode and compass alone are worth the money.
Not sure:
- MPC One I like the workflow and it´s the best for sampling and slicing. But the presets are mostly over the top (I have to turn off the massive delay on almost every preset to get a useful sound) and it crashes sometimes. It has way more options than other grooveboxes, which makes it less intuitive. When I know, what I want to create, it works fine. Otherwise, I´m lost.
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Outright sickness, the length of the tongue and into the stomach, I tried to ignore it but after just a few mins it’s too much…!
There has been kit in the past I’ve dismissed due to colour but maybe in reality I may have been able to cope.
The Perkons always looked grey until I received it, tried hard to make it work but oof, no go I’m afraid.
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I fell into this trap so many times now… gave up on wanting a TG77 for exactly that reason. Yes, I want to be punished but please don’t make it hurt. 
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I’m curious if you’ve had any issues getting your line inputs on the back to be loud enough? Mine are so low that they’re almost useless. Even when I boost my signal with an external preamp, I can’t go past -14db before the sound starts to distort.
Hmm… I have the Analog Heat plugged into those most of the time so I can use that to boost whatever signal, and I haven’t had any problems getting a good signal. Haven’t tried with anything quieter yet.
I’ve got a M2 and while I primarily use it for fair ASIO drivers and Ableton, I don’t recall having any issues with any gain staging and external devices.
How hot is the source?
Hmm, I wonder if I need to replace mine, or just have a better preamp…
I believe the M2 and M4 have the same gained inputs on the front. Those sound great to me. It’s the line inputs on the back (which are specific to the M4) that I’m having an issue with.
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Makes more sense! The behavior is a bit odd if you’re having issues even with a separate preamp. Are you using balanced/TRS cables in the chain? If so, can you see if there’s any improvement with TS/unbalanced?
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Hit: Syntakt, Zynaptic Morph, Hive 2, RCF 702 AS II
Miss: none,
I wanted Morph for several years already, so when the sale came, i just did it. Hive 2 was similar, i had tried it a while ago and always rememberd how good it sounded. RCF 702 is just awesome, i didnt expect it to sound /feel that good, i was impressed.
I still wait for Osmose, i expect it to be a hit, but we will see.
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Hits:
Syntakt
MC-707
Bitwig Studio 4
Cableguys Shaperbox 3
Arturia V Collection 9
1010Music Bluebox and Blackbox
Intellijel Metropolix
Roland Cloud Subscription (I did the Ultimate version that gives you two free plugins at the end.)
Misses:
Akai MPC Live ii (maybe someday Akai will learn how to release a patch that does not break something)
Reason Subscription
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I just tested again, and the rear inputs are as I’d expect for a line input. Unamplified elec guitar is not really useable, with some boost from a dist pedal it’s borderline, and input from the Analog Keys is right where I’d expect in the sweet spot.
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You know, I haven’t done that yet but it’s worth trying!
The way I have it: I’m sending my Octatrack’s cue out through a Norns, then boosted through a umc404hd, and finally outputted to the m4’s line inputs.
The Norns internal gain staging is turned up enough to where the output is regularly hitting 0db. The signal is then going through the umc404hd’s front inputs with the gain turned up just enough to peak every once in a while. The output from this interface is cranked all the way, which then goes into the m4’s line inputs where it hits between -16db and -14db. I’ve listened to the signal from my Norns and umc404hd and both sounded loud and clear, so it seems as if there is an issue with my M4.
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One other possibility to check if homebrew-
I know that is an issue with the Shield, but I’m using a factory Norns, which apparently can go to +6db. Also, when I plug my headphones into the Norns headphone out, the sound is loud and clear at unity.
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I thought Akai put out a patch fix, if not I’m not gonna update?
Hits
Waldorf M, now waiting on the expansion card!
Seq Pro3, first one broke, returned it, bought a used SE model from a buddy a few months later, I loved the user flow, learned from my now long gone DSI MonoEvolverKey🤓
AR RYTM mk2, love this box!
Top of the Chart Hit!
Neumann 310 monitors, damn these sound great! Wish I’d bought them years ago instead of buying and selling ten other synths🥰
Misses
Syntakt, limited drums, didn’t need the synth sounds, ran hot, returned it. 
WestPest, I shouldn’t complain for the inexpensive price and quick launch, just wish there was more to explore, love the filter, still have it, albeit unplugged in a corner waiting for the current project to wrap. 
YouTube, damn these commercials, now political ads, glad they finally added the paid promotion stamp to see who’s hyping and shilling to line their own pockets, fueling my GAS, a necessary evil some might say, but evil none the less! Synfluencers be sinnin’ 
Drumlogue, I pre-ordered and waited all these years for this?! 
still gonna test drive to see how it’s DACs sound in person.
Honorable Mention, Missed preordering the Perkons, damn that sounds great, my wallet is thanking me. 
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What does the expansion card offer? Additional voices?
Yes exactly, expansion card doubles voices from 8 up to 16. Apparently there’s some debate by Waldorf if it will need to be user installed or by a licensed tech/vendor. Should find out price and details soon.
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On the fence:
Roland RE-202
Sounds good on a mix send, but has a way of making some analog sources sound more digital. Otherwise love it. I may just need to experiment more with the hidden options to get this right.
Elektron Syntakt
No parameter slides (50% of the elektron “sound” for me in addition to plocks) and only a few new machines makes it hard to differentiate from or improve upon Rytm, which I have p sliding all day long with very similar sounds overall. Those Cycles sounds don’t get you very far outside Rytm territory tbh. I would like more “new sounds from a new place” particularly with new digital sounds, and the sliding sound so many use Elektron for.
Roland JD-08
Overall nice interface and sound, but it seems hard to get the volume and dynamics consistent across patches, and the master volume knob on the back is stupid small. I had to make a legend for sequencer and part muting shortcuts otherwise I’d never remember.
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