Okay, what’s up nauts? Hope you are all doing well today. I hope you all finished a cool song last night and are putting the final touches on it now.
So I was thinking about Florian’s channel and recent discussions here about whether or not any audio tool can become irrelevant or outdated as new products are released that can do the things it does only better/faster/ect. This also got me thinking about that one awesome post a while back where some naughty naut samples his kid’s toy percussion doodad and a bunch of you made awesome tracks with the toy sounds.
So my point is, is there really any bad Gear? I know the Akai Timbre Wolf/Rhythm Wolf and Tom Cat get a lot of hate, but I’ve heard some half-ass decent stuff made with those as well. There’s only one instrument I’ve ever owned that I couldn’t get anything pleasant out of, and that is the Korg Volca Modular. I don’t know who created this hilarious meme, but if anyone here is responsible for it, I want to applaud your work and can speak for it’s accuracy. If the Korg Modular was made to keep people from going down the Eurocrack rabbit hole, Korg did an excellent job IMO.
So, what’s your nomination for a truly bad piece of gear? Do you think there is really such a thing or nah? I mean, even the cheesy ass drum machines from the late eighties/early nineties have a place in my heart even if they don’t have a place on my desk. But is there a synth/sampler/drum machine or even a traditional instrument that you truly hate? I mean, I’m not personally a big fan of saxophone sounds but I have to admit that Giant Steps still slappin. So, what instruments, if any, do you loathe? In the words of the great Silky Johnson, “Hate, hate, hate, hate hate, hate hate.”
I like my Volca Beats and you can’t beat the price. That being said, though I find it somewhat useable on some types of music, that snare is mad weak. I wouldn’t call it bad, but it’s probably my least used piece of kit.
It had the exact opposite effect on me. My goal getting into eurorack was to replicate the features of the volca modular which I found amazing. The sound isn’t great admittedly but that is more than solved going to real modular.
As for bad gear, MC-303 by a long shot. You would have to pay me to spend any time with it.
The Modal CraftSynth 2.0 was bullshit. The octave down touchpad barely worked, you could trigger notes picking it up on the sides (or holding it in place on the desk seeing as it weighed as much as fairy dust), the knobs all thought they were supposed to be joysticks and the thing bricked itself the first time I performed an update. Total piece of shit.
The Bad Gear videos on YT. Like other influencers, he uses the words to get attention - almost doesn’t matter if you agree with him or not. My friend who owns a Little Phatty was entertained by his “Bad Gear Little Phatty” video - he did not feel as if the guy insulted his mother or anything.
