Dear elektronauts.
My current setup is A4+AR.
Even if I don’t really need anything else, I love synth and would like to get myself something for my birthday (excuse cough cough).
Usually I prefer synth with patch memory but I have been attracted to small semi-modular analog boxes.
So here we go:
Erebus or Mother32 or Driftbox.
What would you get?
Cheers
I cant speak of Mother 32 or Erebus but the Driftbox i had for a day.
Noisy, build quality so and so…and just didnt do it for me.
I returned it the day after… 
Maybe check out the OTO Biscuit/Der OTO?
U get 2 for 1 basicly. Works as bitcrusher, effect unit and as a synth 
If you absolutely need to spend money, why not check Eventide Space ?
Anything you put through gets really beautiful.
Another cool thing is the PO-12 from Teenage Engineering that you can bring anywhere and can get really interesting.
Doesn’t cost a lot for the fun it brings…
+100 for Eventide SPACE
or what about Doepfer Dark Energy 2?
A bit pricey perhaps, but worth the money is the Boomstar 5089 if you are after analog.
I partnered one with my elektrons and it sums up to a very compact alternative to the Sub37 plus/minus some features (at least it helped kill my Sub37 GAS)
Mother 32. I don’t have the Mother 32 but I have a Slim Phatty and the Minitaur. I think the Moog sound complements A4’s sounds really well. Also the sequencer on the Mother 32 is nice as well.
Thanks everyone.
Fleuw: Thanks. I can take the Driftbox out of the list.
Lying Dalai: I got a PO-12 for Christmas actually. Very fun, especially when sync with the A4
Lying Dalai+Insect: Eventide space. Hmmm why not but I have a MS70crd that I sell because I am not big on reverb. If I need any the A4 one is good enough for me.
Mokomo: nice! I need to take a look at it more. Maybe an affordable second hand would do the job.
A werkstatt with cv extension would probably be a even cheaper solution if I sequence with the A4.
Boomstar has 2 VCOs, which is worth bearing in mind if you are more into ‘sound design’ and has cv/gate/vcf fm and vca am CV ins that you can plock.
For the money though you might consider a MNM for a drastically different soundset to the A4 - the MNM is like a modular world of its own and midi’ed and audio plugged into your A4 and AR you’d have huge scope mixing and matching everything.
I can’t help but think the Mother 32 is just a very pretty looking werkstatt with one osc and a basic sequencer. Moog are leveraging the beauty of their machines but not necessarily giving you a very powerful synth.
A werkstatt with cv extension would probably be a even cheaper solution if I sequence with the A4.[/quote]
Yeh that’s another good cheaper option.
Boomstar has 2 VCOs, which is worth bearing in mind if you are more into ‘sound design’ and has cv/gate/vcf fm and vca am CV ins that you can plock.
For the money though you might consider a MNM for a drastically different soundset to the A4 - the MNM is like a modular world of its own and midi’ed and audio plugged into your A4 and AR you’d have huge scope mixing and matching everything.
I can’t help but think the Mother 32 is just a very pretty looking werkstatt with one osc and a basic sequencer. Moog are leveraging the beauty of their machines but not necessarily giving you a very powerful synth.[/quote]
I have the same feeling about the Moog 32.
Regarding the MNM: it is a good idea. I owned it for a short period of time but didn’t dig enough into it.
However, what attract me to all these semi modular synth is that your have 1 knob per function. No menu diving. It is quite refreshing.
I would consider a good digital synth as well but they usually don’t have this very simple interface.
If you don’t need sound-memory the Brute’s ? I think thi Mini is the best.
Or maybe wait for NAMM ?
Dreadbox have a lot of other interesting options too, if you wanna go modular and the Boomstars seem very interesting.
I got myself a Dominion 1 and its just fantastic. then you’r in a high price-category, but it has 128 sound memory’s.
The Phenol seems to be a great machine,…
Try to find a way to test before buying, to feel if it clicks...
I never hurry when choosing gear, to be more or less shure it’s something I really want and need. so there’s no more doubt.
Do you want to go live ? or only studio ? … maybe ask yourself howmany synt’s with no memory can you handle live ?
At the end the questions is about what you wanna do with the synth? Do you wanna go into modular world? Or just a good but cheap monosynth? Or a 2n voice / osc for your already existing modular setup? Do you wanna make modoluar sounds? Or bass? Or leads?
With minibrute, erebus, dark energy 2 you can´t go wrong! They are all great little synths with some in / outs for connecting modular gear - if you want - later. They have all their own sound charakter! + Erebus has this great build in analog delay - which is great if you wanna take it for your live shows. I recommend you to go to the shop for testing or have a look on youtube. There are a plenty of user videos about all the 3 synths!!! Just start with the sonic state reviews,
btw. also Korg Volca Bass is a great little beast with it´s own charakter!
don´t forget the MFB stuff - Nanozwerg, Microzwerg, Kraftzwerg, and Dominion X (in ascending order, price - and featurewise). Only used.
I have the Nanozwerg, cheap to get and surprisingly versatile. raw and dirty.
I also have Dark Energy I, more quality sound, very nice FM sounds and plings.
Or Vermona Lancet? Best quality sound of the 3, a little moog-ish. Easy to get a breakoutbox for CV (just needs adapter, the connenctions are already there:
good luck
Yes Nanozwerg would be a great cheap addition. Thanks for the tip!
Yup. I need to get more info and really define what I want to do.
I may just end up using my actual setup 
soundwise you probably don´t need enything else, but a simple analog desktop is fun and begs to be tweaked all the time.
because of this, you´ll get different results than with the analog 4, because it changes your workflow, happy accidents will occur, and by that leads to different music.
so the combination of deep and prepared sound design (A4) and funny live tweaking with no patch memory (desktop) is probably rewarding and will change your music. will it be better? up to you 
That’s right. It would bring more improvisation and free experimentation.
I may end up getting one of these semi-modular later…just not a good time now
i’m in exact the same situation right now. i dont need another synth but i like to have somthing modularish … erebus, mother32, vermona mono are on my list too … but i really looking forward for the make noise 0 coast … maybe you should include this in your thoughts … too bad nobody knows when this will come out …