Interesting topic, I’ve had this obsession in the back of my head since I first heard Todd Terje’s “It’s The Arp” EP which was made exclusively on the ARP 2600, including the masterpiece that is Inspector Norse, but also my favourite of his, Swing Star Pt1:
And recently I’ve been digging Simon Haydo a lot, and he works exclusively with a Korg MS-20 to get a really big sounding “minimalist” techno:
Also, and this is clearly a plug, I’ve worked on a Digitone only techno set a while ago, and the challenge is really interesting, on of the best ways to push your knowledge of a machine, a genre and music making as a whole. And also a lot easier on the brain to know the framework within which you’re working:
Are you guys familiar with acreil’s work? Most of his albums are entirely made with Pure Data - which I find rather impressive. It sounds quite good too, in the vein of Autechre and such.
I believe single synth obsession exists for gear you can’t afford, you always wanted to have or play around with, some synthesis you don’t have in your arsenal. Once you have that synth it can turn in a love or hate or love and hate relationship!
So single synth obsessions:
-Andromeda A6, Ems Synthi, Arp2600, Nord G2, DSI PEK, Ensoniq Fizmo, Hartmann Neuron
Single synth love:
-Op1, MS20, tb303, A4, electribe emx1
Single drumcomputer love:
-MD, tr909, tr808, circuitbent tr505
@Simon have you ever seen such MC202 for only 300euro starting bid it has a midi kit but doesn’t work no labelling! The guy bought an mc without enclosure years ago and has given up on his project.
I’m all for keeping a limited palette of sound-making sources to help boost creativity, knowledge of an instrument, and - more often than not - a ‘must finish’ mindset. For me, if I keep swapping gear in and out and looking for ‘the sound’ I will never finish anything (not that I get much past tracking these days).
I’ve pared my rig back to the Digitone, a Keystep keyboard, and a couple of effects pedals (which are all going to be swapped out when my Zoia arrives this week). For guitar, I’ve reduced the size of my pedalboard and PSU so that I can only have a small selection of carefully-picked sounds; most of the time I fall back to my BigSky reverb and a delay or two.
Keep the gear light and the music-making time optimised!
just re-visited Ellen Allien’s “Thrills” for the first time in a while. totally forgot how Arp 2600 centric it is. apparently she bought one just before making it. if you know the sound of it, you can hear it everywhere on this record. definitely not the only synth used, but it’s ALL. OVER. this album. awesome release too, highly recommended. yeah, it’s like 14 years old now, but it’s some excellent electro.
Great topic. I use hardware as creation and performance tools for live performances, and I’m very drawn to the minimalist one (or two) device approach.
Lately I’ve been preferring less sampled and more synthesized sounds for most everything live, even drums. As a “for instance”, I had added a Circuit Mono Station to my live setup, originally for fat basses and squelchy analog goodness, but started heavily employing patch-flipping and parameter locks for mixed percussion and melodic sequences. My other sample-oriented devices started sounding … not as exciting to my ears. I did a show a couple of weeks ago with just an MPC Live and quite frankly I just wasn’t feeling it.
So that patch flipping and being able to record all 50+ continuous analog parameters on the Mono made me greedy for more. I’m sure some of you can see where this is going: I now have a Digitone arriving tomorrow and am very much looking forward to giving a go to using it exclusively to perform some live sets. Talk about a “minimalist” setup.
I know there will be challenges, but some of the work I’ve seen and heard coming from people wringing the most from just this box alone is astounding.
Also looking forward to getting back into FM type sounds again. I think the Digitone’s hybrid approach to synthesis is a real gem, and I can’t wait to get into the vaunted Elektron sequencing.
Crossing my fingers I’ll be good for a while and can focus on just the Digitone, but I’m hopeful. Some of the design decisions are just brilliant and since my preferred styles are more minimal, I’ll be able to get a lot of mileage from this.
Sorry for the long post, I’m just glad to see others in the “one device” camp and am looking forward to a near-future gig where I can show up with just my Digitone and make some beautiful dance music.
I used to do the same thing I myself with each completed repair/restoration I did. As soon as one was completed I was making a track solely on that synth. If I couldn’t squeeze all the parts out of a single instrument (drums sounds on a string machine is particularly tricky!) I’d use the bare minimum of just what I needed. Sadly many of the tunes and parts were lost in a HD crash and I hadn’t backed them up. It’s a really good exercise in getting to know a new synth and finding new ways of programming.
For me the natural progression was to replace some of the weaker parts but still base the song around one synth, trying to get what I could out whilst still trying to come up with a ‘rounded’ end product. That led me off in more new musical directions!
Some songs that stick in my mind (and didn’t go to the big HD in the sky) we’re an unashamedly 80’s sounding JX8P tune, a darker progressive house tune done on a DW8000 and quirky little ditty on a Korg PE1000. All different and all ultimately influenced by the instrument and me experimenting and finding agreeable noises! Good fun and highly recommended.
Currently (re)obsessed with the Analog Keys by itself. I’m thinking three or four tracks on my next album will be AK only.
Overbridge makes joystick assignments so effortless and that’s where this thing gets fun, especially for drum tracks. It can really get into Octatrack crossfader territory, but with some distinction.
Once the sequence is ready for playback, the left hand on the joystick and right hand on performance macros makes “playing” an arrangement a pure delight.
The routing flexibility of running the kick track out through a transformer pedal and back into the external input is a lot of fun to exploit, as well.
it has a midi kit but doesn’t work 
no labelling! The guy bought an mc without enclosure years ago and has given up on his project.
exciting!