‘Semi-modular’
I’m starting to think of Syntakt as next purchase… Nice work.
Pulsar 23 in this economy? Maybe start with a Pulsar 22 and work your way up.
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This is not the drum machine you are searching for waves hand
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It’s certainly geared to more experimental music. I got close to selling mine but kept it and dug in a bit more. Synthdawgs manual is really good. I think you have to get your head round the concept which takes time. I use mine all the time. There are much more suitable drum machines for less money but they won’t do what pulsar can do. It is quite niche.
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Timbral range of Pulsar 23 is rather close to LXR-02, before I was stuck to P23, I highly recommend to myself LXR-02… There are some separate outs by the way
Initially I patched p23 with separate outputs but preferred the sound of them all going out main mono. Spreading them out didn’t sound as good.
On a more technical level, soma is about imitating experiment via prohibiting most control over such, which again has all to do with vlad’s esoteric obsessions and counter to the real historical progress of music craft. Your choice mate
Have it and love it but here’s some reasons you might not want to get it:
- definitely not a workhorse drum machine. Only four drum voices, one of which you have to decide on having instead of the bass synth. You can get more ‘voices’ out of it through various tricks, but they’re not things you can easily make percussion out of with the pulsar alone
- drum voices are fairly limited and divisive. Many people thing the snare is completely useless, a lot of people don’t think the kick is beefy enough. You need to patch a fair bit to get more diverse sounds from them
- amp envelope attack and delay can’t be modulated on any drum voice. Significant design flaw in a machine like this imo. Workaround is to control triggers with a midi cc and control that midi cc with an envelope you are modulating, but that is a lot of faff
- 0-10v range with velocity sensitivity on the trigger input means you might not have anything in eurorack that can sequence it at full velocity range. It does not sound very good if you aren’t hitting the 8-10v range with triggers imo. This doesn’t matter for midi sequencing though.
- getting the loopers (only way of sequencing the pulsar on the machine itself) in sync with external clock is a pain in the ass
- it costs LOADS of money. You could probably buy two flagship drum machines that are more controllable/usable/flexible for the cash. You’ve got to be into the whole philosophy of it, the whole exploratory patching drum-not-a-drum machine aspect for this to be worth it for you.
It’s a great bit of experimental gear, very inviting to patch. I’m not entirely convinced it’s a good techno drum machine though. Surgeon does use it live at the moment but the videos I’ve seen it’s completely unpatched, which kinda makes me think “why even bother?”.
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I have had one for a month and while some aspects are inventive, I found many aspects disappointing among which the sound and lack of modulations.
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I see your point, but don’t you think musical instruments which last are defined by their limitations? Soma stuff definately has a signature to it’s sound. As does a guitar. Vlads psychobabble is no different from any manufacturers marketing. Just aimed at a different group maybe. It’s expensive if you don’t use it I suppose. But in the scheme of things with musical instruments I do t think so.
how about an Analog Four MKI instead? It’s like one Pulsar, or four DFAMs. And with Patch Flip, you can have one track for drums and three for bass 
(Syntakt doesn’t use samples, so there would be no sample load time.)
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Even when using with external modulation? I thought the strong point of Pulsar-23 was not that it had everything needed, but that it could integrate with Eurorack for additional manipulation.
I’ve read some others mention wishing there were more parts exposed to modulation. I haven’t gotten there yet as I’ve had mine, I think for a month only now?
I don’t think Pulsar-23 is right for you if you’re also looking at Syntakt and LXR-02.
I think buying Pulsar-23 to use it as a traditional drum machine makes the price not worth the features. It’s a sound playground that can also do drum sounds or at least that’s how I view it.
Like @digiwut mentioned, the cost is comparative with features if trying to build something similar with eurorack modules (plus it has the added benefit of being semi-modular for non-alligator clip noisemaking).
Lastly… very brave choice to come here to get talked out of buying something. I came here and basically asked for support to hit the buy button on Pulsar-23. The community here, did not fail. 
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Everything I hear come out of the Pulsar more or less feels the same. If you want to sound like all the other brutal industrial techno bros then buy it. Personally I chose to download a sample pack of it and tossed it in my Digitakt. A used Analog RYTM would be the better buy if you want something improvisational that will play well with your OT.
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Don’t get one, too much effort is needed get a result therefore the novelty will wear off quick and it will sit collecting dust.
What about all the other brutal industrial techno sisters?
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Oh sure, you can interface it with external modulations.
I just found that standalone, it wasn’t satisfying…
In this regard, the Lyra is a masterpiece.
I felt that even if the Pulsar was an ambitious project, soundwise it was a bit bellow my expectations and overall I was not satisfied with it. Even before considering the huge price.
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you would think…but then
Make Noise Maths (among others)?