Reviews


Patchblocks - Great what a guy can do with only one of this little plastic cubes.

Actually I have one myself now and wonder if I like it or not. If you have it really loud, and that happens if you just plug in headphones with nothing to mitigate the audio, I ll be crazy loud and you hear strange electric aliasing like sounds. But if the noise to signal ratio is adjusted the result is quite nice. Unlike in the cool video here I use them simple as hihat and snare unit (Link to Patch). Its nice to be triggered with my beatstep pro.


In the following you can listen to the unprocessed sounds of a SISMO Qadrox:

I had the Qadrox for a while and it is fun for some time, but it is just uncontrollable, or the level of control is not sufficient for my dominant character. However you put is. I am sure more interesting things will come from SISMO.


nanoReviews


Korg Volca Sample - cool sample player, limited to 16steps due to the by the strange midi implementation

 

Korg Volca Keys - Nice idea but the sound of this analog three voice synth is not great (to my ears).

 

Artirua Beatstep - A step sequenzer that is a little too limited, better get the big sister, the beatstep pro (!)

 

Arturia Beatstep Pro - Perfect spet seqeuncer for two mono synths and a drum machine. This is the engine of my sounds.

 

DSI - Morpho Desktop - A yellow synth with nasty user interface unless used with a computer. I like nobbing, but it feels like 200 parametrers but just 4 knobs :(

 

 


SHOPS & Stuff


Sound Machines a italien based company, who make great instruments and devices strange as the braininterface or the  NS1nanosynth, which is kind of a micro modular system (!)




Control Voltage is a US based shop for modular equipment and also lots of cases, panels and other accessories.


Circuitbenders offers lot of crazy circuit bending gear and solutions. Also available at Etsy.

http://circuitbenders.co.uk/shop.html


Synthrotek is a store with a small selection of drone synth and stuff for Eurorack Modules. If you have clever fingers you can safe a lot of money by doing it yourself (DIY-kits with clear instructions)

http://store.synthrotek.com


Handmade Electronic Instruments has also real cool drone synths and related stuff for music production. The respond to questions is extremely fast, friendly and informative - A clear recoomendation!

http://www.handmadeelectronicinstruments.com/store/shop/


AnalogOrdance offers gear affordable DIY stuff at Etsy


Ototo  is a crazy kind of instrument device were you can link anything to the keys and make it a trigger. As in the video you can use a spoon or a banana, light or water - whatever you think can help you make great compositions. 

http://www.ototo.fm/shop?category=Kits


Noise.kitchen is as the name suggest another gathering of noisy instruments. You ll find a lot of crazy devices (mostly with digital sound sources) here. 


Sismo is a brazilian noise mashine producing team with some fun gear and cool designs.


ERRORinstruments also have a lot of cool gear - but the prices seem to be a little higher than elsewhere. Compare before buy! 


Erthenvar has some nice colorful cables. Everybody needs cables all the time, right?


Thomann has my faforite potis and everything else you may need.


Musik-Produktiv also has a lot of gear if you are in Ibbenbüren.


PATCHBLOCKS are digital cubes that can be programmed any way you want. Not so suitable as sample players but nice for generating crazy CV-control units, single purpose digital synths or effect units. Maybe you ll find even other ways to use em.

I find that the sound is Okisch but there are quite some strange things that can damage your ears if you make a programming mistake. However, find it quite useful at times. Here is a CV-triggered Hihat and Snare that I made from other content for my beatstep pro http://patchblocks.com/groups/patch/cv-triggered-snare-and-hihats


Delptronics offer a affordable analog drum machine.


Samples from Mars offer samples from old gear and modular synths.