NAMM 2016 : The thread

  On 1/21/2016 at 10:41 PM, QQQ said:

that op-z looks way too small. like uncomfortably fiddly.

that's a plus for me, tbh. Then again, I'm all about super tiny music gear (cf. gameboy micro)

  On 1/21/2016 at 10:57 PM, Psychotronic said:

it is also able to chain patterns. nice korg, very nice.

with only 16 patterns I don't imagine it'd be very useful.. Still, a good feature to have.

That Arturia thing looks pretty stupid.

IMO, $1,800 crosses a threshold, I think once you get beyond around $500-600, expectations of build quality are far higher. If the Matrixbrute is the same build quality as a Minibrute, I would be seriously disappointed. Likewise, if it was released with buggy firmware + rare updates/fixes, at 200 bucks it can be annoying, and just shy of 2k it would be ridiculous. You'd have to really like the sound of the Minibrute to buy 3 in a box. So many better options out there.

The new Tempi and 0-Coast from Make Noise both look awesome! Def glad to see a Clk Div from them, it was the one thing that felt missing from their line. Shame the 0-Coast can't be mounted in a regular rack, so slim though, doesn't really matter too much.

OB-6 sounds amazing! Not too surprising there really =) I'm glad it's not to my taste, will no doubt be expense!

Korg nail it again.. About time someone made a neat affordable analogue poly. They've got some serious PDs there, always impressive. Volca FM too. I really wonder if they turn a profit on the Volca lines, would be surprised actually. I reckon it's partly a company image exercise, whatever... works on me.

Can't wait to hear more about the OPZ. I doubt I'd buy one any time soon, if at all.. depends. In any case, whatever it is will be weird and cool and different and well made.

according to this it looks like the OP-Z will be a lot cheaper than the OP-1, and they can connect to each other:

http://llllllll.co/t/teenage-engineering-op-z/2326/6

Glad they didn't just release an OP-2, merely a week after I get an OP-1, hah. I'll probably end up buying it anyway though :D

  On 1/22/2016 at 12:30 AM, TechDiff said:

That Arturia thing looks pretty stupid.

 

IMO, $1,800 crosses a threshold, I think once you get beyond around $500-600, expectations of build quality are far higher. If the Matrixbrute is the same build quality as a Minibrute, I would be seriously disappointed. Likewise, if it was released with buggy firmware + rare updates/fixes, at 200 bucks it can be annoying, and just shy of 2k it would be ridiculous. You'd have to really like the sound of the Minibrute to buy 3 in a box. So many better options out there.

I wonder how big the market for such synth is - how many people might buy this thing? 500? 1000?

  On 1/22/2016 at 12:38 AM, phling said:

 

  On 1/22/2016 at 12:30 AM, TechDiff said:

That Arturia thing looks pretty stupid.

 

IMO, $1,800 crosses a threshold, I think once you get beyond around $500-600, expectations of build quality are far higher. If the Matrixbrute is the same build quality as a Minibrute, I would be seriously disappointed. Likewise, if it was released with buggy firmware + rare updates/fixes, at 200 bucks it can be annoying, and just shy of 2k it would be ridiculous. You'd have to really like the sound of the Minibrute to buy 3 in a box. So many better options out there.

I wonder how big the market for such synth is - how many people might buy this thing? 500? 1000?

 

I dunno tbh.. I'm always amazed at how much money goes into developing big-ass fugly workstation things. Crazy expensive but clearly people buy em. Who knows how many people would be happy dropping 2K on an Artutia monosynth?

After all, loads of people buy Moogs.

That's what I'd do....

..or the Roland Sys 500 bundle.

That thing has some insane features. I'm kind of surprised it wasn't more expensive. I think the "brute" effect gimmicks or whatever is kind of lame, but the base oscillators and filters really are pretty good on their own. That mod matrix looks really nice.

I'd have to be hands on with one to really form an opinion though.

  On 1/22/2016 at 1:26 AM, Bubba69 said:

That thing has some insane features. I'm kind of surprised it wasn't more expensive. I think the "brute" effect gimmicks or whatever is kind of lame, but the base oscillators and filters really are pretty good on their own. That mod matrix looks really nice.

 

I'd have to be hands on with one to really form an opinion though.

yeah it's def stuffed with things...

I'm sure I judge it unfairly, put it down to countless poor experiences with Arturia. They have a habit of promising a lot, and not quite delivering.

The CV connectivity and matrix could be really fun. I'd be interested if you can patch out and back in again.. use a self resonating filter to modulate vco frequency for example, guess it should be possible, which would be very cool.

Meh.. it isn't the thing I dislike, just that I have little faith in Arturia delivering what they promise, at the price they state, to the quality I'd expect.

Korg Volca FM in action + talk

  On 1/22/2016 at 2:40 AM, bitroast said:

Korg Volca FM in action + talk

 

Damn, just came here to post this vid. The force is with you.

@Vid: Nice to see that Korg just killed Yamaha Reface DX.

The Matrixbrute looks very interesting; I've not desire (it's from Arturia, half the shit may not work out of the gate...) or means (wouldn't for a moment consider spending ~$2000 on a synth that huge and unwieldy) to buy one, but fuck would I love to play around with it and see what it's capable of. It sounds like there's a LOT of untamed beasts residing within it, and I know someone is going to get some great, harsh, and fun sounds out of it. I hope they don't dial it back and play it safe for its release; I'd guess not given how bold it is just in its existence.

The OP-Z looks interesting, and for the right price they'll have lots of people bite. It looks like they're seriously sacrificing user experience for design, though, and that's a very very bad thing. The guy demoing it had trouble even fucking using it; how do they think that's the best interface for the device? Taking the screen away is fine, making an interesting and distinct product is great, but when it cuts that hard into actually being able to play and use it, I balk. Maybe they'll make some major changes before release, though I doubt it.

Volca FM sounds interesting, but only 16 presets available? Doesn't that pretty much fly in the face of what you want from an FM instrument? I dunno, I'm not gonna buy one anyway. Just blabbing.

The modular guys (Pittsburgh, Make Noise) seem to be very interested in grabbing those first-time modular buyers. I'm not sure they quite realize that modular has expanded nearly as much as it's going to (yes I can see the future don't tell anyone) and so they're not going to have a huge market for that for very long, if at all. Maybe I'm wrong and they'll get rich though.

  On 1/22/2016 at 3:33 AM, bitroast said:

!!!

*edit* ^jinx

anyways... i have small handz idm so not too too worried about the small buttons. i'll probably try to touch one before i throw down on it though to be sure i can suffer the interface. it looks really fucking sexy and the ability to add your own unity assets (if that turns out to be true) is really fuckin' cool

and if it really turns out to be $300 then i've basically already bought it...

goddamit!!!!!

matrix brute looks awesome. really dig that big hands on and immediate sequencing + patch buttons.

price is ... according to sonicstate video, aiming to be less than 2000 euro or dollars ... assuming that means it'll be ~ or more than 3k australian dollar ??

I have to have that volca FM.

  On 1/22/2016 at 4:17 AM, Psychotronic said:

 

  On 1/22/2016 at 3:33 AM, bitroast said:

 

!!!

 

 

I really don't get the hype on this company. Their products look like hipsters toy (lol I mean this new stuff is so tiny and it look like an old tv remote) and I could not care less about video synthesis...

  On 1/22/2016 at 12:53 PM, D4M0 said:

I really don't get the hype on this company. Their products look like hipsters toy (lol I mean this new stuff is so tiny and it look like an old tv remote) and I could not care less about video synthesis...

ok m8

  On 1/22/2016 at 1:15 PM, modey said:

 

  On 1/22/2016 at 12:53 PM, D4M0 said:

I really don't get the hype on this company. Their products look like hipsters toy (lol I mean this new stuff is so tiny and it look like an old tv remote) and I could not care less about video synthesis...

ok m8

 

Little bit butthurt ? come on explain to me how this shitty gadget is the future pls. This demo is so embarassing

  On 1/22/2016 at 12:53 PM, D4M0 said:

this new stuff is so tiny and it look like an old tv remote

  On 1/22/2016 at 1:22 PM, D4M0 said:

 

  On 1/22/2016 at 1:15 PM, modey said:

 

  On 1/22/2016 at 12:53 PM, D4M0 said:

I really don't get the hype on this company. Their products look like hipsters toy (lol I mean this new stuff is so tiny and it look like an old tv remote) and I could not care less about video synthesis...

ok m8

 

 

Little bit butthurt ? come on explain to me how this shitty gadget is the future pls. This demo is so embarassing

you seem to well have your mind made up even having never used any of their stuff so it's pointless to go over the feature list of their products when it's all readily available on the internet.

  On 1/22/2016 at 1:22 PM, D4M0 said:

 

  On 1/22/2016 at 1:15 PM, modey said:

 

  On 1/22/2016 at 12:53 PM, D4M0 said:

I really don't get the hype on this company. Their products look like hipsters toy (lol I mean this new stuff is so tiny and it look like an old tv remote) and I could not care less about video synthesis...

ok m8

 

 

Little bit butthurt ? come on explain to me how this shitty gadget is the future pls. This demo is so embarassing

 

not really, I've got an OP-1 and it's awesome, that's all that matters to me. Also what juiceciuj said.

edit: also why the fuck is size still an issue? I feel sorry for your sausage fingers but beyond that, why wouldn't you want a fully functional synth that is more portable than a laptop?