I’ve preordered a Dirtywave M8 which seems like an awesome piece of gear and it’s got me really excited at the prospect of using interesting dedicated hardware machines that I can take to the park or mess with on the sofa.
The obvious ones I’ve come across so far are:
- Korg Volca range
- Roland mini synths and aira compact ranges
- Teenage Engineering OP and POs
But these all seem a little uninteresting to me and just rehashed tiny versions of older gear and/or aimed at lo-fi producers.
Some less obvious ones that have my attention are:
- Monome Norns
- 1010music lemondrop, fireball & razzmatazz (not battery powered but easily powered by a USB powerbank)
- Bastl microgranny and kastl
- Korg NTS-1
- Korg Monotrons
- Audiothingies Micromonsta 2 (again not battery powered but can be via powerbank)
Are there any you know of that fit the bill?
EDIT: Will add more cool things as I find them
- Zoom MS-70CDR - small, relatively cheap, battery powered stereo multi-FX pedal intended for guitars. Out of the box it only does time based effects like reverb, chorus and delay but there’s an easily searchable hack that lets you load any of the algorithms from any of the other digital FX pedals that Zoom makes which gives it distortion, compression, fuzz, amp modelling and loads more! (check this out for more info https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG3KO1EbFd4)
Read the title and came in to say… “weeeeell you might be interested in a Dirtywave M8!!” then read the rest of your post :D
My .02 OP-Z it has a specific sound but it’s great for sketchign ideas and the sequencer is pretty fun and can be pretty chaotic.
Norns seeems like it could be portable, but you would need a midi keyboard, powerbank etc. It can be pretty limiting by itself.
NTS-1 seems like a must buy if anything to have as an FX box but I don’t have one.
Not mentioned but “fits the bill” of portable stuff is the Circuit Series. I have a Circuit Tracks and it doesn’t get as much use as the M8, but it’s pretty fun wiht the pads to come up with different loops and ideas
A pack of Kastl 1.5 + Kastl Drums might be fun to hook up together.
Haha I bought the M8 within 10 mins of learning about it for the first time and I’ve since watched hours and hours of the discord meetups on youtube. It’s incredibly impressive piece of kit! Super excited to get my hands on it.
The idea for the norns would be to sequence it using the m8 and the (currently sold out) pre-built version by monome does have an internal battery. The only thing putting me off, even if it were available, is the price.
NTS-1, yeah it’s in my basket now!
The circuit stuff never really grabbed me tbh, not sure why, might have to look into it a bit more.
As for the Bastl stuff, it looks pretty intimidating since I have no experience with any modular/semi-modular gear but might be a fun experiment!
Thanks for your insight!
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Haha okay that’s pretty cool
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I don’t know about the other stuff but the M8 is just mind blowingly great.
For portable versatile stuff like I think you’re looking for theres also the organelle, which seems awesome. Its another teensy based (I think?) beast that runs multiple Pure Data programs simultaneously. That means you can pretty much do anything.
The m8 though, it’s incredible. It’s such a full, polished product. It’s amazing how much power there is in that thing.
FFS man I’m already hyped about the M8 but he’s not going to ship it any faster haha! Patience is definitely not my forte. I’m up to Discord meetup #14 on youtube and each episode is getting me progressively more excited.
Organelle does seem interesting! Thanks!
Probably too close to the M8 but Polyend Tracker Mini is a smaller version of the Tracker but more portable and battery powered.
Yeah defo too close but I did check it out before pulling the plug on the M8. The M8 just has way more features (3 fx per step, built in synths, more effects, etc) and the interface seems way more clever in how it manages to do all that it does with only 8 buttons.
Thanks for the suggestion though, might help others if they come across the thread.
You already mentioned Roland mini synths, but I think the SH-4D is worth calling out separately from the rest. Some of its oscillator models are based on vintage synths, sure, but not all. It doesn’t feel like just another rehash to me.
Checking out the loopop video now! Thanks!
Honestly I would say the SH-4d is worth consideration if for no other reason than the immediate hands-on control of most parameters without menu diving. Makes it super fast to work with.
I love all-in-one portable grooveboxes and I think the M8 is my favorite of the ones I own.
Ones I haven’t seen mentioned yet:
- Synthstrom Deluge - Extremely flexible powerhouse and a pleasure to use now that it has been updated from a 7-segment display to an OLED display. Not tiny, but is about the length/width of a laptop and is battery powered.
- Elektron Syntakt
I hear the Elektron products are very good once you get to grips with them and even have a bit of a cult following for their workflow. The Deluge also looks great with the new display (why the hell companies are still using 7-segment displays is mind boggling to me, even korg and roland on recent synths!)
I think for both of these, there’s probably a little too much overlap with the M8 at the moment which hasn’t been shipped yet but it’s great food for thought! Thanks!
I agree with @segfault that the Syntakt (and Digitakt) fit the bill very nicely. The first two weeks I owned the Syntakt, I spent the whole time exploring it from my couch.
I gotta say, while the S-1 is technically a “rehashed” SH-101, it’s a phenomenal device and I feel that description does it a slight disservice. Four voices means you can do some great pads, and the waveform chop function really pushes it into new territory.
I think the Syntakt has a little too much overlap with the M8 which I haven’t even got my hands on and learnt yet but I’ve just watched a few more videos on the S-1 and it does look very good, especially for the price! Looks like it could make a great little companion to the M8 with a few mini TRS cables. Thanks for the recommendation to look a little deeper into it!
The Modal CraftSynth 2 is in this category. I have one and I’d say I like it (but maybe not love it) - great for a class of digital wavetable sound no analog synth can match (but also does decent analog-ish subtractive synthesis). The SH101-style sequencer in the CraftSynth2 is a bit different to the usual, but in a fun way - works quite well for acid IMO.
The Korg NTS-1 is handy as long you are sequencing / playing it via an external controller - the ribbon keyboard on it isn’t useful. It’s versatile since it also makes a good effects unit (which is how I use it almost exclusively). There are a bunch of free and paid ‘plugins’ you can load onto it to expand the sound palette too, and even write your own using the open SDK if you are so inclined.
Deeper into DIY, Shruthi, Anushri, TSynth and (sadly unobtainium) Plinky probably fit on this list.
Great suggestions thanks!
The modal craftsynth and skulpt don’t really do it for me after watching a few vids. They certainly fit the bill of what I asked for but they just seem a little boring.
Yeah the NTS-1 looks like a great piece of kit for the price. I’ve seen a couple mentions of the expandability of the firmware, any suggestions on which plugins to look into?
Those DIY ones look super fun and will be a great excuse to get out the soldering iron! It’s also opened my eyes to all the whacky DIY stuff on Etsy that I’ve never heard of!
Modal Skulpt is my go to mobile synth. Battery powered and comes from the factory with a lid to protect it. I’ve beaten the crap out of mine over the last few years and it never misses a beat. Even took it to 12,000 ft on a backpacking trip.
It’s the only piece of gear I own that I don’t worry about how I handle it. I’ll jump in the front seat of the car and toss it in the back seat over my shoulder. It was designed to be mobile rather than just a synth that’s small enough to be mobile.
I love that you put into words the difference between designed to be mobile, vs just small!
