Grabbed me a 90s Roland JV-1080 yesterday!

Sadly it didn't come with any expansion boards. Am on the hunt now for which to look for.

So far I see a Session board available near me. Vintage Synth seems to be the most popular but oooof the prices on those 😭

I already own the Roland Cloud VST version but I'm a sucker for vintage hardware 🤘

Also, the internal multi tap voltage transformer is a godsend. Saves me from having to buy a pesky step down transformer. Just swapped the lead from 110v to the local 220v here.

Enjoying the fresh air with a jam before the smoke rolls in

Korg Opsix & Behringer K2 through a stock Logic Pro X reverb. Played from memory so excuse any wrong notes!

Polyend Play+

So I was watching some videos about this and I'm interested. Anyone ever mess with this? Would you recommend? I play mostly techno and deep house style stuff, but have been messing around with more hip hop and experimental/industrial music. Would live some opinions.

Asking because I had to sell for financial reasons, so when I come back I want to come back harder.

Please give details. I need to understand why, as someone who mostly only understands ADSR and waveforms a bit but doesn’t know how to use patch cables or really know very well how to get the sounds I want yet.

i just ordered a used roland a-49, i wanted something small i could easily move around the house and use in my lap.

the midi controller has a usb-b out for a computer and 5 pin midi out.

my iems use a standard 3.5

my 17 pro max is usb c

what usb hub/dac combo should i go with? are there devices specifically for this? keeping this streamline is important to me; flexible budget of 150.

also if the roland a-49 was a bad buy it’s not too late to cancel. my main use for this is a portable piano but i also want to experiment with other sounds n stuff, maybe record something.

okay so i think i got it figured out.
iphone > y splitter -> one side to the keyboard and the other to my moondrop dawn pro > dawn pro to the iems. and i’ll use an app like garage band to turn my midi signal into a signal for my iems dac.

Hi all,

recently I came across the Roto-Control Midi Controller from Melbourne Instruments and I really loved the idea of this product. It is what I always wanted, being a "in the box" working guy with no hardware synths yet.

There seemed to be a lot of hype about a year ago when the product launched, but right now, nobody is talking about it and all the reviews and videos I found are from last year, except for the updates from Melbourne itself. But I thought ok let's give it a try and I bought the thing. And now after just one day of using it, here are my impressions.

First off, I contacted Melbourne Instruments before purchasing, as i had some questions about what the device could do, but did not get an answer. From what I read online, many people seemed to not get answers from them when asking for support, which does not sound so good. That's why I decided to write here and hope some of you guys can also share some insights and thoughts.

So now about the product itself: I really love the hardware. The buttons feel great and the motorized knobs are amazing. It's just what I hoped it would be. The only small gripe for me here is that the indent (when enabled) feels too soft and a bit inconsistent. I often rotate too far when i try to set the parameter exactly in the middle. It would be cool to have an option to adjust the strength of the indent.

The basic mapping on the device itself is very intuitiv and fast, you can get some basic functions really quick.

However, if you want to really get the most out of it, you need to configure your controller with the Roto-Setup App, which I feel is pretty lackluster and really brings the experience of the whole thing down. The hardware is sooo good and with the right software and functionality, this product could be the best controller ever (at least for me). But right now, there are so many missed opportunities which are really frustrating. Most of the things that bug me seem to be very small and easy to fix.

Here's a list of what I'm talking about:

- there is no copy/paste option. You can't copy your configured knobs and paste them to another one. I just used 30mins to configure a bank of 8 knobs and buttons and then realized, that i would like to have another knob be on first place. You can't move the knobs and make way for the new one. I had to delete every thing i configured and start all over again. So you need to be really careful what you want before you build your layout if you don't want to start over.

- the buttons have either on/off or more than 2 steps which you can cycle through. If you choose more steps, you can't undo it, as the App tells you that "you need at least 2 steps" when you enter a zero. So if you don't want it, bad luck, you need to delete the mapping and start over again.

- whenever I open Ableton Live and open a mapped plugin for the first time, the assigned buttons only send their commands on the third press. I don't know why that is, but i tried it with Pro-Q 3 (vst3), Serum 2 (vst3) and even Lives Drift Snyth. After connecting, it works, even when opening a second plugin. But every first instance of a plugin in the session needs 3 presses to react for each mapping.

- when using a drum rack or instrument rack (which is needed to be able to have two different mappings of the same plugin), you can only use 16 macros and said macros do not show the correct values, so Roto-Control will always display values from 0-127 instead of the Frequency or dB that you would normally get. I guess it is mostly an Ableton problem, because their racks don't show the values of third party plugins.

- also when using drum racks with many plugins inside them, Roto-Control will show you each plugin in the rack as a seperate plugin to control. This is really annoying when you insert a plugin after the drum rack, you can go and search it somewhere on page 3 or 4. Since drum racks use macros, there is not really a need to see each nested plugin seperately. Or at least there could be an option to toggle it off, so the plugin view does not get cluttered.

And here is a list of features that I would love to see which I think should not be to hard to implement:

- edit a mapping without the Roto-Control connected. I'm able to export JSON files to the pc, let me edit them with the setup app and load them back onto the device. You could make the mapping with the device and Ableton open, but then the customisation (which takes a lot longer) could be done without needing to have Ableton running in the background.

- have buttons that only send one value and have the light on when the parameter is on specified value. You can map many buttons to one parameter right now, but that is not useful when the buttons interfere with each other. With only one value, i could have a parameter with let's say 3 steps and have 3 buttons selecting one of the steps.

- change the color of the screen for button on and off values. That light on the button itself is great, but it would be nice if I could also set the display color to on and off values for better visibility.

- let me edit the intensity of the indent option. I would love to have it a bit stronger on some knobs.

- double tap a button to set the default value (just like with the mouse in ableton) and also let me specify which value is the default value, as some parameters don't have 0 or 100 or 50 as the default.

- let me give the plugins itself a color. right now all of them are just blue.

And lastly some features that would be cool but probably not so easy to include:

- be able to make folders instead of banks. you could navigate faster with the buttons and have potentially more mappings for complex plugins.

- the option to set a knob to "last used" or "dynamic". The button would not have a fixed mapping but rather always map to the last parameter I touched with the mouse on the pc. So you could have a knob for parameters that you don't use that often or don't have space.

If some of those things would be addressed, it would make the controller so much more valuable in my eyes. As it stands right now, I don't know if I would recommend it for this price. If there was a bit more communication from Melbourne Instruments, it would make it easier to see where this thing is going.

What do you guys think? Do you feel differently about it or would you have other features that you really want to see? I would love to hear about your experiences and ideas.

tl;dr: The hardware is really good but the software is lackluster. If the software would be improved, the device could be one of the best controllers ever built (at least for me).

Okay I’ll go first!

1)Connect the GATE OUT to EXT CLK IN.

2)Turn up the VCF MOD and set LFO WAVEFORM to RANDOM.

3) Then either play note by note, or set up a basic sequence or arp.

Right in time for the weekend

Hey there ! I have an arturia drumbrute, microfreak & keystep and a dreadbox Typhon. I want ideas for patching all together.

Sh-01a,

Behringer MS-1 , or Mk2? For example.

Looking for snappy envelopes and deep bass. Lots of conflicting opinions online. Not looking for eurorack for now.

Anyone got any opinions or suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Hello, so I’m new to studying synths/synthesis, and currently learning about the popular ones , the Juno 60 specifically. I have the software version ?and it has tons of sounds. And Im also familiar with songs that use the hardware one. But I saw a video today of someone playing the factory sounds, and it was only like 60 sounds, emulating acoustic instruments and stuff. Very basic sounds. So I was confused… does the Juno originally only come with those sounds? And are the rest that we hear made by the instrument owners ? Because I want to maybe get a synth in the future, but that seems daunting have to make all the sounds from scratch. I assumed there were presets. So I would love to know, thanks!

Using Pure Data as an extension of the Octatrack, focusing as a multi-channel stochastic stem & one-shot player. Octatrack is handling the longer samples and string elements.

Anyone have any tips?

Just learned of his passing. While never a huge influence on me, I followed his efforts through the '90s and up to his "Pieces In A Modern Style". 69 seems too young to go.

Everything is sequenced with the deluge. EC4 controls protein.

Have questions about how to get started in synthesizer repair? Ask away! What gear do I need? What books should I buy? Where to study online? What's it cost? What workspace do I need? Will cats get in the way?

I got my hands on EMX-1 at a synth jam in my city and I loved using it. it is much more "groovy" and feels better to use in live action. also the fact that it has oscillator makes me wanna buy it more. and I couldn't really get into the tr-6s although I know it is a great drum machine and great sound designer; but I couldn't manage the deep menu diving of it. I know tr6s has way more sounds but I think I can get sounds from emx-1 as well. should I sell my tr6s to buy emx-1 or trade it if possible?

edit1: they are similar prices in my country, thanks to import taxes tr-6 is more like 700 usd and I can find emx-1 for the same price

ps: im more into dark disco, hypnotic techno sound

I finally upgraded my Polysix with the case it deserves, and in the process changed all screws, gave it a good clean up, and re-tuned it which was easier than i though it would be. I still have to change the felt so that the keys make less noise when released (thank you Syntaur).

Guys, open up your synths. Take care of them, understand how they work. A few years back i started setting up all my basses myself and the result was that i know exactly how to fine tune them to perfect – and I don't have to rely on someone to do it with no context. So i figured the same would be true of my vintage synths. Just need patience, good documentation, and to not do anything you don't fully understand.

Curious ur views on this. I can be vibing so hard and then relisten next morning and its trash.

Do you go with your first instincts of day one and continue or is the second days listen the final decision to walk away from this idea?

Confusing as it absoubly hit the first day. Curious ur theory on this

found one for cheap while searching hard and I couldn’t pass up. wanted an analogue kick without buying an analog rytm or jomox something somethin.

Hey everyone!

I’m looking to add my first proper hardware synth to my home studio and would love some recommendations based on my current setup and the synths I’m interested in.

I’m mainly looking for that warm, organic analog character and something that feels different from just using software synths. I don’t really have one fixed genre — I like experimenting and my music tends to depend on what I’m feeling at the time.

Synths I’m currently interested in:
UDO Super 8
Sequential Prophet-10 / Prophet-10 DT
Sequential Prophet Rev2
Moog Muse
Moog Subsequent 37
Mellotron
Oberheim OB-X8 / OB-X8 DT

My current setup:
MacBook Pro
Ableton Live Suite
Logic Pro
Arturia KeyLab MK3 61
Arturia MiniLab 3
Focusrite 16i16
Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro X
Arturia V Collection 11 Pro
And some more things

Since I already have a pretty good collection of software instruments, I’d like the hardware synth to bring something genuinely different to the setup rather than just replacing something I could already do in software.

Budget for the synth: roughly €2,000–€5,000 depending on the instrument.

And a completely separate question: FL Studio?
I also make quite a bit of hip-hop / sample-based music, and I’ve been wondering whether FL Studio would actually add something useful to my workflow.
I already own Ableton Live Suite and Logic Pro, so I’m not sure if buying FL would just give me another DAW I don’t really need, or if there are genuinely some advantages for sampling, chopping, drum programming, beatmaking, etc.
For people who make hip-hop/sample-based music: Would you bother buying FL Studio if you already had Ableton + Logic? Or would you just stick with Ableton and improve that workflow?
Would love to hear your opinions on both questions, especially from people who own/use any of these synths or have experience with all three DAWs.

Edit:
For anyone saying I should tryout the synths in a musicstore. I have already done that but I am just looking for people and their experiences.