What's that one indispensable piece of gear in your collection ?

[Neithan]

For last half a year Lyra8 - doing on it so many different textures, sounds, layers and everything - it's incredible beast.

[Japsi]

Either my Sanyo Talkbook recorder (used for lo-fi field recordings), or my modified Walkman.

The Talkbook takes standard cassettes, and the built-in microphone seems to have a really nice filter that cuts the high-end in a deliciously warm way.

The Walkman, which I'm still modding, has gone from being a generic tape/radio device and turned into a horrendously harsh noise machine, perfect for HNW and also for getting random samples from frequency sweeps.

The hardware I've got is largely self-built, so it's replaceable/fixable without too much hassle.

[W.K.]

Lyra-8 whole banks on my MPC are made of it.  Used in many ways . Whatever I do Lyra is there...

For last half a year Lyra8 - doing on it so many different textures, sounds, layers and everything - it's incredible beast.

Always good to hear about Lyra! However I sold it it is really an unique instrument with many uses.

[TS]

A Lyra recently turned up in our studio too. I really liked it the little time I've had with it. Seems curiously limited in a way, for instance,there's no volume controls for the oscillators. Compared to the Pulsar it seems very singleminded. But in a way I think that's a good thing, puts you on paths you might not have went down if the usual controls were there. Great sound overall!

[Uncle_bin]

For me this year its been my Digitakt. Its a great little box that just keeps inspiring me over and over again. The elektron sequencer is amazing and can lead to a lot of unexpected results. Lots of hands on control. You can destroy samples beyond recognition. The bit crusher, delay, reverb and compressor built in are pretty cool as well. Overall a pretty deep unit once you get to know it but its not so complex that you loose yourself in fiddly menu diving and programming. It feels like proper instrument.

[host body]

For me this year its been my Digitakt. Its a great little box that just keeps inspiring me over and over again. The elektron sequencer is amazing and can lead to a lot of unexpected results. Lots of hands on control. You can destroy samples beyond recognition. The bit crusher, delay, reverb and compressor built in are pretty cool as well. Overall a pretty deep unit once you get to know it but its not so complex that you loose yourself in fiddly menu diving and programming. It feels like proper instrument.

Agreed, altho I've kinda neglected my Digitakt in favour of the Octatrack. As you said, the Digitakt is great for it's spontaneousness, it's really easy to just make music as opposed to programming music, like it often is with a computer or any digital sampler. I did use it to play field recording loops using the sequencer and it's random trigs.

[Uncle_bin]

For me this year its been my Digitakt. Its a great little box that just keeps inspiring me over and over again. The elektron sequencer is amazing and can lead to a lot of unexpected results. Lots of hands on control. You can destroy samples beyond recognition. The bit crusher, delay, reverb and compressor built in are pretty cool as well. Overall a pretty deep unit once you get to know it but its not so complex that you loose yourself in fiddly menu diving and programming. It feels like proper instrument.

Agreed, altho I've kinda neglected my Digitakt in favour of the Octatrack. As you said, the Digitakt is great for it's spontaneousness, it's really easy to just make music as opposed to programming music, like it often is with a computer or any digital sampler. I did use it to play field recording loops using the sequencer and it's random trigs.

Yeah for sure there's some overlap between the two devices. I don't own the octatrack personally but all their devices seem to offer a bit of a different workflow. The problem with that is once you get started with elektron you end up wanting all their devices to have all the features that each box offer hehehe

[host body]

For me this year its been my Digitakt. Its a great little box that just keeps inspiring me over and over again. The elektron sequencer is amazing and can lead to a lot of unexpected results. Lots of hands on control. You can destroy samples beyond recognition. The bit crusher, delay, reverb and compressor built in are pretty cool as well. Overall a pretty deep unit once you get to know it but its not so complex that you loose yourself in fiddly menu diving and programming. It feels like proper instrument.

Agreed, altho I've kinda neglected my Digitakt in favour of the Octatrack. As you said, the Digitakt is great for it's spontaneousness, it's really easy to just make music as opposed to programming music, like it often is with a computer or any digital sampler. I did use it to play field recording loops using the sequencer and it's random trigs.

Yeah for sure there's some overlap between the two devices. I don't own the octatrack personally but all their devices seem to offer a bit of a different workflow. The problem with that is once you get started with elektron you end up wanting all their devices to have all the features that each box offer hehehe

Ain't that the truth, I hope to one day get the A4, Rytm, Machinedrum, Monomachine and an Analog Heat. I just love the workflow, really. Oh well, maybe I'll be abled to collect them all in 10-20 years.

Just checked and there's a MK1 Octatrack for sale for 550 euros locally. That's an insanely good price!

[Uncle_bin]

For me this year its been my Digitakt. Its a great little box that just keeps inspiring me over and over again. The elektron sequencer is amazing and can lead to a lot of unexpected results. Lots of hands on control. You can destroy samples beyond recognition. The bit crusher, delay, reverb and compressor built in are pretty cool as well. Overall a pretty deep unit once you get to know it but its not so complex that you loose yourself in fiddly menu diving and programming. It feels like proper instrument.

Agreed, altho I've kinda neglected my Digitakt in favour of the Octatrack. As you said, the Digitakt is great for it's spontaneousness, it's really easy to just make music as opposed to programming music, like it often is with a computer or any digital sampler. I did use it to play field recording loops using the sequencer and it's random trigs.

Yeah for sure there's some overlap between the two devices. I don't own the octatrack personally but all their devices seem to offer a bit of a different workflow. The problem with that is once you get started with elektron you end up wanting all their devices to have all the features that each box offer hehehe

Ain't that the truth, I hope to one day get the A4, Rytm, Machinedrum, Monomachine and an Analog Heat. I just love the workflow, really. Oh well, maybe I'll be abled to collect them all in 10-20 years.

Just checked and there's a MK1 Octatrack for sale for 550 euros locally. That's an insanely good price!

Yeah they usually are between a 1000/1200 Canadian dollars over here. Which is not bad for all it offers and you get the same architecture as the mk2.

[zd313]

Ibanez AD-100 delay unit. Absolute beast - the last piece of gear I would part with. At this point I'm using multiple synths basically as processing units only; but I've never seen a better dealt unit ever. 

[psychotropicdecision]

tc electronic darkmatter - really cool affordable distortion! my first and i still use it in almost every recording i make

[diigitae]

my polyend tracker and tinysizer they rules

[subduct]

Elektron Octatrack. It just does so much, and there is always more to discover

[Soloman Tump]

tc electronic darkmatter - really cool affordable distortion! my first and i still use it in almost every recording i make

Yes, I have one of these. Really useful and cheap as chips

[manuelM]

My glasses hahah just kidding...
My DOD Death Metal is one of those pedals I never disregard :)