In previous years, I’ve appreciated the Gear Hits and Misses threads, where folks have shared what new gear arrived in, stayed, or left their studios, with notes. Have firmware updates helped an initially rocky product? Was this or that shiny new thing actually a single-use plastic?
With Black Friday and holiday seasons coming up, I thought this might be a good time to hear what’s panned out for everyone and what hasn’t, in hopes of informing any sale/holiday shopping lists…
Hits:
OP-1F - it’s nearly everything I want in a portable music making device.
Dirtywave M8 - it’s nearly everything else I want in a portable music making device!
Misses:
Woovebox - sorry the M8 is just a superior device overall for not a lot more money.
The Woovebox is excellent, affordable and I give mad props to it’s creator, it’s worth a try but I’m tired of those types of screens.
Torso T-1 - love the feel, the look and what I think it can do but I was getting jumbled and lost all over. I’d prefer to know a bit more about what I’m doing, and I think a screen is needed for that.
Does anyone know how to set a specific tempo using a knob and 16 light up pads?
Thanks for thinking of starting this, I love these threads too!
Hit: Hydrasynth desktop, Linnstrument, MPC1000 w JJOS
Miss: Push 3, Sp 404 mk2 … I hate this device
Hit: Matriarch, 2nd Octatrack and 5th MPC
Miss: Hands down the 404 mk2. Ugh. I tried so hard to love it having spent sooo much time with the 202.
hit: nothing hit very hard this year, not necessarily misses but hit would be a stretch. I did buy a usb midi interface for my C64 though which doubles as a fast loader and a card reader/usb reader and for the niche market, teensyROM is a hit. But that’s like, so few people who care about buying stuff for a 40 year old computer. As far as usefulness, it’s better than the MSSIAH midi set up I also purchased, but it’s differently useful because that has a din midi connection, it’s not a miss but it’s just not a hit.
miss: Squier 40th anniversary Jazzmaster. I’ve owned enough offset guitars to know that this is a miss. Disappointing too, I guess my expectations were too high. Just goes to show that Youtube recommendations from popular channels probably can’t be trusted unless it’s someone known for their unsponsored, unfiltered brutal honesty.
not much ger this year, only two items, both hits, both Rolands.
new: Roland S-1. i was waiting for this kind of machine for ages, and now i’ll get 4 or 5 units while they’re available. absolutely brilliant piece of gear – small (i mean really), battery-powered, and fully tweakable either physically and via MIDI. only 64 pattern slots is not much, but it’s the only drawback i can think of, and workaround is not that difficult for those who are familiar with MIDI voodoo.
old: Roland HandSonic HPD-15. i was on the hunt for a spare unit for several years, and finally got it. i preger it over current HPD-20 because it has moar pads (15 vs 13), moar controls (+2 ribbons & D-Beam), and i don’t care about user-loadable sounds since its ROM sounds are just excellent.
Hits: Roland T8 and S1, Arturia Drumbrute Impact - All super fun and tweakable
Miss: Roland SE-02 - Sounds great, but I can’t get much out of it.
A few hits from the many this year
Epiphone 150th Anniversary Wilshire. Gibson mini humbuckers. Lightweight, sounds amazing. Great guitar.
Eastman Acoustic (J45 copy - can’t remember model number). My first Eastman. Won’t be the last. Very nice.
Yamaha Reface CP Mini. Inspirational piece of kit that sounds lovely.
G
Holy crap I didn’t realize how much gear I bought and sold this year.
Hits:
Dirtywave m8. Instant love. It made trackers click for me.
Typhon: Gnarly bass, love the front-panel controls. Surprisingly good at acid. It replaced a Pro-3 while I’ve been recovering from an injury. It is most definitely not a Pro-3, but I love it for what it is.
Kinotone Ribbons: Does everything I wanted in the Gen Loss MkII, but with more control, less latency and a less ridiculous UI.
Roland T-8 and S-1: 303 clone and 101 clone respectively. Fun and easy to use, they do what they say on the box.
Old Electribes (EMX, Ea-1): I wanted digital 2000s sounds, I got them. Lots of fun to mess around with. At some point I’m going to sample the hell out of the EMX and maybe put together a pack. EA-1 has a character that I find really appealing, even if the usable range of the freq cutoff and res knobs is hilariously tiny.
Champion Leccy Skitter: It’s a reverb and a tremolo, and you can tremolo the reverb. Artwork is cool as hell too.
Jury’s Still Out:
Push 3: Ableton in a box. Great effects, sequencing, MPE pads, excellent as a mixer/ FX box for other devices. I’ve sketched out about 8 songs with it that, at some point, I will transfer to the computer and finish. But it’s plagued by numerous bugs, some of which completely stop me using it without a complete reset (and with a 40-second boot time, that hurts). Middling Max4Live implementation means supplementing Ableton’s lackluster synths with devices that fit my style is an organizational pain, and some devices just can’t be mapped. That, frankly, is inexcusable. I want to love it - and in many ways I do - but it can be painful.
Analog 4 mkII: I can’t in good conscience put it in the ‘hits’ section after one week, but I want to. While I’m still in the honeymoon phase, it’s another one that just clicks for me. Sounds great, lots to explore, and it’s probably a better drum machine than my beloved Syntankt.
Misses
Roland SH-4d: I’ve griped about it enough so I’ll keep this short: Disliked the interface, hated patch saving/ structure, hated the menus, intensely disliked the fact that the drums didn’t get their own slider, felt misled by the marketing about the 101/Juno models, arp was near-useless for me. Loved the sounds I got out of it, especially acid bass. I liked the buttons too.
Micromonsta 2: this one is apparently controversial, so I’ll skip the details and just say that I did not enjoy using it. It has a happy home now.
Poly Beebo: didn’t like the touch screen, didn’t like the workflow, didn’t like the boot time. Cool idea, implementation isn’t for me.
NDLR (for a second time): I just don’t like shortcut-in-a-a-box devices. That’s not a value judgement on them or on people who use them. I just got bored quick with it.
Torso T-1: If I’m going to have loads of options and sections to navigate, I need a screen. Nothing wrong with the device, this is purely a “me” problem.
Beetronics Sea Bee: too wild, and controlling 6 FX parameters with 3 knobs is awkward. Coolest looking pedal I’ve ever used though.
you had a busy year 
Hits: Razzmatazz (some announces such as not being able to preview a sound before you load it, and not sure if Im doing something wrong, but the inability to set individual midi channels like you can with the Nord 3P bugs me), Norand Mono (was super harsh and loud, but then I RTFM, all three iterations, and figured out that you can calm this beast by lowering a seperate master volume and calibrating the filter’s resonance), LXR 1 (although it certainly has its annoying quirks), Hydrasynth Explorer (great little keyboard and quick interface).
Miss:
Beebo- Now this is purely because I’m a lazy guy, but the Beebo. Super powerful, and lots of possibilities, but having to manually wire everything on a little screen with my fat fingers and lazy tiger style wasn’t working for me. Again, nothing against the Beebo, but I’m just too unmotivated to get things going. Like the Zoia, the Beebo is a super powerful little box, if you’ve got the go get em attitude, which I didn’t get from either one of those pedals.
SP404MK2 - I’ve still got it, and use it, but it’s really the work flow that I find trouble with. I have to more or less force myself to work with it, as opposed to the DT, which I find to be really inviting and fun to use. I don’t know what it is but everytime I try to put something together I just naturally end up making slower/lo-fi stuff on it. It’s not a terriable interface, but my mind has been working a certain way for so long that it’s difficult for me to do things a different way. I’m more of a Black Box/DT sort of sampler guy. The lack of a piano roll, and the fact the xoxo sequencer was an after thought that feels duct taped on is probably what I’m struggling with. Also the key combos, though not super extensive, I keep forgetting. Also the whole bus layout and functionality irritates ne sometimes, especially 3/4, which i know is more or less set and forget, but it still bugs me. I do like the portability of it, and it certainly is deserving of all the love it gets, it’s just I’m older now, and get set in my ways.
Haven’t decided…
Tr8s and the MC707.
Powerful, full of more sounds than you could ever use in a lifetime of productions, but I’ve got who k ows how many sample packs of these sounds. I do like the immediacy of the faders and classic xoxo sequencer, but the Roland UI is well Roland. Mind you not as bad as other UIs but you have a few menus. I use to have a TR8, and loved how immediate it was, but I traded it because I have samplers with all the classic samples, plus the add on cost was really annoying. I know it’s insanely powerful but both these machines pack so much into the UI that it can be a little off putting. I mean the 707 is certainly a freaking work horse, but if I’m going to be using a quasi DAW, I’d rather just use Ableton, which is infinitely quicker to use and much more powerful. Also, when creating patches for synths and drum kits it doesn’t feel like solving a calculus problem on a TI-82. I’ll probably keep them, but…eh. I’m a lazy bastard.
I’ve also found these posts super useful. So many gear reviews are just about brand new stuff, so it’s valuable hearing how things actually work out after months of use.
Hits: Lyra 8 - doesn’t fit in with most of my music making, but love it as a solo instrument to get lost in.
Misses: most of the iPad synths/software I tried. They seemed great, just not for me, too much like using a computer.
feel like i went through more gear than usual this year
Hits: im a roland man
SP404mk2: feel like i finally came into my element with recording tunes and beats on the 404. clicked pretty fast and ive been using it pretty much every day since i got it. havent even really explored all of the functionality, my workflow has landed nicely with the skipback function.
MC-101: Recent addition but already a big hit for me. Love the synth engine, havent had problems with menu diving (honestly i’ve never found this to be much of an issue on any gear as long as menus load quickly), I’m actually enjoying using the sequencer and more grooveboxy parts alongside the 404 workflow.
Misses: pretty much everything here was just too singularly focused and ultimately unnecessary
Korg Volca FM2/Drum/Kick: honestly just got these to buy something and dink around with. had fun for a couple days, then realized that i dont care to dink around with what are one trick ponies in my workflow
Roland TR-6S: another thing i bought just to buy something. mostly just wanted it for the CR-78 sounds to make bossa nova loops. had for a week or two and then got the MC-101. realized that my taste aint tuned enough to determine enough of a difference between ACB and the samples on the 101 to justify keeping it. also was annoying that there wasnt an easy way to combine the 6s and the 101 without a mixer/putting both through the 404.
Not so much a miss but I did sell:
M8: enjoyed the M8 for about a year, it was instrumental in kickstarting my workout routine for which im eternally grateful. it was a godsend when riding the stationary bike. but ultimately, ive determined that im not into programming my music. definitely wasnt taking full advantage of its depth and decided to pass it along.
Yeah, I honestly don’t like how much stuff I bought/sold this year even though it’s all within my allotted ‘fun stuff’ budget/ things I saved for. Going to make a concerted effort to do less of that next year, and the purchases I have lined up are mostly workflow/ ergonomic improvements. Life has been extra stressful and I’m definitely coping through consumption.
Hit: ableton push 3. It makes you work with limitations but can also be a great live performance tool.
Buchla 208C. First time getting into modular. The cart system adds modules and I have been tracking my performances into ableton. I get lost in patching but I track my good moments.
Miss: SP-404 MK2. I had a 100 dollar gift card and they were 499 at guitar center at the time. I just don’t have enough time to transfer samples over and writing sequences seems a bit clunky for me.
Hits:
Jomox Alphabase—the sound is immense. This thing cuts through a mix so nicely, and is currently the my centerpiece drum machine.
Syntakt—my favorite Elektron product I own. The ease of use and depth of sounds is unbeatable. Songs just flow out of this box.
Majella Implexus—gorgeous, unique, and tactile. This one just looks and sounds amazing, with so many sweet spots and a tasty combo of East/West synthesis.
Squarp Hapax—this is the secret weapon! It has unlocked soooo much from the gear I listed above, especially the Alphabase.
From the readings, I can already say that THE big miss of the year is the SP404 mkII.
I feel this in my soul.
sample size miiiight be a bit small right now 
but seems to be trending that way
Don’t feel guilty about it, my post was not commentary on your purchasing habits, just noting that you have an authoritative perspective on hits and misses this time around! Be proud of your contribution to this thread!