Starting at the bottom: Sequencers, Groove Boxes and Misc. Devices

In my last post, I gave the full inventory of my rig.  For this post, I want to go through and to give a sort of TL;DR review of each and how I am feeling about it right now.

Devices in this category are table top devices that would broadly be called 'groove boxes'.  Whatever you call them, I've got a lot of them.  So here is the list:

• 1010music Black Box

• 1010music Blue Box

• Akai Force

• Akai MPC Live II Retro

• Elektron Digitakt

• Elektron Octatrack mkII

• Elektron Syntakt

• PolyEnd Tracker

• EricaSynths LXR-01

• Roland MC50mkII (needs repair)

• Roland SP404mkII

• Roland TR8s

• Synthstrom Deluge (OLED version)

Anyway you cut it, that's a lot of boxes for someone who isn't getting them free by being a shill on YouTube.  I keep feeling like something has to go, but it's not so easy to decide what to let go.  Lets get into the details of each and talk about why.

1010music Black Box
The 1010Music Black Box is amazing any way you look at it.  It streams its samples from the MicroSD card so you effectively have unlimited sample storage.  Single samples can be entire tracks.  On top of hat, it has some pretty nice effects in there, too.  The filter leaves a lot to be desired, though. 

I have not used the sequencer at all, so I can't really comment on that.  Some people complain about it.  You have to be really careful with how you power it because it picks up USB Noise like nothing I've played with since the early 00s. 

It's small footprint and high utility make it hard to let go of.  I'll likely keep it, even if I just keep it in a drawer.

1010music Blue Box
The BlueBox Is a simply amazing little device.  It is a 6 stereo input digital recorder and mixer that has become the master mixer for my eurorack rig.  The FX are ok.  The EQ is nice.  The recording is very high quality and you can take audio from it into your DAW easily.  The only thing I wish it had was CV control....which is why I might just sell it.  1010Music recently released an awesome eurorack version of it that would save the deskspace and put it all in my synth rack.  I love it and will either keep it or upgrade.

Akai Force
This device is somewhat controversial in the market place.  The Force is physically huge and its design makes people think it's going to be Ableton Live in a box (it's not).  It's got 90% of the OS of an Akai MPC, but the 10% is not inconsequential.  It runs some really excellent instrument plugins.  With the exception of a devoted core of user, it gets a lot of undeserved hate.

I recently reacquired this unit after going a year without one.  I just kept missing its clip view.  It's the master control for one of my live hubs in the studio.

I just reacquired it, so I have no intention on letting it go this soon.

Akai MPC Live II Retro
This is an MPC. I will always have an MPC.  This is just a simple truth.

I love my MPC Live II.  I love the new MPC's in general.  This drives a hub of some of my older gear, and it's not going anywhere.

Elektron Digitakt
Now things start to get interesting...the Elektron Digitakt.  What do I do with the Digitakt?

I have a love/hate relationship with it.  It feels redundant with things like my MPC Live, but also has a certain way of working that I do, in fact, love.  I feel like if I did sell it, I'd just get another. It also works very well as a sequencer for some of my other gear, particularly the Vermona DRM1 MkIV. It earns its keep by being the sequencer that device doesn’t have.

Elektron Octatrack mkII
Of all the boxes in my collection, I think I've had the Octatrack the longest.  I had the original OT, then sold it and got the mkII a few years ago.  Its weird and difficult to use...but it is just very useful to me.  It lets me get weird very quickly. Weird is very important to NoiseTheorem.

Elektron Syntakt
The Syntact is very similar to the Digitakt in that I don't know what to do with it.  I do get great results out of it...but its definitely not the first thing I go to when I want to start a project.  I have to think "hey, I should use this" every time.  Does that mean it's not inspiring?  Maybe.  This one seems like it might be a ‘let it go and see if I miss it’ type of device. I’ve had a lot of those over the years. Some come back…some don’t

PolyEnd Tracker
I bought the Polyend Tracker on whim when they were on sale last year.  For $350, it was definitely worth taking for a trial run.  At first, I was pretty skeptical that it would find a way into my core setup, but that was unfounded.  I’ve found it a good place to start when I want to get weird.  It’s also just got a certain very machine-like sound quality to it.  This takes me back to working on my Amiga 500 in my bedroom when I was 16.  It’s just a lot of fun, and I have no intention to sell it. I can go from zero to 80s EBM in under 5 minutes and that’s always a good thing.

EricaSynths LXR-02
This is the second LXR-02 I’ve had. I sold the first one when I decied I had too many drum machines, and then another when a good deal came up on Reverb.  It was kind of an impulse buy…but one I don’t regret.

The unit is solid and, despite a few weird little bugs, it’s nice as a companion to my Eurorack Setup, which doesn’t have any dedicated rum modules in it. It lends itself to a more industrial sort of sound, but is great for processing through the Eurorack’s guts.

Will I sell it again? probably eventually. For right now, it’s not taking up much space and has a purpose.

Roland MC50mkII
Broken.  Bad alpha dial.  Possibly a bad floppy drive.  Not sure what to do with it.  It’s in the rubble pile at themoment.

Roland SP404mkII
Another re-buy…(I do this a lot)..but the second time around its found its place.  It is *perfect* for playing back extremely long material that doesn’t necessarily need to be in time with any clock.  It’s actually really great for the blended industrial ambient I like to make.  I am really hoping that at least one more OS update is coming for it (on 404 day?  Maybe?  Please?).  It’s usefulness means it’s not going anywhere for a while. 

And I am amazed that Roland still has a product page for it here.

Roland TR8s
How can you not love the TR8s?  It’s like every great Roland drum machine in one box, plus sampling, FM and a lot of other neat tricks.  This drum machine was really designed to be played with and performed on.  It’s definitely a long-term keeper.

Synthstrom Deluge
This is a hard one.  On paper, I should absolutely love the Deluge.  In practice, even though I’ve had it for nearly a year and had it as my go-to portable groove box/workstation….nothing I’ve done with it has turned into anything that good. I have a lot of single pattern projects that just haven’t gone anywhere on it.  I’m not feeling it.  BUT I WANT TO!  I am very determined to get at least one great track out of it.  I feel like I should just load up some weird samples and force myself to put something together on it. 

Conclusions
I guess the only real takeaway here is that I have a lot of fracking stuff, and not much of it is clearly stuff I should let go of. Lots to ponder here.