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?

  • @Shadowbait@waveform.social
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    21 year ago

    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.

    • ndguardianA
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      11 year ago

      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.