Favourite Hardware ?

[AVX23]

I've been ressurecting my Hardware again recently , out of a desire to re:learn what I have un:learned and also to try and ressurect a flagging sense of inspiration.

So far it's been a joy, although I'm really keen to find a way of replacing my SCSI drive for my sampler with either a lo profile SCSI card for my PC or some sort of convertor to allow me to use an SD/Flash drive, I just can't face reloading my sampler with samples and then saving it onto my Jaz drive.

Anyway - back to the point, Playing with my Synth again really has been great fun, I didn't realise, but playing with soft synths for so long has really enhanced my working knowledge of synthesis, and it's opened up a lot of new possibilities, I've never heard it sound so good, and I'm having so much fun with it, I've decided I'm going to start introducing some of my old gear back into my live sets and production as much as possible.

So what gear do you guys love and adore ?

For me - my fave toys are :





and right now - If I had the money - I'd have me one of these....

[oblioblioblio]

I'm loving my monome 40h at the moment:



It's nice a and small, very well built and 100% customisable via software to however you want to use it, uses OSC (open sound control) instead of midi, and there is a very friendly community sharing their implementations to learn from.

This video shows the monome philosophy much better than I ever could... http://www.vimeo.com/295006/

For me it works nice as a pitch input device with more visual feedback than a keyboard, and without being constantly reminded of the octave and 100 cent intervals. But hopefully once I'm not a complete retard with Max and co I'll be able to do put it to some more exciting use.

Can I big up some software as well? I've started using Plogue Bidule as a plugin host instead of Ableton and it's working out really nicely. Everything is way more open and customizable, and it seems a lot better designed, even if I do miss some of the creature comforts of Live.

I'm still loving Jeff Scott's Lil Miss Scale Oven too, really great for playing around with tuning, especially for someone like me who has almost zero knowledge of how 'proper' tuning systems work, I just like to dive in a see how it sounds.

[sorgenkind]

I love my mpc1000 and the monomachine a lot.
I still haven't done any gig with the monomachine but I'm working on a monomachine-based liveact.

[tone-def]

i only have two bits of hardware

My Korg EMX-1, which i love and my Casio CZ-5000, which is a cool alternative to the Yamaha DX series.

[Storlon]

moogerfoogers & jomox MBase01, just the warmth needed for my soft (:

[steevio]

moogerfoogers, sherman filterbank,
but i'm really getting back into my SH101's again, i keep feeling the lack of velocity sensitivity stops me using them as much as i'd like, but when i do a tune with them, i fall in love all over again, and you can get round it by using them for bassy sounds, then the velocity isnt so important, bass is either their or it isnt.
they sound mint.

[mo's taverne]

I really love my Nord Modular G1.
I also dig my MPC 1000, but it will probably have to go to make space for a Machinedrum....

[zongo]

I have a Nord Modular too (the oldest rack version) and really love it.