Grain Bastard

SS Death Camp Criminal Battalion Go to Monte Casino For the Massacre.

I think it’s more MC-303 than JV - it was marketed as a ‘Groove Keyboard’ along with the other ‘Groove boxes’ at the time (the 303, 307, 505 etc) but I guess it has some crossover. The 1080 is a better synth by far. it’s a little sentimental to me as I bought it new with some money I got when my grand father passed away. It was also at the time when soundblaster sound cards where the thing and Neon was the only VSTi in existence 😂 - I had a Phatboy controller which hooked up with it and might have been using NNRP’s for best integration and you could get at the envelopes etc that weren’t accessible from the front panel like the 303 had. The filter and reverb are a little basic but ok. The sampler is terrible though in my opinion. Soundfonts on the sound blaster was way better even though they are a massive fuck about to use. Things have definitely moved on for the better. A cheap one at a yard sale would be ok for a laugh but whatever you do, don’t give a lot of money for one!!

😂 D-Beams - nuff said!! seriously though, it’s basically an MC-303 with a SP-202 Dr Sample built in. Hook up a midi controller and you can get at the synth engine for 90’s rompler goodness.

Yeah, kinda. It’s my mates. We have a jam session most weeks and he brings it to mine now and then. Great synth imo. It works great with the 0-Coast and these semi modular boxes are a fantastic for preventing euro-crack addiction 🤣

Did someone say cables 🤣

I like a nice tidy setup 😂

I’m a UAD user so I use their offerings mainly. The EMT140 plate and the Lexicon 480 are my go to ones. I buy the UAD stuff when they have the big sales and you can make a custom bundle of any 4 plugins for £259 (with the £40 voucher you usually get) - works out at £65 per plugin which for a lexicon 480l is decent buy imo. I’ve also got the Eventide Blackhole plugin/app for iOS recently and it’s really nice. Borderlands thru Blackhole is something to behold 😍

Avengers: (Bell)Endgame

A Field Guide to Evil springs to mind. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6688354/

Holy shit!!! Awesome 😎

I loaded the MachineDrum patches they released from the live stuff and it sounds amazing but nothing more complex than excellent programming and sound design. They really know what they are doing with the synth for sure but breaking it down it’s nothing more than 2 bar 32 step patterns triggering sounds they have created from the onboard synths with automation (p-locks) and some clever choke groups. I guess the MonoMachine stuff is basically the same principle, so nothing more ‘complex’ than programming step sequencers, triggering sounds they have crafted from the onboard synth engines - it’s not a load of effects or custom software for this era of their output just good old fashioned knowledge of the gear they’re using and a great musical vision. I would guess at the Max/MSP patches they use are are extensions of the same ideas, so they have programmed their own sequencers (to get greater controls, more ways of manipulating etc) to trigger their own created synths/samplers that have the level of control they require and the real ‘complexity’ is in there musical vision. Unless you program/play the max patch as they do, I don’t imagine it would sound any more ‘Autechre-y’ than using the Elektron boxes. just MHO

Design Engineer

Crimson Peak

Sad news - Alan R Pearlman has passed away. He was the founder of ARP.

Mine was in my main Bleep account not the Ae webstore one. Doesn’t show up in that one. I have bought physical releases tho. Thanks Sean and Rob!!