Grooveboxes, workstations and more!

So I just wanted to give my thoughts on the Ableton Move here. I was seeing numerous conversations around it during the hype phase and when it came out.

Many people saw it when it came out and said "oh hey it's 4 tracks, it's too basic, etc." I think that's not entirely incorrect, but at the same time I think those comments are a bit misguided. It's true it only has 4 tracks. It's true that sound design is somewhat limited. It's also true that its workflow is somewhat basic. This last one though is frankly one of its best features.

Let's say I've got an idea bouncing around in my head for a track. I could fire up something like an MPC or Ableton Live and start recording it. I need to go in, pick out the instruments I want, set my tempo, maybe set my key, etc...there's a bit of pre-work that needs to be done, and then I can record.

On the Move, I turn it on, pick an empty set, maybe pick a key and just start noodling. If I use capture, I just noodle around, push capture - done. Well, for one track anyway. But in doing that, I have instruments out of the box ready to go. Maybe they aren't the best for what I'm feeling, but I can change that later. Because I hit capture, it went ahead and guessed the tempo for me, and that is automatically applied to the rest of the tracks. So from there, just pop over to another track, rinse and repeat.

One thing that bugged me was that my kit didn't have a shaker in it. So what did I do? I grabbed a little wooden shaker egg I had nearby, hit the sample button, sampled with the onboard mic and suddenly I had my shaker sample.

Oh, my hi hat was too loud? No bother. Just hold down the hi hat pad and turn down the volume encoder. Done.

All this is to say that while yes, it has its limitations, it is VERY good for getting ideas down quickly, and I've found it's led me to pump out more creativity. Will I record an entire track on it? Nah, probably not. But it will let me record something quickly that I can flesh out later.

This message brought to you by Dunkin', because why not.

What gear do you all think got a bad rap, and why do you love it?

Anyone else using the Woovebox?

I received mine last year, and I'm slowly starting to explore it. It's a full groovebox, with samples, live mode, song mode, multiple synth engines. So small!

Howdy!

So I recently got a hold of a Criter and Guitari Organelle M and just got myself set up to write up custom patches on it, and I'm looking for inspiration on a simple patch to make on it.

For those that don't know what an Organelle is, the synopsis is that it's a Raspberry Pi-based musical computer that you can custom program your own patches on. These patches can be anything from synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, effects...really whatever you want to make musically.

Anyway, I'm just about done working through some tutorials to get a better handle on how that all works, and I'm interested in potentially simple patch ideas to build. Anyone have any thoughts on a simple synth concept or something like that I should try to make?

I'm not affiliated in any way with Polyend, but on Polyend's official Reverb (and I think some resellers as well) they're selling new Trackers for $359/€399. If you have any plans to buy one, now would be a pretty good time. I just pulled the trigger on one myself.

Per the email from them, the sale goes until September 4th or while supplies last. Also I confirmed as I was typing this, but that price does seem to be reflected with at least Sweetwater and Zzounds. Can't speak for others yet.

I've been thinking about getting a new groovebox for a while now... Actually I didn't know what they were called until I saw that first post on this community then it all clicked! (Thanks btw!!)

I've played around with an old kaossilator and it was pretty fun but I'd like something I can maybe put my own sounds in? If that's generally a really exorbitantly priced feature then I can skip it.

Any suggestions on where I should get started?

Thanks in advance!!

I'm a fan of grooveboxes and other do-it-all gear. It gets me away from the computer and lets me focus on just making music, and typically there's some kind of limitation to force creativity.

Here's what I've got.

• Roland Verselab MV-1
• Akai Force
• Synthstrom Deluge
• Sonicware SmplTrek
• Roland SH-4d (though I technically use this one solely as a synth module, but still)

Bonus points if you've got tracks you want to share! Like I made this track on a Maschine+ and then mixed in post in Logic. https://soundcloud.com/ndguardian/dreams-of-loss