Discussion
I need help from the electronic music hive mind!
What are the electronic instruments you've played over the years that are DEAD SIMPLE to use? Meaning, a person with no experience could walk up to it and quickly and intuitively move some knobs around, poke around a bit, and start exploring the instrument?
Samplers, synths, drum machines, and recording tech suggestions are all welcome. Boost if your followers would know about this pleeease! <3
@alisynthesis a three-knob delay (no tap tempo or note-division whatevers), an echoplex if one is handy.
@ike_seblon oh yes. Especially a tape style delay that will do decaying loops!
@alisynthesis Lyra-8 would likely meet the brief of making sounds without much knowledge of traditional synth programming or check out Mononoke on iPhone for similar in software if on a budget: https://somasynths.com/lyra-organismic-synthesizer/
@sickmonkeyrecs those are so cool ❤️
@alisynthesis You're getting all the good recommendations I'd make, so I'll ask a question: what is this for? Are you teaching a class or workshop?
@dtauvdiodr I'm starting a school for sound exploration! 🎉
I'm getting together materials to describe it better, will definitely share more soon
@alisynthesis love it!!! can't wait to see this develop!
@dtauvdiodr me too! I don't know what it's going to turn into, but it has been really fun to conceive of and start planning. Just got back from a meeting about a space that I think will work out, so I'm pretty geeked. 😁
@alisynthesis it takes a little bit of assembly, but a guitar pickup connected to an amplifier is really interesting even without any strings. you can put smartphones and whatever other electronics on it and explore what the electromagnetic waves sound like
@ahihi that's really fun. I've never tried that!
@alisynthesis so the OG synths were expensive but there are cheap clones about.
The minimoog is so brilliantly designed in this regard. Very much an instrument. Very immediate. I think this is why it was so successful
& while not quite as accessible the pro one is kind of instant fun too
@junklight yeah, I think a bunch of the Behringer clones could be really cool for this purpose.
@alisynthesis The "Atari Punk Console", originally called the "Stepped Tone Generator" by Forrest Mims, can make all kinds of interesting and strange sounds with just two knobs. I made one as a kid and had lots of fun with it until eventually wires got disconnected from the breadboard. It took me many years to figure out the right words to search for online before finding the schematic and building another one.
@80columns oh wow, I've never seen those. That's so fun!
@alisynthesis One of its interesting quirks is that it can produce the subharmonic series of the oscillator frequency, which is the opposite of what you usually encounter in musical sound.
@80columns I wrote a paper about the historical quirk of the subharmonic series (which is a fun, compelling idea that doesn't exist in natural sound) during my master's degree! 🤣
Just want to say a huge, all-caps THANK YOU to everyone who has responded so far. There are so many great ideas in this thread that absolutely would not have occurred to me. <333
@alisynthesis
Teenage Engineering pocket operators are designed for this.
@neverbeaten interesting...I've never looked deeply into their stuff. I'll check that out.
@alisynthesis
They look like calculators without cases on. Super minimalistic.
@alisynthesis @BorrisInABox it's a bit pricey for a starter instrument but the Suzuki Omnichord is pretty simple to pick up and play. There are some cheaper variations and software emulators out now so you can get an idea of what it can do. https://www.omnichord-heaven.com/
@dotsonapage @BorrisInABox good idea...love those!
@alisynthesis It's not self contained, but people seem to be drawn to my MIDIKalimba MIDI controller.
Of course, it got the most attention when I had it controlling not just a synth, but a MIDI->DMX converter and a bank of colored lights as well.
@voiceofunreason that's a very cool idea!!
@alisynthesis old TR style drum machine, no menuing, quick to figure it.
I literally walked up to the Juno 6 in 1983 and started playing it, having never touched a polysynth in my life, and its control layout being quite different to either of the monosynths I'd touched.
The effect was noted by someone watching me who commented something about me seeming transformed but *I* had the headphones and didn't catch all of it. It worked!
Yet somehow I'm still finding out more, having actually had one for ~35 years now.
@electropict that's awesome. I had a similar experience (much later) with the Waldorf Iridium. I don't still own one, but I wish I did. Very cool and unusual interface!
@alisynthesis This is literally exactly how I got into synthesizers, with the Realistic Concertmate MG-1. To this day I don't think I've ever seen a manual.
@ben oh man those were great. I think they might be pricey now though?
@alisynthesis Yep.
They originally cost, if memory serves, $695 at Radio Shack. I bought mine at a yard sale for $50ish. I then sold it, in like 1993, for $150 or so. They show up on eBay for $500-700ish now.
They are basically a Moog Prodigy with an organ/string section.
@ben yeah, I had one for awhile in the early 00s. It was great.
@alisynthesis I don’t now if this is simple enough but Akai mpk mini has built in speaker and battery. Has keyboard and drum pad
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Get the full app experience
@alisynthesis Looking around the studio and thinking of my childs first go on some of these: Juno-106 (or similar), Korg Monologue (echoing @tsrono) Korg Volcas (thinking the Sample here)...