Any synth users out there?

Erik S said:
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3/4 of these sit boxed at my parents' place as I wait out this thing called housing crisis. 🙈

At least I live dirt cheap, so I can continue to buy without consequences... But barely any room for fun. Statistically, I have to wait for another two or three years. Then I'm about 15 years on the waiting list. The Netherlands ranks among the worst with this issue.

I'll be over 45 when I can move on with my life.
 
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tegendemuur said:
3/4 of these sit boxed at my parents' place as I wait out this thing called housing crisis. 🙈

At least I live dirt cheap, so I can continue to buy without consequences... But barely any room for fun. Statistically, I have to wait for another two or three years. Then I'm about 15 years on the waiting list. The Netherlands ranks among the worst with this issue.

I'll be over 45 when I can move on with my life.
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What about the other 1/4?

I’m 20 years out of apartment living, and I’m very thankful to have space for all my hobby nonsense, but I still remember working in a small space, and I always appreciate seeing how all you city dwellers on here solve the problems of building and making music in a space efficient way.
 
Erik S said:
What about the other 1/4?

I’m 20 years out of apartment living, and I’m very thankful to have space for all my hobby nonsense, but I still remember working in a small space, and I always appreciate seeing how all you city dwellers on here solve the problems of building and making music in a space efficient way.
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I wish I could have that garage you have! I'd even put my bed in there!

I always liked my small bedroom at my parents, which felt protective. This 16m2 home has been getting more claustophobic as the years count.

Anyway. When life gives you lemons, you eat them. And do some retail therapy. The bank funds bad things with our savings anyway.

I play with my Evolver mostly these days, super small with stereo in and out, and build-in sequencer; a nicely self-contained box! It's why the motor synth is on my radar, as it has an input and two send/returns and a whole bunch of sequencing fun with input pads in an equally small format. No need for midi controllers, and I could nicely gangbang (think porn, not gangs) its ins and outs with pedals.

Anyway, I listed all my synths, so people know what I got and can ask me about these if they want. I do use those at my parents when I stay over to evade the horrors of the week-long noise in my street during festivities. It's full of bars and clubs where I live (even below me), which puts a number on my mood three times a week too. Anyway, so yeah... I hook them all up over time, enjoying their potential!

Current fun (+ core lapsteel pedals in the corner)

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Storage:

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There's also a box with about 30 extra typical / small pedals, but that's outside the scope of this thread.
 
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Excellent gear drawer, @tegendemuur.

On the topic of using gear in small spaces, do any of you synth folk have good strategies for quickly assembling-and-disassembling your setups? My guitar amp and pedalboard have a permanent home, but I just don’t have enough horizontal space to keep my electronic doo-dads out all the time, so I don’t end up using them much. Finding power adapters, usb cables, setting everything up, troubleshooting midi settings, etc, etc.

An OP-1 just isn’t justifiable but I really get the appeal, ha.

As an offering, here’s my one eccentric synth-adjacent bit of hardware: a DIY Norns Shield controlled by a launchpad mini.

1780852720094.jpeg
 
Band of Dans said:
Excellent gear drawer, @tegendemuur.

On the topic of using gear in small spaces, do any of you synth folk have good strategies for quickly assembling-and-disassembling your setups? My guitar amp and pedalboard have a permanent home, but I just don’t have enough horizontal space to keep my electronic doo-dads out all the time, so I don’t end up using them much. Finding power adapters, usb cables, setting everything up, troubleshooting midi settings, etc, etc.

An OP-1 just isn’t justifiable but I really get the appeal, ha.

As an offering, here’s my one eccentric synth-adjacent bit of hardware: a DIY Norns Shield controlled by a launchpad mini.

View attachment 118494
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's one of the more difficult things to do since they come in so many shapes and sizes. I've been thinking about that as well. I'd love to figure out a way to make a vertical "pedalboard" for small desktop gear... So you can use them a la eurorack in in the shape of a wall in front of you. (Not too big; it should be portable like a typical large suitcase!) Just controllers on the desk, and all the rest nicely organized in front of you, where you don't have to look downwards towards the desk all the time. It's only the bigger synths that have Vesa mounting holes in the bottom. Would love to see that in everything, so yo can make a board onto which you can screw gear from behind.

But, not going to happen! So, I have these shelves with angled front/bottoms in mind. Kinda like how Josh Scott showcases pedals in the background of his videos, but with an opening in the rear for some patchbay stuff, so changing up things doesn't get too painful. I'd love to set them at 90 degrees, but would prefer having them not fall... So yeah, leaning backwards seems to more reasonable way to do things.

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@Band of Dans , @tegendemuur, @jwyles90 - for desktop modules, could you just velcro them to plywood pedalboard-style? Then either use it stood up at an angle, or flat, but be able to stash it when you're not using it?

Not the same problem, but here's a shot of my rack project:

Erik S

Post in thread 'What’s on *YOUR* workbench?'

Just finished building this keyboard rack.

I found a UK company that makes cool racks and attempted to copy one of their designs since I already had a pile of aluminum.

www.obelisquedesign.co.uk

AMS Command System - Obelisque Design Module stands

The AMS Command Station features 3 tiers for keyboards, A 3U 19" rack slot and a place to put up to 2 sound modules at the top.
www.obelisquedesign.co.uk www.obelisquedesign.co.uk

D70AFD70-C95E-46F5-9ADB-63734AB08EEF.jpeg

9173162C-CAB6-4975-9033-D7F9CB9F5EF2.jpeg
  • Like
  • This ROCKS!
  • Wow
 
Erik S said:
@Band of Dans , @tegendemuur, @jwyles90 - for desktop modules, could you just velcro them to plywood pedalboard-style? Then either use it stood up at an angle, or flat, but be able to stash it when you're not using it?

Not the same problem, but here's a shot of my rack project:

Erik S

Post in thread 'What’s on *YOUR* workbench?'

Just finished building this keyboard rack.

I found a UK company that makes cool racks and attempted to copy one of their designs since I already had a pile of aluminum.

www.obelisquedesign.co.uk

AMS Command System - Obelisque Design Module stands

The AMS Command Station features 3 tiers for keyboards, A 3U 19" rack slot and a place to put up to 2 sound modules at the top.
www.obelisquedesign.co.uk www.obelisquedesign.co.uk

D70AFD70-C95E-46F5-9ADB-63734AB08EEF.jpeg

9173162C-CAB6-4975-9033-D7F9CB9F5EF2.jpeg
  • Like
  • This ROCKS!
  • Wow
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Got the same keystep! Lovely little thing! Really don't need more features. And it does both midi and cv very well. You can rock the house with just that device at the wheels.

And only jumped on it when the Chroma version came out. Not a terrible big fan of all the white stuff that's been popular for years now.
 
tegendemuur said:
Thanks! Looks like there's quite a few ideas to steal from them for a wooden version that I can cobble together myself :)
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Love that. If you wind up putting something together on your own, definitely share the progress! If nothing else I always think it's cool to see what other people put together and admire the craftsmanship.
 
Replying to my own question, I found this extremely niche subreddit the other week https://www.reddit.com/r/casesetups/. Much more oriented toward gigging than convenient home setups, but I kinda like the idea of treating my bleep bloop stuff like a pedalboard with pre-configured wiring, power, etc.

Another nice compact component: I’ve been using one of these tiny zoom mixers for the last year or so, primarily as a convenient interface. I can even plug it directly into my iPhone to record demos or whatever.

Edit: USB power has been a big confounding factor as well. I’d been using a basic USB-C PD hub for a while but would get annoying intermittent hum, even with nice DI stuff. The solution (for now) has been ridiculously simple: instead of powering the hub with one the many fast-charge wall warts littered around the house, I’m using an Apple laptop charger with the three-prong extension attached. Adding a ground to the power supply completely eliminates hum for me. And I like the idea of basing my usb power setup on a ubiquitous adapter you can find basically anywhere. Used ones are basically free if you ask around.
 
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jwyles90 said:
Been on a bit of a hiatus from building building these days (just realized the last thing I actually finished up build-wise was in December of 2025 :oops:) but have still been tinkering in one way or another. I've found myself getting really into synths and drum machines and sequencers and the like, which feels like an inevitability after deep diving into pedals and effects for the last few years. After getting fed up with having to plug and unplug synths one at a time if I wanted to play them, I decided to clear off my building desk and turn it into a little synth playground/workstation. View attachment 118361
It's not much, but it's a fun little corner to get lost in for a while. The mixer has been cool to mess around with too, especially since I can use the aux ins/outs to get some pedals going with different pieces of gear. There's also a Synth Library out here in Portland that lets members check out gear for three weeks at a time, so I've been having a lot of fun messing around with different devices and skiffs and them recording those and sampling them with the Digitakt. I'm tempted by modular stuff as well, but haven't quite decided if I want to go all out on that route or not, so time will tell.



Anyways, I just thought it would be cool to share my setup and see what other people are working with! I'd also love to hear what other people are doing, open up discussion about different synths that we're excited about, etc etc.
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I added a dedicated patchbay at one point to make it easier for routing and ability to use pedals if I liked. Also a larger audio interface with more channels so I could run everything at once to "perform" a track rather than tons of overdubs.

For modular, I love the idea but I know I would go overboard. That said, there is VCV Rack and it is awesome, I have been using it since it was beta. The free version is amazing, hundreds of modules including emulations of hardware and it sounds good. The paid version becomes a plugin, I have that directly into logic to multitrack.

Beware, it is addicting.

First downloaded it at the airport after seeing a post about it, used it the entire flight from Denver to Toronto. Got to my hotel, checked in, set it up and got back into it. Before I knew it the sun was rising and I had a meeting in 3 hours. ROUGH day but worth it!
 
tegendemuur said:
Yeah, it's one of the more difficult things to do since they come in so many shapes and sizes. I've been thinking about that as well. I'd love to figure out a way to make a vertical "pedalboard" for small desktop gear... So you can use them a la eurorack in in the shape of a wall in front of you. (Not too big; it should be portable like a typical large suitcase!) Just controllers on the desk, and all the rest nicely organized in front of you, where you don't have to look downwards towards the desk all the time. It's only the bigger synths that have Vesa mounting holes in the bottom. Would love to see that in everything, so yo can make a board onto which you can screw gear from behind.

But, not going to happen! So, I have these shelves with angled front/bottoms in mind. Kinda like how Josh Scott showcases pedals in the background of his videos, but with an opening in the rear for some patchbay stuff, so changing up things doesn't get too painful. I'd love to set them at 90 degrees, but would prefer having them not fall... So yeah, leaning backwards seems to more reasonable way to do things.

View attachment 118519
Click to expand...
This recently popped up on my Etsy account as I was looking for a midi keyboard tray to attach to my desk: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1485024399/handcrafted-vertical-desk-synthesizer
 
While we’re talking about synths, anyone have a Behringer Wasp? Not the biggest Behringer fan, but I’ve been itching to get a wasp for a few years now— just really wanna use it alongside my 🅱️oog 🅱️odel 🅱️ for some hardcore-era Devo-styled synth-punk jams
 
No experience with the Behringer, but I’ve had the Doepfer Wasp filter module for many years. It can get very gnarly, definitely one of the essential synth filters!

Check out the inimitable Revillos rockin’ an original EDP Wasp…
 
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