Post your latest purchase!!

[Voltor07]

See, the problem with vintage American made tubes is replacing them. I have tons of NOS tubes I bought on E-bay for pennies on the dollar. A box of 24 for $6.50, for example. The sad truth is, that many of these were stored in musty basements for 40+ years. Unless tubes are stored in controlled environments, they corrode from the inside, as evidenced by white powder on the internal components. I was guaranteed these tubes were tested, and tested good. The reality is, that many of them have a bluish amber glow at the bases when installed in amps. If you do find NOS tubes in mint condition, they will cost a lot of money. And Russian tubes aren't quite the same, though they are much easier to find. MHO.

[drcarver]

Those UA tube pres are cool. You use them for synths? I have been using these mostly for drums, but the minimoog sounds great through them as well:

I have a Vintech as well and love it. It is my go-to pre for Rhodes. I've been using the UA for bass and vocals mainly, but I've been experimenting with the tube drive and my Voyager. I think the UA and Vintech compliment each other very nicely.

[c7sus]

If you guys ever decide to go the straight-wire-with-gain route check out Haynes Davis stuff.

http://davisound.com/ToolBoxes.html

I have TB-10 #001 and it is a great piece of gear. Dead quiet even at extreme gain levels.

[Voltor07]

If you guys ever decide to go the straight-wire-with-gain route check out Haynes Davis stuff.

http://davisound.com/ToolBoxes.html

I have TB-10 #001 and it is a great piece of gear. Dead quiet even at extreme gain levels.

That stuff can't be cheap! Not only are the tech specs better than most audiophile gear, but it's WOOD!

[unfiltered37]

Yeah, I've seen that Davis stuff. If you are going to pay out the ass, I would rather get something with character. But I haven't heard any of the Davis stuff, so I can't knock it. Supposedly there are also super high quality clean pres called Gordon that are lauded, I'd like to try them.

Dr. Carver, I am lucky enough to have a Massive Passive, which is the only tube gear I have, other than a fender vibrochamp. It is not very "tubey" unless you boost/attenuate the same frequencies on different bands, which gets some tube distortion that sounds cool on the model D. But I usually just use it to carve out awesome sounds with little or no distortion. Hopefully at some point I will able to afford a modular system and an API lunchbox. I want to be able to use high quality recording gear with synth modules, like running each oscillator into an API or Neve pre, using a lunchbox summing mixer rather than a synth mixer for audio signals, and compressing/coloring different stages of the audio path. That's kinda what I was thinking about when I suggested that moog make 500 series modules (I still think they got the idea from me). Though I think it turned out to be a bad idea the way they implemented it. Too expensive, no CV.

But honestly out of all my gear, the best distortion I have for the minimoog and other keys is the MF delay gain. For some reason it sounds awesome on synths and clavinet, better than the gain on the MF filter to my ears. Anyone know if it has a different gain stage than other foogers?

[drcarver]

If you want a killer OD/Distortion, you should check out the Wampler Ecstasy drive. It is by far the best OD pedal I've ever used. I use it mostly for my Rhodes, but it is killer paired with the Moog. It goes from subtle break-up to full on Distortion.

[EricK]

Can you post an audio clip of that and the rhodes?

[drcarver]

Absolutely. I'm in the midst of a move, so it may be a couple of weeks...But as soon as I get my studio put back together, I'll post some.

[EMwhite]

I don't have any direct experience but the Wampler pedals are highly regarded, at least for guitar. Have a look at Burgerman666 on Youtube. He's a bloke from down under and a very good guitar play/demo'er. Not sure if this one is reviewed directly and it obviously will have different characteristics when played with keys, but interesting none the less.

[muksys]

I'm sold on Wompler. Liked the demo's I have seen.

I just picked up this guy


I had a Lexicon I-ONIX42S, but the USB completely took a poop. Coincidentally, that line has been discontinued. Now they are called something different. Guess instead of doing a mass recall on crappy hardware, just discontinue it. I'm so done with Lexicon. Thats the second Interface to crap within a year.

So far, the focusrite is tops! Best interface I could find at that pricepoint with everything I was looking for. Sounds much better than the Lexicon too.

Of course, I was going to get that Opus-3 at Sam Ash, but the ability to record is more important, imo.

[vasago]

tHE NIfty blue thing is my new weapon of mass destruction.

[EMwhite]

Which WMD? Are you talking about the Phophet (or is that a Poly Evolver?) Or the keyboard on the lower left (workstation looking keyboard)?

Either way, my two favorite pieces of gear in that picture are the Xpander and the OB-X(a),8?

Unbelievable setup. very nice; even a Minitaur peeking on the right.

[vasago]

Which WMD? Are you talking about the Phophet (or is that a Poly Evolver?) Or the keyboard on the lower left (workstation looking keyboard)?

Either way, my two favorite pieces of gear in that picture are the Xpander and the OB-X(a),8?

Unbelievable setup. very nice; even a Minitaur peeking on the right.

I mean the Poly Evolver! That thing is such a beast! I like how you can sequencer filter sweeps on it, plus tons more routing options. Last night I spent some time trying to sequence the distortion+LFO>filter sweep to alternate fading in and out(distortion coming in as filter/lfo sweep going out, and vice versa). Very cool. Dont know what I can actually do with it musically though. And thats a prophet 10, I havent decided on a obx/8 yet. If I start wall mounting stuff that may be a reality in the near future though...

And the Xpander is by far my favorite piece of gear. Work horse of a synth, which is why I bought the polyevolver, very similar to the amount of things you can do with it. That and it is one of the few modern analogs worth the metal/plastic they are built of. I was very impressed with the way it sounded, plays/functions. I had a prophet 8 for a while and was left feeling "meh" about it. However, the polyevolver is the DSI instrument to get, however I have yet to touch a Tempest, so any judgments regarding it dont exist for me, yet. Considering buying one just to find out if I like it or not, because unfortunately, there are not many places to try them around here.

:EDIT: My minitaur is for sale/trade if anyone wants it. I want another mf104z if some one has one they dont want

[scimmiamk]

I just got back a moog rogue (this time modified with midi input and modular kit) and doepfer dark energy.
I've also been able to find a Farfisa Syntorchestra that sounds sweet

[scimmiamk]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9682949@N08/7122113485/