The whole phenomenon is nothing less than simple "supply and demand". The supply of these old pieces of gear is simply getting lower as units break down for good or owners decide to keep them permanently and decide never to sell them.
The demand comes and goes, but as long as people know about these pieces of equipment, the demand will be there. I think it's just that some of us have been into hardware long enough to remember those years where the prices were very reasonable and we expected that would always be the case (or at least those days would come again). I don't expect that it will necessarily ever happen again.
I think it should be a general rule not to sell any decent piece of analog kit to buy something new that's digital or worse, software. You'll only regret it.
ebay makes me angry
@AK
i know this is going way OT but one really good reason to go modular is analogue FM. if you love FM bro.
it makes digital FM sound thin and weedy
the voyager has FM, but its not that usuable compared to the FM on almost all of the decent modular VCOs these days.
for percussion, its the absolute bollox.
i can tell by what youre saying bro, modular is for you.
i know this is going way OT but one really good reason to go modular is analogue FM. if you love FM bro.
it makes digital FM sound thin and weedy
the voyager has FM, but its not that usuable compared to the FM on almost all of the decent modular VCOs these days.
for percussion, its the absolute bollox.
i can tell by what youre saying bro, modular is for you.
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oblioblioblio
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+1 analogue fm where you have real life analogue charm and can modulate it.steevio wrote:@AK
i know this is going way OT but one really good reason to go modular is analogue FM. if you love FM bro.
it makes digital FM sound thin and weedy
the voyager has FM, but its not that usuable compared to the FM on almost all of the decent modular VCOs these days.
for percussion, its the absolute bollox.
i can tell by what youre saying bro, modular is for you.
you can do so much. Percussive, melodic, both at the same time. Becuase of the design you can have one voice that easily changes between many octaves and still sounds interesting.
Digital FM is very different compared to it.
[ If you're interested in analogue FM, make sure you get a triangle core VCO as the carrier osc (and possibly as the modulator osc also), e.g. bubblesound uLFO, Wiard Anti-Osc, Plan B M15 , (as opposed to saw core, which is allegedly not as interesting for FM) ]
Last edited by oblioblioblio on Mon Aug 23, 2010 8:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
going back to the 101's price, it's analogue and it's got keys so if it was new today i guess it would be around £400. the mopho KB is £550 and that's got more features. that's probably the closes thing to the 101 in todays market. then compare it to the price of the dark energy that hasn't even got keys.
Steevio, I'd certainly consider it. On thing though, is that you never seem to be exposed to that type of gear - as in, I actually never hear about it in magazines or general forum chit-chat. I'd definitely have to read up on modular set up to at least get my head around the concept and way of working. ( Any recommended reading/links? )
How much have you and Oblio spent on your modular set-ups? I'm just aware that it can get expensive with the need or desire to expand.
@Tone-def, yeah I read a review of that just yesterday - for the price, would make that seem more attractive than a 101, of course that's barring sentimental reasons lol. It's good though that companies like DSI can manufacture products like this and price them sensibly, hopefully, it might have an effect on the 2nd hand market and act as a stopper for inflated prices. As an example, if the 101 went up to like £500 or more, an obvious choice might be to buy a new monophonic analog synth such as the Mopho. If these new products didn't exist, would there be a limit to how high the prices might go on older analog gear?
How much have you and Oblio spent on your modular set-ups? I'm just aware that it can get expensive with the need or desire to expand.
@Tone-def, yeah I read a review of that just yesterday - for the price, would make that seem more attractive than a 101, of course that's barring sentimental reasons lol. It's good though that companies like DSI can manufacture products like this and price them sensibly, hopefully, it might have an effect on the 2nd hand market and act as a stopper for inflated prices. As an example, if the 101 went up to like £500 or more, an obvious choice might be to buy a new monophonic analog synth such as the Mopho. If these new products didn't exist, would there be a limit to how high the prices might go on older analog gear?
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oblioblioblio
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yep modular doesn't get much exposure in popular media.
i spent quite a lot of money. I sold all non-modular gear and big parts of my music collection, pawned body organs, used credit cards etc etc. But I now have a complete set up, and I'm not really gonna think about getting any new gear for many years, maybe not even the rest of my life. I have the musical instrument of my dreams. For the studio, for live. I've been making 2-3 hours of recordings almost every day and my whole musical output/life has changed. The best investment I've ever made.
a really massively significant point in my musical life. like the honeymoon days of ecstacy or a proper wild eyed trip.
I reckon you could get a seriously nice modular set up to compliment a few existing pieces, or maybe even work all on it's own for 1000 to 2000 that would make you very happy. It all depends on what kind of modules you like and your workflow. The amount I spent could have been shrunk a bit with a more economical appraoch, I went for quality but a bit minimal.
There is a possibility that you get so excited that you go further than you initially planned. If you do want to go further it'll be for a good reason, but maybe try to set yourself some limits so you don't stretch yourself crazy badly.
Definitely a serious investment of time and resources, but I'm the happiest I've ever been with my music.
read modular thread on this forum and lurk on muffwiggler.com
i spent quite a lot of money. I sold all non-modular gear and big parts of my music collection, pawned body organs, used credit cards etc etc. But I now have a complete set up, and I'm not really gonna think about getting any new gear for many years, maybe not even the rest of my life. I have the musical instrument of my dreams. For the studio, for live. I've been making 2-3 hours of recordings almost every day and my whole musical output/life has changed. The best investment I've ever made.
a really massively significant point in my musical life. like the honeymoon days of ecstacy or a proper wild eyed trip.
I reckon you could get a seriously nice modular set up to compliment a few existing pieces, or maybe even work all on it's own for 1000 to 2000 that would make you very happy. It all depends on what kind of modules you like and your workflow. The amount I spent could have been shrunk a bit with a more economical appraoch, I went for quality but a bit minimal.
There is a possibility that you get so excited that you go further than you initially planned. If you do want to go further it'll be for a good reason, but maybe try to set yourself some limits so you don't stretch yourself crazy badly.
Definitely a serious investment of time and resources, but I'm the happiest I've ever been with my music.
read modular thread on this forum and lurk on muffwiggler.com
Last edited by oblioblioblio on Tue Aug 24, 2010 4:46 pm, edited 5 times in total.
i'd echo everything oblio said, its completely changed how i work, my workflow is unstoppable, since i started gradually putting it all together 8 months ago, i've got over 200 hours of recordings, more than i did in the previous 10 years, and ive had to organise a festival at the same time.
i managed to do a fairly rudimentary live set at the festival, after not even knowing anything about modulars 8 months ago.
the thought of using a computer to make music now, makes me feel nauseous, and i was only using the PC for midi-sequencing.
ive spent over £2000, not sure exaclty how much, but i just decided to go for it after buying an initial small setup for around £1000, and realising the potential, and the boost to my creativity.
i just sold kit i wasnt using much, (like my Nord3 ) when i needed to expand.
its kind of levelled out now, i'm selling as many modules as i'm buying, and not expanding beyond my 18U case.
its probably worth reading the modular synthesis thread if you havent already
http://www.mnml.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php ... +synthesis
its true theres not much info out there, and muffwiggler is very much noise based (although its a great resource if you can read between the lines)
but its very intuitive once you get started, you just need to get a basic system together and build it how you want it for how you work and what you want to achieve.
build your own perfect synth/rhythm machine
i managed to do a fairly rudimentary live set at the festival, after not even knowing anything about modulars 8 months ago.
the thought of using a computer to make music now, makes me feel nauseous, and i was only using the PC for midi-sequencing.
ive spent over £2000, not sure exaclty how much, but i just decided to go for it after buying an initial small setup for around £1000, and realising the potential, and the boost to my creativity.
i just sold kit i wasnt using much, (like my Nord3 ) when i needed to expand.
its kind of levelled out now, i'm selling as many modules as i'm buying, and not expanding beyond my 18U case.
its probably worth reading the modular synthesis thread if you havent already
http://www.mnml.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php ... +synthesis
its true theres not much info out there, and muffwiggler is very much noise based (although its a great resource if you can read between the lines)
but its very intuitive once you get started, you just need to get a basic system together and build it how you want it for how you work and what you want to achieve.
build your own perfect synth/rhythm machine