small analog bassline synths...

[AK]

I'm seriously looking at the Mopho KB, I know it's DCO's but I've read good things about it and how versatile it is. I remember a thread on here about it but was wondering if anyone has one and what they think about it?

I've had a Waldorf Pulse in the past - well 2 as it goes and I seriously like that machine but the hands on thing is more of an attractive prospect. I just want something solid and analog for bass and I'm pretty much there ( apart from a mixer with more inputs but that's another story )

I'm off to try to hear demo's of the Mopho KB.

[steevio]

nooooo.... maybe i should have got SH101!!

there are downsides as well. if you cant or afraid to to mods yourself, it will cost you to make those mods.
SH101 is old and hard to find spare parts if something breaks.
if your planning to use a DAW for sequencing than youll need a midi2cv converter to use midi with it.

that said, i had 101 in the past. cant say im that sorry for selling it as i got something im satisfied with instead. but if ill be able to afford another one in the future, ill definitely get one (still have the BSR for midi2cv convertion).

yes there are downsides, they are old and you are bound to get the odd dodgy slider every now and then, ive got a few on mine, and at the moment you cant get hold of them, however they will reappear, as the company who made them can make another batch if anyone orders enough of them, so its down to the vintage spares guys to take a risk.

the guy at Vintage Planet ; http://www.vintageplanet.nl/was thinking about it a year or so ago.

However, ive had far more trouble with NEW (bought new) kit than ive ever had with any of my vintage gear.
the following gear has had faults, some of them major and completely disabling the machine, requiring returning to the manufacturer;

DSI Prophet 08 - wouldnt ever buy a DSI product again.
Access Virus B
Alesis Andromeda
Moog Voyager
Allen & heath Xone 92
Pioneer DJM600
Pioneer CDJ500
Pioneer CDJ500S
Pioneer CDJ800 ------ Pioneer gear is absolutely sh!t !

thats pretty much all the new gear ive bought in the last 7 or 8 years. quality control these days almost doesnt exist, and everything is made in China (i know its a cliche', but this goes across the board into domestic electronics too)

-------------------------------------------

a midi CV convertor is a must for anyone thinking of combining computer based sequencing with old gear, so if you are that way inclined you should have one anyway, they are fairly cheap, i got a kenton Pro 2 off eBay for £100.

i'd never sell my SH101s.

ps i'll take the back off my SH101 today and see how i modded it, and get back.

i also agree with Hades, theres no need to mod an SH101, its a great synth as it is.

[::BLM::]

AK - not sure what the mopho is like, but my prophet has has this weird clicking type noise whenever I go low down in the bass department. It's a noise that goes in betweeen the notes and is really annoying. If I was going to go for bass I would stay away from DSI just based on my experiences with the prophet.

[deccard]

AK - not sure what the mopho is like, but my prophet has has this weird clicking type noise whenever I go low down in the bass department. It's a noise that goes in betweeen the notes and is really annoying. If I was going to go for bass I would stay away from DSI just based on my experiences with the prophet.

i´m pretty happy with my mopho. would prefer to have a tetra actually but nothing to complain about it. dont heard any negative about that. compared to mfb which seems like hit and miss when you buy one.

[steevio]

AK - not sure what the mopho is like, but my prophet has has this weird clicking type noise whenever I go low down in the bass department. It's a noise that goes in betweeen the notes and is really annoying. If I was going to go for bass I would stay away from DSI just based on my experiences with the prophet.

i´m pretty happy with my mopho. would prefer to have a tetra actually but nothing to complain about dsi. played recently with a prophet and was great.
dont see many people complain about dsi compared to the amount of machines they sell.

the Prophet 08 with encoders was a dog and everyone knows about it. its well documented all over the web.
i actually took mine to bits as instructed by DSI and lubricated the encoders, which made it worse, and i couldnt believe the poor quality of the encoders. compared to the robust potentiometers in older gear, they looked like they would last a year or two at most.
believe me, this stuff is not built to last.

DSI customer support however is probably the best ive ever encountered. fair play to them on that.

[Hades]

ive modded both my SH101s without damaging them in any way.

i turned the modulation input socket where you are supposed to plug the mod handle in, into an external input, its a really simple mod, just one resistor and a wire from the socket to a point on the PCB.

it means you can route an external signal to the filter,

unfortunately i did it so long ago, i cant remember how i did it, but i got the info off the internet, so it should be traceable, and also a mate of mine told me about it, so i'll ask him if he can remember how to do it,

and saving patches ? who needs it ?, people are too addicted to memory, use your own memory!, it only takes seconds to get a sound back with a simple synth like the SH101

its good to hear there's other people out there who get why the SH101 is so amazing,

the SH-101 was on my list for a while, and about 6 months ago I just missed getting one for a more than reasonable price. I kind of forgot about it for a while after that.
but it were your words steevio, that made me put it back on top of my list.
I figured, ok here's this guy that has a great modular system, and tons of mileage with different synths from all kinds of brands,
and he's still defending this one oscillator no patch storage synth from almost 30 years ago.
I'm not the type to go "ah, but this or that guy used this synth so I must buy it", but I do believe there's no smoke without fire.
we've disagreed on other synths (andromeda), but I'll give you credit that everything you said about the SH-101 was very true !
so many thx for that !

you know, when I was testing it before buying, I thought "hmmm, ok, this is fine, but not as great as I expected it to be"
but I figured, ok, let's buy it, run it through the proper setup at home, and add some external FX, and then see what happens,
if I still don't like it then, I just resell it.
I mean, come on, how many synths can you properly judge its potential in 30 minutes testing time ?
Finding a good setup of gear that fits your needs usually works in a trial-and-error kind of way, or at least that's how it's worked for me.
But as soon as I came home and hooked it up to my setup and added some external FX, it was love at first sight !
fck lack of patch memory, you don't need it with such a pure but basic set of features.
And every couple of minutes I was like "ah, but there's the sound of that track".
Very familiar sounding yet still open for many new possibilities and definitely a synth I won't get sick of very easily, that's how I would describe my SH-101 experience in a nutshell.

and to get back to the price you pay for vintage gear compared to getting new gear.
I never quite got why people are complaining about prices for vintage gear, even nowadays.
I've been lucky to have been into the synth buying thing long enough to get proper vintage synths for a very ok price (although I wasn't early enough to get all of them at a real steal price). For example, I bought a perfect Juno 60 for 300€ about 7 years ago, I've been told they go for 800€ now.
I got a JX10 for 200€, I'm guessing they go for 600€ or more now. (just to name 2 simple examples)
Anyway, I'm still convinced that a Juno 60 is worth 800€, and a JX10 is worth 600€.
Their built quality is very good, and the sound you get out of them is something you barely find in new gear, and if you do, it's still not for such a cheap price.
So in my opinion, it's whatever you choose to buy : you want to cash out for new gear, fine.
or you take the calculated risk and buy some vintage gear.
The built quality of the old gear is almost always way better than the new gear you buy now, trust me.
With the vintage gear, you know you might have problems later on, but that's why I'm saying calculated risk. You look up on the net what might give you trouble, or what might break down. And you stay way clear of the models that are known to break down soon or have known issues you can't really solve easily or for a reasonable price. Plus you try to find the possibility to test the synth out before buying.
But if you respect those simple rules, it's rather easy to fetch great sounding vintage gear for what I still believe is an ok price.
And your gear will only go up in price afterwards if you ever decide to sell it a few years later.
With any of the vintage synths I bought, I never had a single issue, ever ! (knocks on wood)
But if I did, I'd still see it as part of the vintage-gear-buying-thing.

And just for the record : I'm by no means some vintage synth-junkie. Whatever gets the job done is fine for me, whether it be vintage or brand new.

[deccard]

AK - not sure what the mopho is like, but my prophet has has this weird clicking type noise whenever I go low down in the bass department. It's a noise that goes in betweeen the notes and is really annoying. If I was going to go for bass I would stay away from DSI just based on my experiences with the prophet.

i´m pretty happy with my mopho. would prefer to have a tetra actually but nothing to complain about dsi. played recently with a prophet and was great.
dont see many people complain about dsi compared to the amount of machines they sell.

the Prophet 08 with encoders was a dog and everyone knows about it. its well documented all over the web.
i actually took mine to bits as instructed by DSI and lubricated the encoders, which made it worse, and i couldnt believe the poor quality of the encoders. compared to the robust potentiometers in older gear, they looked like they would last a year or two at most.
believe me, this stuff is not built to last.

DSI customer support however is probably the best ive ever encountered. fair play to them on that.

yes you are right about the encoders of the prophet. thats why i edited my post
but there is the PE version now. also they changed the production facillities in the us i think.
the mophos doesnt have these problems.

[oblioblioblio]

expensive music gear with a short lifetime is a crime by the designers.

The stuff that I have is designed to last as long as is possible given the possiblity of worldwide apocolypse, or at least takes into account gradual death of the component industry. Anything less is shoddy profiteering, or at least absent minded short sightedness.

I too believe that the SH101 is a good machine, and worth the investment required.

I don't think heavy mods are necessary. The functionality of the machine already perfect for the limitations of the audio signal path. I had a heavily modded MC202 but it didn't change the overall potential of the unit, although I would be keen to try it again... (details of the mod are on analogue solutions homepage)