Bad Gear

Today we are going to talk about the Polyend Play Plus. Is this updated version of the original Play groovebox and distant cousin to the Polyend Tracker worth the price of the hardware upgrade (which is $399). Is GearTube toxic AF??? Should you just keep the OG Play and add a few synths instead? Are early adopters of Play disappointed for a reason?

Today we are going to talk about Teenage Engineering Pocket Operator Modular 400. Can this analog Eurorack compatible modular synthesizer DIY kit be used in actual music production or is it yet another stylish coffee table decoration released by the Swedish design company? Will it survive the IKEA - like assembly process and why do I call it The Yellow Bastard ?

Today we are going to talk about Korg Volca Bass. Is this member of the original Volca trio (Korg Volca Beats, Korg Volca Keys and The OG) still The Bass??? Has this compact synth turned into a modern analog synth classic?

In this video we are going to talk about how a piece of Bad Gear turned into my favorite synthesizer, the reasons why I’m using this ugly design failure all the time, why the Roland TB-3 is massively underrated and how both total beginners and seasoned pros can benefit from what only SEEMS to be a UI nightmare and dumbed-down preset abomination trying to capitalize on the heritage of the famous Roland TB-303 . This is a redemption story of the infamous green synth .

Today we are going to talk about the Yamaha Reface DX FM synthesizer. Is this 2015 descendant to the iconic Yamaha DX7 , Yamaha DX100 and sibling of the Yamaha Reface CS worthy of the legacy and can it keep up with other modern FM synths like the Korg OpSix ? Are we entering the Danger Zone ?

Today we are going to talk about Roland TR-06 . Does it even make sense to release a digital drum machine based on the not so iconic Roland TR-606 ? Was the analog Behringer RD-6 first this time? Did we need another Roland Boutique reissue of a a vintage drum machine and 80s classic like the tr606 and why would anyone want this ? Do the additional sounds taken from other machines like the Roland TR-808 and Roland TR-909 make a difference?

Today we are going to talk about SOMA Lyra-8 . Is this organismic synthesizer , ritualistic instrument and icon of industrial civilization a modern synth classic or is the King naked? Here on Bad Gear - Synthesizer Plays You !!! Synth plays you in this synth ritual .

There aren’t many software companies whose influence on electronic music is comparable to iconic hardware brands like Roland and Korg - Native Instruments is certainly one of them. They defined the industry standard for sampling, established in-the-box modular synthesis and made using FM much too easy but today we are going to talk about Massive. Putting this 2006 wavetable softsynth and primary ghost writer of the first three Skrillex EPs on the show is - quite literally - long overdue as, after the usual venture capitalist fustercluck and discontinuation of Absynth, it can only be a matter of months until this classic plugin stops working properly on contemporary computers.

It's Kindergarten Engineering !!! I’m still coping with NAMM 2024 PTSD and I wasn’t even there. Korg released the successor to a synth the world forgot, Uli is getting really good at selling faster horses and Moog decided to save the important announcements for a much bigger show. Yamaha - on the other hand - returned from a groovebox hiatus of over two decades only to release a display-less Lego cigarette trying hard to catch up on a trend based on a device that was announced at Messe 2009. Yamaha - It’s good to have you back.

Today we are going to talk about EP-133 KO II. This compact sampler and 80s tax consultant’s best friend lookalike is based on one of TEs very own Pocket Operators and while its price tag seems to be missing another zero at the end having "how to repair it" videos come out only days after its release is NOT the kind of innovation we had wished for.

Nothing is sacred . After weeks of brand-new direct-to-Bad Gear game changers even hardened internet trolls like me fancy a little palette cleanser. Today we are going to talk about the original Roland TR-707. This vintage drum machine and digital sibling to the more iconic TR-808 and TR-909 is mostly perceived in one of two ways: a timeless classic for both realistic drum sounds and futuristic 80s house OR the most boring and obsolete cheesebox since whatever Casio came up with back then.

Hey everybody, in this video we will take a look at the infamous Akai Animals, Rhythm Wolf, Tom Cat and - of course - the legendary Timbre Wolf. We will try to find out if they are as bad as everyone says, how these analog machines have earned their questionable reputation and maybe we can even make them work in actual music production .

After redirecting the money for a nice 2018 weekend trip, spending a couple of years in my own private Elektron bootcamp and embracing the “limitations breed creativity” Zen I have become quite an avid Digitakt user. However, today we are going to talk about the Boss DR-5. This 1994 drum machine looks suspiciously similar to the Swedish mono samplers so after rumors of Digitakts discontinuation started swirling a while back I might as well take a look at this cheapskate alternative.

Synthesizers can be considered a mature technology. Traditional manufacturers focus on the regurgitation of classics, market disruption is limited to design overkill and process optimization and real innovators are crushed by the relentless economics of this oversaturated niche. Today we are going to talk about Hydrasynth. This range of next-generation synthesizers caused a hype that usually only comes with the release of Scandinavian hipster gadgets and depending on whom you ask they’re either the CS-80 of the 2020s or a harsh and digital sounding testament to the demise of a culture.

We can all agree that Roland created a few quite respectable drum machine like the Roland TR-808 , Roland TR-909 , Roland TR-606 and Roland TR-707 . However, since then their target demographic has dwindled: analog enjoyers have joined the Cult of Uli, people willing to RTFM are using next-generation Scandinavian abaci like Elektron Digitakt or Elektron Octatrack and real musicians switched to computers decades ago. Today we are going to talk about Roland TR-8s. This 2018 flagship rhythm performer not only boasts a design language that clearly focuses on inner beauty - it also combines the played-out sounds of the 80s with the workflow of a 90s ROMpler.

There is no lack of compact, costly and multitalented touchscreen devices in our lives and usually we want to get away from them - especially when making music. Today we are going to talk about 1010music blackbox. This 2019 “thing” not only threw down the gauntlet to its competitors in the crowded field of sampler / sequencer combos with an acute fit of feature-based megalomania, it also wants to take on the big Berlin Excel of DAWs.

Roland instruments are the pinnacle of music technology: tones so awesome that they are still force-fed to music enjoyers decades after their creation, timeless design and a history of pushing forward innovation exactly where it’s needed while preserving their great heritage. Today we are going to talk about MC-707. This OG groovebox for the 2020s comes with the third-best display to ever grace a Roland machine, their second-best modern take on the classic sounds and THE best method to sell more cloud subscriptions.

There are these unfounded rumors that this show is not actually about Bad Gear, that I just pick random stuff I want to make music with and let clueless online trolls do their magic. This is - of course - a steaming pile of horse dung and I just recently failed to find enough hate on, for example, the Access Virus B, Novation Drumstation and Dreadbox Typhon. However, today we are going to talk about Digitakt II and as this particular unit was sent over by Elektron as a long term loan even they must be aware of the fact that late 80s polyphony, partial physics workflow and a lack of essential hipster features make for some juicy online controversy.

I made BEATS on the PLAYSTATION and THIS happened In this video we are going to talk about Music 2000 - or MTV Music Generator if you are from the US - a piece of music production software for the original playstation or PS 1 / PSx . I initially bought this late 90s console digital audio workstation for the show Bad Gear only to find out that literally no one hates it. It was not only the first music creation tool for an entire generation of Crash Bandicoot and Tekken 3 - playing nerds, it also comes with all the goofy graphics and weird limitations of a modern groovebox.

In spite of Skynet-like plugins, Insta-worthy designs and workflows that give you the full Dark Souls experience the old-fashioned one-knob-per-function approach is still the pinnacle of synth UI for many musicians. Today we are going to talk about Peak. This 2017 hybrid high end poly synth not only comes with a knob-laden interface for grown-ups, a not-so-secret sound design sauce and more menu diving than a Roland groovebox, it also delivers a roided-up version of that distinct Novation tone you either love or hate.

The evolution of electronic musical instruments is mysterious: while we have seen vast improvements in the fields of design, bling bling per square inch and workflow elitism, the spec sheets are oftentimes outclassed by the feature sets of many vintage instruments. Today we are going to talk about the Electribe 2 Sampler. This most recent installment of the iconic groove machine range was brought to the market in 2015 and not only combines the aforementioned limitations with the product family’s trademark primitivism, Korg also managed to make it look REALLY bad when compared to its predecessor.

In this video we will be trying to find out if synth plugins have become better over the last two decades. There’s gonna be a few rather technical comparisons but I’ll try to keep these to an absolute minimum - it’s all about the actual use in live performance and music production. Our reference point for this will be the Korg Legacy MS-20 plugin from 2004 for three simple reasons: one, it was one of the first commercially successful software instruments that had a reputation of sounding like the real deal, two, most of you will be familiar with the sound aesthetics of the original and three, I got hold of this beautiful Korg MS20ic controller which allows for a more hands-on comparison and will make this little experiment more digestible for the hardware fanatics among you.

It’s been a while since we have criticised a true picasso among synthesizers so today we are going to talk about the Alpha Juno-1. This classic Roland synth is primarily known for three things: that one patch that kept 90s dance floors clean, some true analog Juno goodness and our favorite synth manufacturer hiding all this behind another truly soul crushing user interface.

We, the people of the future, are no strangers to miniaturization in music technology : Korg Volca getting some - let’s call it - off label use, the cognitive dissonance of Roland Boutique and you probably wouldn’t want to have one of these on you when getting searched at an airport. Today we are going to talk about the Teenage Engineering TX-6. This luxurious swiss army knife among microscopic music making toys tailor made for the DAWless tool sheds of well-off and stylistically confident audio jetsetters has everything: pristine mixing functionality, basic sound design facilities and a design approach that - depending on your social media bubble - will either turn you into a lifestyle icon or is deemed to be yet another indicator that we’re basically doomed.

There are electronic musical instruments that are praised for their versatility: classic analogs showing up in almost every genre, the DX7 covering all bases from 80s cheese to industrial filth and what would music be without the seemingly unlimited catalog of modular fart sounds. Today we are going to talk about Quasimidi Technox. The sole and only purpose of this German synthesizer from the heydays of actually making money with electronic music is very, very clear: showing up on Bad Gear 30 years later and giving me yet another excuse to annoy you with a truckload of half-finished meme techno.

Almost every day critics of this channel spread fake news that I will one day run out of Gear to review - if I haven’t already. Today we are going to talk about Arturia Astrolab. This arguably most expensive home keyboard of all time and proprietary plugin host is the living proof that this day will most likely never come: a name suspiciously similar to your favorite personal lubricant, the UI of a smart home thermostat and the most obnoxious paywall of all time - merci beaucoup!!!

It has become common practice for old school synth manufacturers - and I mean Roland - to squeeze every penny from their great 80s legacy: toy-ish digital clones, even smaller fridge magnet-sized synth reimaginings and I totally want a pair of TR-808 Pumas. Today we are going to talk about the CZ101. This compact 1985 Phase Distortion synth was Casio’s first foray into the world of professional keyboards and given the fact that it was used by - well - everybody can only mean one of two things: Casio doesn’t like money or it’s a really bad synth.

Today we are going to talk about the Korg Kaoss Replay which doesn’t make any sense for three reasons: First, I am not exactly the ideal person to review this direct-to-Bad Gear DJ FX unit and DJ sampler, second, the overall concept of this thing is so all over the place that I only found out about this target group after unboxing it and finally, a disproportion between price tag and feature set so delusional it would make Roland blush.

What a time to be alive as a synth enjoyer! Ultra affordable clones of timeless classics, even the most obscure ways of sound generation are available for the price of one soul and samplers are now almost as powerful as they were in 1991. Meanwhile, all these beautiful instruments have become basically irrelevant for actual music production and were replaced by gaming PCs with pirated copies of SERUM. Today we are going to talk about moDWave. This family of wavetable synthesizer was introduced in 2021 and seems to be Korg’s attempt to bring the harshness of the aforementioned industry standard plugin to the hardware world. Is it SERUM in a box?

Before Roland was turned into a lifestyle brand our favorite synth manufacturer released instruments that had a profound impact on music history. At the top of this pantheon sits the iconic Jupiter-8, a massive analog synth keyboard sent down to earth in 1981. Today we are going to talk about Jupiter-Xm and it goes without saying that Roland would treat its majestic legacy with utmost respect - just kidding, it’s digital, there’s plenty of menu diving and - of course - minikeys worthy of a Microkorg.

Moog has received a lot of news coverage over the last few months - for better or worse. Today we are going to talk about Spectravox and as I might be the only synth person on the internet who didn’t get either their CS-80 for suburban dads or totally AI-free music generating Buchla ripoff, I have to resort to the strange one that seems like a more expensive version of that FX pedal they released 20 years ago.

I don’t always underestimate the cultural relevance of gear I put on the show but when I do I can be sure that you will let me know in the comments. Today we are going to talk about the 1993 Boss DR-660. A few months back I had one of its siblings on the show - the Boss DR-5 - and much to my chagrin I was completely unaware that it was - together with today’s Bad Gear protagonist - one of the key ingredients in a legendary genre with a strong impact on popular music up to this day.

The Usual Suspects OsTIrus Be aware that the firmwares needed for these emulations might be protected by law so please educate yourself on the legal situation before you try it out. This video is for educational and entertainment purposes only. I have no intention to encourage any illegal activity. In this meme video we are going to talk about how easy it has become to get access to classic synthesizers like the entire Virus range or Waldorf Micro Q. Keep in mind that these are not some half-baked imitations of the iconic virtual analog synths but almost 100% authentic recreations that are available free of charge to be run inside your DAW. We will take a look at whether all these claims are true, compare it to one of the more recent original instruments and try to find out if all this might even be illegal.

Old people like me keep yelling at clouds that music production has become too easy: MPC s are DAW s in a box now, even if you suck at making beats, Splice got you covered and AI is capable of creating better tracks than me. Today we are going to talk about the Boss SP-303. This iconic drum sampler from the year 2001 is the exact opposite of all these modern shenanigans: the OG Lo-Fi sound, about as much polyphony as a Mongolian throat singer and a workflow that feels like setting the skill level of Doom to Ultra Nightmare.

Over the last 30 years Korg has released many iconic products worthy of a reissue: a Prophecy operable without a quantum physics degree, a new Kaoss Pad that actually works and maybe even an Electribe that deserves the name. However, for reasons completely beyond my comprehension we need to talk about KingKorg Neo. This brand new virtual analog synth is basically identical to a more or less forgotten 2013 Korg instrument by the same name without the Matrix reference and is - just like its predecessor - a prime example for how to mess up both product launch timing and pricing strategy.

Given the amount of screen time Elektron gear gets on this channel one might be surprised that all of this belonged to their simple, easily accessible and super affordable line of beginner products. Today we are going to talk about Analog Rytm MKII. This 2018 analog drum machine is the very first top of the line Elektron instrument to be featured on this show and while it comes with plenty of pro features for music production my humble Digitakt is missing the controversy surrounding it is basically the same.

In spite of my limitless love for Roland in general, my efforts to turn even their most controversial gear into a sought-after classic and the fact that I was prophetically advertising their instruments months before the actual product announcement, our favorite synth brand didn’t send me their new Aira Compact P-6. However, today we are going to talk about the Korg ES-1. Putting this creative sampler from the year 2000 on the show is not only my personal way of coping with the unfathomable disappointment, the two instruments are - a few modern bells and whistles aside - suspiciously similar.

Hey everybody in this video we are going to talk about why I don’t use modular synths and probably never will. We will shed a light on the add1ctive nature of Eurorack, why buying modules is - more often than not - pure and unadulterated consumerism instead of a unique way of artistic expression, we will work on coping strategies for a modular-free life and try to establish a world record for the largest collection of modular memes to ever be featured in a YouTube video.

People go DAWless for a reason: swap out the mind-numbing computer screens for the luxury of a pocket calculator display, embrace the limitations of whatever crappy CPU was cheapest during the kickstarter campaign and never get ripped off by Spotify because nobody will listen to your bleeps and bloops anyway. Today we are going to talk about Circuit Tracks. This 2021 groovebox and barely upgraded successor to the OG Novation Circuit took this philosophy to the extremes: gateway drug price tag, completely screenless UI and a workflow so minimalist it perfectly fits the lifestyle of a generation that will never be able to afford a home.

At the first glance Korg Minilogue XD is ticking all the boxes.

For me, an Ableton Live user since version 2, Ableton can’t do no wrong - not that their products are so great but my deep-fried meme video brain has just become too used to hand-drawing midi notes in an Excel style grid while clipping the master and conjuring CPU peaks with a janky Max4Live patch. Today we are going to talk about Ableton Move. While previous Bad Gear-worthy Ableton hardware didn’t really tickle my fancy, this brand-new 2022 ableton move leak incarnate, unholy lovechild of the iOS app ableton note and ableton Push 3 sawed in half and “Mom, can we have Novation Circuit - there is novation Circuit tracks at home” hipster toy and groovebox with akai MPC pads was an instabuy for me.

Roland is the ACME corporation of music technology: no day passes without me finding out about yet another strange product from the colossal portfolio they built up over the last 5 decades. Today we are going to talk about P-6 and it seems like Roland took every single bit of sampling technology from this poison cabinet of intellectual property and put it in this LoFi sampler for ants.

Synth nerds shopping for gear will come across plenty of options that seem a little overpriced: generic raspberry pis in plastic enclosures, iconic instruments going for around 50% of the repair cost needed to keep them up and running for the next 5 years and the usual Reverb madness raising the blood pressure of GAS victims all around the globe. Today we are going to talk about PO-33. While this 2018 lofi sampler, microscopic groovebox and indispensable salted caramel latte chaser is both affordable AND powerful, it might be part of Teenage Engineering’s most perfidious strategy to go EP-133 medieval on your wallet.

Roland is inarguably the greatest synth brand in history but even die-hard fans like me have a hard time dealing with the miniscule displays, buzz-killing menu diving and product philosophies that seem like they were conceived after a 72h non-stop bender. Today we are going to talk about the MC-202. This 80s analog synth and sequencer not only might as well be the secret lovechild of an SH101 and TB303, it also appears to be the root of all the aforementioned evil.

Sequel to iconic movies tend to have a bad reputation - which is not always fair. Who doesn’t like stone cold classic like Jaws II or Space Jam - A New Legacy and Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem is a guilty pleasure of mine for a reason. Today we are going to talk about Microkorg II . This direct-to-Bad Gear synthesizer and successor to the OG hipster keyboard comes with all the features that made the original so great like minikeys and a front panel real estate-hogging genre selector and combines them with the blessings of gamification . Masterpiece!

Just because you want one doesn’t mean it’s good. At the first glance Muse is ticking all the “Moog clones the Behringer yamaha CS-80” boxes.

Volcas are awesome: the original meme synths that kicked off an ongoing trend of miniaturization in music technology and turned countless promising musicians into irredeemable gear addicts. However, everything must come to an end, so today we are going to talk about Volca Sample New Generation. You might be surprised that my original Volca Sampler - although prominently featured on this channel - never actually received the Bad Gear treatment, that this is the very last member of the existing Volca family to be reviewed here and let’s discuss why I don’t think there’s ever going to be another Volca as we know it.

Merry Christmas.

e all know that Roland doesn’t chase ghosts but like every big company they chase something completely different. Today we are going to talk about Roland Cloud. This “Matrix” among software instrument ecosystems was rolled out in 2018, based on the already controversial Content Store and turned the usual UX nightmare of modern internet into something even true Roland fans might consider to be more more despicable than “he who must not be named”. You will own nothing.