In 2025, I started composing music using hardware synthetizers, something I have always wanted to experiment in my life. This lead to a lot of discoveries on how this world of other-computers is working, including all the related headaches when you want to connect different pieces of gear together.
Gear
Right now, my setup is:
- A Roland SH-4D, 4 voice Synth with a kit track. Powerful and deep, it’s a very nice and polished machine I’m still exploring (a new firmware went out this year and I’m still digging in the docs),
- A Pocket Operator Arcade, blip-blop machine, outputting nice 8bits sounds. Very fun,
- A Korg Volca Drum I bought almost randomly. Seems like a very nice synthetic drum machine, full of potential,
- A Novation Circuit Rhythm (second hand), bought for its sampling capabilities, I enjoy its simple but OK sequencer with its song mode. A bit too much on the Hip Hop side for me, but still very fun to use,
- A Livetrak l6 to connect all these things together and to my Mac. I love this mixer,
- A pair of DT900 Pro X (second hand) to monitor all that. The Open version so that my wife can talk to me when I’m working without having to shout through the sounds.
- A newly arrived (M8 Tracker model:02](https://dirtywave.com/products/m8-tracker-model-02), a real joy!
Gear I sold:
- Novation Mininova. Too much of a piano for me and with my low skills, it was mostly useless (and too large for my Desk).
Software
I’m not a real fan of DAWs so far, but I’ve been working a bit with Reaper, Renoise and the amazing Stepic VST Plugin. Stepic itself almost justify using a computer.
Tools and thinks
- I use MidiPipe or Renoise to pass my midi through the computer using usb-c but maybe I’ll buy the RK006 soon.
Listen
You can find my latest published stuff on Youtube, channel @MonsieurOct.