I bought another synth and am just waiting for it to arrive. I bought the Akai MiniAK after seeing a friend, himself quite an accomplished ‘experimental music’ composer, get quite delighted after purchasing one. I’m also exploring a new collaborative electronic music project, possibly quite club oriented, that may also do some live shows in the future. For myself, I’m interested in doing this without a computer. My laptop is getting quite aged and I don’t have the desire (or funds), yet, to replace the studio iMac with a Macbook Pro that could venture out on occasion while retaining the master keys for my suite of software. Granted, with my software suite, I could do pretty amazing things, but I’m more of a tweaker here than a performer.

I’ve been interested in getting a keyboard synth for a while now. I have a keyboard USB MIDI controller and in theory I could just attach it to my Korg MS2000BR rack mountable module. I have no power adapter for this controller (it prefers USB power and I haven’t bothered looking for an AC adapter for it), and the MS2000BR is cool, but the two pieces of gear together are a bit beefy.

I’ve considered the microKORG, partially for its kitsch value, partially because it is an interesting synth. But it’s essentially the MS2000BR in a toy-ish package, and I already have that engine in a more complete synth. Since I haven’t done much programming with the MS2000BR, I sometimes wish I had bought the microKORG instead. Then again, the programming that I have done with the MS2000BR has produced some nice results.

Recently, after revisiting some half-finished electronic experiments from the past few years, I started reconsidering getting the Alesis Micron. I like the Micron’s visual design and found its sounds interesting, although a bit too clean. The sounds can be easily dirtied up with the plethora of noise gear and MoogerFoogers and Metasonix modules I already have. Then I noticed that the Micron was disappearing from various online resellers, and appeared to have been discontinued. Still, after my friend’s MiniAK purchase and in light of my other desires, I came very close to buying a Micron…

Until I found out that the MiniAK is essentially a re-packaged Micron, with a sturdier Akai Pro body and a (silly) emphasis on the vocoder. I like my MPC500 and plan to have it at the center of whatever the hell I’m building out here.

I guess I finally have to learn (and learn to like) MIDI. I’ve got plenty of disparate pieces, just need to put them together. MS2000BR, MPC500, Electribe EMX-1, and now MiniAK. Plus all my pedals and little analog bits.

And I have my eye on getting a Dave Smith module or two. I’ve been fascinated with the Evolver for a while, and the Mo’Pho and Tetra are pretty damn cool. My big analog modular plan can wait a little while longer.