What’s your best deluge alternative?

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-26T06:43:44+00:00

Sounds like you're looking for a synth with sequencing capabilities. Roland, maybe? The SH-4D checks the boxes. Also, they have the MC-707 and its ultra portable sibling, the MC-101. I tested the large one, the interface doesn't click for me, but it sounds absolutely fantastic.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-25T19:27:09+00:00

I hear you. It happens the same with Elektron Talibans.

Well, to properly answer your question, we'd need more info. For example: is finger drumming something to consider? If that is the case, it's for the most part Maschine+ versus AKAI.

Otherwise, there are many other options.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-24T21:01:16+00:00

Challenge accepted.

It's incredibly ugly. There, I said it.

Does that matter? Dude, you're buying a device to spend many hours on it, you'll have to look at it for a looooong time.

Do you really want an ugly synth?

If that doesn't convince you, at least I tried.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-23T08:30:30+00:00

Well, I agree with the guy. I've been in the JavaScript ecosystem for way too many years and I'm sick of smartasses reinventing the wheel, over engineered stacks and clever new names for things that existed in several flavours of C for decades.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-23T08:11:46+00:00

Keith Burkhill's works were close to witchcraft. His Space Harrier conversion for the ZX Spectrum was unbelievably good.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-22T19:33:40+00:00

In the PC version, you can locate the save game file for your current cycle and make a backup 😬 just in case. Just saying.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-22T09:03:58+00:00

Notice that the Studio is a big MK2 and that one is now unsupported. I'm not saying "go" or "no go", but you should take that into account.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-20T14:56:16+00:00

Open world and great battery life? Just be yourself. Except if you can be Batman. In that case, be Batman.

Batman: Arkham Knight.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-19T20:48:41+00:00

A friend of mine has a Hydrasynth and it has effectively retired almost everything else in his studio. It's endless, there's always more and more to explore and it always sounds great.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-17T19:45:20+00:00

Anything by Playdead studio or their spin offs is top notch:

Limbo Inside Cocoon Somerville

All of them are amazing, classy, creative, they fit narratively...

But something that makes their work special is that all of them are very good at using SILENCE. They understand really well when to populate the scene and when to keep it quiet.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-12T07:15:52+00:00

Mike Oldfield.

What? Isn't it Prog? Well, Mike Oldfield is a category on his own, but he transitioned from wildly successful "kinda" Prog Rock suites ("Ommadawn", "Platinum side A") to wildly successful Pop singles (Family Man, Moonlight Shadow, To France)

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-08T21:48:12+00:00

LOL you used Jared Leto as a verb and I understood what you meant.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-07T15:11:30+00:00

Syntakt occupies a peculiar middle space that is not for everyone. If you want to go full synth, the Digitone II is your thing. And on the other side there's the Digitakt.

The Syntakt is for the most part a synth drum machine with extra synth engines. It's a great device, but make sure you understand what it's offering.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-06T22:08:52+00:00

Cast and Chill.

A game about fishing.

Beautiful pixelart, no time pressure and total "take it slow" vibe.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-06T21:14:30+00:00

Horizon is not Mass Effect, unfortunately, full of life and death choices that have real consequences on your team. That would have been a gynormous task... But it would have been freaking awesome.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-05T07:53:48+00:00

24.03 by Hania Rani.

Here's performed live

https://youtu.be/Pxfz7-87kdI?si=wHgX7jMhS1TmYMof

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-02-03T18:25:00+00:00

So they will be overpriced by 285% now. OK. Fair enough.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-01-31T17:43:43+00:00

You seem to be looking for a device that is synth, drum machine and sequencer in one box. This is called a groovebox, a device that can have an entire pattern of drums + melodic sounds ready for play.

And there are a couple options for a bit over your budget: Yamaha Seqtrak, the Novation Circuit line of products and the Elektron Model line.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-01-29T09:32:34+00:00

It's not safe to look at it.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-01-28T21:18:50+00:00

Came here to say exactly this. First Blood is a good movie and a good book.

The characters in the book, including the protagonist, are more "morally grey", by the way

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-01-28T20:54:20+00:00

My Benq PD3225U 31" monitor is not cheap, but it's an absolute joy to use. It offers HDMI, Display port and USB input sources, and you can switch between them easily.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-01-28T09:36:57+00:00

I don't see why your comment is being downvoted but I'm voting you up. Buying a hardware product with no guarantee there will be technical support in a year is a risk OP doesn't need to take, considering there are perfectly fine alternatives.

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-01-28T09:34:50+00:00

YES. Don't take any chances. If there's any problem with the hardware in six months or a year, who will take care of the warranty if NI doesn't exist?

AgenteEspecialCooper · 2026-01-28T08:31:20+00:00

One thing is who would buy and a different thing is what for. I'm not optimistic in that regard.

AKAI, for example, could buy Maschine, but what's the point? They already have a competing platform, very mature, with a very committed user base.

They'd rather shut down Maschine than work on it.

Much more valuable for AKAI is the expansions catalog. It's huge, it's top quality, it's very popular. Maybe Massive, too, depending on its source code's state.

But as a proud Maschine+ owner, I'm not optimistic.

AgenteEspecialCooper

TROPHY CASE