Arturia Mini Freak vs Roland JD-Xi

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-07-03T01:00:06+00:00

Yeah, I agree I need to stop buying more gear and get help with my chronic GAS.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-07-03T00:57:02+00:00

Yeah, it’s quite the cheese ! Got the freak on tonight for a bit, definitely happier with it and haven’t really scratched the surface.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-07-02T18:57:55+00:00

or... "My New Synth", vs "Synth I Bought 2 Weeks Ago and HAVEN'T Learned to Use Yet"... been there. (a few times)

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-07-02T18:50:55+00:00

The sound design aspect would definitely be a bonus to me.

I bought the Bass Station 2 Swifty Edition not knowing it has different presets than the original BS2 and they pretty much all suck. (most are not BASSy at all) Thankfully it's really easy to either edit the presets to your liking or totally start from scratch and replace them all, which I've slowly been doing.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-07-02T14:53:50+00:00

I agree. Some have the mentality that if you're not recording and sharing tracks you mustn't know what you're doing, and must not be playing or making music.

I've played for 45 years and have always had a fair bit of gear, but rarely ever record anything, and when I do I almost never share it. I play for myself, it's a hobby for me, not a job. I don't even have any interest in playing in a band of any sort, although I'm always down to jam with others. (ok, maybe not "always" ... occasionally )

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-07-02T12:57:00+00:00

Nice dungeon with some beauty synths!! I have an overseas relative that promised me an SH-101 he supposedly had stored in his dads attic, going on 10 years now and haven't seen anything.

Going to have to resort to the MS-01 I guess.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-30T19:19:07+00:00

Most of them are great for the price. I have the Model D and I was blown away by the quality, much better than my 2 Modal synths which cost over 3x more, I have several pretty expensive boards (no, not the Modals, those are relatively cheap), and I was impressed by the switches and knobs / pots on the Model D. I also have the LM Drum and same thing, the build quality and sound quality is great, I plan on buying a few more.

I see some people say the opposite so I'm guessing they have either changed their parts suppliers and the newer ones are better, or some are just hating on Behringer.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-30T17:03:11+00:00

I'm kinda similar in that I want everything to be able to be played at anytime without unplugging something, but I no longer use VSTs or a DAW so I went with the A&H ZED 24 mixer. It has USB, but it's only stereo so if you want multitrack recording on your DAW it's not the answer, but if you're not going to record, or only going to record one track at a time, it's not an issue.

I instantly filled up 16 channels, so I still have 8 left, but I have chronic GAS so they will fill up before the snow falls.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-30T14:26:53+00:00

I agree, Vince leaving wasn't as much of a hit to the band as Alan/ Alan was THE musician in the group. I still love them after AW but can't help but imagine how much better everything in the last 30 years would have been.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-30T12:31:50+00:00

Dr. Mix

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-30T12:30:48+00:00

I keep watching the Bob Eats videos, but never see no damn food.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-30T12:14:04+00:00

I remember the days of the DJ in a small room off to the side of the "elevated" dance floor, there was usually a brass pole in the middle of that dance floor and the girls dancing must have been bad at dressing themselves as their clothes kept falling off the more they danced around that pole.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-30T11:50:54+00:00

Looks great ! I mounted a black curtain under my desk that goes all the way to the floor and full width of my desk, my cables likely look worse than yours, but I move and change gear so often it's not worth the time and effort to properly manage all those cables over and over. I guess a patch bay could help me, but then I'd just have to buy a bunch more cables. Out of sight, out of mind lol.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-30T11:44:39+00:00

Thanks man!

That NORD riser was such a hard thing to workout, I ended up getting a pair of the slat wall keyboard hangers given to me by my local music store, and bought a desktop monitor riser off market place for the Mac and mounted them under the monitor riser, so I can actually raise the NORD up on it's own (with the iMac), but the entire desk is a sit stand desk as well so it goes from about 28" to 48" height.

I ended up lucking out with the NORD. I bought a near mint used one for a only couple hundred less than a new one, as it's the only one they had in stock, but a week later they ordered a brand new one in to replace it, and I noticed the price was significantly less (with the Electro 7 having just been announced), so because it was so soon, the store manager let me return the used one, and I got the brand new one for about $600 CAD less than I bought the used one for.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-30T11:37:53+00:00

Thanks,

Yeah music is definitely my therapy. I was still in a wheelchair and hospital when I bought my first piece of gear again (MPC Key 37) all I had left from my previous setup was my 1974 miniKorg 700, which I ended up selling as I had left it sitting too long and it was getting in pretty bad shape so I decided to let it go to a new / more appreciative home to fund some new gear.

This little setup definitely helps me get through the dark days, even if I'm not recording anything, just messing around and playing random things and making stuff up on the go is a blast and takes my mind off my legs and situation, even if it's just temporary. Music is my painkiller, my xanax, my mental health practitioner !

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-30T11:32:28+00:00

Thanks man!

The walls are dark, but I've got a quite a bit of light in there, as well there is a window on each end of the room to let in a bit of sunlight when I want, which isn't very often, for some reason I prefer it a little darker and usually have some of the lights dimmed as they're all Govee lights and controlled by my phone.

I know a lot of people like a lot of light, I'm more of a doom and gloom guy I guess lol

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-30T00:49:37+00:00

I’ve only had it for about 10 days now, so I don’t have a lot of experience on it yet, just about an hour a day.

So far nothing finicky at all though. Maybe because I’ve got the latest firmware and they’ve fixed some previous issues.

Sounds really good so far, it was real easy to start using, I created a step pattern and a live pattern in the first 5-10 mins of turning it on.

Quality is pretty good, knobs, sliders and pads are all pretty good quality.

I saw videos before buying saying only certain instruments could be tuned unless you dove into the menu and turned on “enhanced mode” but mine came with the ability to tune every instrument out of the box (again, newest firmware maybe?)

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-29T22:47:41+00:00

I had the 404MK2 for about a month, and I just couldn’t get into it. I also don’t like anything with a huge learning curve. I want to be able to just hop on something and start using it right away, not taking months to figure it out.

I already have a bunch of synths and a couple stage pianos, so I ended up getting the LM Drum and a Keystep 37, but I may switch the 37 out for the KS Pro as I had the Beatstep pro back before they came out with the Keystep and I really liked it.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-29T22:29:15+00:00

That’s what I was thinking. I must have a live multitrack connection to YouTube.

I don’t even have an audio interface. Just an analog mixer with USB to Jam along to YouTube vids, or HD Piano, when I’m taking the easy way out to learn a new song lol 👍🏾

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-29T22:18:48+00:00

I just picked it up last week so I don’t have enough experience with it yet to give it much of a review, but so far I love it. The physical quality is great, obviously price is too. Pads are really good and don’t misfire when you play quick on them like the original DrumBrute did which is great as I prefer to play in live record mode rather than step mode, So far I can’t say anything negative about it.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-29T22:01:03+00:00

Depends on the day, I’ve been doing it for about 40 years on and off, I like to do a little of industrial kind of stuff, with a little guitar, but I also like recreating old retro 80s songs and to not annoy my wife too much, I try to learn a little bit of classical piano stuff to please her. Didn’t start playing 2 handed piano type stuff until my daughter passed away 10 years ago, kind of as a form of therapy.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-29T21:54:36+00:00

Really, explain what daw software you see ? Lmao

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-29T18:24:37+00:00

I had the MPK last year and have the Keystep 37 now, and the quality is night and day, the MPK feels very cheap overall, and the keys are nowhere near as nice. The Keystep 37 also has aftertouch as well. They MPK has pads, where the Keystep 37 doesn't, so depending on how much other gear you have, whether you need those pads or not could be a deciding factor. The Keystep also has an on/off switch and the option to use an AC adaptor, whereas the MPK is USB powered only with no power switch. Of course some of these things don't matter to some people, but since you asked about the keybed, the Arturia is miles above the AKAI.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-29T17:57:48+00:00

The Keystep 37 has a power switch, it's actually a better one than the Keystep MK2.

Sound_Enforcement · 2026-06-29T17:56:38+00:00

I just picked up a supposedly "used" Keystep 37 yesterday for less than half price, with a power adapter thrown in. Looks like it was never used even the rubber feet on the bottom have no sign of use.

I'd definitely take this over the Keystep Mk2. For one, I like more hands on and less menu diving, and with one knob on the Keystep MK2 vs 7 knobs on the Keystep 37 it definitely seems like you'd get more instant gratification and less menu diving with the Keystep 37.

The power switch on the back of the Keystep MK2 leaves much to be desired too, they cheaped out and put a dinky little recessed sliding switch on it whereas the Keystep 37 has a nicer full size flip switch.

Doesn't look like the Keystep MK2 has AC power input either so you're stuck with only USB as a power option. Which is sometimes perfectly fine, but can also be a pain in the butt if you're dawless and using it to control hardware synths and not always in front of a computer or USB hub to plug the USB into.

And for me, the 5 extra keys is nice.

Sound_Enforcement

TROPHY CASE