For knob v menu diving: I'd say the tabletop Virus is better than the Snow: even with its menu diving it still has most oscillator/amp/filter controls on the front so for most patches you still have good live tweaking abilities. Comparing the Virus to the desktop Evo it depends on the user. The Desk...

I downloaded Animoog onto my wife's iPod Touch. I'm one of the converted. It sounds far better than a cheap piece of software should. That I spent $6 on that and iMaschine is ridiculous. This may convince me to let go of my flip phone and pager combo. What's nice is the "keyboard" is fully customiza...

Electro Harmonix Stereo Talking Machine

There are many free resources to help you learn what is what. The synth reviews on VSE is a good start. Tweakheadz Lab is a website that doesn't get a lot of love but I think his guides to music tech and recording is one of the best places to start if you no nothing about the subject. You'll at leas...

What Meatball said. Additionally, do you have a bandpass filter or two? Can you modulate them? I've made some nice explosions and clanky noises with those in the recipe.

Bit-rate reduction and bit crushing effects are also useful.

Sir Nose wrote:rackmount vaporizer

And here I was about to suggest the Funk Logic Palindrometer. Not a half rack device anyhows...

Yeah...I really don't know much about it...it caught my attention a while back but never used one.

What's in the rest of your rack? If you have a other effects, maybe a small 1/4 patch bay or if you have synths maybe a passive MIDI patch bay. Both are bone simple and cheap DIY projects.

i'll have to look up that fx550. basically i already have too many sound sources. even cutting down on them in my modular. if it was something i could assemble myself though, maybe... currently content with plugins for compression / limiting. what good would a mac mini do in addition to my imac & m...

I'm partial to Yamaha reverbs. What about a FX550? I know you said no "synths" but what about a 1/2 rack drum module like an old Yamaha DTXpress brain? Ummm...since you're a Mac owner, is cramming a Mac Mini in there out of the question? ...put a shelf in there and store a few hot pockets or a sammi...

Used might get you a Virus B/Classic. Combine that with any MIDI keyboard of any basic crappy level and ARP away. Seriously, the Virus line has some of the best arpeggiat..arppeg...fek...arps ever. The Evolvers sequencer can create some zany patterns but the true arp function is limited. But if you ...

I have owned/own the AX-60 and Evolver and have played with the Juno. Both the Juno and AX-60 can be used for drones but like another poster has said, their programming options are limited compared to the other synths on your list. They each have a "one slider/one parameter" work surface so either a...

My 2 cents: Buy the best single powered monitor that you can afford. Stereo is nice but not absolutely necessary. If you and your band move forward then get a matching monitor as your needs expand. If not, you still have a decent piece of equipment to keep or resell. Good monitors keep their value o...

Well, it looks like the closet thing to a solution would be an SP-404. The RCA connectors are a PITA but I never had any issues with sound quality. When controlled by a MIDI keyboard, the samples are automatically mapped over a 128 note value range. But since the note value doesn't actually change t...

1. MPC1000/500: pros - top of the line sequencer, velocity sensitive pads cons (for you): no sample looping (there's a workaround but it's clumsy), loading sample sets can be involved Not to derail, but :D , what is the sample looping workaround on an MPC? It was on one of the JJOS revisions. Hold ...

Of the new and recent stuff I'd say you have three options (that cost under $1000): 1. MPC1000/500: pros - top of the line sequencer, velocity sensitive pads cons (for you): no sample looping (there's a workaround but it's clumsy), loading sample sets can be involved 2. SP404: pros - good internal m...