timebaby's Electronic Studio Setup

There’s a lot to like about the Curcuit Tracks, in theory. It’s a compact groove box with a programmable internal synth engine, a fair number of sample slots, it’s own simple effects engine for reverb and delay, and other modern necessities for electronic music like side chain compression and ratcheting.

In practice, it doesn’t quite stick the landing, though. The main issue is that Novation forces you to do all the programming through their website, and somehow they decided it would be a good idea to make the synth sounds impossible to listen to without loading them into the Tracks’ internal memory. I don’t mind loading in samples through the site, though the option to add more than one at a time would be nice; but having to load your synth patches into the memory before you can hear them, then go back to the site to edit them, then reload them, and repeat until you’re happy, is an asinine design decision.

Other problems include a song mode that’s too fussy if you’re not making four on the floor dance music, and a single pair of stereo outputs which make recording a bit of a slog (unless you can get a mix you’re entirely happy with on the internal mixer, which I admit is probably good enough for most people who would buy a groovebox and not a pricier set up).

This isn’t a bad unit. Programming basic parts is pretty intuitive, though I often find myself wish for more steps instead of having to chain together separate 32 step sequences. The internal mixer is good (not great), the effects are pretty easy to use, and aside from the nonsensical synth programming, the Novation website through which all the patch programming flows is easy to use. As a cheaper, less functional alternative to something like the Elektron Digitakt, you can do a lot worse. I just wish Novation had done a little better.

Of all the synths Uli could have chosen to resurrect, the Wasp has to be one of the least likely. But hey, that's cool, it's a neat vintage British synth that I'm glad to see get a second chance at life, regardless of how I feel about Behringer's business practices.

That said, this is a very specific unit. Like its name suggests, its bread and butter is buzzy lead sounds. To be honest, this is my first analog synth, so I'm far from an expert on their operation. But to my novice mind, this one seems to have a good range of controls, resulting in everything from traditional lead sounds to more experimental bloops and buzzes. I had hoped to use it mainly for dirty basslines, and haven't found it to be particularly great on that front, but it's a budget synth so I'm not complaining.

Alesis gear has never been top of the line, but back in the '90s you were thrilled to have it around if you were on a tight budget. I bought my Quadraverb over 20 years ago, and it's still going strong today. I don't make much use of its modulation sounds, which are all done far better by pedals and plug-ins these days. That said, its reverb is still excellent, especially on synths. You can even get more out of it by cranking the input knob to overdrive the reverb, which works better than you'd expect.

Like so many rack units and synths from this era, programming it is a bit of a pain, with lots of menu diving on its little LCD display, but it's not as bad as it could be. Choose one of the preset signal paths, edit each effect to your taste, and hit save. The buttons don't feel great, but at least the value up/down buttons speed up the longer you hold them which makes scrolling through the numerous built in and user programmable presets a little more convenient. It's probably not going to be anyone's primary effects unit these days unless you're intentionally going for the cheesier side of '90s rack sounds, but as a companion to your favorite hardware synth, it's a great affordable unit.

This is an extremely solid little mixer that I've been using in my bedroom studio since 2001. I don't have a lot of experience with different mixers, so I don't have a great grasp on what people want from them, but I do know that this one does everything I've ever needed it to. My only complaint is that I'd rather have volume sliders than knobs, but obviously that wouldn't have fit in the form factor. Great for running my synths into my audio interface.