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Gear You Regret Buying?

The Oberheim digital sequencer ds-2a, that I bought ($$$) in Guitar Center LA, not the GCenter you know but the one that was on Sunset but on the opposite side, years ago. I still have it in my basement... The one I loved was the Sequential Circuit Studio 440
 
I bought some Doepfer Dark Energy and Dark Time modular gear a while back when l first became a synthaholic, and while most would think that sounds like a non-regret l was in way over my head.

At the time l knew nothing about voltage control or the world of modular.

To have those delightful little boxes on my desktop was a very cool idea at the time but I eventually ended up selling them on Craigslist for less than what I paid due to my lack of experience.

I suppose my biggest regret now is selling them as I'd love love love to have them back.
 
Dexibell SX7 Module.
Should’ve listened to the Integra 7 Super Natural Module first.
Now I got both.
 
Well to be fair I need to spend more time with it, I spend a few hours trying to understand it and got frustrated. I want to use it as a CC controller for expression and volume, being two axis it seemed like a good way to control both, but I couldn't get it to work out. It can be CC programmed, but the way they handle the axis (it resets to zero) was problematic. It was past the return date so I just got some sliders which have worked better. At some point I'll find some use for it or eBay.

I've had my eye on that thing for awhile, nice to hear about how it actually functions.
 
Time to revive this old thread instead of a new one...

I've gone through a lot of gear through the years so I'll only cover the most recent:

KL88 mkII: I don't like the heavier feel than the Mk I and it's not a joy for me to play for hours on end. Replaced with my older MkI and all is well (besides the louder keybed of the mkI)

Roland System 1-m modular: I have the keyboard System1 which is fun for now but ultimately this modular version never got used and I've since sold it.

Various Eurorack gear: I just can't get into it...I love synths and have some favorites but so far nothing here has wow'd me.

iConnectivity MioXL: They dropped one USB port from the regular Mio10 and made the interface even more difficult. Returned after two weeks and put the Mio10 back in.
 
Don’t know if I already replied earlier but : Yamaha A5000 hardware sampler.

Let me make you dream about it : proprietary format without libraries released, poor build quality, tons of menus, heavy & cumbersome as a dead horse, expensive, noisy fans, released right before the rise of software samplers...
The only thing I liked is the onboard effects, I’m a 4-phase phaser bitch...
Though “vintage” by the time, its resell value is next to 0.
 
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Outboard mixing gear in general. I love the sound of it but it just takes so much time to use. Time that could be better spent focusing on the composition and production as well as money that could be spent for things that actually make sound. Plus it makes my studio way too hot in the summer.
 
Sensory Percussion drum triggers.

Great idea buggy as fuck, zero competent tech help.I posted a simple question how to trigger SD 7 months ago,..They just answered with a terrible tutorial unhelpful.I'm amazed they are still in business.Hopefully someone more competent will develop this idea.As is I spent way more time just trying to make it barely work.Very ,very ,very disappointed.
 
Akai Z4. Cost an arm and a leg and I never really gelled with it.
Didn't have the heart to get rid of it at the time, and now it's worth nothing anyway.
 
Fun(ny) thread. I guess kind of the opposite for me. Most hardware I bought (well GEAR - in terms of synths and modules) I think once I bought one , I ended up buying more. Bought one TX81Z , ultimately ended up with 4. A Proteus 1+, ended up with 3, a D-50, ended up with it and the D-550. I guess I count myself lucky.
The gear I ALMOST REGRETTED buying was stuff I pined over forever but ultimately ended up ‘dodging the bullet’ (the Mackie Control comes to mind).
 
Bought 7 string guitar about a year ago. Thought that it would be the best thing ever... Nothing wrong with the guitar itself, it just seems that it doesn’t deliver for me. So sticking pretty much with my old 6 stringer.
 
- The Mackie Big Knob Studio+ monitor controller died on me just after the warranty was over. Before that, the knob was beginning to crackle.
I replaced it with a Palmer Monicon XL, which I returned right away because of two instances of bad design: 1. no input gain, so no level matching possible between sources; and 2. when two buttons are pressed simultaneously, only one registers - so it's impossible to toggle seamlessly between sources, or speaker sets.

- I bought a Moog Minitaur and a Moog Sub37, only to realize that the Minitaur is just a stripped down (and bridled!) version of the Sub37. I can reproduce any sound of the MT with the S37 exactly.

Outboard mixing gear in general. I love the sound of it but it just takes so much time to use. Time that could be better spent focusing on the composition and production as well as money that could be spent for things that actually make sound. Plus it makes my studio way too hot in the summer.
I mix in the box for that same reason, but I use outboard gear for mastering. It's a good compromise.
 
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So I regret not keeping it more than buying it. Also regret selling all the guitars, basses, synths, percussion and drums I used to own as they are all so much more expensive to buy today.
I feel you.

The one time I was more lucky is with Elektron's SID Station, a geeky synth built around the Commodore 64's sound chip. It was extremely nerdy to use and sounded very dirty. But since it was a limited edition, I sold mine (after 3 years of never using it) for twice the original price.
 
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1) Roland EM-2000. I've bought this arranger keyboard more than 20 years ago. At that time I was more into performance and improvisation rather than composition and production and I've had a number of arrangers through the years. This particular one was quite expensive back in the day and one of the rare cases of me having a flagship instrument at the time. Unfortunately, it hasn't aged well and is one of the few pieces of equipment I have but I don't use anymore. I've tried to sell it a couple of times for a pittance but finally given up thinking about the original price I've once paid for it, so I've kept it out of nostalgic reasons.

2) Rode M5 Matched Pair. Though I primarily work with VI's and DI instruments, I would also like to be able to record some acoustic sources now and then. Since my current studio isn't soundproof, I rarely have the opportunity of absolute peace and quiet, so I didn't want to invest in some pricey microphones for the time being. Though M5's have decent reviews, I've never had much luck with them, especially when trying to record relatively quiet sources like fingerpicked classical and acoustic guitars, at least not when using audio interfaces which I have at my disposal.

3) Avid Mbox3. For a while, I've tried to stick with the most budget-friendly way of maintaining a Pro Tools rig, but after switching to REAPER and Focusrite interface I kind of regret this, even though third-gen Mbox series is (was) the best one, both regarding features and the actual quality.

4) M-AUDIO Axiom 49. I bought this more than ten years ago and I'm still using it along with my Studiologic SL 990 Pro as a MIDI keyboard controller of choice. It has everything one could potentially wish for, even aftertouch, but I often regret not buying a larger model for easier work with keyswiches. Also, the 2nd gen of Axiom shifted the sliders to the left which is IMO a good move, but alas you can't find it in stores anymore.
 
Oh let me not forget the Roland A-800-Pro keyboard:
- impossible to save settings without the computer software
- aftertouch too stiff to actually use
 
Yamaha DSP Factory + the optical expansion + the AX88 IO unit. The much advertised integration with Cubase was never fully realized. It really just added complexity and was pretty quickly orphaned by Yamaha and Steinberg. Still have it all packed up from when I almost sold it.

I'll add a Yamaha 01V as well. Bulky unit that was really unintuitive to navigate. I'm really not sure why I bought this thing at the time. Eventually sold it for nowhere near original spend.

On the fence about this one but I'll still throw it in - K2000 w/sampling add-on. So bloody expensive at the time. It was my first introduction to sampling and the first real synth I ever owned. I found the VAST engine really painful to work with, the IO was really noisy - storing/recalling samples - 3.5" disk, then Zip drives, then super flaky Jazz drives ugh...cringing even now. I did have fun with it at the time though and learned a lot through it. I still have it - every once in a while I decide to use it as my keyboard controller as I do like the keys. And i'm surprised every because the screen won't light up then I remember it needs 4xAA batteries!! AND it's so bloody heavy. Bah! Ya ok I guess I do regret buying it.
 
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