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Very cool ❤

We’re sorry to hear that you encountered latency issues with the MD850 Synthesizer. Unfortunately, we were not contacted directly and only recently came across your feedback via TH-cam. The MD850 is designed and verified to operate with a latency of <9ms from DIN MIDI input to audio output in all normal usage scenarios. We’d be happy to get information about your specific setup and measurements to better understand the situation by using our contact channels. Your insights are valuable to us!

We’re sorry to hear that you experienced issues with the MD850 Synthesizer. Unfortunately, we were not contacted directly and only recently came across your feedback via TH-cam. The MD850 is thoroughly tested before shipping, and presets not being playable is not expected behavior. While we have not observed this issue in our testing, we will review this further to ensure consistent performance. If you're open to it, we’d appreciate a postmortem feedback on our contact channels to better understand your experience. Your feedback is valuable to us!

Synthstrom deluge would be the best choice

The only reason I can think of to buy a VST inside a box would be to insert it into a DAW-less setup for live performance. That would be especially true if there were a box that could handle many VST's and that lets me import my own VST's. Sorry to say, the Mayer MD850 is a total failure. Thanks for reviewing it.

The latency directly on the unit is definitely not 70ms. I would have noticed that as I find almost everything above 10-12ms annoying to play. My suggestion: Connect a headphone straight to the unit and play it without a DAW / audio-interface in between. I guess, you'll be surprised. Also, you've mentioned you have set your DAW buffer to 512. Depending on the interface that has the potential to end up in a relatively high latency (round trip). You have to imagine that a) the MIDI info needs to get in your computer, b) has to be processed and send to your external device, and c) be recorded / monitored again. That all can sum up to a relatively high latency, which is not essentially the unit's fault. Try it directly - without a computer in between - with latency compensation and / or less buffer size (64 or 128). Direct monitoring can also be a good way to check, if it's within the DAW or really the fault of the connected unit. When syncing external drum machines with ableton, a manual latency compensation of 70-100ms (unfortunately) is nothing unusual. Regarding presets not making any sound: It appears that you might have the arp activated and / or external clock activated without a clock signal incoming. I can play every preset here but can understand that this plethora of options might be overwhelming in just one day. Regarding preset volumes: It seems that you are complaining about pads not being at 100 % volume when triggering these only shortly. Many pads in the library tend to develop over time and also increase in volume. Plus, pads are usually being programmed with max -12db on single voices to leave some headroom for chords. That's common practice in sound design. When playing single notes, these are not as loud as, e.g. a bass sound.

I know you already bought the Mayer Vibes but you are returning that so given the type of music you make what about the Avalon Bassline from Abstrakt Instruments or the Roland Aira TB-3. Both have excellent sounds for techno. The Sequential Pro 3 is about $2,500 and killer for bass and leads with 3 oscillators of sound design goodness, analog filters and a nice mod matrix. The Vermona Perfourmer Mk II has to my ears a very distinctive sound that’s different from a lot of the other synths that are out there. I could only describe it as a gritty softness, rough and soft at the same time. It’s very special. And then there are the UDOs that you mentioned. The 6 with the Polyphonic keyboard upgrade and the ribbon is pretty exciting and those two upgrades for sure breathe new life into it. I know that the Access Virus TI2 is ancient but it’s still an amazing and deep synthesizer that is custom made for techno. If you don’t have or haven’t played with one, you really might find it to be insanely inspiring. But for me, having worked with all of the above and sharing your passion for electronic music, I’d say check out the Analogue Solutions Ample and Fusebox X. Both offer massive sound. Both have 3 oscillators. Ample has a very cool pattern generator that can give you lots of inspiration for melodic techno and similar. It’s also semi-modular so if you are patching friendly it can be pretty cool. Fusebox has a pattern generator too and wonderful analog filters with a British feel. It’s a tough call between these two for me as I love them both dearly, but I think Fusebox is probably more suited for your use case and will give you insanely deep bass and also excellent EDM leads. You asked about the Teenage Engineering OP-xy. I have to say that it’s one of the most musically inspiring synthesizers I have owned in a long time. I don’t think I would recommend it for what you say you are looking for, but at some point if you get your hands on one, I don’t Hinko you can help but be inspired by it. Maybe for your next $2,300 synth investment.

Its giving me Waldorf Micro Q vibes... and that's not good, since I never use my Micro Q.

Hi, a question, because I am also interested in this synth (as a cheaper version of the MD900): Is this latency occurring while the synth is directly controlled from a MIDI keyboard, or via USB MIDI from the laptop, and is Audio from the synth via audio jack fed into the laptop, or via USB (if the device supports that) ? 70+ ms is indeed a bad number, but if it is only a USB-Midi/Audio latency, it won't bother (me) much, since I have a 100% hardware/old style MIDI setup.

It runs Linux on a RPI board.

70ms of latency? Wow, that's pretty much unusable. I would never buy a synth that had that much of a delay between MIDI signal received and audio played back. Crazy, really.

I still buy hardware synths of old, because there is no latency and no glitch when changing programs. Yes, I write about old digital synths. From the 9ties. For VST's I use the PC. Another VST in a dedicated outboard box? Nah, only when I really like that instrument. Like, I will never get an OPSIX in hardware. The software version is boring as it gets anyway, the hardware has less possibilities.

For the price, it sounds like a Virus TI2 or Iridium would be a much better value.

I know what you mean about something premium needing to feel good. I just took the plunge with an Erica Synths Steampipe. It's also a VST in hardware form, but every pot feels super high quality and makes performing with the instrument a pleasure. I know I could have very similar sounds with a laptop and Reaktor but while I'm performing, (I'm a pro sax and EWI player), I need muscle memory and quality controls so that any changes I want to make are instinctive, not a chore. (I dislike touchscreens in my car for the same reason)! My plumber once said to me, "Don't cheap out on the taps - you have to touch them every day." Wise words...

Nice critics. Honest and on point. What would you say to the expressive Osmose ?

As I mentioned in your other Video, could it be a possibility to contact customer support at Mayer first, before putting out a rant video on TH-cam? Basically, we can discuss the wobbling of the encoders. However, the play does not say much about the quality of encoders, in return they react very precisely and you can operate them with a slight touch of one finger. In my opinion, the overall quality of the hardware is very good and the statement that such a housing costs almost nothing is simply fundamentally wrong. The housing is one of the most expensive parts to manufacture for devices with low production volumes! Regarding the patches that do not output any sound, it could really be the case that these were not transferred correctly. However, the web interface allows this to be corrected within a very short time. Just contact the support quickly and they will help you very friendly!

great vid like the vibe and honesty

Man... Thanks for taking one for the team. By just looking at it, it looks so poorly made :( I would be as pissed as your are...

Dope video dude! I enjoy seeing folks going in this direction. I love routing through the MPC standalone too. I route similar to you but for me, I love using a class compliant audio interface that has it's own FX processing to go along with the MPC's processing (not to mention being able to connect even more outboard gear). Assigning external processing through the audio interface to the submix busses or send/returns within the MPC is super fun.

damn you man! this so good. you should have done this video earlier! do you know how much time took me to figure it out myself? Just managed to do all this like 2 weeks ago! F*ck off karma!

I'm undecided between model 12 or the studio bridge to an older model analog mixer something like a Yamaha

How do you integrate external midi while the midi note-off bug exists? Midi on the MPCs is fully broken, it kills notes, all by itself, essentially useless. Let's not even get into the MTC bugs, the midi editing bugs in V3, etc., etc. Akai have concentrated in selling us plugins rather than fixing a broken OS.

Thank you so much. Pls carry on and go deeper into the rabbit hole

funnily i just realized my solar42f panning knobs are black and my mixer knob grey... inverted to yours

your jacket is awesome! can you pls share the model? amazing mix!

Nice work Jonathan! You're right in that its a great synth! its probably my fave bit of kit right now! Have you got a Soma Terra? You might enjoy that too!

cool 👍👍

WOW!

that's sickkk!

Really cool sounds! Got immersed !😀

Thanks for making these videos. Just received my Solar this week and got some nice recordings out of it already. Still didn’t figure out all parts of it yet so always great to watch others use it :)

Hey @knightsnare, you asked about the envelope follower? I’m still working it out on the solar too but in euro rack it’s a way to link the voltage envelope of something (say pitch of an osc or filter cutoff) to an external source, if I recall the solar has the envelope linked to the contact mic preamp I think (or maybe ext audio), so in theory you can tap the mic and have the. Envelope open up an oscillator or a gate or trigger or change pitch or filter cut off. That’s what I THINK it does but i need to play.

Do you have a prefered pedal you use for the 42f

Thank you Thank you Thank you 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

UDO Super 6. Or several cheaper Behringer synths perhaps.

This video needed to be made! Bravo 🙏 great job!

Thanks for this! Having some familiarity with subtractive/modular synthesis I was able to figure out the basics, but there's a lot of crazy extra features, and the user guide falls way short. It's worth noting that it effectively has two sequencers- the tunable 5-step you showed here, plus a more standard 16-step accessible through the keyboard menu (worthy of its own tutorial). The two sequencers can be clocked separately and patched together for some very interesting poly-rhythmic effects.

shared this on the facebook elta music solar 42 user group. Hope that is ok with you!

Because it is so unique, I hope you won't regret it. It has no MIDI but you can still sequence it with a Black Sequencer for example, or a KeyStep Pro, or anything that has CV OUTs. But you obviously know that already. I will keep mine for its manual tuning imprecisions and happy accidents it creates when you perform with it and how it fuels my creativity. But I really get why you are at this crossroad. And it's crucial that you don't lie to yourself. My humble opinion is: if when you touch it, it doesn't inspire you anymore, then you may need something else, whatever the genre you're in. 🙏

I still listen to FSOL all the time. Truly revolutionary with each album they released, ISDN was no exception. On another tangent, you should check out Yotto's rework of Paupa New Guinea - th-cam.com/video/G0asWcy6dOE/w-d-xo.html. Great video and love the listening party idea.

I first heard FSOL in 96 and forever changed my blood pressure for the good. As if I wasn't breathing properly before because my environment at the time was pining me down somehow & allowed me to escape for the duration I was listening

For me the solar is the most tempting synth of all synths. But this is just me. Keep the solar and look into the Moog muse :))

Get rid of the Solar and the Behringer Odd, and get a used Sequential Pro-3, hold on to the difference for something great later in the year. The keys feel great and it can do a lot of modulation possibilities and the sequencer is cool too for patches.

I love your Solar 42 content, and I'd hate to see you get rid of it. I'd pay to have a Solar 42 course that walked me through getting very familiar with it. There are no Solar 42 in-depth tutorials out there, so maybe a video course someone could buy would offset the investment you made in the Solar 42 and make it more appealing to keep?

Check out the Redshift six, or Erica synths steam pipe? Those two are on my radar. N I would like to know if these are something that will fit in with your set up? Side note, to cure gas look at some outboard gear, maybe an effects pedal or new synth won’t do it for you and a semi expensive hardware unit (without a screen) is something that might aid your sound? Just my opinion but I find looking at hardware sonic devices gets me thinking in a different kinda corner. I don’t have a Solar yet, I hope to get one soon but after that I don’t see myself going bigger.. Looks like your maybe be reaching a ceiling but I’m looking forward to where you end up going

Teo5........but the solar holds it's own special place that you may regret selling it.😀

I have the Solar on my list, as an ambient musician it’s perfect for my needs. The next synth I will purchase this month is the Oberheim TEO-5 and the PolyEnd Synth. Considering the type of music that you said you make, it sounds like the PolyEnd Synth would be perfect for your needs.

Alex is awesome!

Really nice demo Jonathan! Love your work! It took me a while to work through my fx cards. Cathedral was nice but like most I ended up putting infinity back in 😂

Good job, i subscribe to your channel, thanks for sharing.