For months now I've been transitioning my mind, body, soul and studio into a hardware / analog based working environment and so far I haven't looked back. Before I decided to purchase the XBASE 888 as my first analog drum machine, I was researching a hybrid synthesizer / drum machine, the Spectralis, made by Radical Technologies. What made this machine so interesting was its similarity to Logics Ultrabeat drum machine. Both have oscillator parts for designing complex soundscapes, and of course sample play back, but most notably is the routing capabilities and the overall degree of signal flow control. Many hours spent working with Ultrabeat have really made me appreciate these types of capabilities in hardware. For instance assigning a low frequency oscillator control over the high pass filter of a crash cymbal...
The Spectralis 2 takes all of this to the next level only not inside a computer but on a keyboard stand and I couldn't ask for a more capable piece of hardware. For the next few weeks (years?) I'll be busy learning as much as I can about this machine and I'll be posting some tutorial videos as I go in English. Joerg (one of the inventors) has posted some great tutorials only their in Deutsch, still worth watching over and over though ;^).
In the mean time check out these links and videos:
