What’s The Best New Gear Of Musikmesse 2013?

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This year’s Musikmesse was the best in many years, with all kinds of interesting introductions for electronic musicians. Some highlights include the Nord Lead 4,  the unusual Dualo du-touch ß controller, the Bass Station II, the BOSS RC-505 Tabletop Loop Station, new Jomox Eurorack drum modules, the MFB Tanzbär Drumcomputer, and the Korg Volca line of analog synths.

What do you think is the best new gear for electronic musicians introduced at Musikmesse 2013? Let us know what you think in the reader poll below! (Pick up to three.)

If you’ve got more to add – share your thoughts in the comments!

30 thoughts on “What’s The Best New Gear Of Musikmesse 2013?

  1. The Korg Volcas stole the show – great small synths at great prices.

    The Novation Bassstation is the best new full-size synth – a flexible sound engine, and once you add in MIDI control patch storage and other ‘utilitarian’ factors it becomes a top-notch production tool.

    The MFB tanzbar drumcomputer looks like a really amazing device, when you realize that it can record every knob tweak you make into the pattern. I am looking forward to hear much more of this.

  2. Please change it to 3 or 4 best. I love all the keyboards – Korg Kross – coz it’s not expensive and you get those great Korg sounds, Roland BK-9 with 1700 sounds and 2 screens, Kurzweil Artis coz it’s Kurzweil at it’s best,.. Nord Module coz I want the synth manufacturers to make modules as well as keyboards, … Sorry all the rest, but for economic reasons I’ll have to put the Korg Kross….. Great sounds at an economic price….. But please consider allowing us to vote for 3 or 4…. Best regards

  3. Definitely Nord Drum 2. I own ND and it’s great, but this is a major update. I am glad Clavia has listened to its customer’s wishes. All those Korgs are perhaps nice little boxes, but for serious music making? I don’t know. ND2 with Pad is a really powerful tool for drummer but in studio as well.

  4. too many good things this year!

    the RC-505 from BOSS – great idea, great sound

    the BassStation 2 from novation – great price, great sounds

    but the winner has to be Korgs Volca Series though I’ve noticed the price for units has slipped up to €160 ($210).

    I think what makes the volca series is knowing the great firmware updates which are likely to come as they did with the monotribe. it may only have 8 memory slots and not much choice in waveform but it’s a great interface with enough to explore and keep you making something unique from everyone else.

    1. The MFB drum machine seems to be good. But its name is a shame. Because “Tanzbär” stands for torturing bears.

  5. Korg Volca’s kept my attention….then the Novation Bass Station…

    Thank you Korg for listening to your Patrons, Customers, and Followers!! Your ahead of the curve with a plethora of products that talks to the Musician’s need, wants….etc!!!

  6. Sorry, none of the above. The Prophetz 12. Is my next synth – or maybe the Waldorf Zarenbourg. It feels great to play. It doesn’t have a million sounds but what it does is make you want to play more. You don’t spend your time endlessly altering a small musical phrase, though I like that, too. It just feels great and sounds just like my Wulitzer 200 but with a much better feel. Yet, I think I’ll go with the Prophet 12 and then look into some analog modules. That could be fun.

  7. Maybe for 2014 release a Hardware analog synth with integrated vst that actually work for everyone ? looks like every company release synth with many updates and fixes to come… and then never come and never work nice and stable…

    1. That’s the usual life of tech toys, from a new product 0.9 to a new new product in version 0.9.. The 1.0 or 1.1 (the always expected bugproof release) is never never never the goal of any vendors, as it does not pay…

    1. Yeah I bought the rekon audio vst plugin for the mopho and in order for it to work takes about 20 min to set up properly and if anything changes it all gets screwed up, I know its 3rd party but the rekon audio website definitely promised a less painful experience. I really only make basses and leads on it so i’ve been making patches from scratch with no editor and one knob, and it is faster than setting up the things and programming it in the editor, oh well. I really gave up when it ended up that whenever I tried to automate something and the CPU spiked to the roof and crashed ableton every time. Now I recently got the Analog four and what a painless experience that is! I know its not vst controlled and only by the internal operating system but I think it proves that it definitely can be done!

  8. I was in Frankfurt for musikmesse and the best is the nordlead 4.

    This VA is ten time better than all the new analo stuff.

    Volca serie is cool. A lot of fun for the price but very limited of course.

    Pulse could be a good one but have to be finish.

  9. The volca range. I wasn’t planning to buy any more gear – having just sold all my modular stuff and more besides, to leave nothing but software really – but this range looks like it’s hit that elusive spot between too restrictive and not restrictive enough, promising open sesame to actually – for me – doing something that I enjoy.

  10. Volca series, in special Volca beats, are really interesting BUUUT unfortunately and AAAAS ALWAYS it will be expensive in my country (3x to 4x the price..sorry Korg that was my experience with Monotribe), so I have to vote in FL Studio 11, I own it and since it have replaced FL Synthmaker to Flowstone, that was a pretty crazy addition, with all that Ruby bringing precision timers, robotics and stuff

  11. I think the Nord Drum 2 is pretty cool. As a drummer, creating you own synth sounds is an awesome treat. I also love the fact that you can buy the nord pad to use with the Notd Drum.

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