I thought there might be an interest and/or benefit in having a Thread that is focused on the myriad options for setting up one’s synths, effects, and recording systems. I see it as sort of an all-purpose, helpful, stimulating source of possibilities.

So for me, I am lucky enough to have many older synths...Yamaha, Roland, Kurzweil, etc. I have about 5 or 6 traditional effects, and am hardware-based as far as recording. It is a blessing but with so much gear sometimes it can be rather confusing to keep things function and limit constant re-wiring, patching, etc. In order to maximize flexibility and multiple routing, I have generally used Yamaha boxes like the MJC-8 and the MEP-4 (I have two of both).

I have several patch bays but they are not currently in use (so many cables needed!).

In order to try and have any synth ready to be heard or recorded, I have slowly collected several Mackie line level mixers and a medium-size Mackie Mixer. Yes, I would be better off with one large mixer but it isn’t currently a possibility to upgrade.

The parallel to the audio routing is the MIDI routing...it can get rather confusing with so many synths.

Being able to Easily and quickly use any effect with any synth would be nice...probably the wisest thing would be using the patch bays to facilitate that (so each effect could be routed to be used on any synth).

I am not so much looking for advice on my set-up (but I would gladly listen). Mostly, I’d love this to be a place where we all can describe our set-ups, the relative value and negatives of the set-up, and be a place to pose questions. There are so many ways to go...computer based approaches versus my old-fashioned approach would be the biggest main dividing point.


Have at it!