What's that one indispensable piece of gear in your collection ?

[urall]

What's that one piece of gear you'll never get rid of ?

[ConcreteMascara]

my Boss DD-20 Giga Delay pedal. had it since day and it's been nothing but awesome.

[NaturalOrthodoxy]

korg volca keys. feels like the only synth I'll ever need (outside of appopriating the MS-20 in the studio where I recorded my album)

[Euro Trash Bazooka]

Hard to say because I rarely buy or build anything that I wouldn't deem indispensable in my gear collection. Two things come to my mind and are crucial in my work process though: my octaver beefs up any thin signal and adds thickness to my sound sources, and a homemade compressor makes them all shine. They're both discrete pieces of gear, they don't hide my lack of creativity or my mistakes, they don't change my sound at all. However, they really make everything everything nicer (I don't use the octaver on everything but I use my compressor with everything: synths, drum machine, bass, guitar, etc...)

[Lysergikon137]

Weirdly enough now that you ask this I would have to say it's the distortion/waveshaper pedal with CV inputs from ElectroLobotomy. As long as I have something to run through it and something else modulating the gain or bias through CV I can maintain a rhythmic, hissing industrial sound. My synth is back at the builders' shop getting a makeover and some repairs so I'm currently running my LepLoop MultiCassa through it and modulating the gain with a 16-step CV sequencer from Michael Rucci. I still get very workable industrial pulses with short washes of feedback and some of my favorite tracks are using just the pedal and the LepLoop without any additional effects, just a separate blown out contact mic noise track.

[Soloman Tump]

Over the past 6 months, probably my MoodySounds Babybox



You can get some unique fuzz / feedback effects using your own source, and since it also has a high gain you can create some deadly distortion too.
Took me a while to figure out how it all worked as some subtle changes to the controls can yield vastly different results.

[theworldisawarfilm]

 Korg MS-20 and thee SP-404. No surprises here.

[sunandsteel]

Microkorg. Lacks the look of a "real" synth, but you can get incredible sounds once you familiarize yourself with it. I've used it to write the majority of my material and have tons of patches saved on it.

[Peterson]

Sony brand answering machine cassette loops in 15, 30, and 60 second increments and maybe one homemade 3 second loop tape.

[theworldisawarfilm]

Microkorg. Lacks the look of a "real" synth, but you can get incredible sounds once you familiarize yourself with it. I've used it to write the majority of my material and have tons of patches saved on it.

Amen. I will never sell mine.

[Andrew McIntosh]

My SH-101. First synth I got and been the basis of nearly everything until recently. Got the "boutique" version too.

Interesting re the Microkorg, I got rid of one this year. Found I just didn't need it what with midi synths. A very clumsy unit to programme, too. More a musician's synth than for me.

[Euro Trash Bazooka]

It's only my opinion but I can't stand Microkorgs. They sound tinny and extremely digital, and I can't deal with fixed architecture in synths anymore. To each their own obviously

[FEAR_GOD]

It's between My Korg MS-10 and Make Noise 0 Coast. I use them both on just about every Terror Cell Unit and Koufar recording over the last 4 or so years.

Korg MS-10
The filter is just so goddamn fat. This alone makes it work keeping as my only synth, I run just about everything thru it. The patch bay is really intuitive and user friendly and once you get some patches going the MS-10 transforms into a different beast.

Make Noise 0 Coast
I feel like anytime I touch this machine I can make it produce any sound I want. It can be used as a filter (I've recently been filtering my drum machine thru it and its awesome) and when I couple it with my Korg SQ1 it just comes alive. Its really good for percussive sounds, leads, and if you use some effects it can create some really brooding and morose ambient textures.

[sunandsteel]

It's only my opinion but I can't stand Microkorgs. They sound tinny and extremely digital, and I can't deal with fixed architecture in synths anymore. To each their own obviously

Its not necessarily my "best" synth - I use a Microbrute and Monologue as well. Its a bit limited, but its quite versatile within those limits and easily manipulated (for me). If a track needs just a bit more a small synth part or anything extra, I go to the Microkorg first. Not to knock the other synths I have, but I find those pretty interchangeable. I could replace either with something like a Minilogue or Bass Station and I would be more than fine. Can't ever replace my Microkorg.

[Cauldhame]

Edirol R-09 portable recorder. For years, this was all I had and the foundation of everything I made. Going without it would be unthinkable!