[toothbrush]

> When my wish-list is complete, mine will have cost me about $1500.

Mind me asking what you use? :)

(and while i agree with the gist of your post -- well said! -- a minor nitpick is that even truly poor college students will probably have at least some sort of computer which could produce sound, making it tempting not to shell out for hardware, even if for some people [me included] work better with touchy feely knobs and sliders)

[smosher_]

> Mind me asking what you use? :)

I find gear lists distasteful so I won't go into much detail about most things, but I will give you an idea of what I have going on.

The thing I mentioned in the post is the OP-1: https://www.teenageengineering.com/products/op-1 (built-in synths, samplers, mic, radio, 4-track, sequencers...) It's my workhorse.

I like sampling, so there's a turntable and cassette deck. I like sampling a lot, so I'm getting another sampler.

I also have a subsynth to cover the areas the OP-1 synths don't. (They're very good, but each is specialized and has only 4 or 8 parameters.)

I also use a cheap (but not noisy) DJ mixer since I only need to mix two channels, and doing cuts with the crossfader when sampling is handy. The rest of it is cables, speakers, headphones and a few things I never use.

[toothbrush]

OK, thanks for the info! That OP-1 looks super fun, actually. I'll have to start saving up :)

[smosher_]

Sure, no prob. BTW, if you're interested, you might want to drop by http://operator-1.com/ which hosts the (unofficial) forums. The Teenage Engineering staff are known to browse and even make posts once in a blue moon.

It's expensive but well worth it for the people who click with it. I would recommend trying one before you buy it, especially if you can spend a good amount of time with it. I felt a little let down during my first week or so with it, but then it clicked and became instantly essential. It doesn't go that way for everyone, but it seems most people end up loving it.