I broke down during a sale Perfect Circuit was having recently, and I bought an ES-8 Bitwig Edition for ~20% off, an EricaSynths Fusion Tube VCO v2 for a similar discount, and (2) Expert Sleepers Disting mk4 modules for 10% off, to complete my rack that I purchased and started making plans for a couple months ago. I can’t wait to use the ES-8 with A3 finally (and A4 soon) and have all the potential that multiple I/O ports of DC-coupled wizard magic affords!
I wish the Disting modules also arrived here today, but they are currently out of stock, and Covid-19 crisis is not helping to get rapid order fulfillment, but if that is what it takes for everyone to be safe, I can wait as long as necessary. Nothing I could ever order is worth someone risking their health and/or overall sense of well-being.
Anyway I did tons of research, planning and decision making to get to what I ultimately decided upon. It also gave me comfort that, as @futureaztec pointed out, Reverb.com has a pretty good marketplace, where he has sold things previously and so if I end up hating something and wanting to get rid of it, the option is there. I think I will be content though. If you wanna check out my choices, you can view my rack here:
@stschoen I actually discovered the Disting module by mistake as I was trying to find out more info about the Empress Effects Zoia Euroburo module, but that won’t be out for months, don’t know how much it will cost, and it is too big to fit in the available space I had left, so when someone mentioned the Disting, I had to check that out. It took about 10 minutes of reading about it and watching a demo video of all the functions it serves, and I was SOLD haha I ended up putting it on my order within 5 minutes of that. Disting was essentially a no-brainer based on the advice and input from my peers here on the forum.
I know that @robertsyrett speaks highly of the disting. One could argue that many of the things it does can be done equally well with Audulus, but even with an ES-8 one always has to consider the available I/O. The idea of a compact, general purpose DSP module appeals to me, and the disting is a excellent example. A small amount of rack space but a large number of potential uses. I think it’s a winner.
@stschoen I just saw this, and a) thought of what you had said about how you wouldn’t mind having a Disting module or two, b) almost lost my mind, since my two modules just finally arrived today, and I just finished installing them a few minutes before seeing that this is the NEW new, and I could have saved a few bucks (and some minor finger damage only installing one module instead of two haha), and gained some cool new effect features, if I had known, and was willing to wait just a little longer. Why wouldn’t this happen? Anyway, here it is:
Thanks for the info. Seems like it’s always the way things go. A couple of weeks after I bought my Behringer synths they both went on sale. I finally decided that you can’t wait on the next big thing. Time is the most precious commodity of all and you have your Distings now rather than having to wait until this one becomes available. Still it does look pretty sweet.
Not to worry, there is still plenty of fun to be had with disting mk4! I may upgrade to the EX some day, but I think I will be happy with the mk4 for the foreseeable future. Most of the big updates center around really long delay (Audulus can do that) and polyphonic sample playback (Korg Gadget can do that) which are great but not an immediate need if you are using an iPad and ES-8.
BTW Right after I bought my distings first time around they announced the mk4, so I feel your pain xD. You can always sell your distings, they keep 80% of their retail value according to reveb.com
Mine dropped from $189 down to $169 between the time I ordered, and the day they got there, which is when the new double Disting EX module was announced. I sent an email asking if they would be willing to price match their now lower offering, and they agreed that was the fair thing to do.
Perfect Circuit was so nice about it, so I happily told them to just put the difference refund in store credit because it has been such a great experience doing business with them, and I will certainly need $40 in cables or something else I can apply that store credit to in the foreseeable future. They are now my #1 for anything hardware related!
Also, @robertsyrett you are so right about how much fun to be had that there is. I seriously am astounded by the number of DSP functions that this little 4 HP module is capable of doing for me. I currently have a wavefolder algorithm running in the first one, and a tape delay running in the second one.
There is so much to explore, based on what I have read so far in the the manual, and I just got the MicroSD cards for them, so I will be able to put WAV files for playback, set favorite presets, and probably a few other things I don’t yet know about as I have not read the whole manual.
Overall, these things are a great addition to my rack, and I couldn’t be happier that I chose these over the much larger (wasn’t going to fit without making some hard choices about what to get rid of) and not yet released - Empress Zoia Euroburo Module, which still looks incredible, but maybe just not the right thing for me.
Anyway, here it is: