modey

Yeah gotta say, as much as I hate Behringer at the moment, the RD9 seems pretty great. Maybe I'll pick one up secondhand or something.

What's the deal with that? I've been making a sequencer in p5js and even the simplest code makes my imac's fan sound like it's about to take off!

@sheatheman have you been keeping track of M8? https://dirtywave.com/ It's got more effects than the Polyend, and has its own synth engines as well (including a port of Braids). Plus, it's LSDJ based so can get really wacky with timing and micro-step stuff, as well as uneven lengths for each pattern in a track etc. The only possible downside is that the handheld format isn't for everyone. But it has a lot of useful shortcuts to help where the lack of buttons may otherwise hinder it. I'm in on the preorder list for one of the 80 "earlybird" units which are being made by hand before the production models, which will likely be produced later this year. Of course I'll be making videos and posting them here ? The Polyend looks like it'd be better for going back to basics / old style tracking, where a lot of the heavy lifting is done by the quality of the samples/sequencing rather than effects. The M8 has more potential to exploit effects and synthesis. The sound demos have been amazing so far. I mean, listen to the fkn thing: I'm irrationally excited.

Of course I recommend it ? It's a good entry into Elektron gear for sure. It's more limited than the other Elektrons but you'll be surprised at how weird you can get with it, especially when you start misusing the machines.

Yeah this has been my struggle recently. I sold a bunch of gear so I could get in on the preorder for Trash80's M8 device, then ended up getting cravings for a Bass VI again, so sold more gear. Couldn't find a Bass VI in stock and got impatient, so my mind wandered and all of a sudden I impulse bought a Chase Bliss MOOD and SH01A instead lol, because they came up for decent prices locally (plus I've wanted an acidy box for a while and that's the closest I'm willing to go without committing to something that only does acid). I only barely have enough to scrape in on M8 preorder, but strangely I think I made the right decision re: the MOOD/SH01A. Lately I've been really getting into making music with a single synth voice and an effects chain, and I think that combo would be nice.

No, I totally understand. Aesthetics and UI design is why I've held on to certain gear—it does have an influence on the kind of music I make. It's weird to say, but the white one had a certain ethereal/heavenly quality added to it by the white colouring that contrasted the industrial feel of the knobs and switches. Plus I think it was more of a glossy coat than the black one I ended up with, which was quite close to the textured matte black finish of early Octatrack mk1 builds. So it fit nicely with my OT, but drove me towards making more dark sounds, rather than the transcendental stuff I was making at Schneidersladen. Haha what a bunch of wank.

Mine was the black one. It sounds weird but I probably would have kept it if it were the white one lol. I totally fell in love with the white one at Schneidersladen when I visited Europe a couple of years ago, but it may have been the setting (and the general positive vibe of that holiday) that influenced my feelings. I did try taming it with the OT, but the fact is that it just sounded like any other synth once it got shaped by the OT's filters etc. It really is its own thing that sounds best just going direct into an amplifier. The best recordings I made with it were from running other gear through it, like a 606 and Volca Drum.. which is why I'm considering the Lyra-8 FX module.

It's awesome. Can sound super beautiful if tamed, or make crazy industrial rhythmic noise. It's definitely a luxury instrument though, and I couldn't justify keeping it. I think I miss the effects the most, I might try to track down the eurorack module someday.

I think it has to be taken in context with the rest of their work. For me, Downward Is Heavenward is among the best guitar music I've ever heard, at least in that style. This album being more of the same (in a good way this time!) is very exciting as a result.

I can't believe how good this album is. I love the parts where they just space out on one riff for ages. Someone here recommended Downward is Heavenward to me like 10 years ago or something. I've loved that album ever since, and I think I'm gonna love this one at least as much. To me it sounds like my favourite parts of DiH expanded into an album.

I'm starting to cool on the gearlust. I do have occasional cravings (I'm pretty sure I'll end up getting one of the first batch of trash80's M8 units) but I'm beginning to think I've got too much stuff and it's hindering me a bit.

Definitely. I hate "pure experimental" gigs for this reason. For years I've wanted to get on the bill at one of those shows and just play a straight pop set or something.

Yeah same. Something about it really inspires me. Probably just how close it sounds to nanoloop 2 tbh ? I'm glad it's working out for you!

Damn that's gorgeous! I've been messing with the Pyramid a bit but generally feeling a bit uninspired. It's definitely a crazy deep sequencer, but I haven't been able to gel with it yet. That said, I'm still in the mode of trying to use too much at once on it, and some of the things I'm trying to control (qy70, nords) just don't cope well with tons of MIDI information being thrown around. Shame, because there's tons of wacky CC stuff I want to do with my latest Nord Modular patch, and it just goes kinda wonky when I try to shove 4 channels of 18 MIDI CC messages into it (plus super fast notes) at once. I'm gonna try it with my Monomachine next, maybe I'll have more luck with that. They both support Turbo MIDI, so I wonder if that'll help. It seemed to work really well with the Cycles, getting to almost audio rate triggering of the tracks!

There are two save levels. Temp save and save to project. I think they have different buffers as well? So if you reload in the settings menu, you'll get different data to pressing the temp reload shortcut. Also yeah the pads are terrible. I just put them on fixed velocity. I think they're trying to work on a solution though? I think I remember Ess saying something like that on Elektronauts.

Yeah, I'm getting used to it, and as mentioned I've come up with a fix that is at least temporary (and keeps my hands nice and soft ?), but yeah, coming from Elektron devices, even the Model series have better trig buttons. They'd be alright if they were just those no-travel pads like on the Circuit etc. Maybe there's a way to mod it lol But damn, I've had the thing on all day while idly working through the manual and trying things out, and it's really got a lot of features I'll use. Some things I haven't even seen in videos yet, like being able to select a region of a pattern and shift just those notes back and forth (or transpose them, or offset MIDI CC). Plus.. TRIG MUTES YES FINALLY

lol I fixed the sticky buttons with moisturiser.. wonder if it'll last

Yeah I'm like this sometimes as well. Sometimes I'm just more in a tinkering mood than a creative mood. I bought a Pyramid btw. It's very nice, though the pad buttons are some of the worst I've seen/used, especially for a device of this price range. It's made worse that it's a second-hand unit in kinda dodgy condition, because some of the pads get slightly stuck in the enclosure when pressed. It's not a showstopper, as the pads still trigger properly, but they don't feel great. As a sequencer though, it's a lot more modular than I expected, and I can imagine I'll eventually get to a point with it where I can bang out sequences very quickly.

Haha, that's how I feel about my Nord Lead, and possibly the Digitone as well. I don't make many tracks with either, because when I sit down with them, I just get lost in making and playing lush patches. I guess that's kinda nice though ?

I very nearly bought an mpc1000 as a few have popped up on gumtree/facebook in the past couple of days. I think I've decided on a Squarp Pyramid though. I haven't been too inspired controlling my Nords and other non-sequenced devices using Elektron gear, so maybe the Pyramid will help me to use them a bit more..

edit: @sheatheman Quaristice and Untilted, then back to Max after that. Nord Lead is basically my favourite synth ever, sounds great even dry.

They only used the monomachine on two albums. I think most of their FM stuff came from either the Nord Lead or DX100. Nord Lead FM is amazing btw! Only 2op but it has a really unique character.

What? There are still tons of artists doing super precise, clean digital stuff. Ryoji Ikeda and Mark Fell, for example..

Is that similar to the qy70 in terms of sequencer? I should actually learn how to use the qy70. The chord transposition is pretty amazing, it does a good job of re-scaling things.

Ooh, I've got my dad's HR-16 (with homemade memory expansion!), haha I'll never sell it though, even though I don't use it.