TubularCorporation

So how is it that storing data on the blockchain is so inefficient that even a few dozen kilobytes for a GIF of a stick figure with a dick is way too big to actually put on the blockchain so all your Logan Paul NFTs are actually just URLs, but this can use it for "unlimited free storage"? I need someone bigger brained than me to explain why this isn't the same as wetransfer but with a blockchain based frontend and a different storage limit structure.

I finally got a second power conditioner (another new-old-stock Ametek Powervar ABC830-11, same as the first one, but any of their standard power conditioners should work just as well as long as it's specced for your setup) because the basement studio I have now has two circuits and I have to run gear on both of them. I didn't really expect it to help much with the ground loop problems I've been having at the new place, but I guess it really does its job well because it did more than help - it completely got rid of all the hum in my whole setup. Night and day, from a noise floor above -70dB when all of my gear is turned on (which I don't do when I record because it's too noisy, but usually do when I'm streaming or writing) to compleyely silent - I can't even get anything on the meters unless I boost the main output from my mixer up all the way to +20 (the highest the interface will go). That's too hot for most mic signals, much less line level, and even then it's pretty low. Lower than I used to get with a much simpler setup running on one circuit with everything powered from a typical Furman. Really can't recommend these things highly enough, especially considering what a "pro audio" power conditioner that's in a rack case and maybe has some metering but otherwise isn't any better would cost. The standard models all have a medical grade counterpart (with a "MED" suffix on the product number - so mine would be an ABC830-11MED in that case) that's even higher specced than standard, but I doubt it would be worth it (not that they're much more - the used price of a MED model is usually comparable to the new-old-stock price of a standard). Maybe if you used a bunch of vintage tube gear and tape machines or something. Everybody needs one! I've brought them up before and I'll bring them up again and it will still be true.

Yeah, you can have a bunch of different scenes but honestly I use one really basic one 99% of the time and hardly even use the rotatry encoders, I could have dotten away with a simpler, cheaper fader box but nobody makes one that compact.

Not exactly outsider, but this channel has a short album woth of half-decent, oldschool-academic style synth music: https://www.youtube.com/@corticallarvae1067/videos What makes it worth sharing is that I found it through a comment where they mention being in the reformed Process Church of the Final Judgement with totally-not-a-cult-leader Genesis P-Orrige in the 90s. So if you're interested in music that comes out of cults like I am, that's two in one! EDITE: it's possuible that they meant some other Genesis who had ties to the Process Church and underground electronic music, but that would be a bit of a coincidence (especially since Genesis P-Orridge is one of the interview subjects in the documentary the comment was posted on).

Extremely niche, but here are a pair of no longer distributed java programs for decoding AND ENCODING all four of the competing 70s quadraphonic formats (SQ, QS, Stereo-4, Dynaquad), still available on Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20190518193801/http://www.hotto.de:80/software/quadrophonicmatrixencoder.html https://web.archive.org/web/20190608172140/http://www.hotto.de:80/software/quadrophonicmatrixdecoder.html So if you're like me and like the idea of doing a quad release some day, this should do it. Modern 5.1 surround systems can actually still decode at least some of the quad formats (but you'd need to swap your speaker connections around since the quad channels don't actually decode to the same outputs as 5.1) so it's not actually as pointless as it sounds, and if I was going to put something out on vinyl I'd seriously consider it.

I wanted an MX-12 but the price was too high. In retrospect, I'm actually glad I didn't get it because the UC-4 form factor is so nice. The only real issue is the same issue most fader controllers have, and that's no motorized faders (but that's obviously not a realiztic option on the UC-4 anyway).

Got one of those about a year and a half ago for the Octatrack, it's fantastic.

Another good thing to do from time to time is choose a type of music youdon't particulrly like (or at best don't care about) and produce in that style. Don't worry about actually making that kind of music, but as much as possible limit yourself to techniques that are associated with that type of music. It's fun, you learn new techniques, because you're doing something you "don't like" you're less likely to compare yourself toestablished artists, and if you're lucky it will help you ge tover the idea that there are genres of musicyou like or don't like, or that genres are even a useful concept outside of marketing (they aren't, unless maybe you're a musicologist or historian but even then "genre"isn;'t really a very meaningful construct). It's a doorway to a bigger world where there is no kind of music that's bad (except pop-punk).

After you've spent a few years it's a lot harder to NOT have your own sound, really. I can listen to stuf I recorded when I was 13 and it's as recognizably my stuff as anything I do now, but maybe I'm just stunted. EDIT: for some actual practical advice, try keeping quantize turned off on everything by default, and only turn it on deliberately when you have a specific reason to quantize a specific part (maybe you need a very stable, metronomic kick drum so DJs don't get annoyed with you, for example). You personal sense of timing is a big part of why your music sounds like your music. Whenever you decide to quantize something, stop and ask yourself why and if it's really necessary.

I don't actually WANT it but I definitely NEED a Behringer SNR-208 8 channel analog noise reduction. The trouble is even though they show up pretty regularly in the $80 range, it seems like they're always in Europe and cost more to ship to the USA than the actual asking price.

Not the worst, but a couple from work this morning that gave me a laugh:

Not exactly a plugina nd not exactly free, but the complete Samples From Mars library is marked down to $49 right now. I'm not usually a big sample library user (except for some old 80s and 90s Ensoniq and Akai disks occasionally), but for $49 $49 is worth it for the couple dozen vintage drum machine sets alone (I doubt I'll ever download anything else from it myself). Definitely an improvement over what I was using. https://samplesfrommars.com/collections/all-products-1/products/all-products-from-mars

Sonny Bono's psychedelic album is a great one, too: If this was an unknown artist on a small label it would be one of those monster outsider psych albums people pay hundreds of dollars for, but it's Sonny Bono so they're pretty cheap when they show up (which isn't that often, I've worked at two record shops in two cities for about 9 years total and counting, and I've seen three of them.)

AFAIK they were already involved with Scientology at this point, but it was early enough that it hadn't really polluted their music yet. I didn't know about that Donovan, thanks for the tip! On the folk psych topic, I happen to live not too far from where this was recorded, so even though it's a private press rarity with less than 1000 copies pressed I've got two (the first one was literalyl abandoned in the basement of an apartment I was living in around 2012, and the other was $10 at a used video game shop that also carries records) and a friend of mine has 3 or 4. Kind of crazy how may we have, really, all things considered: Too bad about all the tracking distortion on the vocals, but I guess it was cut into the lacquer - every copy I've played has it in exactly the same spots. I've also got a copy of the second Perspective record, but it isn't very good. The third one ("Oh My God They Baked His Face") hasn't turned up yet.

I love The Monks so much.

Also just watch literally every video on Beat-Club's official channel, incredible stuff on there. https://www.youtube.com/@beatclub Black Widow's set is my favorite (NSFW for nudity and simulated human sacrifice): Obviously not musically on the same level as some of the other artists on there, but I'm a sucker for the 60s/70s satanism aesthetic.

YES And Roy Harper. And fuck it, listen to Donovan. Donovan rules. Especially the Mickie Most/Shawn Philips era, but even some of the 70s stuff (Open Road, a few tracks on Slow Down World). Also I'm not really that in to the Strawbs in general, but From The Witchwood is a really, really good album. Kind of like a middle ground between Tyrannosaurus Rex (NOT T. Rex) and, I don't know, Arthur-era Kinks maybe? The first 3 or 4 Ellen McIlwain albums before she went country are fantastic. Julie Tippets. The French band Ame Son did a really uniquealbum that mixes free jazz and psych in a way I haven't heard anywhere else (maybe some Henry Cow and Soft Machine is in the ballpark): Sam Gopal's rock album is amazing. His group was doing freeform folk-psych around England but when they got a record deal they decided they should go electic, so they brought one of Hendrix's roadies on as lead guitarist and had him write them some material. So basically what you have is a whole album of songs written by Lemmy during one 24 hour speed binge, with him playing guitar and signing like Jack Bruce. (except their Donovan cover, which sucks)

The Dreaming is my favorite but Hounds Of Love is close (and Cloudbusting is probably my favorite song she did, or at least my favorite single). Apparently Cymande toured again not long ago, or have one scheduled for next year or something? A freind mentioned it a couple months ago. Amazing band.

Barely even scratching the surface here, but that's plenty for now.

I've been listening to a lot of Kate Bush again this winter,and that sent me to the handful of extant recordings of Gurdjieff's harmonium improvisations (since he was one of her primary influences). Those are also pre 1975 and pretty excellent.

Plus jsut about anything Robert Wyatt touched up until at least the mid 70s is fantastic. Rock Bottm and the first Matching Mole are probably the best, and generally two of the best albums of the 1970s full stop.

These are probably the holy trinity of 1960s US and UK synthpop, and prey much mandatory listening if you like first generation, non-academic electronic music: Taken together as a single piece, Coming Down/Love Song For the Dead Che is probably my favorite pop song of all time (although they're also some of the least electronic on the album).