TubularCorporation

Nice 8 track!

I used a MSSIAH cart a lot for a year or two when it first came out, it work really well. Grounding the filter input on the SID when you aren't using it makes a big difference in the amount of noise, too, although it's still noisy.

Ok, this RV70 is pretty great for $50, just tweaking the presets from the front panel. More range than I thought, very 90s digital in a way I like. Diffusion has a lot of range, from really distinct, stuttery individual echos all the way out to almost Alesis-y, grainy wash territory, but still with a different personality (I'd say a long wash of Alesis reveb is like a sandstorm, whereas this is more like ocean waves, if that makes sense, and this seems to build up less in the mids than most of the Alesis stuff I've used). Sits really well in a mix. I just threw it on a guitar track that was sounding too thin and dry even with a fair amount of ITB reverb (Valhalla VVerb) and it really did the job. I can definitely get it to sound "worse" than I expected (in a good way) but also a lot better than I expected. I'd say anyone looking for a 90s sounding character reverb could do a lot worse, I think up to $100 would be pretty fair for one of these. I think it's going to pair really well with FM synths. I like it. I was a little worried it would be redundant since I've had an SE-50 for years and that's also full of early 90s Roland reverbs, but this has a very different character to it. I'll post some examples once I get in to the sysex-only parameters and start really pushing it.

Um, holy balls. Also there's this video of someone who modded it to have CV control of all the front panel parameters (which is only 4 but still): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InCGxrC0k_I

I got myself a lowly Boss RV-70 reverb/delay rack unit (still on the way) for $50 because I can hook up Sweepstakes' old ZeroSL to it and access something like 40 sysex-only parameters, including pretty low level control of the "nonlinear" algorithm (there's a four stage amplitude envelope instead of just a simple gate time, and a bandpass filter with a wet/dry blend for doing some parallel EQing), and a few bands of fully parametric EQ! These things don't look like much on the surface, but if you skip ahead to page 27 of the manual it gets a lot more interesting. Also, supposedly the algorithms are a few of the less flashy ones (i.e. none of the "3d" stuff) from the Roland SRV 330, although I can't substantiate that. I'm hoping that for unnatural, 90s sounding mid-grade reverb it will really compliment the $26 Alesis The Wedge well, the Wedge has a kind of hazy, grainy (overused but really appropriate here) thing going on that makes it feel almost like the Wavestation of reverbs to me if that makes sense. Most of the few accounts of the RV-70 I've found seem to agree that it does surprisingly good clean, small room sounds but gets metallic when you push the parameters too far, which sounds like it could be great for electronic drums.

Oh no, this morning I glanced into a deep, treacherous abyss and that abyss is people selling lots of usually 3 or more broken 70s and 80s guitar pedals for parts at really low prices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD7pkpvEdMM

Jeff Sessions unexpectedly fired all US remaining attorneys yesterday, which isn't unprecedented but doing it without having any replacements even nominated is.

Best track from the first album of original music by the head of a militant splinter faction of Hare Krishna in 70s San Francisco, released less than a year before he was jailed for firing a machine gun into a liquor store from a moving car.

New belt maybe.

Ok, last one and then I'll stop with the video mixer suggestions. If anyone is really serious about repurposing one of these for a DIY synth or controller, someone is selling a bunch of broken Panasonic "Special Effects Generator" rack units right now and they look amazing, kind of like a Mutron pedal and one of those 60s Acoustic amplifiers had a mutant baby: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Panasonic-WJ-4600C-6-Input-Color-Bar-SEG-TV-studio-production-switcher/122367741980 I might have to nab something like this i working condition next time I get some side work, because crossfeeding signals between two switchers is where things really get crazy, and this one also has an external key input which is a BIG thing, because you can use a third video signal as a mask to overlay one signal onto a second one, which opens up tons of possibilities.

IT might take a bit but definitely. I'm seriously considering recording a bunch of improvised video feedback bullshit, cutting it down to about half an hour, making some kind of off-kilter ambient soundtrack and doing a tiny (10-20 copies) VHS release of it as some kind of fake relaxation or newage meditation or subliminal/self hypnosis thing, kind of an homage to this sort of thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWP1Bfi_k-4

Success, I just accidentally loosened a ribbon connector when I was looking inside for the battery. Fixed that and it works perfectly now, and the battery seems to be charging fine. This thing is going to be really fun.

Not nearly as bulky or heavy as I expected, just slightly bigger than an MPC-3000. Down side is the battery for the memory is dead and I can't seem to even find it in there. Leaving it powered on to charge for half an hour like the manual recommends but for now, none of the buttons actually respond although it will pass video fine so hopefully it works other than the battery. I don't have much faith in a 20 year old rechargeable battery being usable though, so I might have to drop the money for a download of the 1000+ page service manual that I couldn't find on any of the usual free manual sites. Hmmm.

Another thing I was looking at that would be VERY cool for a DIY project but was prohibitively big and expensive for me was the Snell and Wilcox MAgic Dave system. The actual video processing happens in a kind of general purpose rack unit and there are different control surfaces that you would add on for different purposes For a DIY project, the control surfaces on their own could be a really good option and they look amazing.

There's a comparable Panasonic on eBay right now untested, $65 + $20 shipping, for anyone who seriously wants to make something out of one. Also this one would need a new joystick and one of the buttons looks messed up, but the layout would be really good for a DIY drum machine or something. Videonics brand stuff seems to be the easiest to find under $100 but doesn't look as cool. I'd love to see one of you turn one of these into an instrument. I'm telling you, though, this is the golden age of 90s analog video equipment cheap. If you can find it locally it's usually free-if-you-pick-it-up type deals.

Built a Dan Armstrong Green Ringer clone over the weekend. Pretty cool to misuse. Was getting some great, contrapuntal, metallic sounds by putting it in front of a reverb with a long predelay on an aux send and sending a pretty forgettable x0x acid loop into it. Looking forward to getting more time with it, I have a feeling it's going to sound really good on individual drums.

I'm going to be the next Gerry Todd with this thing.

Unfortunately about half of the features of it are completely useles for me, I wish it was much smaller. All of those oldschool computer keyboard looking keys on the right are jsut for remote controlling VCRs (you can build an edit list and then have it automatically assemble your edit from two source VCRs onto a third recording VCR, but that of course means you need 3 professional VCRS - which are also dirt cheap but HUGE, heavy and will inevitably fail, plus there's absolutely no reason to work that way unless you're an analog video purist (I'm sure they're on the way if they aren't already out there), which seems like a kind of silly thing to be. But yeah, 80s and 90s broadcast equipment looks amazing, and again it costs nothing. I've got half a mind to buy an animated logo generator (basically you can load like 20 seconds of video into it and it will chroma-key that over whatever signal you put through it, which was SERIOUS BUSINESS 25 years ago when they were new, so they're very overbuilt, professional machines that amount to a real-time hardware implementation of Blingee technology) just because they're like $25 but I'm not that far gone yet. My first plan for it is to hook up the handful of old security cameras and little CRT TVs I've trashpicked over the years and go nuts with video feedback for a weekend.

Well, it's running a bit behind schedule so it won't be here until tomorrow or Thursday, but a little over a week ago I finally found a low enough price to put my many years of wanting a 90s video switcher, and will soon have a Sony VFX-100 taking up way too much shelf space (for the price of 3 or 4 dinners at a local Indian place, or as many cab rides across town). Well worth it for something that will let me do all kinds of public access grade wipes and keying, and also make my apartment feel just a bit more like a spaceship. The price of analog video equipment on eBay compared to reputable dealers is just as insane as ever, if not more so. Cheapest I could find one of these from an actual dealer was over $2600 USD, but on eBay even an overpriced one is well below 10% of that. I paid a little under $80 for one about as clean as that photo, that is allegedly fully tested and from a seller who offers returns. I've seen some great inputless-mixer glitchy video stuff done with similar switchers, they have a great look especially if you have two of them to feed into one another.

This thread is a good way to remind myself to stay strong and not get in to Eurorack, because that way lies ruin.

Yeah, a friend of mine who moved away a couple years ago had a space and it sounded fantastic, and a guy who used to play in a band with both of us around that same time had a Blofeld, so I can imagine how good the two would sound together even though I've never had them in the same place at the same time. Modey, that is a hard call. I usually go with the rack versions of stuff because they're typically cheaper and they take up less space, but then the couple of keyboards I usually have around tend to get the most use because for me it's just faster and more fun to program sounds on something self contained.

lol. I've definitely listened to ween while tripping and it has been good. Also had great experiences putting on autechre for tripping friends. I know some people who would never listen to ae sober but went fuckin nuts for vose in on a good acid trip I'd go with The Pod, myself.