TubularCorporation

We've been short staffed at work since January so I've been getting about 10 extra hours a week, which means I'm less broke than usual. So I did the responsible thing and finally got myself the legendary Behringer V-Verb Pro, to complement the excellent fake sounding reverbs in the BAM with some pretty well regarded realistic reverbs. It's not as special as it was when it came out and there wasn't really anything nearly as good in its price range for realistic reverb, but even now it's a whole lot cheaper than something like a Strymon pedal, plus some people seem to really like the multiband compressor they threw in as a bonus so hey, maybe that's good too. Extra justification is that I can hook up the S/PDIF optical and wordclock connections to my interface and get an extra pair of decent 24/96 I/O channels, and even with the inflated eBay prices a well maintained one is still cheaper than a Volca.

Or an Axoloti.

I mean, I know how send and return works, but if you look up the 1604vlz4, in the top right is the return section. There is a knob that lets you send the return back to the send. Page 24 https://mackie.com/sites/default/files/PRODUCT%20RESOURCES/MANUALS/Owners_Manuals/1604VLZ4_OM.pdf The wording is kind of weird there but I guess you would use it if you were using aux 1/2 for your monitor mix? So you could use aux 3 and 4 as your effects sends, return aux 3 to stereo return 1 and aux 4 to stereo return 2, use the "to L/R" controls to set the return level in the main mix and use the "to aux 1/2" controls to set the return level in two monitor mixes (aux 1 = monitor mix 1, aux 2 = monitor mix 2). I'm pretty sure that's what they're trying to describe in the manual. Or you could just use them for feedback, which is great because I always use regular stereo mixer channels as my returns specifically so I can add a bit of extra feedback if I want to. It would be nice to be able to do that with the stereo returns instead of having to sacrifice a full mixer channel (or two) for it. Plus you could patch whatever was on aux send 1 into stereo return 2 and vice versa, and then use the "to aux" knobs for cross-feedback between two different effects units, which can do all sorts of stuff (obviously you can do that and more with a pair of regular mixer channels too, but again it could be more convenient to have it all on dedicated controls and jacks). Anyway, that's an interesting feature I've never seen before. If I was going to upgrade to a slightly bigger mixer I'd be torn between an older Mixwizard (I did live sound for a trio on one last year and I really liked the layout and feature set, the venue's sound system wasn't nearly good enough for me to have an opinion of the sound) and an older Soundcraft Spirit M8 (never used one, but I like everything Soundcraft I've ever tried and even though the feature set is a bit smaller than the MixWizard, I like the actual ergonomics of the Folio better, based on what I can see in photos and having used similar mixers over the years), but for now I don't have the space or the budget for either so the EPM is getting me by (plus an early 90s Mackie Micromix 1202 I got from a friend last fall, which is great for a certain kind of sound but not very flexible at all).

When I had a Volca Beats I noticed the levels were actually pretty well balanced if you were using the little internal speaker, and I kind of suspect they voiced it with that in mind.

Finally started Ghosts Of My Life the other day. So far he really nailed it.

Lol. Kinda true. I wonder why there aren't any decent live sampling videos. Live sampling well is a lot harder than making weird noises with a comb filter.

Yeah, I've been through two Volca beats (both got in trades) and neither of them stayed with me more than a couple months because lack of pattern chaining made it impossible to integrate them into any of my workflows.

I've seen AMT a few times and played a show with them a while back. At the one where I opened, the SH09 had broken in NYC the night before and they were using a Monotron taped to the top of it and to be honest the way they use it there was hardly any difference.

That's a really good idea. I don't have a Eurorack setup but I do have a few things that could fill a similar role (Mother 32, Wasp clone, Mutable Anushri), going to have to mess with this soon.

Put myself on the list for one of these: https://www.tindie.com/products/Kasser/dafm-synth-genesis-ym2612-ym3438/ OT sequencer + DAMF YM2612 = Megadrive-style music in hardware without messing with an actual megadrive (although realistically I'd probably sequence it all from a tracker because it's just better that way for this sort of thing)

Finally built a bare-bones TNT Flexy Table to I finally have a shelf that's wide enough to hold the old Technics SA700 I got free in college and used for about 10 years starting around 2003 until I had to loan it indefinitely to my parents for space reasons an switch to a trash picked NAD. I don't care about the looks or "audiophile" angle much, just wanted a cheap, easy to adjust and level custom shelf, so I saved some money and effort by just using 3/4" plywood instead of 2" MDF for the shelves, total cost was around $70 and it took about 20 minutes to build and level. Traded the NAD to them for the Technics and just got it set up before work this morning. Sounds and looks even better than I remembered. Bottom shelf is for the old Dell I use to livestream, but I won't have time to set that back up until next week. Also devise some kind of little kickstand to keep the turn table lid open since the springs in the hinges broke 10 years ago and I have to take it off every time I play a record now.

The more demos I hear of the Kyra the less impressed I am, so that's good. As appealing as it is to jsut sell off all of the weird old 90s rack stuff I have and replace it with one modestly sized, powerful desktop synth, I don't think Kyra is the one.

I mix ITB msotly but I'm completely OTB for sound sources. But it works really well with most multitimbral 80s and 90s synths I've tried it with.

I saved up for like 7 months last year and got an MPE controller back in December, and the Kyra looks like it could really take full advantage of it. Assuming it's MPE compatible. I haven't checked.

I've got to admit there's a part of me that wants to sell off about 90% of my gear and use the money to get a Waldorf Kyra.

(does this still count?)

I broke down and dropped $35 on a Behringer Modularizer, because Circuitbenders.co.uk now has a simple kit to add a variable clock and switchable firmware, so you can switch between Modulizer and Virtualizer firmware at will, and underclock it for the expected washes of digital noise.

I just 9verheard an amazing conversation about how all drugs are actually made from poisonous toads, snakes and fish, and are smuggled into the USA from Asia (which is just one place) and Cuba in liquid form disguised as liquor, where it is put on "synthetic powders" and sold as different drugs depending on color. The proof? Opium stop can only be extracted from a gland near the stomach of the Opius Fish, and the opius fish is only found in Asia. I assume this is why Trump needs to build a wall or something but they left before they got that far.

There are a few of them on US eBay in the $850-$950 range. The only ones over $1000 are new old stock, and those are still a couple hundred less than a MKII (which is around $1400 here). OTOH I don't remember ever seeing one in working condition going for under $800, even when B&H was blowing them out for $800 new. I guess it's a regional thing? EDIT: when I was checking prices, I noticed that someone is selling generic mouse wrist rests for $25 as "Digitakt wrist pads."

I won't get to try the USAMO properly until tomorrow but I got it set up, activated (offline activation was smooth), saved a track template that was gainstaged correctly (at unity gain my interface was too hot for it to work even with the trim turned all the way down, but lowering the track fader 7db was all it took to get it working consistently) and sent some clock to the MIDI clock analysis in the MidiGAL. Best MIDI clock timing I've ever seen in software or hardware. So far so good. EDIT: this thing works really well, I'll probably get a second one this summer. Only complaint is it doesn't ship with a power supply.

Technicaly you can do all that stuf fhere but sometimes they don't get the message and take it out for delivery anyhow. The country has been headed this way for at least 45 years so far, but I think a critical mass of people might actually be paying attention now so maybe we'll get some of it sorted out.

My biggest shipping problem is that I live in a poor neighborhood where it's an open secret (the post office clerk herself told me and a few carriers have also complained about it over the years) that the main office transfers carriers who are either really inexperienced or who are problematic but not bad enough to be fired. Between that and the Republicans making the USPS fully fun all retirement benefits 80 years in advance because there's a decades long war of attrition to bankrupt the post office so the private carriers can take over (it's happening in Canada too, since at least the late 90s), which has left them underfunded enough that they're forced to hire temps to do some routes a day or two a week (Fridays my mail is delivered by trainees or contractors, so that's when stuff usually goes wrong), mail gets delivered to the wrong addresses quite a bit. I don't even have anything sent here if it cost more than a few dollars at this point, especially if it won't fit through the mail slot since we also have one or two mail theft rings doing the rounds. I have everything sent to work.