Taupe Beats

Yeah I run a bunch of power strips to Furman M-8x2's, which go to another power strip and then to the wall. Easy on/easy off. The Furman's are designed to fall on the sword if there's a power surge. https://www.furmanpower.com/product/15a-standard-power-conditioner/

Sorry, backwards compatibility was the term I was looking for, went blank in my previous post and had meant to comment on it. Backwards compatibility would be nothing short of mandatory for all the MIDI 1.0 spec gear that currently exists. I would anticipate limitations as far as what could be done to upgrade 1.0 gear into a 2.0 spec capabilities (if anything). I am *hoping* at the least that there will be a way to force 1.0 gear into a unique device identifier so the 16-channel limitation is removed. I'm not smart enough with MIDI to know the specifics on why Device ID's were limited to SysEx stuff. Your point on timing improvements is a great one. You may find this interview interesting. Update on MIDI 2.0 development:

I think stricter enforcement of a current process is the weaker of potential solutions. I am hoping that MIDI 2.0 instead attempts something more unique to identify control signals, instead of the current sharing of 128 potential signals between all MIDI compatible gear. I've gotten the impression from what I've read in MIDI 2.0 is that the developers are on the same wavelength.

edit: Sorry, I should have quoted the post. This is in response to @dcom's question to me. Taking the idea that someone goes and produces with the instruments/daw/whatever of their choice. And if the producer wanted to take the MIDI data which comprises that track, it could be exported to a standard file that could be loaded onto a different piece of gear than what was used to make that track, and all the data would still be playable to whatever instruments were assigned in that new environment. Now, you're going to tell me, "But Taupe Beats, that's exactly what standard MIDI files are designed to do!" While I understand this is the theoretical process, it is not a realistic one. Not even 7/10/74/71 are truly universal MIDI CC's, to use the most obvious examples. You get where I'm going... Like everyone else, I am eagerly awaiting to see what the true capabilities and functionalities of MIDI 2.0 will be. If they can solve these problems once and for all. I'm not trying to talk about how they'll do it (there's plenty of discussion of that all over the place and the speculation's pointless anyway). Just if it will be achieved. The tl:dr version is this: I see the Hapax like a purely MIDI take on a Pioneer DJ setup. That Pioneer DJ setup is now the industry standard. I don't think current MIDI can achieve what the Hapax aims to do. But I do think it's a noble and admirable idea and attempt, with hopes that future technology can achieve this goal.

Valuable Rickroll opportunity wasted. I'm a bit torn on the Hapax. I love the concept (a MIDI sequencer that specializes in transitions, almost DJ-style). However with the limitations of MIDI bandwidth along with the amount of accompanying gear to achieve this stuff, I don't see it working that well in the real world. Hoping I'm wrong. It did give me this fantasy of universal MIDI file formats, so producers could do live sets like b2b dj sets with something like a Hapax. That would be amazing.

That's a great idea but I'd def. want more than a stereo analog out. There's still way too much gear with analog-only connections. Sets of DB-25 connectors like on Mackie mixers would be perfect.

Philip Baker Hall as Richard Nixon in Secret Honor is one of the great American acting performances. RIP

Roland's gotta put out a new MX-1. It seems there's more requests made for it nearly by the day. I know this would never happen in 2022 but a rackmount summing-style usb mixer for Boutiques and AIRA stuff would rule. Allow for the ability to quickly allot outputs depending on what you want (so let's say, you could quickly switch presets from having several Boutiques output stereo to one that just outputs all the separate drums from the TR-8 individually). And a nice Scatter trick for the TR-8: Depth+On while a pattern is playing automatically triggers Scatter to play through the end of the pattern. edit: And with the E-4, it forces the USB stereo input to a mono signal before it passes to any effects. Boo!

That "dad rock" line isn't inaccurate. In fact, "dad rock" status for IDM was achieved around 2005. But going forward, why focus on a name? Names aren't music. The best attitude about any musical community are in the early days before attempts to create niche sub-genres. There is absolutely nothing to dictate this division being an inevitability. Keep music as inclusive as possible.

I could have sworn I saw somewhere that it could process a stereo input signal! Going back and indeed can't verify that anywhere. Damn. Thanks for the clarification!

I want that Roland E-4. Stereo line input, vocal synthesis (vocoder, harmonizer), Scatter effect with full MIDI (Scatter effect 4 life, fight me), other effects, even has a looper on it. Nice and small.

This is still so awesome

Too late to edit but I also want to give credit to AudioPilz. The Bad Gear series is great, funny, and typically accurate.

Bobeats is the shittiest of the youtube gear reviewers, by far. It was his Volca Kick video ironically which convinced me. Anyone who wants to be taken seriously and puts "Worth the hype?" on a thumbnail can fuck ALL the way off. Nothing but sensationalism, front-running, ass-kissing, Elektron-overworship, shit-content, and not giving you any actual useful information. The entire "Should I buy this?" youtube gear reviewer scene can fuck off, except Loopop. He's the only one who actually cares about showing true functionality in his videos while successfully incorporating his own presentation style. So his videos can be useful to someone who actually goes and buys the thing (ie the audience these creators should actually be catering to). I could go on, Bobeats isn't the only one who can fuck off (Cuckoo is almost as bad, Great Value Luke Vibert).

Volca Kick is extremely underrated (and fuck Bobeats). Turn the sustain on and put it behind effects like a spring reverb and delay, insta-1st wave industrial. The touch fx on the thing can also be cool (multiple triggered at once). The Volca Drum is my favorite. Super versatile (and can achieve damn near most of the tonal palate of the Volca Kick on its own).

k so early tests, def. was running the inputs too hot. Thanks for the suggestions! I swear I cannot understate how inept I am with tape 4-tracks (and always have been, from like age 13). Also learned that Tascam also intends their channel input switches to also reflect on playback. Instead of the record or "safe" switches under the track meters automatically making that decision for ya 'cause...ya know, that seemingly makes sense to me? Am I crazy for this?. Yep, I'm that dumb (can't lie though, this concept is so foreign to me). Cleaning the tape heads would probably help some. I honestly haven't used it much because of so many frustrating past experiences/tests. Thank you all very much for the help! Finally feel like I might get something useful outta this.

No track bouncing involved in this issue. It could be a levels issue. Gonna try again today. Thanks!

Need some help. I am dumb with tape 4-tracks. Issue: Any recording in my Tascam Portastudio 424 MK1 winds up with a weird resonance. Like it's been run through a resonator (it's not). From what I've read, I don't think this is a dirty/magnetized tape heads thing. Is that the issue? Is there something else? Any help appreciated, thanks!

Nice one. Keeping my fingers crossed his Terrestre side project album "Secondary Inspection" gets the same treatment. That album rules.

Huge U.F.Orb was my introduction to ambient music. "O.O.B.E." holds a really special place in my heart. I bet their performance of "Blue Room" will be epic. Hope this gets filmed!

New Cristian Mungiu film and Sergei Loznitsa documentary premier at Cannes within a day of each other. I need to see both. (no official trailer for the Mungiu yet) With the Loznitsa, the trailer vaguely reminds me of my favorite Stan Brakhage film, 23rd Psalm Branch. Brakhage called 23rd Psalm Branch his "meditation on violence". Intense and nsfw:

I saw he's collaborating with Boylan now. I am not sure I could come up with a more perfect pairing if you paid me. edit: Sorry I take that back. I guess he's collaborating with a different Boylan from the UK. I thought it was the Boylan from Chicago. Damn.

Curious with the NTS-2, is it possible to write your own waves to export to the 'logue synths? That would be a very cool feature. Either way, I like the concept of the NTS-2 and the book looks great.

I'd always take the 2nd aux send over built-in fx on a mixer. Reverb on one aux send, delay on the other.

Somehow Dubya's an even worse public speaker now.