Studio Pics

[sheatheman]

Korg MS2000B?

Yea. It's a really good blend of VA and digital crispness. It's a very 2001 sound.

[user]

 

patch bay + using external fx as sends in ableton is game changer—makes me realize the waldorf 2pole is really a special thing.

 

 

Can you elaborate a bit on how using a patch bay with the 2pole improved the way you use it? 

[sheatheman]

@user

 

Having the 2 pole (or an analog delay or reverb rack module), hooked up to ableton as an external effect via my interface allows me to use the effects in real time and commit MIDI drums to audio through the effects. Just experimenting with differet sounds, so much varying character can be coaxed out of the 2 pole.

 

In general, using a hardware effect makes you commit to ideas and is good for managing your creative resources.

 

The patchbay just makes me able to better utilize my ins and outs. For example I can easily route an audio track from ableton to the gate input on the 2 pole.

[Guest Chesney]

nice setup shea! Yeah Patchbays are a godsend if you have more than a few pieces especially racked stuff so you don't have to keep rerouting paths. Bays take out the laziness of not being arsed to use certain pieces because it's hassle setting up in the heat of the jam. And yeah you're right, using external makes you commit which is definitely a good thing if you want to finish something.

 

MS2000 is just a knobby microkorg and one of the best sounding VA's out there.

[Nil]

 

Hidden by Siam: Roli Rise 25, SPL Crimson and iPad.

Monitors soon to be replaced by a set of Amphion One15s

Huge bass traps in the corners of the room (you can see a bit of one in the left part of the pic). The room sounds pretty good I must say.

[Guest Chesney]

damn, you got that crazy french expression thing! How is it?

[Nil]

Beta-testing it actually. It feels pretty great, quite responsive! I just need some practice to make the most of it.

[Guest Chesney]

Nice! the guys fancy sending me one to beta test? I can test the CV on loads of vintage synths! ha

[sheatheman]

That MIDI fighter twister is so handy

Have you figured out how to make the level indicators auto update? Seems pointless to have endless encoders without that feature

[bendish]

 

Hidden by Siam: Roli Rise 25, SPL Crimson and iPad.

Monitors soon to be replaced by a set of Amphion One15s

Huge bass traps in the corners of the room (you can see a bit of one in the left part of the pic). The room sounds pretty good I must say.

 

Hows Bazille working out for u?

[Nil]

@Chesney ;)

 

@sheathe: 

 

@bendish: Pretty nicely. Sounds lovely... and wild. Do you use it?

As you know, it's a deep, deep beast, and I'm slowly getting more and more familiar with it, shifting from the usual subtractive synthesis and/or usual FM paradigms to more adventurous experiments. It does amazing bass sounds effortlessly (for exemple).

[bendish]

i dont have it but have thought about splurging although cant persuade myself to when i have the whole reaktor blocks business

the fractal osc looks pretty interesting

[TubularCorporation]

 

about 90% of the fruits of more years hoarding and trading gear than I should admit (although there've been a couple of big purges over that time).  A few things are in cases in another room and I hadn't replaced my old DR660 yet when I took this.

 

 

EDIT: Yes, most of this stuff isn't exactly respected classics, that's part of the appeal for me. 

Edited January 27, 2017 by RSP

[sheatheman]

Wow thanks Nil!

 

There's something so satisfying about turning knobs in ableton and seeing the indicator rings turn in kind on your controller.

[sheatheman]

I might do that for the novelty of making the tea

[Leon Sumbitches]

Had a day off today so I spent it getting my little attic studio knocked into shape, doing lots of mundane making-sure-everything-has-a-dedicated-lead-so-you-don't-have-to-scramble-to-find-one work, getting everything assembled within easy reach so it can all be patched together. 

 

Bits and pieces:

- The silver keyboard is a Casio CTK900; proper mid-2000s home keyboard level gear, but with a totally underrated synth section; Casio obviously had a frustrated synth designer working for them at the time.

- Yamaha PSS570 for FM crystalline sounds on the cheap, and a surprisingly kicking drum section

- Wee Volca Keys

- Various crap Behringer pedals (although the delay on the silver multi-fx is actually pretty usable in a grungy sort of way

- Boss BR600, sort of guitarist's sketchbook digital multitrack affair, but I'm pretty sure most of the effects are identical to the ones on the SP303 (the vinyl sim, etc.). You can use the tiny drum pads for chopping up samples and breaks as well.

- Tascam Portastudio for tape vibez

 

Pretty much everything here was either second-hand or super cheap; the big speakers were in the attic in my parents' house. There's a Nakamichi deck under the hi-fi bumf, liberated from Cash Converters.

 

 

It's so sweet having everything set up so that I can just switch from one thing to another without interfering with my workflow, time for DEEP SPACE ADVENTURES

[caze]

What's the waveform picture on your wall?

[Guest Chesney]

Wicked sumbitches!

Stoked you have a PSS570. That was my first keyboard as a kid in maybe 1985-6 ish. A mate saw one in a second hand shop and bought it for me about 5 years ago so I have one again. I love it so much. I am yet to do it to this one and I may not but it's an amazing keyboard to circuit bend. You get amazing stuff from these chips. I am still trawling and using samples I recorded years ago from jams I did with a PSS390 I have (very similar results to the PSS570)

[Leon Sumbitches]

Yeah, it only cost me £50 squid, well pleased with it!

 

What's the waveform picture on your wall?

 

It's 'Wavelength' by Van Morrison, my sister got it for me for Christmas. I'd have gone for a tune off Astral Weeks myself but it was still a rather thoughtful and lovely present. Big Van head.

[TubularCorporation]

PSS570 is great.  I've never had one but a friend/former roommate has had one for years.  It's got the qualities I like on the old Yamaha PSS140 I got for christmas back in grade school and still use for certain kinds of sounds, but editable.

[TubularCorporation]

Speaking of the PSS140, one of it's secrets is that the pushbutton volume control is completely digital and works by just reducing the word length of the DAC, so if you turn it down on the keyboard and back up with a preamp you end up with a pretty distinctive, noisy bitcrushed effect.  I think it's an 8 bit DAC to begin with and there are 6 or 7 steps of volume, so you can get it down to very low wordlength, maybe even 1 bit, but it never sound harsh and distorted in the way bitcrushing effects do.  Not sure what other PSS series keyboards do that.

[Rotwang]

DSC00244.JPG

What's with the upside-down Deloitte logo?

[Leon Sumbitches]

It's a plastic ruler, tucked behind the keys of the keyboard, upside-down (so that I can measure the phatness of my tunes, obviously)

[ncrtx]

It's a plastic ruler, tucked behind the keys of the keyboard, upside-down (so that I can measure the phatness of my tunes, obviously)

 

13.2cm of bass is the goal

[peace 7]

It's a plastic ruler, tucked behind the keys of the keyboard, upside-down (so that I can measure the phatness of my tunes, obviously)

ahaha