the watmm GAS thread

[digit]

So now I've got my new laptop, which of course looks & works like a dream (for the price I paid it fucking better, though). However it's got no FW port for my aging Saffire LE and this means it's GAS for new audio interface time.

 

are you using a macbook? you can just get a firewire to thunderbolt adaptor. works fine with my Saffire Pro 14.

[thawkins]

 

So now I've got my new laptop, which of course looks & works like a dream (for the price I paid it fucking better, though). However it's got no FW port for my aging Saffire LE and this means it's GAS for new audio interface time.

 

are you using a macbook? you can just get a firewire to thunderbolt adaptor. works fine with my Saffire Pro 14.

 

 

Yeah but it's one of the new ones, which means I have to get FW to TB to USB-C which seems like the dodgiest solution and it seems the adapters themselves will cost as much as a "new" used interface. 

[YangYing]

welp I pledged for the Field Kit FX

 

BUT THIS IS THE LAST THING I SWEAR

[Stock]

welp I pledged for the Field Kit FX

 

BUT THIS IS THE LAST THING I SWEAR

Said no one ever :D

 

I've been thinking more and more about buying a (used) TB-03. Even been dreaming about getting one last night ! Used price is around 300€, don't know if I should wait for it to drop a little bit more or not tho !

[TubularCorporation]

I was just looking for samples of vintage laugh tracks, I had no idea this thing existed:

 

 

 

 

Douglass used a keyboard to select the style, gender and age of the laugh as well as a foot pedal to time the length of the reaction. Inside the machine was a wide array of recorded chuckles, yocks and belly laughs; exactly 320 laughs on 32 tape loops, 10 to a loop. Each loop contained 10 individual audience laughs spliced end-to-end, whirling around simultaneously waiting to be cued up.^[13] Since the tapes were looped, laughs were played in the same order repeatedly. Sound engineers could watch sitcoms and knew exactly which recurrent guffaws were next, even if they were viewing an episode for the first time. Douglass frequently combined different laughs, either long or short in length. Attentive viewers could spot when he decided to mix chuckles together to give the effect of a more diverse audience.^[11] Rather than being simple recordings of a laughing audience, Douglass's laughs were carefully generated and mixed, giving some laughs detailed identities such as "the guy who gets the joke early" and "housewife giggles" and "the one who didn't get the joke but is laughing anyway" all perfectly blended and layered to create the illusion of a real audience responding to the show in question.^[15]

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laugh_track#Charley_Douglass_and_the_mysterious_.22laff_box.22

Edited November 16, 2017 by RSP

[TubularCorporation]

For real, though, someone needs to make quality digital transfers of the original tape loops from that thing instead of letting in rot away in the possession of some failed startup (unless they sold it since the videos were made, in which case who knows where it is), because it's kind of an important piece of media history - almost every American sitcom of the 1960s had its laugh track done with that machine.

[acid1]

 

 

I've been thinking more and more about buying a (used) TB-03. Even been dreaming about getting one last night ! Used price is around 300€, don't know if I should wait for it to drop a little bit more or not tho !

Man its so much fun. It was all over my last album.

 

Built in effects and CV ins and outs push it over the top.

[modey]

I finally bought a drum library, after trying to decide between a few (Superior Drummer, Drummix, Getgood etc). Native Instruments' 50% off sale helped me to decide; I ended up getting the Abbey Road 80s kit. It's pretty great, I think I may end up buying another one before the sale is over.. maybe the 70s or modern kit. I didn't *really* need it, but it'll be good to have easier access to acoustic drum sounds.

Edited November 17, 2017 by modey

[sweepstakes]

Just tried something I've always wanted to do if I ever got an ND2 which I now have - running a retriggered pulse from the OT's cue outputs to the ND2 trig inputs. Hot damn, them's some beefy kick rushes. I can't think of any real musical application for this but it sure is some satisfying Minidisc/Multistability-esque drum wank.

[thawkins]

Just tried something I've always wanted to do if I ever got an ND2 which I now have - running a retriggered pulse from the OT's cue outputs to the ND2 trig inputs. Hot damn, them's some beefy kick rushes. I can't think of any real musical application for this but it sure is some satisfying Minidisc/Multistability-esque drum wank.

 

Maybe there should be a yang to the GAS-thread's yin where people post amazing stuff they have accomplished by using their existing gear.

My example from this weekend is when I got mad and adapted my MPK mini to be a physical control surface for Live so now I don't need to GAS over control surfaces anymore. 

[TubularCorporation]

I've got a second new music project starting up with a few friends and I've just been playing a homemade guitar through a severely beat up RE-150 space echo I got 15 years ago, into a cheap 80s solid state combo amp I got out of someone's trash a few years back, and It's not really much of a surprise that it's one of the most satisfying things I've done with music in a few years and has pretty much eliminated any lingering GAS that getting a Tanzmaus idn't already quench (and even that wasn't GAS so much as "I have a specific project with specific gear needs that aren't filled by my current setup,and this is the best option" rather than "that is a cool piece of gear, I must have it" GASing).

 

 

For me, GAS often happens when I'm not regularly playing music with other people or when I'm not on the same page as the people I'm playing with, and I had a couple years there where  wasn't in a band and another year or so before that where the band I was in wasn't really working well anymore, so I dove back in to gear HARD for a while, and now I'm in a phase of working with what I have and weeding out what I don't need or need to replace with something more suitable for what I'm in to right now.

 

 

EDIT:  that said, I'm GASing for some kind of pegboard to hang my cables on so I won't have to dig for them in a bin like I do now.

Edited November 20, 2017 by RSP

[thawkins]

 

For me, GAS often happens when I'm not regularly playing music with other people or when I'm not on the same page as the people I'm playing with, and I had a couple years there where  wasn't in a band and another year or so before that where the band I was in wasn't really working well anymore, so I dove back in to gear HARD for a while, and now I'm in a phase of working with what I have and weeding out what I don't need or need to replace with something more suitable for what I'm in to right now.

 

 

I think that's 100% my diagnosis. I do have a project where I play drums in but as for electronic music it's only me and it's easy to get GAS when looking at these forums or craigslist at work because there's no-one to call my bullshit and say "you don't need $thing, let's just jam".

 

Edit: and it's my sincere belief that having to setup your gear and use it in a live jamming situation quickly purges out all bullshit unnecessary crap and you will get more enjoyment in twiddling a simple filter cutoff than building some arcane multitimbral phased superstructure of polyrhythms and microtones played on 3 different proof of concept hardware synths that you thought up in your head. Which isn't to say it can't be fun, it's just that I feel I don't really have the basics in muscle memory yet.

Edited November 20, 2017 by thawkins

[TubularCorporation]

That said, I'm really psyched to finally get my hands on the tanzmaus in a couple days (I had it shipped to my parents' place because I wasn't going to be home to sign for it, and I'm going to pick it up when I visit for the holiday).  Thing sounds fantastic.

[sweepstakes]

 

For me, GAS often happens when I'm not regularly playing music with other people or when I'm not on the same page as the people I'm playing with, and I had a couple years there where  wasn't in a band and another year or so before that where the band I was in wasn't really working well anymore, so I dove back in to gear HARD for a while, and now I'm in a phase of working with what I have and weeding out what I don't need or need to replace with something more suitable for what I'm in to right now.

 

I think that's 100% my diagnosis. I do have a project where I play drums in but as for electronic music it's only me and it's easy to get GAS when looking at these forums or craigslist at work because there's no-one to call my bullshit and say "you don't need $thing, let's just jam".

 

Edit: and it's my sincere belief that having to setup your gear and use it in a live jamming situation quickly purges out all bullshit unnecessary crap and you will get more enjoyment in twiddling a simple filter cutoff than building some arcane multitimbral phased superstructure of polyrhythms and microtones played on 3 different proof of concept hardware synths that you thought up in your head. Which isn't to say it can't be fun, it's just that I feel I don't really have the basics in muscle memory yet.

 

I think this is all true, too. I'm actually in kind of a weird spot with my jam buddy - he wants to quickly finish some material up and play some shows and he thinks I'm being too picky about what material I want to play live - but I'm really happy with my gear at this point and the only things I want now are better fx, mixer & monitors. 

[thawkins]

I think this is all true, too. I'm actually in kind of a weird spot with my jam buddy - he wants to quickly finish some material up and play some shows and he thinks I'm being too picky about what material I want to play live - but I'm really happy with my gear at this point and the only things I want now are better fx, mixer & monitors. 

 

 

 

I haven't played anything live in months and all the projects I played with are deader than dead now, so I am in full withdrawals and biased here obviously.. but nevertheless I'm of the opinion that polishing some things too much will kill the "essence" that makes it special (and my passion for playing the material along with it). Back in the more serious band days we used to play at least once per 2 months and I felt that was a really nice interval because you could always spice the lives up with new stuff and ideas from any rehearsal jams. Now I am glad that I have some drumming project, having a electronic collaboration/jam thing would be very nice and playing live a dream.

[Guest Chesney]

Wasn't even gassing but knew because of upgrading my space i'd need some bigger monitors as My Adam's wouldn't fill the room. I would either need to upgrade eventually or get a sub because the Adam's bass response is pretty thin on the ground. Then yesterday I fell into a local chance deal on some very cheap Focal Alpha 80's. Reading up on them, they seem too good to be true so grabbed them. Won't be able to test them for maybe 2 weeks but sounds like they will be perfect. They are massive too. Excited to try them and A/B against my old ones. Also I have been using Focal Spirit phones for a good while now so hopefully they will have some transferrable sonics.

[modey]

I'm GASing for Ableton+max4live all of a sudden. Probably because it's currently 20% off with free upgrade to 10 when it comes out, and I have a live lite license which makes it even cheaper.. but maaan I really don't need another DAW to learn.

[sweepstakes]

 

I think this is all true, too. I'm actually in kind of a weird spot with my jam buddy - he wants to quickly finish some material up and play some shows and he thinks I'm being too picky about what material I want to play live - but I'm really happy with my gear at this point and the only things I want now are better fx, mixer & monitors. 

 

I haven't played anything live in months and all the projects I played with are deader than dead now, so I am in full withdrawals and biased here obviously.. but nevertheless I'm of the opinion that polishing some things too much will kill the "essence" that makes it special (and my passion for playing the material along with it). Back in the more serious band days we used to play at least once per 2 months and I felt that was a really nice interval because you could always spice the lives up with new stuff and ideas from any rehearsal jams. Now I am glad that I have some drumming project, having a electronic collaboration/jam thing would be very nice and playing live a dream.

I tend to agree, but the bits that have anything "special" are few and far between, lol. He has a proclivity for baggy boom-bap drums and off-key Ableton arpeggiators. I don't know if we should keep on trucking doing what we're doing until something decent emerges naturally (which one, I don't think he sees as a problem, and two, I don't think he has the patience to wait for me to be happy with the material) or if we should polish those turds until it stops being fun. Also he wants to run the routing and record every element to its own track every jam, which in itself is annoying. I would rather he picked a role (e.g. just drums, just melodics) and stuck with it, and we just mixed it down and recorded to stereo, if at all.

 

I do know that I'm not working on music as much in my free time which is probably a bad sign. And what I'm in the mood for lately is just gathering some cheap, crusty samples and sculpting them and the ND2 into some kind of insectoid rhythms, which has little if anything to do with these jam sessions.

[TubularCorporation]

Wasn't even gassing but knew because of upgrading my space i'd need some bigger monitors as My Adam's wouldn't fill the room. I would either need to upgrade eventually or get a sub because the Adam's bass response is pretty thin on the ground. Then yesterday I fell into a local chance deal on some very cheap Focal Alpha 80's. Reading up on them, they seem too good to be true so grabbed them. Won't be able to test them for maybe 2 weeks but sounds like they will be perfect. They are massive too. Excited to try them and A/B against my old ones. Also I have been using Focal Spirit phones for a good while now so hopefully they will have some transferrable sonics.

 

 

Upgrading monitors last spring helped with the GAS a lot for me, actually.  Suddenly everything I already have sounded much, much better and my mixes all got much, much better and it generally made me more interested in using what I already have.

[xox]

anyone has neumann kh120a? i need new speakers in that price range

[kakapo]

anyone has neumann kh120a? i need new speakers in that price range

 

 Look at the new Focal Shape 65 as well.

[xox]

 

anyone has neumann kh120a? i need new speakers in that price range

Look at the new Focal Shape 65 as well.

Yes, i saw those too. i was thinking about them maybe even the 50s cause i have deadly small room. But reviews of the neumanns are hard to beat. These focals are new so not many ppl have them and therefor no reviews yet. Ive been thinking about the new neumanns kh80 dsp. But no pro reviews for those either... Ill wait month or two.

[TubularCorporation]

 

 

anyone has neumann kh120a? i need new speakers in that price range

Look at the new Focal Shape 65 as well.

Yes, i saw those too. i was thinking about them maybe even the 50s cause i have deadly small room. But reviews of the neumanns are hard to beat. These focals are new so not many ppl have them and therefor no reviews yet. Ive been thinking about the new neumanns kh80 dsp. But no pro reviews for those either... Ill wait month or two.

 

 

If you can find and nonported speakers in that price range, in my experience they tend to work better in small/untreated rooms.  I've always had problems monitoring on ported speakers in the kind of rooms I have to mix in, either way too much bass or not nearly enough, depending on the room.  Sealed monitors arent' that popular anymore, though,so I don't know if there's much out there.

[YangYing]

I'm gonna start a routine of every night try to record something adding one other bit of my gear into the mix, feel like I have bought lots of bits and bobs.. time to bring it all together

Edited November 21, 2017 by MIXL2

[xox]

I know. I was thinking about the neumanns cause they are ported at the front sidem new focals have passive radiators which act same as best ported designs afaik. I cant remember a single sealed small active monitor besides new atc20asl mk2 with 6,5 inch woofer but those are not that small actually and they cost 5k euros. Geithain 906 are small enough and are ported at the top but they cost double than the neumanns