the watmm GAS thread

[user]

That is problematic, good to know, cheers.

 

Ah, the cosmic ballet of the eternal ebb and flow of gear acquisition and purging never ceases to go on to continue. 

[modey]

lol yeah I'm coming to terms with my constant buy/sell obsession. I'm not as bad as some, but still pretty bad heh.

Someone near me is selling a nord lead 2 keyboard for AU$800.. I don't have the space for one but daaamn I've wanted a nord lead for like 12 years or something aaargh

[Guest Chesney]

Well, if it's your first look into synthesis then maybe it's not the best route. To get the most from the A4 and to get stoked on the possibilities you need to  be up on subtractive synthesis.

If you want to learn synthesis i'd go for something with knobs and sliders (one knob per function) so maybe a arturia brute or similar.

[juiceciuj]

lol yeah I'm coming to terms with my constant buy/sell obsession. I'm not as bad as some, but still pretty bad heh.

Someone near me is selling a nord lead 2 keyboard for AU$800.. I don't have the space for one but daaamn I've wanted a nord lead for like 12 years or something aaargh

lol yeah i almost bought a micromod from a dude on here a few weeks ago even though i knew i'd realistically probably never even plug it in =\

 

wanted one for like 15 yrs tho same as all the elektrons i got in the last 2 yrs that i never use -_-

[Guest Chesney]

Nords sound fairly bland to me. Like you are editing the sound behind a window. The sound is clear and you can hear everything but it's squashed behind this flatness, not right in front of you and around your ears like it should be. I wouldn't bother personally but def don't take my word on it, plenty of peeps really dig them, or maybe that's because people have seen shitload of artists use them live etc.

 

Juice: if you hate  resonance killing your low end/vol/whatever? try a Yamaha CS synth. The res does not kill anything, just liquifies the beef.

[juiceciuj]

oh i moved through that pretty fast. i really just want to get rid of everything at this point. have been having fun doing stuff in daws on and off over the past few weeks. not in the market for new synths (except for the op-z when it comes out). 

 

re: nord i mean one of my fave idm albums of all time was primarily made on a nord lead so... i dunno. i'm sure, like most things, it's down to your creativity and what you're looking to get out of any particular piece of gear).

[modey]

Nords sound fairly bland to me. Like you are editing the sound behind a window. The sound is clear and you can hear everything but it's squashed behind this flatness, not right in front of you and around your ears like it should be. I wouldn't bother personally but def don't take my word on it, plenty of peeps really dig them, or maybe that's because people have seen shitload of artists use them live etc.

yeah well tbh the monomachine can probably take care of most of what the nord can create, but I've used the synth1 plugin (based on original nord lead I think?) quite heavily in the past and love the sound.

 

maybe I'll just get the rack version if I ever decide to get one, but the keyboard version just looks so luuuuuuush

[auxien]

 

 

Buying my first HW synth in years somewhere this month and can't decide between; karp odyssey desktop, dreadbox nyx, makenoise 0-coast or a korg minilogue. It's driving me nuts. On one hand I want access to some bread and butter sound on the other hand I want to be able to do freaky stuff. Also considering a second hand A4 but seem to be more into the idea of the machine than the actual sound.

 

Anybody want to add to my madness?

I've never owned any of these, but I'll give my opinion anyway because who cares.

 

If you wanna be able to do some freaky I don't know if the Minilogue is a great idea. I've heard some interesting things from it, but not much diversity options. NYX sounds great but I'm not sure how versatile it really is...0-Coast is fucking wild and versatile but has some serious drawbacks (no filter!), but it really can sound amazing. I've not looked into the Odyssey. A4 is great (I've actually used this one before, albeit briefly) if you're running it through separate effects and are willing to really shape sounds, and are of course interested in utilizing the uniqueness of the Elektron sequencing approach. If you're not going to use the Elektron approach, there are better synths for that sort of money (used A4 is still at least $800 or so, right?)

[Guest bitroast]

after like what 2-3 years of wanting a Preenfm2, finally got a Preenfm2. Preenfm2 coming in the mail :^) 

[user]

Well, if it's your first look into synthesis then maybe it's not the best route. To get the most from the A4 and to get stoked on the possibilities you need to  be up on subtractive synthesis.

If you want to learn synthesis i'd go for something with knobs and sliders (one knob per function) so maybe a arturia brute or similar.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

It's not really my first synth, just my first after going cold turkey some years ago.

I vowed never to buy Arturia again (except maybe a keystep...) after getting a beatstep and using a bunch of their vst synths, and don't really like the tone of the brutes.

[Guest Chesney]

if you are cool with synthesis then I can't recommend the A4 enough. The only downfall I would say is that the basic waveforms sound pretty bland and that would be a huge turnoff if it was a standard keyboard style synth without the Plocks etc but a few tweaks and it comes to life. Also it's very easy to get stuck in the elektron loop where you listen to a loop for so long you cannot hear anything else to make a composition.

[modey]

lol I've embraced that, and all of my elektron tracks have just been the one loop, tweaked slowly

[Guest Chesney]

Yeah totally! I have plenty of tracks that do that and you can build with good muting etc but sometimes you want to make a song style track and if you don't make multiple parts there and then it's pretty hard to do it later because all you hear is that initial loop rolling around your head forever.

[user]

Yeah, I also have a tendency to get lost in hypnogrooves if I don't make a conscious decision to move forward early on.

[sweepstakes]

if you add any resonance to a lpf you literally lose all of the low end. terrible for bass patches. i would play with one or something. it can do some cool stuff strings/arps whatever but it doesn't have much character imo.

This can be really nice if the input is a bit muddy though. You can shine your resonance beam on the murky bits and really bring those dust motes into focus. Can be lovely on gritty samples and kind of fuzzy or gently distorted stuff.

 

lol yeah I'm coming to terms with my constant buy/sell obsession. I'm not as bad as some, but still pretty bad heh.

Someone near me is selling a nord lead 2 keyboard for AU$800.. I don't have the space for one but daaamn I've wanted a nord lead for like 12 years or something aaargh

Man mine is heating up. I have purchased mostly cheap stuff lately but I think I've bought an average of one piece of gear a month for the last 6 months?  Also I have wanted a Nord Lead 2 for 12+ years myself, lol. I think I might be about ready to shed a couple things though...

 

Nords sound fairly bland to me. Like you are editing the sound behind a window. The sound is clear and you can hear everything but it's squashed behind this flatness, not right in front of you and around your ears like it should be. I wouldn't bother personally but def don't take my word on it, plenty of peeps really dig them, or maybe that's because people have seen shitload of artists use them live etc.

Yeah, I understand kind of what you mean. They've got an odd glassiness to them, kind of like the TX81Z's converters but much sharper, smoother, and more expensive-sounding. I actually don't think it's a bad or even bland sound, it's like a cartoonish, geometric kind of thing. You can definitely get subtle with them The raw waves can fatigue your ears though.

 

Also, not sure about the G2, but the G1 is a pretty damn fun synth playground. I thought my Elektrons would obsolete it but they're really apples and oranges.

What I do think sounds bland, surprisingly, is the Monomachine :O I don't know if I've just overused it over the last year or what but it is just not doing it for me. I think I need to play with the routing capabilities more and get out of the rut of trying to do whole songs with it. I'm used to starting with something with a lot of character and kind of trimming it like shrubbery, but I think you have to work the other way with the MnM. 

 

lol I've embraced that, and all of my elektron tracks have just been the one loop, tweaked slowly

Ha, this too. Fortunately the Elektrons are so parametric that you can twist stuff around and get really weird in a hurry, so as long as you leverage the modulation and know your way around, one loop is really worth like 7 loops.

Also, not sure about the G2, but the G1 is a pretty damn fun synth playground. I thought my Elektrons would obsolete it but they're kind of apples and oranges.

 

[modey]

Hm, maybe I will hold out for a nord rack then. I love that glassy sound and will probably just make endless LP5/chiastic slide ripoffs with it haha

[Guest Chesney]

Yeah definitely, I think all elektrons sound bland from the get go. Monomachine is thin and weedy, the MD machines sound weak, the A4 raw oscs sound very un analogue and poor. It's the synthesis and the options per step that bring these things to life. If you wanted a Machinedrum for bread and butter drum machine sounds I imagine it wouldn't sound that appealling compared to many other drum machines.

[xox]

i'm reading all of these posts and i'm wondering if there's something wrong with me... i have zero lust for gear, except for better monitors

 

now that i have md&mnm all i need is more time. time! that's what i need the most!

 

regarding monitors... my pmc tb2 died and now i have yamaha hs50m :(

i'd be happy with a pair of neumann kh120, more happy with amphion one15/18, happier with quested v2108, really happy with atc asl20 mk2 and the happiest man alive with geithain rl944/934. there are better monitors but i'm trying to be modest here ;)

[Guest Chesney]

Nope, nothing wrong with you, you just not got a lust for stuff like some of us have.

[sweepstakes]

Yeah xox that is a good thing, something to aspire to.

[pcock]

i have a pretty goog thing going on with my modular. i just pay 40 quid a week to my local dealer, and get the modules on tick. so a 200 quid module i have 5 weeks to actually get to grips with it in the context of my system, an eventide pedal would be 2 months etc. its a perfect balance between just buying stuff you dont want cos its there and you have cash, and actually learning and understanding what you are buying. 

 

im actually ready to write an entire album of lush ambient/classically structured music just using my blofeld, clouds, and eventide space. absolutely beautiful sounds coming through that combo. 

[Guest Chesney]

Damn yeah, A mate has the clouds and I have the blofeld and space and can imagine an album easy ha!

[pcock]

https://soundcloud.com/scarboglasgow/scarbo-21-mezzaneast

 

i posted it in ylc, but this is a meditative dub techno jam with elements and blofeld running through clouds+space. its not an actual live creation, all of the parts of the tune were recorded in single live takes with maybe 3 hours just refining automation etc. really in love with the blofeld for a 200 quid synth.

[Guest Chesney]

It's not my kinda listening material but it's great and yeah the blofeld is very underated I must use mine again for something soon. I seem to go for the MWxt first but they are both amazing.

[pcock]

ive not actually tried a microwave. there was one for sale the other day but ive been trying to save up for a flat deposit and not just dropping hundreds of pounds on synths purely because they appear in my FB feed