the watmm GAS thread

[chronical]

23 minutes ago, xox said:

Why don’t you sell the interface and mixer and buy Roland Studio Capture interface with 16 ins then? You can use it as a mixer too in a standalone mode; you can  use it without being connected to your computer 

Don't want that bulky Roland unit and I got both the 18i20 and the Mackie for cheap so this'll do. Both Mackie and Focusrite seem very reliable for live stuff too and that's the plan..

[Taupe Beats]

Ultimately I'd say whatever you'd want to mess with eq's with live, throw those on the Mackie. If you have the extra in's/outs from the Focusrite, use 2 each as inserts into the Mackie for the Renoise FX onto ch 1-2 on your mixer.

[user]

On 3/17/2022 at 2:24 PM, Taupe Beats said:

Do both. Use it with your interface but then you can also record whatever's running in the mixer right to tape (including softsynths). 

Also try no-input mixing:

 

I see BCM’s monitor placement consultancy business has taken off. 

[thawkins]

I'm more of a no-mixer input type of person myself.

[TubularCorporation]

1 hour ago, user said:

I see BCM’s monitor placement consultancy business has taken off. 

Needs a subwoofer on the other side of the mixer, IMO

[Taupe Beats]

4 hours ago, user said:

I see BCM’s monitor placement consultancy business has taken off. 

What if it's an optical illusion and her head is like 5 inches wide?

[exitonly]

On 3/17/2022 at 6:24 AM, Taupe Beats said:

Do both. Use it with your interface but then you can also record whatever's running in the mixer right to tape (including softsynths). 

Also try no-input mixing:

 

damn noise music got gentrified. this video is like when your favorite hard core venue got shut down and turned into a yoga studio

[TubularCorporation]

Does anyone know of a simple, performance-oriented MIDI bank/patch selection program that runs on Raspberry Pi (or a standalone piece of hardware, but I don't really expect that to exist - I don't expect software like this exists either but at least there's a chance)?  Just a simple interface for requesting patch names and locations from a synth and letting you change them, with some kind of page or tab system to keep different pieces of gear on different channels available at the same time. I haven't turned up anything and making something in CTRLR seems like it would be more work than I' feel like putting in to it.

 

Basically just looking for somethig I can put next to the MPC to make it easier to audition different sounds and (mor eimportantly) RECORD PATCH CHANGES LIVE in the MPC sequencer so I don't have to manually put them in.

 

EDIT:

 

This actually looks pretty promising.  It's a full sysex librarian but pretty close to what I had in mind:

https://github.com/christofmuc/KnobKraft-orm

 

Have to look through the documentation and see if it would work for what I want to do, because modifying some python code to add support for stuff that isn't already supported seems a lot easier than starting from scratch in CTRLR, and the interface is already just about perfect.

EDIT 2: Not quite right since at least in the demo video of the old version it can't request sysex directly from a synth, only by loading files, and it sends patch data directly to a synth's edit buffer rather than actually changing patches, but it's definitely close and if the newer versions or a future version can request the patch data directly (EDIT 3: the latest version can, so really all it needs is a simple patch selector mode) then adding a simple patch selector mode would probably be pretty doable.

Edited March 20, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[Taupe Beats]

50 minutes ago, nikisoko said:

damn noise music got gentrified. this video is like when your favorite hard core venue got shut down and turned into a yoga studio

Fucking ignorant. You'd probably have said that about Bebe Barron.

Edited March 20, 2022 by Taupe Beats

[TubularCorporation]

I thought noise music already got gentrified in the 00s by people like Beck and Bjork...

[thawkins]

17 hours ago, nikisoko said:

damn noise music got gentrified. this video is like when your favorite hard core venue got shut down and turned into a yoga studio

If we are talking the noise music that is dads making boring and loud hiss with $12123988123 worth of gear where the audience is other dads and edgelords like this, then it's been gentrified from the get-go.

At least yoga makes you feel better. Unfortunately being in good health is not "hard core" so to make it up I regularly piss on my studio room's floor, smoke constantly and spill at least one beer a week somewhere on the carpet without cleaning it up.

[TubularCorporation]

Absolutely no got reason for it, and I'd never spend the $100+ that everyone asks for it, but for a long time I've wanted to get a DOD Pedal Road Case.

 

 

I actually got an only somewhat beat up one free in high school but back then I didn't have or want any DOD pedals (except a wah, which is one of the only DOD pedals that doesn't fit in it).  I still have the power daisy chain from it floating around somewhere.

[Taupe Beats]

On 3/20/2022 at 11:12 AM, TubularCorporation said:

Does anyone know of a simple, performance-oriented MIDI bank/patch selection program that runs on Raspberry Pi (or a standalone piece of hardware, but I don't really expect that to exist - I don't expect software like this exists either but at least there's a chance)?  Just a simple interface for requesting patch names and locations from a synth and letting you change them, with some kind of page or tab system to keep different pieces of gear on different channels available at the same time. I haven't turned up anything and making something in CTRLR seems like it would be more work than I' feel like putting in to it.

 

Basically just looking for somethig I can put next to the MPC to make it easier to audition different sounds and (mor eimportantly) RECORD PATCH CHANGES LIVE in the MPC sequencer so I don't have to manually put them in.

 

EDIT:

 

This actually looks pretty promising.  It's a full sysex librarian but pretty close to what I had in mind:

https://github.com/christofmuc/KnobKraft-orm

 

Have to look through the documentation and see if it would work for what I want to do, because modifying some python code to add support for stuff that isn't already supported seems a lot easier than starting from scratch in CTRLR, and the interface is already just about perfect.

EDIT 2: Not quite right since at least in the demo video of the old version it can't request sysex directly from a synth, only by loading files, and it sends patch data directly to a synth's edit buffer rather than actually changing patches, but it's definitely close and if the newer versions or a future version can request the patch data directly (EDIT 3: the latest version can, so really all it needs is a simple patch selector mode) then adding a simple patch selector mode would probably be pretty doable.

I went on a bit of an adventure researching this. Have you ever tried an MPC1000? There's a firmware for it called JJOS (you've probably heard of it) that maxed the 1000 and 2500's capabilities. http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~mpc1000/ (check the comparison chart) Personally I think the 1K has enough charm in its sampler (and you can do bit reduction as you wish onboard).

JJOS lets you assign pads to trigger specific program changes. I have a program that's setup where one bank of pads triggers Roland TR-8 sounds, and the next bank lets me trigger between the 16 kits a TR-8 lets you store. Pad hits triggering program changes obv. can be recorded (nice way to do some AFX-y quick changes between Roland kits). 

Between that and the MPC1000 and 2500 having foot pedal inputs, may be worth exploring.

[TubularCorporation]

Yeah, I basically want to stick a touchscreen on a Raspberry Pi and patch it to the MIDI IN B on my MPC2000xl to do something similar.

 

I've never actually owned a 1000 myself but I've known a lot of people who did over the years, they're really nice but the 2000xl just really works for me, even with the frustrating things about it (mainly having to stop the sequencer to do all sorts of things you'd really want to be able to do with it running) - so mchthat about 9 years ago I could have straight traded it for a pretty nice MPC3000 with a custom case and I decided not to.  But the way I'm set up now, to get any kind of patch recall I have to manually enter all of my program changes into a blank pattern at the beginning of every project.

 

For now I'll probably just make a generic "select a channel, enter a bank number, enter a patch number, press a button to send" utility I can run on an ancient HP tablet I've got lying around waiting for a new hard drive. That would be the closest to free, too, which is one of the most important things.  I've been planning to put a little 8gb or 16gb IDE SSD in it since the hard drive died a few years abck anyhow, I'm jsut waiting for the prices to get low enough, but they're a niche enough thing that they seem to be permanently stuck at around $30 so I'll probably have to settle for that. 

 

If I could find a way to get a small SSD or CF card working in the PowerBook 180 I found in the trash years ago, I could just hook that up to the PC port on the ancient MOTU interface I use as a MIDI router, and sequence like Neil Breen.

 

Edited March 23, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[Taupe Beats]

Fair enough, highly suggest borrowing a 1K off someone and trying it out though

Also, not sure if you're familiar with the Roland RC-3 but this also can work for ya (it looks bulky though)

http://www.midimanuals.com/manuals/roland/rc-3/owners_manual/rc-3_om.pdf

 

[TubularCorporation]

I had a 1k for about a month last fall but I didn't really use it much beyond testing everything, since it was going to THawkins.

 

I'd never heard of the RC-3, that actually looks pretty interesting.  If they're cheap I might pick one up. Hard to search for, though, since most of the results for "Roland RC-3" are actually the Boss RC-3. Reverb is down right now, but from what I'm seeing in Google, one sold recently on eBay for $50 and there was another one recently listed for $475.00 plus anther $75 shipping.  That one didn't sell.

If I'm not going to get actual patch names displayed onscren I'd rather use something like this than software. More tactile controls ad fewer screens is always a plus.  

For $50 I'd seriously consider it, I'll keep an eye out.

 

EDIT: I hadn't really thought about dedicated hardware patch change controllers even being a thing before, so now I'm going on a deep dive in that direction.  Not much out there, but this thing looks pretty cool (and probably unobtainably rare now):

 

http://musictechnologiesgroup.com/midipatch.htm

 

A TouchOSC license and a decent size touchscreen for one of the Raspberry Pis I already own (or one of those $120, Wal-Mart OEM Android tablets - except they've gone up to $150 and that's pushing it a bit) is probably the smart way to do this, though.

Edited March 23, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[thawkins]

If you want to go the Android TouchOSC way then I bet you can get a passable tablet off some yard sale or flea market for 20 bucks. The hard and mysterious part is that you need something with recent enough compatible hardware to run any of the custom open source Android operating systems.

Another hurdle is getting a MIDI interface to an Android, but I am willing to bet that class compliant USB devices will work with the tablet. This article seems to confirm.

[TubularCorporation]

I never realized the ART T8 was a balancer and splitter, I thought it was just straight transformer isolation, balanced to balanced or unbalanced to unbalanced. Now I kind of want one, I was already looking into cheap-sh transformer isolaton for a couple problematic things AND I was after a splitter.  The cheapest isolation transformers I've found that have even a chance at being usable, much less halfway decent, run about $8-$12 each on AliExpress (and actual respectable transformers start around $80 each and go up fast from there, so that's not even an option) - at that price 8 channels of DIY transformer isolation wouldn't cost much less than buying one of these things new once the connectors and enclosure are added in...

 

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/art-t8

 

I run stuff through old, middling quality Duklane PA transformers as an effect all the time so I'm OK with a little bit of cheap transformer sound as long as it's not like what's in those car stereo ground loop isolation boxes you get on Amazon for $10.

[d-a-m-o]

Edit : pretty promising but not before end of 2022 /2023 and lol at the pricing... more or less 2000 € for the small one and 3000 € for the big one, that's waaaaay too much IMHO

Edited April 2, 2022 by d-a-m-o

[thawkins]

On 4/2/2022 at 11:23 AM, d-a-m-o said:

Edit : pretty promising but not before end of 2022 /2023 and lol at the pricing... more or less 2000 € for the small one and 3000 € for the big one, that's waaaaay too much IMHO

J'espère que le produit finalise marche plus que la traduction la-bas.

Anyway I caught the words Virtual Analog which means "for that price I would get a maxed out Apple M1 laptop instead".

[TubularCorporation]

4 hours ago, thawkins said:

Anyway I caught the words Virtual Analog which means "for that price I would get a maxed out Apple M1 laptop instead".

I'd usually take a dedicated piece of hardware with a custom OS over a general purpose computer, but that definitely looks like one of those off the shelf 7" Raspberry Pi touchscreens and it would make me wonder if I was getting Beat Thanged and it was just a customized, headless Linux install under the hood.

 

EDIT: also, yeah, that price.  

Edited April 4, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[chim]

On 3/17/2022 at 2:17 PM, chronical said:

Got myself a Mackie 802 VLZ4.. Now I can finally use all my polysynths at the same time Anyone got experience with this line of mixers? I'm wondering if I should use it as an analogue master going directly to tape, or if I should route it into my Focusrite 18i20.. Could set the 18i20 to route audio without a computer back to the Mackie.. Not sure yet, will probably have to test it.

 

I have an old 1402 vlz pro, not sure how much lineage is shared. Physically it's an insanely sturdy piece that has proven handy in lots of weird setups and gigs, and hasn't suffered a single scratch. Soundwise it does the job but it's kinda dark & metallic sounding, fine for live & fooling around but I wouldn't want my tunes through it today. Aside from the no-input trickery posted earlier, DNB heads used to abuse the distortion in these on their square basses. Using mixers to record in 2022 is kinda icky... Sure there's no ADAT option on your interface? Usually a modestly cheap way to extend the ins. 

Edited April 7, 2022 by chim

[chronical]

12 minutes ago, chim said:

I have an old 1402 vlz pro, not sure how much lineage is shared. Physically it's an insanely sturdy piece that has proven handy in lots of weird setups and gigs, and hasn't suffered a single scratch. Soundwise it does the job but it's kinda dark & metallic sounding, fine for live & fooling around but I wouldn't want my tunes through it today. Aside from the no-input trickery posted earlier, DNB heads used to abuse the distortion in these on their square basses. Using mixers to record in 2022 is kinda icky... Sure there's no ADAT option on your interface? Usually a modestly cheap way to extend the ins. 

There are 8 ADAT inputs which I can always use along the line. So far the mixer helped me loads, just being able to use all my synths to look for ideas is so much more fun. Why do you think using mixers for recording is icky in 2022? I'm running my interface into a 10 year old laptop.. It barely manages the 8 inputs of the 18i20 now, wouldn't that just be worse with an ADAT extension? I haven't gotten too much into proper mixing/mastering yet, maybe I'll regret doing it trashman-style later

 

edit: read your reply again and what I'm doing right is recording the mixer into the interface, not the other way around. So I can have a 909 BD coming into the 18i20 with a compressor in renoise while a 101, 303, polyend tracker and korg minilogue xd are fed through the mackie first

Edited April 7, 2022 by chronical

[iococoi]

[chronical]

So today my Mackie's XLR outs went apeshit when I was changing inputs and are permanently way too loud now. Sounds fine on the headphone out, guess it broke somehow, ugh