the watmm GAS thread

[Taupe Beats]

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

[TubularCorporation]

11 minutes ago, Taupe Beats said:

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

I used to have a crappy old Phonic 16 channel mixer that had 6 aux sends (4 available with a switch to select between C/D and E/F per-channel) and it's still hard for me to deal with having less than that.  The Mackie I use now has 4 with two available per channel and it's barely enough.

 

Maybe some day I'll sell a couple things and buy a Mixwizard 16 or something.

Edited May 19, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[neurone]

6 hours ago, dcom said:

Empress ZOIA

oh, this looks very interesting ! I like the fact that the routing is totally free, can be very creative. and I like the fact that it's tiny. so it fits easily in a live setup.

6 hours ago, dcom said:

let me know what effect boxes are you using.

I use a lot my old TC Fireworx,  it's basically a multi effect with effect blocs you can choose and put in any routing (serial and/or parallel),

and it have a modulation matrix with loads of differents modulation source, wich is ace, for example you could have a LFO modulating a formant filter , then sending the filter output to a distortion, the send amout being controlled by a built in step sequencer, then you could use another LFO that control the rate of the first LFO, wich gives very lively / morphing effects.  also you can have feedback point inbetween each effects blocks. 

every single parameters of each effect is aviable to be modulated by the modulation matrix and/ or external midi , wich is great

  you can save 99 user patches. it's a 1U-rack type of device.

the sound engine is old now tough, (pitch and phasers are not so great) , but I really love how flexible it is.

actually the ZOIA seems to be able to do the same kind of things, exept maybe for the modulation matrix.

also using : TC eleltronics D-TWO, TC electronics Time Factor, Waldorf 2-pole, and an old zoom distortion pedal wich have a knob that swithes  between 6 different distortion types, very crunchy. usually followed by a dod envellope filters.

there's a whole lot of new stuff that looks awesome nowadays, would like to try some of those mutant monkey shop's stuff

 

[dcom]

I currently have a hodgepodge of mixer-like things: KORG Volca Mix, Bastl Dude, and a Roland AIRA MX-1 w/ TC Electronic M100 effects processor through AUX (I also have a Zoom G1x ON I could use, because I have a couple of electric guitars [Tokai AST-'62 strat and Ibanez UV70P 7-string]). I guess I should get a proper mixer at some point, but at the moment I'm still experimenting with different setups and workflows, going through an intense GAS phase, getting mostly small(ish) portable things to combine for flexibility and experimentation. I don't have the room ATM for a static setup with a big enough mixing desk.

Edited May 19, 2022 by dcom

[neurone]

1 hour ago, TubularCorporation said:

The Mackie I use now has 4 with two available per channel and it's barely enough.

I can't live with less than 6 aux sends.

there's a midas analogue monitor desk that is no more in use at the venue i'm working. it have 16 aux. if it would fit in my room I would bring it home and have fun.

- it's for sale btw, if anyone interested   (midas sienna 480)

[user]

11 hours ago, iococoi said:

anybody?

https://www.korg.com/us/products/dj/nts_2_pt/index.php

Oh goddamn. This is the first real concrete gas I've had in at least a year. No way I can spend 236,- eu on this right now though. Goddamn, there's even a spectrum analyzer. HNNGGG.

[TubularCorporation]

20 hours ago, neurone said:

I can't live with less than 6 aux sends.

there's a midas analogue monitor desk that is no more in use at the venue i'm working. it have 16 aux. if it would fit in my room I would bring it home and have fun.

- it's for sale btw, if anyone interested   (midas sienna 480)

If they're take $150 shipped that's abotu all I could afford right now, but that sounds like a completely 100% fair and realistic price in line with current market value to me...

 

If I can figure out where the mains hum is coming from (I get it even if nothing is connected but one cable on any input or output and a pair of headphones; with nothing butthe headphones connected it's hum free and has a decent noise floor), I'd stick the Roland line mixer I have sitting around into the rack with the Mackie and use it for extra sends.  It's one of the ones that has nothing but trim, pan, level and four aux sends, and I have a patchbay hooked up to work as pre-trim inserts on the 12 Mackie channels that don't have inserts built in, so I could witch those to half-normalled and patch them to a pairof channels on the Roland for any channel that needed more sends, and end up with 8 available sends (6 active) per channel on up to 8 of the stereo channels on the Mackie at a time. It would be kind of a clunky workaround, and I'd have to sacrifice a channel on the Mackie to use as a group return for the Roland, but it would work.

  

15 hours ago, user said:

Oh goddamn. This is the first real concrete gas I've had in at least a year. No way I can spend 236,- eu on this right now though. Goddamn, there's even a spectrum analyzer. HNNGGG.

Same here.  My old, trashpicked CRT oscilloscope stopped working a last year (it won't trigger, so I can use it in two channel mode but for monitoring waveforms with a single channel it's useless now and I've jsut kept it around bcause it's fun to mess around with lissajous patterns sometimes, and the CRT looks so good for that) and for abotu 90% of the things I use an oscilloscope for this thing would be good enough. I don't really need one often enough to justify any of it, though. The money I actually have is set aside to repair an amp that I'm not comfortable working on myself.

 

Edited May 20, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[Taupe Beats]

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.

[th555]

23 hours ago, dcom said:

I currently have a hodgepodge of mixer-like things: KORG Volca Mix, Bastl Dude, and a Roland AIRA MX-1 w/ TC Electronic M100 effects processor through AUX (I also have a Zoom G1x ON I could use, because I have a couple of electric guitars [Tokai AST-'62 strat and Ibanez UV70P 7-string]). I guess I should get a proper mixer at some point, but at the moment I'm still experimenting with different setups and workflows, going through an intense GAS phase, getting mostly small(ish) portable things to combine for flexibility and experimentation. I don't have the room ATM for a static setup with a big enough mixing desk.

For the longest time I did all my hardware mixing with 3 behringer mx400 and some splitter cables lol.

[TubularCorporation]

My mixer for a few years was a 90s Rolls 1u rack mixer that had volume, pan and aux (but pan and aux were on unmarked trimmers).  

 

Still have it, still use it for stuff, and the only thing I really missed on it was more aux sends - stuff like EQ and usable pan controls and actual faders is luxury.

[dcom]

I got an Elektron Digitone from a friend to try out, anyone with experience?

Edited May 23, 2022 by dcom

[dcom]

On 5/17/2022 at 3:13 PM, TubularCorporation said:

I've had an 8bit Warps for about a year and a friend of mine got an XFM a few months ago.

I went for both the XFM and 8bit Warps, got the XFM already and it seems neat, especially the freeform stacking of operators instead of using a pre-defined algorithm (although that's available, too, natch). I also like the patch merging feature, making a new sound by combining two and saving as a single patch. The tactility of the device is a bit clunky, but that was to be expected because it's plastic - nevertheless, it's a fun piece of equipment, a nice contrast/competitor to the Volca FM (although now I'm tempted to get a Volca FM 2, too...). Looking forward to the 8bit Warps, too.

The SmplTrek comes out in October, that should be fun, too.

Edited May 27, 2022 by dcom

[TubularCorporation]

Snagged an Otari EC401 Universal Resolver on eBay for $50 shipped.  If it works (it powers on but that's all the seller tested), pretty soon I'll finally be able to do real through-zero tape flanging (even if the master deck is actually the DAW with a timecode track).  I've had an ebay alert up for 5 or 6 years and this is only the second one that has been listed; the first was something like $400.

Sort of a waste of money but couldn't pass it up for that price, and hopefully I'll actually use it.

 

EDIT: the downside is they're so niche now that there's no hint of the manual online, but it should be pretty simple.  

Edited May 29, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[Taupe Beats]

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!

[TubularCorporation]

54 minutes ago, Taupe Beats said:

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!

Could be bad tape/dirty heads/bad or dirty pinch roller/failing motor/failing belts giving you flutter that's up in the audio range, so you're actually getting frequency and amplitude modulation happening.

 

If nothing else, I'd change the belts because even if they aren't the problem you really don't want them to melt in there, and they're past due to melt.

[th555]

When bouncing from one track to an adjacent track you can get feedback if the levels are too high, if it's happening on new recordings then I have no clue though.

[TubularCorporation]

Good point! That might only be possible with the noise reduction off, since there's a hard limit to how hot the recorded signal can be when you use it.  I used to hit it really hard (so the meters were almost pinned) with the DBX on and the crosstalk between the tracks stayed low enough that you had to turn the headphones up really high to hear it at all, but with the DBX off I could definitely imagine it being possible for the crosstalk to feed back into a source track during a really hot bounce.

 

 

Edited May 30, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[Taupe Beats]

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

[TubularCorporation]

You clean the tape path after every few hours of use, right? I know you don't think it's that, but cleaning at least the heads couldn't hurt and really is worth keeping up with.  

 

Maybe the high end loss from dirty/magnetized heads is presenting as a resonance in the midrange rather than less high end?

 

Are you using the effect send when you're mixing down? Is there any way it could be feeding back just a little? Long shot.

 

Can you post some audio?  Record something from your computer onto tape and back to the DAW, and then share befor eand after clips?

Edited May 30, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[Taupe Beats]

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.

[cern]

On 5/13/2022 at 2:32 PM, Squee said:

 

Easy there, tiger. Go chill out for a week.

Fuck you! 

[chronical]

48 minutes ago, cern said:

Fuck you! 

little radical bean aren't you

[Squee]

1 hour ago, cern said:

Fuck you! 

 

 

[chim]

3 hours ago, cern said:

Fuck you! 

Don't do it Barnes! 

 

[dcom]

I've been working my way through all the Volcas, and I have to admit that at first I didn't even care to check out Kick, because the general concept of it seemed ridiculously simple - but I was completely wrong: it's not the least interesting Volca, that title now goes to Beats, although it does have some usability, too. FM and Modular are the most complex with steep learning curves; Drum comes up next. I'm not including Mix in the mix (oh so funny), because it's just a mixer and not an instrument in itself. Bass and nuBass are quite different from each other, but there's a niche for both; Sample is quite straightforward but with some nifty tricks that make it less basic; Keys is nice, but I still have to learn how to make it more versatile. I like the simplicity of the pattern-based approach, but to really work them boxes I'll need to make a MIDI setup. Nevertheless, it's fun to get back into making noise with hardware.

I got an Anker 60W 10 port USB charger, a couple of myVolts Ripcord 9V's and Volca Power Splitters, so I can juice all the boxes from two ports. Nifty.

Edited June 2, 2022 by dcom