the watmm GAS thread

[TubularCorporation]

Oh, back in the 2000s  a bandmate of mine got a free Digitech RP-1 and gave it to me, and it stopped working afret about a year but last fall it fixed itself and doesn't freeze up randomly anymore. I'm really loving all of the cheesy late 80s budget prog sounds it gets. I haven't used it on synths yet.

 

It has the worst sounding bypass of all, though, because it has the wird DOD buffer sound, plus the dry signal always goes thrugh the converters on top of that.

[marf]

The eventide h949 has a cool effect where you can reverse some of the samples. Like it chops up the sample and reverses some of the delays. Mix and match. Its cool. 

My main lust for distortion is the Ada mp-1. I love the distortion on that. Working with synths it's hard to guess what distortion will sound good, but with some flange on a synth and the Mp-1 I think it will be good. I had a nice Ampeg amp. Sold it though. It was 100 pounds. Huge. Had a nice spring reverb. Could do a lot to the sound with the tube EQ, but I sold it. Might have to get another amp, but a little lighter. They are nice to have. The little ampex 620s are a nice little amp for hi hats. 

One thing that really saddens me is there are no good phase vocoder apps. Only composer desktop which is such a pain to use. Soundshaper included. I wish some genius would take the code and make something wonderful with it. Or even some euro rack phase vocoder stuff. Nothing out there. 

But I think non-real time sounds best for fft. Even Kyma sounds a bit too smeary. But kyma is cool. 

 

wmd is going out of business so I had to grab a Kraken. Its such a great module.

[marf]

I have a couple of those turn anything into a speaker vibration things. Cheap as dirt. 2 dollars maybe? With a really crappy amp. I was trying to make a shitty plate reverb. It worked, But I need to learn how to solder well before I go and try the slinky reverb. I think that might be as close as you can get to a proper plate reverb. 

They bone conduction transducers look very intreating. id love to see what people are doing with them.

[TubularCorporation]

They're basically identical to the things you have.  

[marf]

Here's a cool app. Ive seen other rooms with more complex sequencers, but I dont know how to access them

https://www.intersymmetric.xyz/aaa/room1/

Here's a 606 loop I put through Emission Control. (Curtis Roads app)

https://vocaroo.com/1cVS0Ph3x6L8

Granular synthesis. 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by marf

[marf]

 

I had a DOD DFX9. Very nice. You could play with the internal trimmers to get long delays. Pretty dark sounding. 

I liked it though. Im trying to find a predaly box for my other delay. Just something to prevent the delay from immediately happening by 20 milliseconds or something. 

Im selling my Perc drum for a good profit to buy an Asssimil8or.  Since WMD is going out of business I had to get a Kraken. So I needed the money. Have you heard the Kraken? Its nuts how accurate that snare sounds. 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by marf

[thawkins]

Trying to do a "don't buy stuff you don't need September", anyone wants to join me in this?

It's been 3 days and I haven't bought any stuff I don't need. For example, I did not buy a headphone cable extension because I don't need it. I also did not buy a pair of XLR cables because I could swap out the ones I was using for my monitors with some TRS-XLR and so I did not need the extra XLR. In fact so far I don't even need the XLR cables I have because they are sitting in a box. I might need them if I decide to record anything with a microphone though.

I also did not buy a Zoom H6 even though I thought I might need it for recording some band rehearsals.

 

Stay strong!

Edited September 3, 2022 by thawkins

[PigeonSt]

Not buying music gear for a month is challenging? I didn't buy an OBXA or Moog One so far, I've saved so much and it's only September 3rd

[luke viia]

IME, the best defense is poverty. It's super effective! Not only will I succeed at the September challenge, I'm gonna get extra credit for selling off a bunch of gear I currently don't use enough, AND I'll avoid buying any music stuff until at least 2023. bam. What do I win? Can it be a Syntakt? 

[xox]

im waiting to see what's this new thing sequential is planning to release; hopefully tempest mk2 

[chim]

On 8/26/2022 at 2:36 AM, TubularCorporation said:

Oh, there is one piece of gear i still really, really want, but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) it's rare and expensive so I don't expect to ever get it.  But it would be so, so nice. The Midas XL88 analog matrix mixer:

 

I was looking up matrix mixers once and the options aren't abundant out there. This looks really good for solving all kinds of headaches with routing and FX chains. $1300 doesn't strike me as a lot for a thing like that, some pretty basic rack mixers and summers can be more than double that, but with these old big boxes I dunno how the upkeep is going to be... All thru-hole apparently. 

[TubularCorporation]

It's not a lot for that thing but it's completely out of the question for me.

 

But yeah, there really aren't a lot of options out there that aren't digital.  Matrix mixers are pretty common in theater and broadcast but I get the impression a lot of the analog ones were custom pieces.

[marf]

Me and my favorite synth

 

 

[marf]

Me and my favorite synth

 

Before you say it, I got a good deal on it. Really good. 

[exitonly]

been gassing over this pretty hard. honestly it would probably wreck my workflow and super expensive but tape delays have been on my wishlist forever and it seems like the ideal version 

https://echofix.com/products/ef-x3-table-top-chorus-echo-with-bbd-analog-chorus-spring-reverb

[TubularCorporation]

Echofix does good stuff.  I've been wanting to get a new set of heads for my barely-working RE-150 for years but I can never quite afford them when a run comes up for sale. If I had the money I'd get one of those.

 

After owning a vintage Space Echo for something like 16 years I would definitely take one of those over a real RE201 or 301 at today's prices.  The old ones sound amazing but they're too much trouble even for me. Worth it fo a couple hundred dollars, not so much now that the parts are even harder to source, they're a lot older, and they cost at least 10 times what I paid for mine (and a lot more if the condition is good).  

Edited September 5, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[dcom]

I splurged on the Euroburo version of Empress Effects' ZOIA. It's a bit pricey compared to the stomp box version, but the extra connectivity tickled me a bit more. Itching to get my hands on it.

Edited September 5, 2022 by dcom

[flacid]

Intrigued...

What did you GAS a bit over and it ended up amazing? For me. Yamaha CS Reface, very nice timbres and Elektron Cycles, very playable/jammable with the control all option.

What did you GAS hard over and it ended up a major disappointment? Probably the Machinedrum. Never really connected with it but probably should have been more patient. Oh and modular, lol. Built 2 modular synths in the past (one for timbral variety and the other for rhythmic options) and although they were both good I never used them to their capacity. 

What do you regret selling? Monomachine...  - Not only because they're worth loads more now but the variety of the synth and loved the fact that you could find interesting sounds pretty much instantly. 

[Stock]

On 9/6/2022 at 11:52 AM, flacid said:

Intrigued...

What did you GAS a bit over and it ended up amazing? For me. Yamaha CS Reface, very nice timbres and Elektron Cycles, very playable/jammable with the control all option.

What did you GAS hard over and it ended up a major disappointment? Probably the Machinedrum. Never really connected with it but probably should have been more patient. Oh and modular, lol. Built 2 modular synths in the past (one for timbral variety and the other for rhythmic options) and although they were both good I never used them to their capacity. 

What do you regret selling? Monomachine...  - Not only because they're worth loads more now but the variety of the synth and loved the fact that you could find interesting sounds pretty much instantly. 

Let's go with this one.

What did you GAS a bit over and it ended up amazing? The Moog Matriarch. GASed for a very long time, and I am utterly pleased to have it. It sounds very nice and can go wild using the patching point. The only side-effect being that I decided to go eurorack to further expand modulation possibilities etc. Polyend Tracker is amazing too, impulse-bought it but it became the mastermind of my setup and I don't regret it.

What did you GAS hard over and it ended up a major disappointment? Everything I bought from Teenage Engineering lol. Started with the pocket operator vocoder thing which I never used in any productions because I really don't understand how to use the sequencer. The OP-Z was very fun at first but I was really disappointed with the build quality - many users report problems with the buttons and the knobs and I unfortunately got into this situation as well.

What do you regret selling? Nothing, I never sold anything yet because I'm afraid to regret it later. But I guess I will sell the TE stuff + the Volca Sample (which I love but is gathering dust since I got the Tracker) to fund further Eurocrack.

[dcom]

What did you GAS a bit over and it ended up amazing? Squarp Pyramid (MK3). It's really hard to evaluate sequencers without getting hands on, I was mulling over Pioneer Toraiz Squid, Torso T-1, Polyend Play, and Synthstrom Deluge. Pyramid had the features I wanted with a good price point, but I still had to buy it in the dark based on reading the manual and watching YouTube videos. It turned out to be a great choice, although I have no hands on comparison with the others. Bubbling under: Sonicware ELZ_1, what an amazing piece of kit, expensive AF but so much fun.

What did you GAS hard over and it ended up a major disappointment? None this far, I've been very selective, but if an answer is required, I'd have to say either Roland SYSTEM-1 (should've bought the modular version) or KORG Volca Beats - but they have their uses.

What do you regret selling? N/A

Just got my ZOIA Euroburo, some assembly required with the separate desktop enclosure, but it's going to be interesting.

[Nil]

What did you GAS a bit over and it ended up amazing? I've been wishing to learn Max for 2 decades, dreaded the learning curve and now that I've dived in (with v8.3) I'm astounded by its ergonomics and pedagogical value. Not to mention the possibilities. Needless to say though that I know now exactly what I want to do with it (a algorithmic / generative sequencer), which obviously makes a world of difference.

What did you GAS hard over and it ended up a major disappointment? Each and every hardware synths I've bought, without any exception. I'm a software guy.

What do you regret selling? Nothing I guess. 

[thawkins]

What did you GAS a bit over and it ended up amazing? Each time I upgraded my laptop it's been quite nice, but for other gear it's probably the PreSonus Studiolive 24R. All the previous interfaces either ran out of I/O, had latency/buffer/noise/whatever issues - this thing just works and has builtin EQ and a million possibilities that also just work.

What did you GAS hard over and it ended up a major disappointment?  Koma Elektronik Field Kit & all the mics and assorted junk I got because I was so stoked about doing some musique concrete experiments and to build a DYI drum kit kind of. The reality is that I too am a computer guy, and I don't have hard disk space for gigabytes of crappily recorded audio of me bonking some kitchen pot. I am keeping it around though because I suck at selling anything and maybe I will get around to incorporating it in my setup because thanks to the Studiolive, I have all the I/O I ever need.

What do you regret selling? My Mackie CR1604 mixer. At the time it was the correct decision, but now I could use something like that to play around with a DAWless approach. That's the one thing the Studiolive lacks - real physical faders to mess with.

 

Edit: honestly most of my purchasing decisions have been wrong, when I look back at it. But it was all necessary to get to the point where I am now.

Edited September 14, 2022 by thawkins

[TubularCorporation]

On 8/30/2022 at 11:16 PM, marf said:

My main lust for distortion is the Ada mp-1

I used to have an ada one second delay and it was by far my favoite digital delay of all time.  I swapped it for a Boss RDD-10 and that's nice too, but the  ADA had a really special sound.  OTOH, it broke a couple years later and the RDD-10 is still working fine so I guess I got the better end of the deal even though I liked the ADA more.

[TubularCorporation]

OK I'll cave to peer pressure.

 

What did you GAS a bit over and it ended up amazing? Linnstrument + DIY Kijimi.  It took me about three years of setting aside money and sourcing parts, and about 150 hours of inhaling solder fumes, but the combo has completely changed the way I relate to synthesizers as a performance instrument (even if I still use keyboards more often).  Runner up is the Mackie LM3204. We had a broken one in the basement at the apartment where I lived from 2010 to 2012 so I knew the feature set really well even though I never actually got to use one, and it always seemed like the perfect mixer for me.  I finally got one last year and it's exactly what I hoped.  If I could afford it I'd buy the expander to take it up to 32 stereo channels instead of 16.  I'd still like to get an older Allen & Heath Mixwizard some day to upgrade from the Soundcraft EPM-8 as my performance/dub/feedback mixer, but for just getting a nice stereo mix of all my gear that I can set and foget, the 3204 is perfect.

What did you GAS hard over and it ended up a major disappointment?  Reaktor.  Got it during one of their big holiday sales about 4 years ago and I can count the number of times I've actually used it in a finished piece of music on one hand.  In theory I love it, in practice I'm not a software guy and I end up spending hours experimenting and not ending up with anything worth keeping.  Fun but more of a time sink than anything else.  I need to commit early (c.f. the Mackie LM3204).

What do you regret selling? I had a Korg Poly61M that I've already moaned about in this thread more than once.  Bought for $200, sold for $80. I would never buy one again but I really miss the sound.

Edited September 14, 2022 by TubularCorporation

[TubularCorporation]

1 hour ago, thawkins said:

What did you GAS hard over and it ended up a major disappointment?  Koma Elektronik Field Kit & all the mics and assorted junk I got because I was so stoked about doing some musique concrete experiments and to build a DYI drum kit kind of.

If you still have it in a year or two when I should hopefully have a bit more income, I'll buy it from you.