the watmm GAS thread

  On 2/16/2017 at 3:51 PM, sweepstakes said:

Yeah, these seem to be what it's best at - lots of folks just using it as a kind of weird mixer and FX. The scenes and crossfader are fuckin amazing. If they had released a slightly cheaper version that just didn't do samples, they would have flown off the shelves. That type of meta-parameter morphing is brilliant for making your own kind of sandboxes to improvise in.

 

It is a killer sampler but it's a weird workflow if you just want to use it as a standalone beatbox. You certainly can, but it beckons you into odd rabbit holes. That, and with only 8 voices, layering is tricky. Comparing it to an MPC is like apples and oranges. 

 

However, if you like to the play the game where you try to take a shit sample (like a door slamming or something) and sculpt it into a bunch of different sounds until you can make a complete track, the OT is like a magic wand. Tons of modulation opportunities, and the filters are perfect for this - they have a great dry but smooth and musical sound that works especially well for drums.

Yeah, these three points are what sold it to me, tbh. Being able to route a couple of channels from the monomachine into effects tracks on the OT is something I've been intrigued by since seeing the awesome Lem video that made me by the monomachine in the first place..

8 voices is not a problem at all for me, coming from a tracker background. In fact, one of my frustrations with the MD is that there's no way to (for instance) have every track cut each other track off, for monophonic drum patterns. I know there's a way to get a track to mute another, but full mute groups don't seem to exist?

 

And yeah, the "make everything from one sample" game is something I used to do in my DOS tracker days as well. Of course, that can also be done with MD, but I feel like the OT will be more flexible/wacky..

 

Funny how I was originally going to sell the MD to get the DT when it comes out, and thinking the OT would be too much compared to what I want to do, but I was just so impressed by what's possible with scenes..

Yeah, all those things are fun as hell, The scenes are so amazing. Morphing literally anything and switching scenes instantly is the best and I can do that all day but a track never happens just playing, sure some wicked weird stuff happens but I can't be arsed to record it, just have fun and then change the samples and do some more fun. The main thing that puts me off is the file heirarchy. There is probably far too many options for one track idea that it's overwhelming. I want to write a track and record a performance. There is too many ways to do a performance on the OT. I don't have the attention span ha. It's fucking wicked though.

lol yeah my attention span these days is pretty bad, but it's getting better. I'm working on enforcing a very strict aesthetic for 0F.digital so working within those boundaries on the OT could be pretty interesting. Then again, I could end up making hypermelodic/maximalist stuff on it, who knows. 

 

I found an OT for the exact price I sold the MD for (admittedly I let a guy lowball it a bit, but it ended up being the same price I paid for it last year anyway) so I think I'm gonna go for it. I want to limit myself to only two elektron devices at once, since I know a few people with more than two and it just seems super overwhelming lol

Do it, why not. Keep us updated with your findings with the OT. 

 

 

  On 2/17/2017 at 12:02 AM, Chesney said:

Yeah, all those things are fun as hell, The scenes are so amazing. Morphing literally anything and switching scenes instantly is the best and I can do that all day but a track never happens just playing, sure some wicked weird stuff happens but I can't be arsed to record it, just have fun and then change the samples and do some more fun. The main thing that puts me off is the file heirarchy. There is probably far too many options for one track idea that it's overwhelming. I want to write a track and record a performance. There is too many ways to do a performance on the OT. I don't have the attention span ha. It's fucking wicked though.

Agree with all this.

 

The file system on the OT is the worst thing about it. P-locking sample slots isn't as fun as it sounds either.

We really need an Octatrack thread. Possibly more than the MD or MNM thread.

  On 2/17/2017 at 2:35 AM, acid1 said:

We really need an Octatrack thread. Possibly more than the MD or MNM thread.

Concur.

There are a few!

 

https://forum.watmm.com/topic/54678-elektron-octatrack/

 

https://forum.watmm.com/topic/62302-octatrack/

 

https://forum.watmm.com/topic/79957-octatrack-users-halp/

 

https://forum.watmm.com/topic/87291-octatrack-for-live-perfomance/

 

https://forum.watmm.com/topic/88703-octatrack-elektron-thread/

i really want to get the whole set of eventide pedals after being blown away by the space. anyone tried the pitch factor on synths?

Damn it I still can't shake my years-long desire for a CZ-101 even though they're kind of overpriced now and I have no real need for one.

 

Wouldn't be a problem except my tax returns are on the way.

http://www.pluginboutique.com/product/4-synth/1158-virtualcz

  On 2/25/2017 at 3:50 PM, bendish said:

http://www.pluginboutique.com/product/4-synth/1158-virtualcz

 

That's pretty cool but I'm almost all hardware these days.

 

If only I'd appreciated the thing back when an old roommate was selling a "broken" one cheap.

 

It was broken in that the auto shutoff would turn it off after a few minutes even if you were playing and none of us knew you could disable that, so he traded it away.

I wish I had space for a CZ-1000, I've seen them selling for $60 and under locally in the past year a couple times, but I just can't take on another full size keyboard (and if I could I'd probably go for a DW8000 instead and still want a CZ-101).

  On 2/25/2017 at 2:00 AM, messiaen said:

i really want to get the whole set of eventide pedals after being blown away by the space. anyone tried the pitch factor on synths?

 

have the space and pitchfactor. Space is unreal and beautiful on anything but for synths it's drop dead. The pitchfactor is fun on guit but kinda unusable but on synths it comes out with some great stuff. It can get glitchy in places depending on the type of sound but really fun and gets some great results with both pedals going.

  On 2/25/2017 at 3:41 PM, RSP said:

Damn it I still can't shake my years-long desire for a CZ-101 even though they're kind of overpriced now and I have no real need for one.

 

Wouldn't be a problem except my tax returns are on the way.

Yeah I've got an ebay alert set for a cz101, passed up way too many over the last few years. Gonna have to buy the next one I see, I reckon.

  On 2/26/2017 at 12:39 AM, modey said:

 

  On 2/25/2017 at 3:41 PM, RSP said:

Damn it I still can't shake my years-long desire for a CZ-101 even though they're kind of overpriced now and I have no real need for one.

 

Wouldn't be a problem except my tax returns are on the way.

Yeah I've got an ebay alert set for a cz101, passed up way too many over the last few years. Gonna have to buy the next one I see, I reckon.

 

 

I get lots of eBay alerts for them but everyone seems to start them at like $200-$250 now which is kind of fair for how cool they sound but not as fair for how common they are.

 

There's one up there now (or at least it was a day or two ago) that's $50 because none of the C or F# keys on the upper half of the keyboard work, so it's probably some kind of simple "replace a failing multiple chip" or somethign kind of repair but I've got like $70 to last me until next payday so not happening.

I'm kind of glad my tax return was delayed because there's a really clean looking "broken" Roland SH-1000 on eBay with a $450 Buy It Now.  The description says that it is "broken" because it is distorted, crackly and drops out sometimes.  If that's not just a matter of cleaning/replacing some pots and possibly recapping, I'd be shocked, and that's all stuff I could do myself.  Absolutely no place I could put the thing, but if I had the cash I'd probably snap it up anyway.

  On 2/17/2017 at 12:09 AM, modey said:

lol yeah my attention span these days is pretty bad, but it's getting better. I'm working on enforcing a very strict aesthetic for 0F.digital so working within those boundaries on the OT could be pretty interesting. Then again, I could end up making hypermelodic/maximalist stuff on it, who knows. 

 

I found an OT for the exact price I sold the MD for (admittedly I let a guy lowball it a bit, but it ended up being the same price I paid for it last year anyway) so I think I'm gonna go for it. I want to limit myself to only two elektron devices at once, since I know a few people with more than two and it just seems super overwhelming lol

I just finished an album for RPM where I used only Elektron gear.

 

I bought the OT, AR, and A4 right before hand. Not impossible but challenging.

  On 2/26/2017 at 3:54 PM, RSP said:

I get lots of eBay alerts for them but everyone seems to start them at like $200-$250 now which is kind of fair for how cool they sound but not as fair for how common they are.

 

There's one up there now (or at least it was a day or two ago) that's $50 because none of the C or F# keys on the upper half of the keyboard work, so it's probably some kind of simple "replace a failing multiple chip" or somethign kind of repair but I've got like $70 to last me until next payday so not happening.

 

damn, too bad the postage out to Australia would make it not worth pursuing, lol

 

Someone local is trying to sell one for $700AU holy shit, might try to super-lowball them at $300 or something :P

  On 2/27/2017 at 1:36 AM, modey said:

 

  On 2/26/2017 at 3:54 PM, RSP said:

I get lots of eBay alerts for them but everyone seems to start them at like $200-$250 now which is kind of fair for how cool they sound but not as fair for how common they are.

 

There's one up there now (or at least it was a day or two ago) that's $50 because none of the C or F# keys on the upper half of the keyboard work, so it's probably some kind of simple "replace a failing multiple chip" or somethign kind of repair but I've got like $70 to last me until next payday so not happening.

 

damn, too bad the postage out to Australia would make it not worth pursuing, lol

 

Someone local is trying to sell one for $700AU holy shit, might try to super-lowball them at $300 or something :P

 

 

There's another auction up with two for $90.  One works fine except it has one failing button and the line out doesn't work (but headphone does s it's probably a broken jack or blown op amp or something comaprably simple).  The other doesn't power up but it DOES have some old, professional aftermarket mod that adds an extra modulation source or something.  Pretty tempting to get both, fix the one that just needs minor work and if the other is truly dead try to take the mod out of it and transplant it into the fixed one.

 

Fortunately all of this stuff is probably going to be gone by Thursday when I get paid so I can't blow my money on it.

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'm selling my minilogue friday so i can't really recommend it. the filter is whack

 

luckily found a guy willing to buy it for what i paid hue hue

They all have their great points but are very different. 

A4 all day long from that list. It can take analogue subtractive further than any other synth because of sequencer possibities.

  On 3/1/2017 at 8:53 PM, juiceciuj said:

i'm selling my minilogue friday so i can't really recommend it. the filter is whack

 

luckily found a guy willing to buy it for what i paid hue hue

 

Interesting. Can you say what made you dislike it or is it more of a feeling/vibe?

 

  On 3/1/2017 at 9:01 PM, Chesney said:

They all have their great points but are very different. 

A4 all day long from that list. It can take analogue subtractive further than any other synth because of sequencer possibities.

 

Yeah, that's what makes it so difficult. I've done some more research and am starting to lean towards the A4 a bit more but I'm worried it won't be fun/instant gratification enough for my "first" synth. The others look so visually appealing and immediate, the elektron looks cool but somewhat unapproachable. Fuck, think I'll get the A4 first and then start to save up for the 0-coast so I'll have something cool to drive it with. 

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. 

 

i'm also past my acquiring hardware phase and am into my getting rid of stuff i'm not using phase (really thinking about dropping all my elektrons and just getting back in the box).