the watmm GAS thread

  On 8/21/2019 at 1:58 PM, Soloman Tump said:

Im looking for a stereo reverb pedal.

So far I have found the Digitech Polara (cheaper) and the Keeley Caverns v2 (not so cheap but dual reverb and delay), both looking hot.

 

Anyone got the Earthquaker Afterneath? Looks a bit different in terms of the sounds it can offer. Not stereo but not the end of the world.  I have a stereo flanger pedal that I can set to being very subtle that gives nice stereo room effects.

 

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What do you need it for? 

I have Zoom cdr70 and ive been using it for live and jamming with friends. Better would only be high end pedals a la strymon big sky or eventide ones but those are several times more expensive.

The Boss RV6 is a great little reverb. 

  On 8/21/2019 at 3:21 PM, xox said:

What do you need it for? 

I have Zoom cdr70 and ive been using it for live and jamming with friends. Better would only be high end pedals a la strymon big sky or eventide ones but those are several times more expensive.

Mainly GAS issues. I do not have a reverb pedal and I just think sometimes I should have one.  Have added reverb in post-production sometimes but since I am attempting to become a self sufficient live performance unit, a pedal should be good.

Why stereo? Well, I mainly want to end up at stereo on my mixer so I can create some hard panning effects.  I know I can do it with a y-splitter but if im buying a reverb pedal then its 2 birds with 1 stone.

Just found this in the August sale on Reverb - https://reverb.com/uk/item/6766228-jptr-fx-kaleidoscope-reverb-multi-reflector-unit

Looks like a tasty weird reverb that would suit me nicely.

Thanks for the other recommendations, will check them out

  On 8/21/2019 at 8:03 AM, modey said:

I only had one for a short amount of time before selling it to get an Octatrack, but the sound of it is great. The kicks can get really huge / heavy / deep, but it's also capable of getting pretty lo-fi and dirty if that's your thing. I'd say a downside of it is that the sequencer is pretty basic compared to later Elektron gear, with no microtiming, conditional trigs or individual track lengths. However, since you've got a Eurorack setup, you can actually assign the inputs as trigger inputs for two tracks, which helps get away from the otherwise rigid sequencing. From what I remember, it can trigger pretty quickly as well, so you can get into weird territory easily.

Elektron sequencers in general are kind of weird, in that they manage to feel both cutting edge and would-have -already-been-dated-in-1985 at the same time. If you know what you're getting in to they're really good, though.

I've got a TR-505 paired up with my OT right now and there's some stuf fthe 505 (which was a pretty bare bones drum sequencer even back in the 80s) can do way better than the Octatrack sequencer, but there's also stuff I can do on the fly in the OT sequencer that would be a hassle even something like Ableton Live.  Too lazy to be specific tonight.

i keep thinking i might get an octatrack. i have 0 gear, just a laptop. octa looks really fun (i hadn't even really watched any vids of em in action until this week). it'd be nice to use something totally different from what i'm used to. haven't quite decided yet...could do without a case of GAS... >_>; dunnno

Laptop and OT actually that you need! I’m too hungry to be specific right now.

  On 8/22/2019 at 5:09 AM, eryngi said:

i keep thinking i might get an octatrack. i have 0 gear, just a laptop. octa looks really fun (i hadn't even really watched any vids of em in action until this week). it'd be nice to use something totally different from what i'm used to. haven't quite decided yet...could do without a case of GAS... >_>; dunnno

OT is certainly powerful, could see your type of music working well on it for sure, loads of samples and sample-mangling possibilities :) but good software is pretty much always 'more powerful' of course, just a matter of if you think that hands on type of thing is something you really want to spend cash on. mk1 OTs are probably going for relatively cheap, yeah? not too sure. could see you having fun with a Digitakt or Digitone or Analog Four too! lots of power in all those machines :)

What do you think of the MKII vs. MKI?  I've never really wanted to replace my MKI (even if I had the money to do it) because I think the MKII is butt ugly and I actually like the sound I get by pushing the inputs into the red (especially on drum machines - I'll have the kick pnning an input in the red and never hear any opbjectionable digital clipping, it's more like the distortion you hear on an old, entry level Mackie board or something, which I like) so extra headroom isn't an issue for me, but I'm always curious to hear about the workflow differences.

The extra buttons are useful. I used to forget the combos on my mk1. Other than that there's nothing between them for me.

How are the high resolution encoders?  Do they make it fiddly to dial stuff in accurately?  I find the MKI encoders kind of jittery but I could see faster encoders being either worse or better. If they're a big improvement I might consider replacing the encoders in mine with something higher resolution (assuming it's just a drop-in swap with a bit of soldering, which it should be) some day once the warranty is up.

I felt my composition and sound design process could be injected with a bit more chaos and noise. Rather than exploring new techniques or changing my routines I chose the path of GAS and got an olegtron 4060. 

Here it is in someone else's video:

Some more info: https://www.olegtron.com/olegtron-4060

It's Finnish and a lot of fun. Morjesta! (the only finnish word I know, sorry:() Oh wait, I also know megapussi. Morjesta megapussi!  

It's basically a cmos chip with a breadboard attached to it where you can stick various components such as transistors and diodes and there is a knob for the frequency the circuit runs at (I think?) and a knob to starve it from current to make it behave differently. It has 4 stereo minijack i/o's at the top for audio and cv, there's apparently also a eurorack version but I felt a strong preference for the standalone device. Probably a shit explanation as my electronics knowledge really isn't up to snuff. Luckily it's not needed to use the olegtron.

  On 8/23/2019 at 4:52 PM, TubularCorporation said:

How are the high resolution encoders?  Do they make it fiddly to dial stuff in accurately?  I find the MKI encoders kind of jittery but I could see faster encoders being either worse or better. If they're a big improvement I might consider replacing the encoders in mine with something higher resolution (assuming it's just a drop-in swap with a bit of soldering, which it should be) some day once the warranty is up.

There was a gap of a few years between getting rid of my mk1 and buying a mk2 so I don't really remember how the old one felt - I guess it was more like the silver boxes in how the encoders felt? It's easier to dial stuff in with the mk2 than it is on my MD or MnM, the encoders are precise and they also move parameters quicker if you move the encoder quicker if that makes sense, so I rarely need to use the 'push and turn' feature. 

The 'Function' button on my mk2 is getting quite worn now. This is a drawback of the new rubberized buttons. Elektron have lots of spares thankfully.

Yeah, basically everything I've ever owned with a rubberized surface on it got sticky sooner or later.  Apparently it has to do with UV exposure and/or humidity?  It's so common on the Zoom H5 that Zoom offers off-warranty replacement apparently, although I didn't bother when mine went sticky over night thsi spring (and weirdly enough it's almost completely reversed and is hardly sticky at all now, which I didn't think was possible). So those rubberized buttons worry me.

I didn't know the MKII encoders accelerated like that, I figured since the firmware is the same they would be the same but with more steps on the encoder so it would take less rotation to cover the same range compared to the MKI (or maybe the MKI does that too and I just don't notice it).  What you're describing sounds good.

Yeah I'm a bit worried about those rubberised buttons on my Digitone. I guess only time will tell!

  On 8/24/2019 at 5:41 AM, TubularCorporation said:

Yeah, basically everything I've ever owned with a rubberized surface on it got sticky sooner or later.  Apparently it has to do with UV exposure and/or humidity?  It's so common on the Zoom H5 that Zoom offers off-warranty replacement apparently, although I didn't bother when mine went sticky over night thsi spring (and weirdly enough it's almost completely reversed and is hardly sticky at all now, which I didn't think was possible). So those rubberized buttons worry me.

 

I didn't know the MKII encoders accelerated like that, I figured since the firmware is the same they would be the same but with more steps on the encoder so it would take less rotation to cover the same range compared to the MKI (or maybe the MKI does that too and I just don't notice it).  What you're describing sounds good.

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The MKII encoders are in fact sin/cos potentiometers apparently. I don't really understand how they work, but I would guess that they can't be swapped into a MKI? 

  On 7/24/2019 at 8:55 PM, Braintree said:

They just added a VST/AU version of Spacecraft: https://www.tracktion.com/products/spacecraft

GASing for that right now.

thats 50%off@moment

https://www.tracktion.com

  On 8/24/2019 at 1:24 PM, Enthusiast said:

The MKII encoders are in fact sin/cos potentiometers apparently. I don't really understand how they work, but I would guess that they can't be swapped into a MKI? 

 

Oh interesting, I thought they were just conventional encoders with higher resolution than the old ones, but it's totally plausible that there's something more going on in the new hardware.

I think I'm gonna sell my op-z and get a lyra-8. I haven't touched it since early June.. and with the new nanoloop device somewhat on the horizon I think it'll fall out of use eventually. 

I made what I thought was an unrealistically low bid on a DigiTech PDS1550 (essentially a very accurate Boss HM-2 clone AND a modified Tubescreamer AND a short analog delay AND a pretty solid, fully parametric EQ, in a single pedal from the mid 80s). Like a lot of old DOD/Digitech stuff they seem to be pretty underrated, not a ton of info on line but Electric Druid did an in depth analysis of it. friend of mine has had one for years and had really good results using it on his Drumulator recently) but it was actually accepted so now I have to pull like $70USD out of the Kijimi parts fund.  Still, I guess it's a good price and I'm looking forward to using it, especially using the direct out to do parallel distortion on kicks and monosynths.

I was tempted to get the pulsar (and am still on the wait list) but I think I'll get more out of the lyra. They're in stock at patchcable so I ordered one.. there goes the last of my tax return  

  On 8/25/2019 at 3:53 PM, modey said:

 I think I'll get more out of the lyra. They're in stock at patchcable so I ordered one.

which one...  white or black?

  On 8/25/2019 at 9:42 PM, xox said:

which one...  white or black?

The black one.. I would have rather got the white version, but I can't be bothered waiting lol

  On 8/25/2019 at 10:06 PM, Stickfigger said:

Single handedly pulling Aus retail out of recession , thank you good man 

haha! I pretty much only order from Australian retailers, apart from a few Eurorack kits I've put together recently. When you start adding GST and ridiculous postage costs, it really doesn't make sense to order from overseas anymore. I used to order from the ms_tokyo ebay store quite often but their prices aren't that great anymore, especially when combined with postage.

gaad deaem! analog heat is such a fun little box!

fun and powerful!

fun and powerful and expensive!

fun and powerful and expensive and fun! 

sounds good too!  

  On 8/28/2019 at 1:37 AM, Stickfigger said:

Gotta say I'm really loving this OT mk2

Same here! I was really surprised how quickly i can come to surprisingly interesting results, even complete tracks. I made a track by using only one short sample of white noise. Crazy!

OT is from 2011 but imo 2019 is the right year to buy OT; it’s a complete product now, lots of tutorials on yt, the price is good, even for a new mk2.... 

Bit ridiculous, I know, but I've been gassing so hard for a Juno the last couple weeks. 106's still seem to be going for around 1000,-, some of them even with claims to have been serviced with matching voice chips etc. Ugh. I was gonna get a peak but argh. This is after having been mostly gas free for what I think was at least 2/3 months. But it's all coming back now.  

There's also an ursa space station for sale locally, I've got the soundtoys equivalent which is lovely but I just wanna fondle its knobs and be delicious with it.