the watmm GAS thread

I need a mixer that can also act as a multitrack interface for recording gigs/jam sessions and regular production sessions.

Debating between the sexy but limited Tascam Model 24 and the compact but powerful Soundcraft UI24R. I have no idea what to do.

Any experience with either of these devices?

I haven't used that Soundcraft, but the EPM series Soundcrafts are some of my favorite budget mixers of all time.

OTOH my other favorite affordable mixers are all vintage Tascam (specifically the mixer section in the 388 but there were standalone versions of it too) so I guess this post is kind of useless.

FWIW I've used quite a bit of Behringer stuff I really like over the years but the Behringer mixers I've used aren't on that list (but they've all been bottom of the line Xenyx stuff, I've heard good things about their higher end mixers made in the past 5 or 6 years).

  On 9/18/2019 at 6:34 AM, sweepstakes said:

The softcut delay / "digital tape" system is just brilliant too. It's so me. I can't believe no one has thought of it before; it's pretty close to perfect.

ok what does this mean exactly? I am intrigued.

  On 9/23/2019 at 3:38 AM, TubularCorporation said:

FWIW I've used quite a bit of Behringer stuff I really like over the years but the Behringer mixers I've used aren't on that list (but they've all been bottom of the line Xenyx stuff, I've heard good things about their higher end mixers made in the past 5 or 6 years).

I was considering the X32 Producer and XR18 for a while. After watching a detailed video on the X32 it seemed a bit dated, expensive, and the interface is fiddly. I'd also have to swap my largely 1/4 TRS cable collection into XLR's.

The XR18 on the other hand seems great as I could save a few dollars. I am not sure if the UI is as fully featured as the Soundcraft, and I am not sure if I'm willing to give up that Lexicon reverb.

  On 9/23/2019 at 3:02 AM, acid1 said:

I need a mixer that can also act as a multitrack interface for recording gigs/jam sessions and regular production sessions.

Debating between the sexy but limited Tascam Model 24 and the compact but powerful Soundcraft UI24R. I have no idea what to do.

Any experience with either of these devices?

Personally I'd go for the tascam as I'd prefer a non-headless mixer for jamming and on the road situations and would get annoyed with the xlr inputs and auxes that I'd have to get adapters for. This is only based on having taken a 5 minute look at each though.

  On 9/23/2019 at 9:26 PM, user said:

would get annoyed with the xlr inputs and auxes that I'd have to get adapters for. This is only based on having taken a 5 minute look at each though.

While I would have to get some XLR cables, the first 10 inputs on the ui24r are combo jacks, and that would still take care of my current setup. I'm guessing the ability to easily stereo link them is also a huge plus over hard panning mono channels, but those channels would be analog on the Tascam ...

  On 9/23/2019 at 6:18 AM, Bubba69 said:

ok what does this mean exactly? I am intrigued.

OK so the system has a few things running all the time, like SuperCollider, its Lua environment, reverb and compressor, tape player/recorder, etc. One of the things always running is called "softcut" which was most accurately described as "scriptable tape". Basically it's 6 syncable mono, loopable read/write tape heads with configurable crossfading between loop start and end, variable rate, static filters, feedback, and slew/lag times for levels and rate. There's 2 buffers and you can stick when anywhere you want.

It's kind of like the idea of the Octatrack's volatile/live-sampling memory, but you can script it with Lua, so you can make samplers, delays, etc. And there's no artificial barriers to stop you doing things like recording and writing to the same spot simultaneously, or at different rates, etc.

Without gushing too much, you can get crazy stuff out of it pretty easily but it also just feels really smooth and creamy. I still like SC for when I wanna get really grainy, or super phase-precise things like comb/allpass filter networks, or if, y'know, I want an LFO, but this thing is really the bees' knees for everything else. You have to find or build your own control structures to use with it, but there's lots of examples. It's kind of like the best parts of every sampler/delay/recorder I have ever loved, rolled into one.

More patch bays, more cables.  At this point I jsut want to have every input and every output of every piece of gear I own available at any time.  Also a big ass mixer.

Neither of this are likely to happen any time soon.

  On 10/16/2019 at 3:52 PM, TubularCorporation said:

More patch bays, more cables.  At this point I jsut want to have every input and every output of every piece of gear I own available at any time.  Also a big ass mixer.

 

Neither of this are likely to happen any time soon.

You can satisfy the first criteria by getting rid of some pieces of gear.

No need to bother yourself, I'll see myself out...

After debating various mixers/interfaces, I ended up getting myself a Zoom L-20.

I am very happy with it so far. I didn't realize how nice of a feature "auto-record" is.

Serious GAS : https://www.audeze.com/products/lcd-1

I teach electronic music production for a living... which means I can put on a pair of cans and produce / mix while my students work.

Even if I love them, my old trusty K-702 are seriously wearing out (I'm also talking about the necessity to frequently solder some of its wires), and maybe a better set of headphones could allow me to do more critical work while away from my monitors ?

I suppose these + Goodhertz CanOpener (that I already own / use) could be a pretty nice and useful combo, and could allow me to effectively prepare mixing / mastering sessions as well, and more importantly it could free some more time for my own tunes in the studio. Could be a smart purchase.

I upgraded my Mac Pro (the trash can) to Mojave not that long ago because I needed it for something Unity related. Ever since then Logic has been slow as hell. So now I’m considering buying the new Mac Pro when it gets released but I don’t want Catalina because I still use some 32 bit plugins. So then I considered an iMac Pro or just buying an old Mac Pro and upgrade like a raging psychopath. Help. 

Get a PC problem solved.

  On 11/1/2019 at 12:18 AM, TubularCorporation said:

Get a PC problem solved.

Guess I shouldn't deleted the part where I said that if anyone suggests I should buy a PC instead I'd ban them.

Hackintosh ?

  On 11/1/2019 at 9:33 AM, Nil said:

Hackintosh ?

I have a friend who bought a SICK Hackintosh and it all went to shit.
I'm honestly thinking about just buying another trashcan and with 12 cores.

Oh shit, I just realised... I can just take the RAM from my current trashcan and throw it into a new one!

I've had the misfortune of having to maintain a few hackintoshes back in the day. Totally not worth the time and effort.

Every time Apple rolls out an update you'll be spending hours trying to get the damn thing to work again.

  On 11/1/2019 at 10:25 AM, rhmilo said:

I've had the misfortune of having to maintain a few hackintoshes back in the day. Totally not worth the time and effort.

Every time Apple rolls out an update you'll be spending hours trying to get the damn thing to work again.

Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of.
I've put together a trash can now that's ridiculously powerful.

Been using hacks (desktops and now also a laptop) for 8 years, even if I run into occasional issues they've been pretty stable. The two I currently use will remain with Mojave 10.14.6 for a little while though.

  On 11/1/2019 at 12:04 AM, Squee said:

I upgraded my Mac Pro (the trash can) to Mojave not that long ago because I needed it for something Unity related. Ever since then Logic has been slow as hell. So now I’m considering buying the new Mac Pro when it gets released but I don’t want Catalina because I still use some 32 bit plugins. So then I considered an iMac Pro or just buying an old Mac Pro and upgrade like a raging psychopath. Help. 

What's up with your Logic install though? Seems like if that is the only thing bothering you it might be worth it to downgrade to a version of Logic that works fine instead of going through a full overhaul getting a new computer up to speed.

It's now close to 2 years when I got my new MBP and it's been nothing but fuck shit and crap - keyboard (entire bottom half) has been replaced twice, screen's been replaced twice and the last iteration was some fan that went fucky. I feel I am the living incarnation of the guy who can only talk about all the technical issues they've had with their mac. Truth is maybe I should not have bought a refurb 2016 unit (the first fancy keyboard ones and generally a damn mess of a generation). 

  On 10/19/2019 at 2:33 PM, Nil said:

Serious GAS : https://www.audeze.com/products/lcd-1

I teach electronic music production for a living... which means I can put on a pair of cans and produce / mix while my students work.

Even if I love them, my old trusty K-702 are seriously wearing out (I'm also talking about the necessity to frequently solder some of its wires), and maybe a better set of headphones could allow me to do more critical work while away from my monitors ?

I suppose these + Goodhertz CanOpener (that I already own / use) could be a pretty nice and useful combo, and could allow me to effectively prepare mixing / mastering sessions as well, and more importantly it could free some more time for my own tunes in the studio. Could be a smart purchase.

Expand  

... and ordered.

  On 11/4/2019 at 10:00 AM, thawkins said:

What's up with your Logic install though? Seems like if that is the only thing bothering you it might be worth it to downgrade to a version of Logic that works fine instead of going through a full overhaul getting a new computer up to speed.

It's now close to 2 years when I got my new MBP and it's been nothing but fuck shit and crap - keyboard (entire bottom half) has been replaced twice, screen's been replaced twice and the last iteration was some fan that went fucky. I feel I am the living incarnation of the guy who can only talk about all the technical issues they've had with their mac. Truth is maybe I should not have bought a refurb 2016 unit (the first fancy keyboard ones and generally a damn mess of a generation). 

Expand  

I was thinking about trying to reinstall Logic. I just need to make sure it doesn't delete any of my Channel Strips and so on.
I've found a company that beefs up MacPro 5.1s and it costs like half the price of a new one. I'm thinking about contacting them just for shits and giggles.

Yeah, I bought the 2018 MacBook Pro and it's a piece of shit. I beefed it up and it's the most buggy computer I've ever had. Oh, and as you mentioned, the keyboard is acting up as well, but Apple covers that.

  On 11/4/2019 at 2:42 PM, Squee said:

I was thinking about trying to reinstall Logic. I just need to make sure it doesn't delete any of my Channel Strips and so on.
I've found a company that beefs up MacPro 5.1s and it costs like half the price of a new one. I'm thinking about contacting them just for shits and giggles.

Yeah, I bought the 2018 MacBook Pro and it's a piece of shit. I beefed it up and it's the most buggy computer I've ever had. Oh, and as you mentioned, the keyboard is acting up as well, but Apple covers that.

If you have Time Machine backups set up, then you should be able to make a backup exactly before you do the Logic reinstall, and if it screws something up you can just easily go back to how it was before. DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NEVER DONE THIS AND THE WORD "EASILY" IS MAY BE COVERING A LOT OF GROUND HERE.

  On 11/4/2019 at 3:46 PM, thawkins said:

If you have Time Machine backups set up, then you should be able to make a backup exactly before you do the Logic reinstall, and if it screws something up you can just easily go back to how it was before. DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NEVER DONE THIS AND THE WORD "EASILY" IS MAY BE COVERING A LOT OF GROUND HERE.

Unfortunately, I don't have a Time Machine set up. But I'll probably go ahead and buy a new Mac Pro. I just need to see what the new Mac Pro will end up costing in Europe.

  On 11/4/2019 at 7:32 PM, Squee said:

Unfortunately, I don't have a Time Machine set up. But I'll probably go ahead and buy a new Mac Pro. I just need to see what the new Mac Pro will end up costing in Europe.

It's probably something like 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000€

I strongly suggest setting up the Time Machine backups, you never know when your hard drive craps itself and you lose all your cool unfinished projects that are definitely going to be released any time soon on vinyls.