the watmm GAS thread

Norns is baffling to me. What is a shield?

It's what was called a "daughterboard" in the 90s—a board that attaches to a raspberry pi to add functionality; in this case, a screen, encoders, buttons and audio interface. 

Norns is a hardware device that can run lua scripts and supercollider code. It's got USB host ports and network connectivity as well, so can be basically anything, as long as you can code it (or find something that someone else has made). I'm pretty keen to get started making my own sequencers etc for it. 

Fucking Soma Pulsar is really gonna make me spend $1600......

**Continues mantra of "I don't need it"**

God damn it, between getting paid for fall editing work and getting a bit of cash from a relative for Christmas and the money I had saved up for the last of the parts I needed for the huge 2020 synth build and Perfect Circuit having a sale, I just ordered a Kilpatrick Phenol.  Has this sort of beepy, almost clinical, 1970s sci-fi computer sound (without actually sounding like any specific vintage synth) in all of the demos that I find really inspiring and can't really get out of anything in my current setup. I'd had my eyes on it when it was first in the crowdfunding phase but I wasn't in a position to get one back then and it kind of fell off my radar for a while.  I really like the idea of having a single modular desktop box that can get into more deep/semi-generative modular sounding areas than  Even though it's a completely different instrument the form factor kind of gives me a VCS3/Synthi feel.  Plus I'm a sucker for anything with banana jacks.

We'll see.

Uhhh I should not have built that generative MIDI patch in Pure Data, getting strong vibes that I should now get Max and Live 10 with M4L so I can integrate all that stuff.

On the other hand, Live 10 is 400 euros and Max is 300 on top of that.

wavestate

Can't afford a Wavestate so I'll be contrarian and say I hope the Wavestate pushes down the prices of old Wavestations so I can get a Wavestation A/D for like $150 since I missed my chance last time they were that cheap.

Wavestate.

wavestate

I'm pretty sure if enough of us get a Wavestate and all play the same chord at the same time it will literally manifest the Alien Autopsy into physical existence in our own homes.

Studio desk has been assembled. Finally.

Guess I can talk about my experience with Output now. I bought the table back in October and on their website it said that it would arrive early November. November came and I heard nothing from them. Then I waited a little longer and still no word from them. I ended up contacting them because I was planning a small trip to Germany with my girlfriend and I wanted to be there when it arrived. They told me that they had received a surprising amount of orders which had caused some delays but they wanted to compensate me with a free plugin. I told them that my intention was NOT to get compensated but if they insisted I would love to receive their Substance plugin - and then... silence. Didn't hear a thing from them. I contacted them again and asked if they had received my email. No answer.
December came and still no answer and no update.

Then, a couple of of days before Christmas, it showed up completely unannounced. Hadn't received a tracking number or anything as I was supposed to. And still no plugin.

Oh well, I like the desk, but I had to remove the keyboard tray as my legs are too damn long and couldn't fit under the desk.

This looks really neat! Hope your laptop does not take a plunge off those kaoss pads.

  On 1/9/2020 at 1:11 PM, thawkins said:

This looks really neat! Hope your laptop does not take a plunge off those kaoss pads.

Thanks!

But the new MacBook Pro is a piece of shit so I don't care.

  On 1/9/2020 at 5:57 PM, Squee said:

Thanks!

But the new MacBook Pro is a piece of shit so I don't care.

Oh if it starts to become a burden, feel free to fedex it to me.. I can polish that turd day and night.

Interesting, I was thinking of getting the Output sidecar or whatever it's called, until I read about the problems before christmas.  Found a different solution in the meantime.

i bought a 1972 synthi A

Is this guy basically every modern idm type producer?

Elektrons and modular setup. He doesn't even make a track, just jams with pre recorded sounds and presets and then goes past his 10 minutes.

don't care, sounds great, I love Barker's stuff

edit: I don't hear anything pre-recorded in there? He's definitely building it up on the spot, I don't think it makes sense to completely design every sound from scratch if you've only got 10 minutes

Isn't he using his live "template" ? Builidng something from scratch using his usual sound-palette. Doesn't really matter to me anyway, I'm a huge fan of his stuff and that ATC is pretty amazing.

Oh and just for the record I'm seriously considering saving for a little Serge Modular system. I have no clue when I'll be able to buy one but I think that's the right (modular) synth for me.

Plus he's a bloody nice guy and a fucking huge autechre fan so gets a pass in my book.

Guy is starting from an empty Octatrack pattern and building things up in 10 minutes (and then keeps going because he’s absorbed by what he’s doing). What’s the problem here?

Also, that plate thing is really cool.

Everyone uses the same presets on their modular and octatrack and makes uniform idm techno. That, my friend, is the problem. Also everyone is carrying around plate reverbs these days. My next album won’t have any reverb at all because it’s so overused. It’s like hello, there’s also delay and the flanger. 

  On 1/11/2020 at 12:49 PM, Nil said:

Oh and just for the record I'm seriously considering saving for a little Serge Modular system. I have no clue when I'll be able to buy one but I think that's the right (modular) synth for me.

Yeah, Serge is the modular format that excites me, too. Not going to be in a position to start down the road until next fall at the soonest but I got that Kilpatrick Phenol as a seed finally after a bunch of shipping delays (Kilpatrick format isn't quite Serge but it's pretty close) and it's already a good start. At some point this spring I'll build myself a case and then over the summer and fall I'll start building some CGS modules or something.

I'm one Mouser shipment away from having 99% of the parts for the Kijimi I spent all of 2019, and that's going to be a long build and then more than enough East Coast synth to mess with for a long time, which is another reason that the only modular that's really grabbing my imagination is a modest rack full of Serge and Buchla style stuff geared toward generative, abstract sorts of things.  If I need to play notes I've got better options than modular for that.

  On 1/11/2020 at 3:10 PM, user said:

Everyone uses the same presets on their modular and octatrack and makes uniform idm techno. That, my friend, is the problem. Also everyone is carrying around plate reverbs these days. My next album won’t have any reverb at all because it’s so overused. It’s like hello, there’s also delay and the flanger. 

I'm super pro flanger lately, not going to lie.

Wavestate looks pretty lush for jambin' once you get all your stuff set up, but it looks pretty fiddly/menu-divey to get there. Also it seems to really want to have that kinda plasticky, Dad, Korg sound (what's with the ubiquitous reverb?) - the tables/architecture on the Argon8 sound a lot more exciting.

I love that plasticy Korg sound, it's the audio equivalent of the alienated, existential dread of having a bad psychedelic experience at a mall.