the watmm GAS thread

  On 11/12/2020 at 6:44 PM, Nil said:

Sidebands ?

https://www.sfu.ca/~truax/fmtut.html

  On 11/12/2020 at 6:37 PM, sweepstakes said:

FMing the filter can be fun too - not sure whether any of the new ones do that.

Opsix does it I think. 

  On 11/12/2020 at 5:11 PM, e-mertz said:

I think they're both great.

On the operator-side Korg one looks like an fm synth+ with seemingly endless sound design possibilities. That might be as well it's pitfall though. FM-synthesis is unpredictable enough already with just 4 operators IMO, which makes the Mega look more like a winner with it's great overview.

However, the korg has filters and effects, something I'd definitely miss if I get the Mega. Or the preenfm3

Definitely, but I already have a Digitone and use FM8 in nearly everything I do, so I don't have much use for the Opsix. For anyone getting into physical FM synths, though, it would be a great start.

Do you think it would be a good idea to attach a drum machine to my rs7000 sequencer? I figure a drum machine would be faster to tweak drums as there would be less steps involved and it also might push me to use more complicated rhythms. Have the tr8s slaved to rs or whatever.

Depending on the sound you're after, an MFB-301 Pro is great for that, if you can still get hold of one cheap. Looks like they've replaced it with the 501 (which looks cooler, especially being able to load custom samples, but also costs almost twice what the 301 did and a big part of the 301 appeal was that it cost less than a Volca Drums but sounded much better)

  On 11/12/2020 at 6:23 PM, sheatheman said:

Yeah you don’t need a filter with FM. velocity mapped to modulator operator level achieves the same thing as filter velocity sensitivity.

it’s nice to not think about filters

People are scared of FM and need their training wheels... I dig some of the crazy stuff going on in the demos, but was honestly expecting a better raw sound and lower price. preorders for the next mk essenceFM are just €200 more. The bell patches on that thing are ridiculous. 

When you look at how good the interface for the megafm is, it really makes you wonder what Yamaha was thinking.

i want one. I love the sound blaster

  On 11/17/2020 at 2:21 AM, chim said:

People are scared of FM and need their training wheels... I dig some of the crazy stuff going on in the demos, but was honestly expecting a better raw sound and lower price. preorders for the next mk essenceFM are just €200 more. The bell patches on that thing are ridiculous. 

Indeed ! The essence FM sounds lush (plus 16 parts multitimbral, 300 voice polyphony, 4X stereo outs)

  On 11/16/2020 at 10:50 PM, TubularCorporation said:

Depending on the sound you're after, an MFB-301 Pro is great for that, if you can still get hold of one cheap. Looks like they've replaced it with the 501 (which looks cooler, especially being able to load custom samples, but also costs almost twice what the 301 did and a big part of the 301 appeal was that it cost less than a Volca Drums but sounded much better)

So in theory I can hit play on my sequencer and the drum machine will play?

  On 11/17/2020 at 11:31 PM, yekker said:

So in theory I can hit play on my sequencer and the drum machine will play?

Yeah, it has full implementation plus it has some different presets mapped across multiple octaves so you can get a few different sounds out off each voice without even editing.  I don't know much about the 501 but it looks like it's the 301 voices plus samples, seems very cool.

AFAIK the 301 was all of the voices from the original Tanzbar that WEREN'T in the Tanzmaus, so if you had a Tanzmaus and a 301 you would have the whole Tanzbar sound palette.

I've got an Octatrack template with the MIDI tracks set up to sequence and edit the voices in a 301 and it works really well.

As far as sound, think something like a Boss DR55 or 110 but snappier and more hi-fi, if anything it almost sounds a little TOO good and I usually like to push it through a cheap pedal or solid state amp or something.

Only complain I have is that if you use it standalone without external clock the steps when you change the tempo are kind of big, so sometimes you can't dial in the tempo you want (but with external analog or MIDI clock or an external sequencer that's not an issue).  The built in sequencer is pretty fun, too, in a primitive way.  It's more or less like DR-55 sequencing but with parameter locks.

You might be stuck with the 501 though, it looks like the 301 isn't too easy to find used.  Everything but the price looks better on the 501, though.

This guy is really leaning in to the tuned-up, metallic side of what it can do.

This one covers some of the more Rolandesque side of it:

Got a budget tier solid body, fretless ukulele bass as a holiday gift but a month early because they're on sale right now.  Other than some setup stuff I'll do after I've spent some time playing with it and am ready to invest in better strings (all it really needs is to have the edges of the bridge and fingerboard rounded over slightly and the nut slots lowered since they obviously use the same nut depth for the fretted and fretless versions, and I could safely get the action a LOT lower at the nut) and so far I'm pretty thrilled with it.  It's not exactly a replacement for the full size bass I traded in years ago when I was between bands, but it's really playable and sounds different enough that having a proper bass wouldn't make it obsolete. 

I'm waiting on the parts to finally recap my B-15 (the big combo cap on the power supply is so close to blowing that there's a visible bubble on one end) but I risked having it on for a few minutes last night to see how it sounded through that, and it can do a surprisingly good Funky Skull type of sound. I'll definitely get a lot of use out of it recording.

Congrats! This looks really sweet.

Does that mean you want to try playing some bass on our sessions sometimes? If so, that would be neat.

I also say this because I had some time tonight to work on the intro part of our last jam into a short weekly beat thing and it seems like I manage to hit the maximum notes on the XV5080 - the bass starts dropping out weirdly after I hit the quicker passages on the EPiano.

It might also be some stuck note somewhere or yet another M4L device that is misbehaving because I set it up wrong. Anyway more motivaton to cut down on the amount of simultaneous parts playing.

That intro part sounds so good.

  On 11/19/2020 at 10:58 PM, thawkins said:

Congrats! This looks really sweet. Does that mean you want to try playing some bass on our sessions sometimes? If so, that would be neat.

I also say this because I had some time tonight to work on the intro part of our last jam into a short weekly beat thing and it seems like I manage to hit the maximum notes on the XV5080 - the bass starts dropping out weirdly after I hit the quicker passages on the EPiano.

It might also be some stuck note somewhere or yet another M4L device that is misbehaving because I set it up wrong. Anyway more motivaton to cut down on the amount of simultaneous parts playing.

That intro part sounds so good.

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hahaha the 5080's 128 voices. Impressive!

  On 11/19/2020 at 11:01 PM, Taupe Beats said:

hahaha the 5080's 128 voices. Impressive!

Must be some mess with my M4L devices unless I am Yngwie Malmsteen.

  On 11/19/2020 at 11:07 PM, thawkins said:

Must be some mess with my M4L devices unless I am Yngwie Malmsteen.

  On 11/20/2020 at 1:30 AM, TubularCorporation said:

 

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See that's why I need to set up a camera for our live streams!

Got a new modular.

Just purchased a roland mc-707, haven't dived deep into it but looks promising. This is my first groovebox/sampler, which ones are your favourites? I Also bought a TE pocket operator, I already had one and is funny to catch some samples there.

my first synth was an MC-505 in ~1999. While it didnt have the greatest sound engine in the world, it was a great synth to learn on because it was all self contained. The sequencer was actually pretty good and it had an arpeggiator with all kind of weird patterns including a bucephalus bouncing ball type of thing.  the other nice thing is  that it was really easy to record controller movements for all the knobs. also one of the 8  tracks was dedicated to drums with built in roland drum sounds. the fader would change the pitch and if you pitched it down enough the samples would play in reverse.

if you menu dived deep enough you could turn on some FM synthesis params.

one time it did crash on me and i lost a whole bunch of stuff. i think i got it back somehow but i was on the phone with support for a long time.

for a while i was rocking that with a yamaha a3000 and a nord modular v1. kinda wish i could go back to that setup... but nahhhhhh

The Earthquaker Devices Afterneath v3 has finally hit UK shores and it flirts with my GAS very heavily.  Billed as an "otherworldly reverberation machine" this new version has a 9-mode toggle switch for selecting different reverb trail algorithms.   I also like the external voltage control they added.

Whether this means I will be able to pick up a v1 or v2 cheaper on Reverb I dunno yet, I reckon they will hold their value pretty well but some existing owners may want to upgrade.  Looks lush imo.

Too bad it’s mono

One love, one channel.

  On 11/25/2020 at 5:57 PM, xox said:

Too bad it’s mono

Got to get two then problem solved.