the watmm GAS thread

(get your autism hats on guys)
 

But then we come up against the ground loop issue. If you have any significant studio setup, odds are you have to use more than one power strip, and if that is the case, you will absolutely have ground loop issues if you are using any kind of live signal.

its a very nebulous topic tbh. Very misunderstood. Now that I’ve learned a little electrical and know enough about household circuits to troubleshoot switches and install ceiling fans or new outlets, I know that ground, in the US, especially in Texas, is almost never referring to a ground rod inserted into the earth. It is a related but separate methodology by which the electrical system in a house safeguards against faulty wiring, basically if a hot wire is contacting a metal surface within an appliance, the current will instantly flow back into the ground wire, to the panel, and the current will trip the breaker, shutting off the supply and eliminating the hazard.

my point is, I don’t know and have never found much good literature regarding how much a music setup (laptop, mixer with speakers and synthesizers and effects all plugged into each other) NEEDS ground. Yeah, maybe if there is a power surge, there’s a greater chance that your gear will get fried, but how true is it that the current within the electrical system of a music studio is flowing to ground? If my understanding is correct (I think it is), if current is going into the ground wire, it will trip the breaker. Synthesizers do not need ground to function. They just need a hot and neutral wire. Most plugs don’t even have a ground prong, and most of what I have read says to eliminate ground loops from an interconnected setup, remove ground from all but one wall receptacle connection. Ever since I did that years ago, I have very rarely experienced ground loops...

Man, I know there is a good thread on here where we are listing off how many watts our setups are. Couldn’t find it. I know I’ve said this before, but for most gear in a home studio, the highest power draw will be your monitor, and your monitors.

I power everything off of an 800 watt UPS except for the rolling cart with the stuff I use for livestreaming, which is on another circuit but not conditioned in any way. Never had any issues.  If I was a homeowner I'd power things correctly but as a renter it's not possible.

I've never had ground loop issues except for a couple of times when I tried to power multiple devices from a single USB hub, and my monitors pick up some ground hum if I don't switch their ground off (but they're running on a 120v-240v step-up transformer, so the entire power situation is weird with them anyhow)

In ancient history I used to have some hum issues, but even though my setup now is messed up and some of it runs on a step down transformer to get voltages at 110V, somehow it all works without much issues.

I consider myself lucky.

The ground loop god chooses when you are worthy to be free

good god

  On 1/11/2021 at 9:11 AM, bupkis said:

good god

 

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Heh,  $2800, guess I will just sample this video then.

  On 1/11/2021 at 9:59 AM, thawkins said:

Heh,  $2800, guess I will just sample this video then.

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Good thought. Having some nice pads now in my 1010 blackbox.

Bought this amazing lil' dealie-o, best chorus ever! 

  On 1/30/2021 at 11:23 PM, TubularCorporation said:

I bet that Waza Craft one sounds fantastic. Can you do the vibrato trick with the stereo outs (use it as a mono pedal but plug a dummy cable into output 2 so it takes the dry signal out of output 1 so you get vibrato instead of chorus)?

 

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Yes you can!! It's ridiculous how full it sounds on synth material. Finally snatched it on the second-hand market for a good price, I was on the fence for ages as I already own a Small Clone and imagined it would be an end boss. As good as that one is for a light & liquid BBD touch, it's honestly no competition, the CE-2W hits it out of the park for those full-on chorus beds. If I had known how good this sounded I'd have bought one right away. 

My friend wants to start music and he told me he's thinking about the mc-101. Thoughts? Opinions on anything better in that price range?

  On 1/30/2021 at 11:41 PM, yekker said:

My friend wants to start music and he told me he's thinking about the mc-101. Thoughts? Opinions on anything better in that price range?

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Very hard to say whether it beats software, would advise your friend to spend more time with VST's until he knows for himself.

I haven't used one but there's a lot of competition in that price range.

For $500USD he could get a used MPC500 and have enough left over for a Volca Keys or something. Not necessarily a better choice but something to consider.

And going used means if he doesn't like it he can probably sell it at cost.

I still kind of want to build one of these, though:

https://www.alpesmachines.net/index.php/product/stereo-one-o-six-chorus-kit

Yeah recommended the volcas. He bought an arturia keyboard which came with a lite version of ableton so that's good.

Few potentially usable and interesting boxes that I’m kind of thinking about atm...

Synths:

- Soma Pulsar 23

- Moog Matriarch

- Erica Synths Syntrx

- Elektron Digitone

Efx:

- Vermona Retroverb Lancet 

- Eventide H9

- WMD Geiger Counter

...I’m just bored i guess! I need nothing; pure GAS

The fool bought the 101. Oh well. I hope he gets into it and we'll have another thing in common

If I was starting over from the beginning, I'd rather have the MC-101 (or the TR-6s) than a whole bunch of other shit I churned through early on: TR-606, DJX, TR-626, MC-50mkII, RY-30. The only thing I still have and occasionally use from those days is the TX81Z. Hell, I am tempted to replace my volcas with a TR-6s. Seems like a pretty nice, if limited, little beat box.

101 is too much money for what it is imo. But also it can be good having limited gear, it pushes you...

  On 1/31/2021 at 4:58 AM, yekker said:

101 is too much money for what it is imo. But also it can be good having limited gear, it pushes you...

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...into getting more gear.

  On 1/30/2021 at 11:41 PM, yekker said:

My friend wants to start music and he told me he's thinking about the mc-101. Thoughts? Opinions on anything better in that price range?

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What does he want to make? 

  On 1/31/2021 at 9:06 PM, flacid said:

What does he want to make? 

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Edm Lol.

  On 1/31/2021 at 12:29 AM, xox said:

Few potentially usable and interesting boxes that I’m kind of thinking about atm...

Efx:

- Vermona Retroverb Lancet 

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That thing is lovely. It's extremely versatile. Gain stage and the spring reverb are a bit noisy (to be expected with a spring reverb) but it's not hard to find sweet spots.

  On 1/31/2021 at 10:34 PM, yekker said:

Edm Lol.

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lol

I feel like people wanting to make that super tight EDM stuff are gonna have a bad time with hardware in general. It seems very much suited to DAW production.