the watmm GAS thread

I've only bought three pieces of new, expensive gear in the last 20 years (four if you count the Kijimi, which was exponentially more expensive than anything else but also DIY so it's kind of a different thing) and one of them was the BAM.  Absolutely worth it, I use it on everything.

One thing that doesn't really get mentioned (probably most people don't even realized it and OTO doesn't say anything abotu it at all) is that at least some of the BAM algorithms aren't actualyl true stereo, they're mono in stereo out.  I've probably mentioned it before but I found that out the hard way last year when I tried to feed the stereo outputs from an 80s DOD flanger into the BAM and couldn't get any wet signal out of it at all.  Turns out the DOD was actually fake stereo (out B was just an inverted version of out A, so in a guitar rig where they were going through two amps that were sitting in different parts of a room it would sound like stereo, but in a direct recording situation they just null if you sum them to mono) and the BAM was summing them to mono at the beginning of the wet signal path.  I haven't gone through and checked all the algorithms or anything, though, but I know there are people who really only want true stereo reverbs.  I'm fine with it since it's appropriate for the kind of old gear that it's inspired by, but I wish OTO was up front about it.

EDIT: actually four, not three:

Since 2015 I was incredibly fortunate enough to be able to save up for one fancy piece of gear every year and got an Octatrack, Linnstrument, BAM and Phenol (2019 and 2020 everything went to getting parts for and building the Kijimi; this year I don't have much freelance work left so my big gear purchase is the 8bit Warps and a bunch of parts to finally build more of the stuff I've been sitting on PCBs for). Between owning a few really nice pieces of gear and owning an OK used car I think I made the right choice, who really needs a car if you have synths?

imo BIM (or BAM) doesn't make sense for the money! it's 500 euros!!!

for 700 euros you can buy a Digitone! 

nor BOUM bc for 700 euros you can buy Analog Heat mk2

  On 3/13/2021 at 3:39 PM, sheatheman said:

haha I said midrange not $600 boutique. Biscuits are selling for $1200 on reverb. People are deranged. That said, if I was going to buy a $600 reverb, it would be the oto bam. 

It's the new generation of pedals/effects, thank strymon. Check the back catalog of some of the reverb manufacturers. Early 90's like the Alesis ones get kinda crunchy for using on everything but it's dirt cheap. Otherwise I'd take a stereo pedal that's not too pricey (Boss, MXR etc). 

What's recommendation around here for the best hardware / analog 303 clone with patch memory? It doesn't look like the TD-3 has patch memory but reviews of the clone-ness are very positive.

  On 3/13/2021 at 7:42 PM, cooliofranco said:

What's recommendation around here for the best hardware / analog 303 clone with patch memory? It doesn't look like the TD-3 has patch memory but reviews of the clone-ness are very positive.

Why would you need patch memory on a 303 clone? "Ah yes, there's my old square sound with cutoff at 20 degrees and resonance at 75!"

It's a great 303 rip if you don't mind the archaic programming. I need to open up and trim mine because the attack is kinda clicky. There's a recap mod that makes it a lot bouncier like OG's as well. 

  On 3/13/2021 at 6:41 PM, chim said:

It's the new generation of pedals/effects, thank strymon. Check the back catalog of some of the reverb manufacturers. Early 90's like the Alesis ones get kinda crunchy for using on everything but it's dirt cheap. Otherwise I'd take a stereo pedal that's not too pricey (Boss, MXR etc). 

Unfortunately 90s stuff isn't so cheap anymore, I checked a few weeks ago and the Alesis Wedge (that cost me $18 on eBay in 2015) can hit $175-$200 now pretty easily, and it was one of the cheapest 90s reverbs for ages.  Almost everything got more expensive since the pandemic hit, too many people stuck at home  buying things.

  On 3/13/2021 at 8:33 PM, chim said:

 

Why would you need patch memory on a 303 clone? "Ah yes, there's my old square sound with cutoff at 20 degrees and resonance at 75!"

 

It's a great 303 rip if you don't mind the archaic programming. I need to open up and trim mine because the attack is kinda clicky. There's a recap mod that makes it a lot bouncier like OG's as well. 

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yeah ok i guess you're right. the programming won't be much of a problem because i'm probably going to be sending midi mostly.

  On 3/13/2021 at 8:33 PM, chim said:

 

 I need to open up and trim mine because the attack is kinda clicky. 

I have the same problem I think, especially with the saw wave. I think you need to do soldering to adjust the attack right? Or is it really simple like adjusting the vcf offset?

One thing on my bucket list is building a plate reverb. It’s alluring when you compare how expensive they are to buy and how relatively cheap they are to make.

  On 3/13/2021 at 11:14 PM, Berk said:

I have the same problem I think, especially with the saw wave. I think you need to do soldering to adjust the attack right? Or is it really simple like adjusting the vcf offset?

There's a VCA balance trimpot that will remove the clicking. If you want to go further like actually soften the attack, you need to get your solder on. But that one is literally just adding a capacitor to an empty spot. Some of the other cool ones look kinda finicky as the areas are tightly populated.

  On 3/13/2021 at 11:44 PM, sheatheman said:

One thing on my bucket list is building a plate reverb. It’s alluring when you compare how expensive they are to buy and how relatively cheap they are to make.

I've always wanted to do this too, but I don't have the space for a 6'x12' or whatever hunk of metal that needs to be acoustically isolated from everything to actually work well (and will probably get rusty if you don't oil it regularly). Maybe some day.

  On 3/14/2021 at 2:59 AM, TubularCorporation said:

 

I've always wanted to do this too, but I don't have the space for a 6'x12' or whatever hunk of metal that needs to be acoustically isolated from everything to actually work well (and will probably get rusty if you don't oil it regularly). Maybe some day.

barker’s is 1m square

https://www.voltek-labs.net/plate-reverb

And anything can be a resonator, really. I know that from having music boxes. They are dead quiet on their own, but placing them on something as simple as an empty cereal box will make it resonate very clearly. So I feel like you could probably use a wide variety of materials for usable results. Obviously metal is best.

  On 3/14/2021 at 2:59 AM, TubularCorporation said:

 

I've always wanted to do this too, but I don't have the space for a 6'x12' or whatever hunk of metal that needs to be acoustically isolated from everything to actually work well (and will probably get rusty if you don't oil it regularly). Maybe some day.

Just hook up a contact mic and some thingamajig up to an oven plate. Tape a label on it so you remember to remove this contraption before making pizza and that's basically it.

Guaranteed warm sounds.

So the quest for Serge has led me to this:

http://www.73-75.com
 

Specifically the Home Built panel. Supposedly it’ll be in stock again in two to three weeks.

Hopefully I’ll come to my senses before then.

  On 3/14/2021 at 5:52 AM, sheatheman said:

barker’s is 1m square

 

https://www.voltek-labs.net/plate-reverb

 

And anything can be a resonator, really. I know that from having music boxes. They are dead quiet on their own, but placing them on something as simple as an empty cereal box will make it resonate very clearly. So I feel like you could probably use a wide variety of materials for usable results. Obviously metal is best.

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I thought you meant like a classic plate reverb sounding plate reverb, with a big plate and magnetic driver and pickup, I forgot about Barker's (I saw it in a video a month or two ago, it sounds great for weird metallic noises).  You still have the acoustic isolation problem if you're using it as an actual reverb but the smaller plate probably helps.  I've got a 10 watt bone conductive transducer kind of like what he uses to drive his (just a bit smaller) but I haven't actually put them on anything that sounded good yet.

But just a week or so ago I started doing some research again for the project I originally got them for (essentially electromechanical drone strings) and I'm going to give it another try this summer but use a magnetic driver with feedback instead of a mechanical driver. So I can build essentially a lap steel (but with 12 or 13 strings and probably a few smaller moveable bridges to accommodate more tunings), wind a driver coil, use an off the shelf guitar pickup instead of winding my own like last time, and and use a stock driver circuit paired with a simple mixer at the input that would let me blend external audio with feedback from the pickup.  And actually for prototyping I could  skip the mixer and just use it on the aux send of a regular mixer to get feedback.

http://diy-fever.com/misc/diy-sustainer/

EDIT: if you make one of those smaller plate reverbs you should build it with legs and put a glass sheet on top so it doubles as a coffee table when you aren't using it AND you can lift the glass off to put BBs and washers and coins and stuff on it to make it buzz.

There's also always the "microphone in a metal trash can next to a loud monitor" method, which is actually a proper studio tech ique people have been using since at least the 80s (the first person I heard talk about it start using it for some famous first generation punk band but I forget who, and I'd been doing it with a downtuned floor tom for years in high school already - it's kind of just one of those things you figure out if you're trying to record with no money or gear in the pre-DAW days).

But I don't have space for a trash can either.

  On 3/14/2021 at 12:48 PM, thawkins said:

Just hook up a contact mic and some thingamajig up to an oven plate. Tape a label on it so you remember to remove this contraption before making pizza and that's basically it.

Guaranteed warm sounds.

I tried this but everything I put through it ended up sounding incredibly 

  On 3/14/2021 at 7:32 PM, user said:

I tried this but everything I put through it ended up sounding incredibly 

  Reveal hidden contents

cheesy.

 

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See that's not a problem for me here in France. You can experiment with endless tonal qualities.

Ouch! Serge GAS just increased. TIL Richie Hawtin used a Serge for his truly epically fantastic Concept series.

Source: the blurb for this video on his YouTube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xn1-AyYcrk&t=1s

  On 3/14/2021 at 2:59 AM, TubularCorporation said:

 

I've always wanted to do this too, but I don't have the space for a 6'x12' or whatever hunk of metal that needs to be acoustically isolated from everything to actually work well (and will probably get rusty if you don't oil it regularly). Maybe some day.

Shouldn't rust inside unless you live in a shed or have high humidity in your home....

Just sand and oil it, should be fine... or paint it... would that effect the sound? Rust might also make it resonate differently (awesomely?)

I think the usual approach is to oil it.  Relative humidity is in the mid 70s for most of the summer where I live, mild steel can definitely rust here. usually it's OK but not always.

Anyway, one of that really applies if you aren't making a full size plate, although it would still probably pick up noise in the room (but not, like, traffic on the street outside like a big plate).

I'd like to make one of these some day (the second variant with the modified DC motors):

https://www.electronicpeasant.com/projects/springs/springs.html

I'd love to have one of those thermal printers that can print directly on shrink tube, one that could handle up to 1" for labeling off-the-shelf MIDI and XLR cables, but I'm sure as hell not going to pay for one.

I spent a lot of time properly labelling my cables and patchbay with one of those brother labelmakers. Especially the patchbay was very tedious. Then I found that I change the way things are laid out often enough that the labels on the cables are no longer correct  because I need that set of long midi cables for something else now for example so I switched back to tape and a marker. The electrical tape I have now seems to be ok and not turn into a horrible sticky goop after a couple of months. 

I mostly just want to be able to print out a bunch of little pieces of shrink tube with numbers and shrink them on to the bodies of the plugs to make it easier to tell what cable is what.  I have a cheap Dymo label maker but the labels always come off in the summer.  Although the off brand labels on Amazon stick much better than the official kind and you can get a pack of three for less than a single brand name cartridge so that makes it more practical.

  On 3/17/2021 at 6:29 PM, user said:

I spent a lot of time properly labelling my cables and patchbay with one of those brother labelmakers. Especially the patchbay was very tedious. Then I found that I change the way things are laid out often enough that the labels on the cables are no longer correct  because I need that set of long midi cables for something else now for example so I switched back to tape and a marker. The electrical tape I have now seems to be ok and not turn into a horrible sticky goop after a couple of months. 

That’s some narrow electrical tape.