the watmm GAS thread

Volca Kick is extremely underrated (and fuck Bobeats). Turn the sustain on and put it behind effects like a spring reverb and delay, insta-1st wave industrial. The touch fx on the thing can also be cool (multiple triggered at once). 

The Volca Drum is my favorite. Super versatile (and can achieve damn near most of the tonal palate of the Volca Kick on its own). 

those post covid pricing are pretty fucked up TBH 

  On 6/4/2022 at 1:37 PM, d-a-m-o said:

those post covid pricing are pretty fucked up TBH 

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Wow finally something interesting from this year’s namm (not including the magnificent obx8)! Yes, it’s expensive but it’s seems to be a real monster; and it’ll sell like crazy! I’ll probably buy it too at some point; shall seeee

  On 6/4/2022 at 6:32 PM, xox said:

Wow finally something interesting from this year’s namm (not including the magnificent obx8)! Yes, it’s expensive but it’s seems to be a real monster; and it’ll sell like crazy! I’ll probably buy it too at some point; shall seeee

yeah this is sick

That MIDI TRS-A vs. TRS-B shit is wack. Polyend Tracker is TRS-B, Roland AIRA Compacts (T-8, J-6, E-4) are TRS-A, as is Retrokits RK-006. I really dislike incompatible details like this, especially when it's just about contact points/pins that are reversed, because reasons. FFS.

  On 6/6/2022 at 8:55 PM, dcom said:

That MIDI TRS-A vs. TRS-B shit is wack. Polyend Tracker is TRS-B, Roland AIRA Compacts (T-8, J-6, E-4) are TRS-A, as is Retrokits RK-006. I really dislike incompatible details like this, especially when it's just about contact points/pins that are reversed, because reasons. FFS.

MIDI TRS anything is wack, to be fair, but yeah it's even worse than it needs to be.

  On 6/2/2022 at 9:42 PM, dcom said:

Keys is nice, but I still have to learn how to make it more versatile.

Volca Keys is the one I miss the most. I sold it when I got the Monomachine, which can arguably make similar sounds, but there's something really fuzzy and weird about the Keys that makes it unique.

  On 6/2/2022 at 10:18 PM, Taupe Beats said:

Volca Kick is extremely underrated (and fuck Bobeats)

Ha, what did he do?

  On 6/6/2022 at 11:40 PM, TubularCorporation said:

MIDI TRS anything is wack

Nah. 

I just wish the synth/fm/etc had a proper sequencer instead of this phrase recorder. I just want to put a specific note at a specific place ffs.

I miss my Monomachine

The best thing I've played with recently for jamming 20-30 mins at a time is the Elektron Cycles in CTRL ALL mode and reducing/increasing the probability level. Probably also wicked on the Elektron Samples tbf.

  On 6/8/2022 at 1:55 PM, th555 said:

I just wish the synth/fm/etc had a proper sequencer instead of this phrase recorder. I just want to put a specific note at a specific place ffs.

Like elektrons?

  On 6/8/2022 at 9:39 AM, modey said:

Ha, what did he do?

Bobeats is the shittiest of the youtube gear reviewers, by far. It was his Volca Kick video ironically which convinced me. Anyone who wants to be taken seriously and puts "Worth the hype?" on a thumbnail can fuck ALL the way off. Nothing but sensationalism, front-running, ass-kissing, Elektron-overworship, shit-content, and not giving you any actual useful information. The entire "Should I buy this?" youtube gear reviewer scene can fuck off, except Loopop. He's the only one who actually cares about showing true functionality in his videos while successfully incorporating his own presentation style. So his videos can be useful to someone who actually goes and buys the thing (ie the audience these creators should actually be catering to). 

I could go on, Bobeats isn't the only one who can fuck off (Cuckoo is almost as bad, Great Value Luke Vibert). 

Too late to edit but I also want to give credit to AudioPilz. The Bad Gear series is great, funny, and typically accurate.

  On 6/8/2022 at 5:24 PM, Taupe Beats said:

Too late to edit but I also want to give credit to AudioPilz. The Bad Gear series is great, funny, and typically accurate.

Yes ! one of the best ! And also Jexus since it's just killer sounds and zero gas inducing bullshit !

  On 6/8/2022 at 4:28 PM, xox said:

Like elektrons?

Yeah I guess? Model:cycles looks way better sequencing wise but I dig the full dx7 implementation volca fm has.

I found a Sonicware ELZ_1 for a reasonable price, it was the last instrument in my current wantlist. Looking forward to getting my hands on it. Although it has a lot in common (probably as a precursor) with both 8bit Warps and XFM, there are some unique things to work with, too.

"DNA EXPLORER - extract and generate waveform DNA from audio"

Some kind of resynthesis? Additive? Be curious how you like it, looks like a good machine.

Personally, I bought... cables! Was about time.

I'm also really interested to hear about the ELZ-1, especially the granular engine, the "sand flute" engine (is it just noise through a narrow, resonant bandpass filter, or is there more going on?) and the sequencer.

You know, the stuff I could Google but don't feel like Googling.

  On 6/9/2022 at 4:42 PM, th555 said:

"DNA EXPLORER - extract and generate waveform DNA from audio"

Some kind of resynthesis? Additive? Be curious how you like it, looks like a good machine.

I'm guessing it's a deeper, more adjustable version of the algorthm the 8bit Warps uses to automatically extract waveforms from external audio, but maybe it isn't!

  On 6/9/2022 at 4:42 PM, th555 said:

Personally, I bought... cables! Was about time.

Yeah, I've been reporting only on instruments, but I've bought a lot of cables, too, to interconnect all the things - but I still need some more, and probably some ground loop isolators etc.

  On 6/9/2022 at 4:42 PM, th555 said:

"DNA EXPLORER - extract and generate waveform DNA from audio"

Some kind of resynthesis? Additive? Be curious how you like it, looks like a good machine.

Personally, I bought... cables! Was about time.

I read this as DNA EXPLODER and

Back in the original Animutation days I used to download the flash file every time Niel dropped something new, I probably have all of them (at least up through Jesus H. Christ, probably one or two after that but I didn't have internet access at home for a couple years around that time and didn't see much he did again until that Bustin' video blew up and made me realize he was still doing stuff) on a hard drive somewhere. 

Snagged a pretty solid, mid-quality overbed table (an older version of this one in a different color) cheap at a used furniture shop a few weeks ago and it's the best gear acquisition I've made in a couple years.  I've had a few of the regular home-use kind over the years and they're nice as a sort of mobile home office if you work on a laptop a lot, but every one I've used (cheap and fancy) is kind of fussy to adjust and doesn't go up high enough to work as a standing desk.  Getting a commercial grade one, even on the low end, is a whole different thing and I definitely recommend grabbing one if you see it cheap or free.

This one is actually less wobbly than the not that cheap mixer stand stand I keep my MPC on.

  On 6/9/2022 at 8:39 PM, dcom said:

and probably some ground loop isolators etc.

I haven't been using them much yet because I mainly got them to use for pasive signal splitting and I need to make about a dozen XLR to TRS cables for that, but I did finally pick up an ART T-8 and for the price I definitely recommend it.  Doesn't color the signal much at all (and what it does is nice sounding when I can hear it at all), and after I priced out parts to build something similar, the cheapest viable transformers and connectors I could find on Aliexpress still came out to more money than a new T8 without even factoring in at least $50 for an enclosure.  I definitely recommend it if you need some isolation and aren't in a position to use something with name-brand, $100+ per channel transformers.

Staged, only powered up. Looking forward to adding the Sonicware ELZ_1 to the set as soon as it arrives.

  On 6/10/2022 at 6:51 PM, dcom said:

Staged, only powered up. Looking forward to adding the Sonicware ELZ_1 to the set as soon as it arrives.

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This looks cool, now wondering how does your no doubt massive mixer look like?