the watmm GAS thread

  On 6/10/2022 at 7:27 PM, thawkins said:

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

I don't have a separate mixer (yet), I'm using the MX-1 as the main one (four mono + one stereo in, the AIRAs get in via USB), and I have a Bastl Dude to combine (mono) the Volcas; I'm also using the line ins of everything that has them (TR-8 has two mono or one stereo, Sonicwares have stereo line in/outs, AIRA compacts have line in/outs, SH-01A has line in...), . If I get a permanent place for everything, I might get a proper mixer + patch bay - but there's a lot I need to learn first. I also have some MIDI boxes (Retrokits RK-006, Blokas Midihub, ESI M4U Ex) to connect everything with, Doepfer Dark Link (to MIDI control the Volca Modular w/ gate/CV pitch, I might get a MIDI kit for the Modular at some point), TC Electronic M100 effect box  and an Arturia Keystep 37.

  On 6/10/2022 at 7:36 PM, dcom said:

I don't have a separate mixer (yet), I'm using the MX-1 as the main one (four mono + one stereo in, the AIRAs get in via USB), and I have a Bastl Dude to combine (mono) the Volcas; I'm also using the line ins of everything that has them (TR-8 has two mono or one stereo, Sonicwares have stereo line in/outs, AIRA compacts have line in/outs, SH-01A has line in...), . If I get a permanent place for everything, I might get a proper mixer + patch bay - but there's a lot I need to learn first. I also have some MIDI boxes (Retrokits RK-006, Blokas Midihub, ESI M4U Ex) to connect everything with, Doepfer Dark Link (to MIDI control the Volca Modular w/ gate/CV pitch, I might get a MIDI kit for the Modular at some point), TC Electronic M100 effect box  and an Arturia Keystep 37.

Actually it's cool that you don't have a mixer, well at least not in the traditional sense. That setup manages to look both clean as hell in terms of cabling and really daunting because lets be honest I am not familiar with half of that gear. Is the stuff on your soundcloud made with that setup?

  On 6/10/2022 at 8:41 PM, thawkins said:

Is the stuff on your soundcloud ma de with that setup?

Nope, those tracks are over 20 years old, made with then-named Fruity Loops, no hardware. With the exception of the AIRA TR-8 and TB-3, everything in the photo has been acquired during the last couple of months. I wanted many small things loosely joined, so I can vary the setup and the connections (sync, MIDI, DAW, or any combination thereof). I've also got a lot (and I mean A LOT) of cables to hook things up every which way I want. Almost everything is powered from an Anker 10 port USB charger, only the big AIRAs and Sonicware XFM + 8bit Warps have their own wall warts.

  On 6/10/2022 at 8:49 PM, dcom said:

Nope, those tracks are over 20 years old, made with then-named Fruity Loops, no hardware. With the exception of the AIRA TR-8 and TB-3, everything in the picture has been acquired during the last couple of months. I wanted many small things loosely joined, so I can vary the setup and the connections (sync, MIDI, DAW, or any combination thereof).

That's cool. My experience with small things loosely joined is that most of the small things end up in the cupboard gathering dust, while the two things I use are hooked up like that permanently. Every 6 months I make a half assed attempt to recable something, but then the setup usually ends up back like it was: a Roland XV5080 and Korg MS2000R rack unit going to a Presonus Studiolive 24R, and getting all the MIDI from Ableton Live.

Bringing this topic back into the GAS mode though, I kind of want a standalone mixer that would give me a dialled in submix and it would be easier to hook up all the small loosely joined things. I think this would be nice to have in improvised jam sessions.

I think I owe it to the Koma Field Kit to try it out as a mixer like this. It's got that perfect small form factor and some other fun stuff too. And since it's only a mono output, it can't get too complicated either. Let's see if I get further with this plan or it just remains a post I made.

I use a similar setup as yours since years ago, I replaced that mono/stereo inputs w/ different synths/rythmbox. Played a lot with that tb-3 and system-1 they just do surreal sounds if its destroyed properly.

Also that MFX is a nice feature, specially delays and scatter, you can create a totally different track with that. Sampling some shit from your daw into that and then applying some effects of the mixer is cool.

  On 6/10/2022 at 9:05 PM, thawkins said:

think I owe it to the Koma Field Kit to try it out as a mixer like this.

Looks like an interesting piece of kit, but if I get a proper mixer it'll be a relatively big desk, at least 8+ mono inputs and a couple of stereos, with two AUX sends or more.

  On 6/10/2022 at 9:08 PM, dcom said:

Looks like an interesting piece of kit, but if I get a proper mixer it'll be a relatively big desk, at least 8+ mono inputs and a couple of stereos, with two AUX sends or more.

The Studiolive 24R is basically something like that, except not in desk format. It's just the inputs and outputs and for all the rest you have to mess with in the Universal Control application or get an iPad like all the pro sound guys. So it's great for setting up mixes and then playing forever, but not for messing around with faders and eqs while playing.

  On 6/10/2022 at 9:17 PM, thawkins said:

The Studiolive 24R is basically something like that, except not in desk format.

That's a relatively expensive box without any performance features. I'm not an Apple person at all, so that's out - not my thing. I want to twist knobs and push faders. I will be doing things w/ DAW + MIDI and automate things, but when I'm looking for the sounds tand patterns I want to use, I need to get my hands on physical things, jam with pattern loops and fumble with parameters.

Just butting in to mention that even though I've never actually used any of the black and green period Aira stuff, I've decided over the last year or two that I really like the look.  It's already starting to look dated in the good, "emblematic of its time" sense even though it's too soon for most people to start looking at it that way.  In another decade, it'll look as distinctly mid 2010s as this looks early 90s:

The Studiolive rack models are the same engine as this but without physical controls (I think the 16R is the only one that's significantly different, either a les powerful CPU or single processor instead of dual, something like that):

You have to control it with software, but just about anything that runs a fairly currentversion of Windows, MacOS, Android or iOS and can connect to a LAN can control it.  It's a pretty good option if you need an interface with a lot of channels that doubles as a standalone mixer and stereo recorder.  You could keep one in a 2u rack case and use it as your studio interface for live multitracking, but also take it out and use it as your live mixer with a cheap tablet and any old Wifi router you pulled out of the trash connected to the control port.

I've got an Ibanez Universe UV70P to match the AIRAs (not really, it's just a coincidence, LOL). I've also got a Tokai AST-'62 sunburst, a more straightforward strat clone I got for my 14th birthday.

Universal envy

  On 6/10/2022 at 9:05 PM, thawkins said:

Bringing this topic back into the GAS mode though, I kind of want a standalone mixer that would give me a dialled in submix and it would be easier to hook up all the small loosely joined things. I think this would be nice to have in improvised jam sessions.

I think I owe it to the Koma Field Kit to try it out as a mixer like this. It's got that perfect small form factor and some other fun stuff too. And since it's only a mono output, it can't get too complicated either. Let's see if I get further with this plan or it just remains a post I made.

As I probably mentioned before I used three of these before I had an actual mixer.If you have 2 you can make stereo mixes

I mixed two lo-fi cassette releases on one of these:

I want that Roland E-4. Stereo line input, vocal synthesis (vocoder, harmonizer), Scatter effect with full MIDI (Scatter effect 4 life, fight me), other effects, even has a looper on it. Nice and small.

  On 6/11/2022 at 5:31 PM, Taupe Beats said:

I want that Roland E-4. Stereo line input, vocal synthesis (vocoder, harmonizer), Scatter effect with full MIDI (Scatter effect 4 life, fight me), other effects, even has a looper on it. Nice and small.

Yeah, it's a fun little box, too bad the effect processing covers only the mic input, doesn't do anything for the line in. Would be even more fun if it could be used as a more general audio munger.

  On 6/11/2022 at 5:34 PM, dcom said:

Yeah, it's a fun little box, too bad the effect processing covers only the mic input, doesn't do anything for the line in. Would be even more fun if it could be used as a more general audio munger.

I could have sworn I saw somewhere that it could process a stereo input signal! Going back and indeed can't verify that anywhere. Damn. Thanks for the clarification!

  On 6/11/2022 at 5:48 PM, Taupe Beats said:

I could have sworn I saw somewhere that it could process a stereo input signal! Going back and indeed can't verify that anywhere. Damn. Thanks for the clarification!

Here's the E-4's signal flow, you can pass the USB out signal through the processing pipeline, but with standalone operation you have only mic in.

Looks like the USB gets summed to mono if you pass it through the effects, too. The difference between mono and stereo audio probably let them use a significantly cheaper DSP or something like that.

  On 6/11/2022 at 12:11 PM, th555 said:

 

As I probably mentioned before I used three of these before I had an actual mixer.If you have 2 you can make stereo mixes

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That's pretty much what the Koma Field Kit does already, except it has some extra stuff too. I really should set it up somewhere, because I have such a wonderful pile of small gear to play with: Volca Sample, Yamaha QY100, Bastl Kastle, nanoloop (on an iPhone). I also have a crappy Zoom bass multieffects unit to add some atmosphere to all of it.

  On 6/11/2022 at 9:51 PM, thawkins said:

That's pretty much what the Koma Field Kit does already, except it has some extra stuff too. I really should set it up somewhere, because I have such a wonderful pile of small gear to play with: Volca Sample, Yamaha QY100, Bastl Kastle, nanoloop (on an iPhone). I also have a crappy Zoom bass multieffects unit to add some atmosphere to all of it.

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You should start sampling stuff from it on your MPC.

Almost can't believe I just scored this for a mere €100! 

  On 6/12/2022 at 5:31 PM, TubularCorporation said:

 

You should start sampling stuff from it on your MPC.

Yeah the field kit even has a fm radio built in. It’s only a matter of hooking the stuff up.

I was idly browsing the TB-3 MIDI implementation SysEx part and became interested in the possibilities offered by the more fine-grained and detailed control of the sound parameters of patches; I delved a bit deeper in the matter, and lo and behold, someone had painstakingly mapped/reverse-engineered an absolute treasure trove of undocumented parameters that can be tweaked. Based on that, I installed CTRLR, and the latest panel for TB-3 to control absolutely everything, and went to town with it. It's brilliant, and with TB-3 system version 1.10 there are 16 user bank slots available to store patches of your own. It's a completely new instrument when you can go beyond the preset patches - take any preset as a starting point, do what you will and save for later. Not such a boring box with limited features anymore, but a feature-rich synth. CTRLR works as a VST, too, so you can have all the tweaking options in your DAW to automate, opening up even more dynamic possibilities.

  On 6/11/2022 at 5:55 PM, dcom said:

Here's the E-4's signal flow, you can pass the USB out signal through the processing pipeline, but with standalone operation you have only mic in.

right, but so with the aira MX1 wich connects tu usb directly with other aira devices, you could send anything into it, aim i right ? ... well,this only if all  your MX1 usb ports are not busy so you can fit one more....

anyway I would like to try this  because :

  On 6/11/2022 at 5:31 PM, Taupe Beats said:

Scatter effect 4 life, fight me

yeah I like the scatter effect on MX1 / TR9, very handfull. (TR9 "roll button" page combined with scatter fx gives you very nice and quick -acsess rythm variations / breaks fills - perfect for a live situation. )