the watmm GAS thread

  On 6/21/2022 at 5:13 PM, Taupe Beats said:

Nymphes is polyphonic, btw

I was only listening to loopop's walkthrough and I was left with an impression that the predefined chord mode is a trick on a mono, but now that I look at the box itself I see that the first mode is poly. Duh.

I guess I have to get both 

  On 6/21/2022 at 7:34 PM, baph said:

I guess I have to get both 

The board should have a bot that can spot when people post a variation on "which of these thing should I buy?" and replace their post with this, because it's really always the right answer even when it isn't.

  On 6/21/2022 at 8:08 PM, TubularCorporation said:

The board should have a bot that can spot when people post a variation on "which of these thing should I buy?" and replace their post with this, because it's really always the right answer even when it isn't.

Which ones should I get, Cre8audio West Pest and East Beast, or Dreadbox Typhon and Nymphes?

  On 6/21/2022 at 8:42 PM, dcom said:

Which ones should I get, Cre8audio West Pest and East Beast, or Dreadbox Typhon and Nymphes?

Oh my, I think I do need (not really, but WANT) to get them all. It's not like I'm doing heroin, right? I really should not listen to synth reviews/tutorials in the background while working.

  On 6/22/2022 at 10:25 AM, dcom said:

Oh my, I think I do need (not really, but WANT) to get them all. It's not like I'm doing heroin, right? I really should not listen to synth reviews/tutorials in the background while working.

Listening to inspiring music beats listening to gear reviews IMO. Especially if you already have a pile of gear that can do a lot of stuff.

  On 6/22/2022 at 9:09 PM, thawkins said:

Listening to inspiring music beats listening to gear reviews IMO. Especially if you already have a pile of gear that can do a lot of stuff.

I do mostly that, but lately I've had a bad habit of checking out new(ish) hardware. Today the ratio was 7:1 in favour of music.

  On 6/22/2022 at 9:51 PM, dcom said:

I do mostly that, but lately I've had a bad habit of checking out new(ish) hardware. Today the ratio was 7:1 in favour of music.

Sometimes it's inspiring to check out used hardware too, even if you don't end up getting anything, browsing used listings at sub 100-200€ can reveal some amazingly crappy but inspiring stuff.

Might be more of a DIY thread post, but I've ordered the cheapest articulating monitor stand I could find on eBay and I'm going to make a little keyboard shelf on it to hold the Keystep I use for programming patches and sequences (the way the room I'm in is shaped I had to put my master keyboard about 7 feet from the rack, unfortunately). I'll post a photo when it's done, but in the mean time here's a more or less accurate approximation of what it will be like:

EDIT: in all seriousness, though, coming back to this thread a few hour later I'm starting to think maybe I really should cover the thing in old, unraveled VHS tape.

Anyone got an Arturia Minibrute 2S and/or Drumbrute Impact? If, how do you feel about them?

  On 6/27/2022 at 7:07 PM, dcom said:

Anyone got an Arturia Minibrute 2S and/or Drumbrute Impact? If, how do you feel about them?

I have the 2S. Had the original Drumbrute (not the Impact). 

The 2S has some really cool parts and major frustrations. I am not huge on Arturia's oscillators. The envelopes are great and can be looped ARP-style. I wish they'd implemented the filter exactly like it works on the Microbrute (other than having the ability to have an open gate for external signals which is easier to do on the 2S). The Microbrute's (and assuming the original Minibrute, never used one) filter is a thing of beauty. They put the "Brute Factor" drive stage at the filter level rather than the master volume on the Minibrute 2S. So much better in the Microbrute, imo. Patchbay's cool, a lot of modulation potential (and there's 2 attentuators). 

And one of the dumbest things about the Minibrute 2S (and Microbrute, for that matter):  You can't change the MIDI channel without the software. WTF is a synth doing putting a sequencer on it and then tethering it to one MIDI channel without having to stop everything and run software to change it? Still waiting to see if Arturia ever updates the firmware for that. Ridiculous.

Overall, surprisingly high learning curve for a monosynth, that can give you a likely wider sound palate than most other monosynths. And it's big (but not nearly as big as a Matrixbrute so silver linings).

Drumbrute Impact has the same sequencer as the original Drumbrute. By far the best part of it (and the same as the Beatstep Pro'd drum track). The Drumbrute's sounds were mainly underwhelming (The bass drums were ok, BD2 esp). The FM voice on the Impact looks cool but I'd still rather have the Volca Drum for that stuff. The individual outputs is a nice touch.

  On 6/27/2022 at 7:52 PM, Taupe Beats said:

The FM voice on the Impact looks cool but I'd still rather have the Volca Drum for that stuff. The individual outputs is a nice touch.

I'm still hugely impressed by Volca Drum's sound design potential, 45 different source-envelope-modulation combinations, parameter automation and/or locking per step, wave folding, overdrive, pitch quantization etc., not forgetting the per-part sequencing, accents, slides, rolls, step jump... it's an insanely versatile instrument for its size.

I agree on the Drumbrute Impact, the sounds are not that interesting but the sequencer - like the S2 one - is dandy. I think I'll forgo Drumbrutes and think about the Minibrute S2, it's got enough fun things at that price point, not that far from Moog DFAM, though, but that's another beast altogether.

I personally don't find the Arturia sequencer approach to melody all that great. For me anyway, my mind isn't running fast enough to be able to quickly think about gate and velocity changes per-step when looking at 16 identical knobs.

For live sequencing, ok sure. But once you get into tweaking steps, it's not as intuitive imo.

From what I've seen of your rig, I'd recommend a Beatstep Pro. 2 mono melodic sequencers (where the channels can be changed easily onboard *snicker*), the same drum track as the Drumbrute, and the roller strip can be used for either melody or drum tracks. Individual CV/Gate outputs (with an extra Mod output for the velocity) for the melodic tracks. A whole lot more I'm not talking about.

  On 6/27/2022 at 7:52 PM, Taupe Beats said:

And one of the dumbest things about the Minibrute 2S (and Microbrute, for that matter):  You can't change the MIDI channel without the software. WTF is a synth doing putting a sequencer on it and then tethering it to one MIDI channel without having to stop everything and run software to change it? Still waiting to see if Arturia ever updates the firmware for that. Ridiculous.

I'd go as far as to say the state of MIDI gear in general between around 2007 and 2017 was about as bad as the state of modular synths in the 90s.

Ignoring higher end professional stuff that was probably usually OK (but I've never touched 99% of it), MIDI gear from that period was, in my experience at least, so badly implemented it makes the MIDI implementation on this thing look OK in comparison.

If you've used one to control external gear you know what I mean.

  On 6/27/2022 at 9:04 PM, dcom said:

I'm still hugely impressed by Volca Drum's sound design potential, 45 different source-envelope-modulation combinations, parameter automation and/or locking per step, wave folding, overdrive, pitch quantization etc., not forgetting the per-part sequencing, accents, slides, rolls, step jump... it's an insanely versatile instrument for its size.

I agree on the Drumbrute Impact, the sounds are not that interesting but the sequencer - like the S2 one - is dandy. I think I'll forgo Drumbrutes and think about the Minibrute S2, it's got enough fun things at that price point, not that far from Moog DFAM, though, but that's another beast altogether.

I have the drumbrute Impact and it's one of my favorite drumboxes to date. The FM drum is the greatest about it. I use the individual output of it running it through a monotron delay and a phaser to get weird but raw leads. The kick is fantastic too. Best Techno-kick around that isn't 909. Snares, hats and other percussions are decent, nothing special but very usable.

The Sequencer is a classic tr-style sequencer without too much other bells and whistles. Good enough for all-round purpose. However I've switched over to using a squid to sequence for a while now.

Not being able to switch midi-channel on the machine is a bit of a nuisance indeed, but personally it's not something I do more often once a year. Enjoy working in a more fixed setup where these things don't change regularly.

p.s.

As we're talking about GAS

  On 6/29/2022 at 5:46 PM, e-mertz said:

However I've switched over to using a squid to sequence for a while now.

Are you referring to Toraiz Squid? That's one box I'm keen to know about, if you have one and work on it, what are your impressions?

Hard drives.  Need more hard drives.

  On 6/29/2022 at 6:53 PM, TubularCorporation said:

Hard drives.  Need more hard drives.

Time to convert all you have to 8-bit chiptunes.

I'll encode everything as 64kbps mp3s. It's impossible hear the difference, right?

  On 6/27/2022 at 9:20 PM, Taupe Beats said:

From what I've seen of your rig, I'd recommend a Beatstep Pro. 2 mono melodic sequencers (where the channels can be changed easily onboard *snicker*), the same drum track as the Drumbrute, and the roller strip can be used for either melody or drum tracks. Individual CV/Gate outputs (with an extra Mod output for the velocity) for the melodic tracks. A whole lot more I'm not talking about.

Beatstep Pro would be nice, but I need a polyphonic sequencer. I already have a Keystep 37, which is enough for a lot of things (except sequencing), so I'd want either a pure MIDI hardware sequencer or something that can do a lot with MIDI, Squarp Pyramid, Toraiz Squid or somesuch. SQ-64 is nice, but I need more tracks than that.

I do have a lot of computers and as discussed previously, FL Studio upgraded to the max, so I could just use that - but I would also love to go DAWless.

  On 6/30/2022 at 9:36 AM, dcom said:

Beatstep Pro would be nice, but I need a polyphonic sequencer. I already have a Keystep 37, which is enough for a lot of things (except sequencing), so I'd want either a pure MIDI hardware sequencer or something that can do a lot with MIDI, Squarp Pyramid, Toraiz Squid or somesuch. SQ-64 is nice, but I need more tracks than that.

I do have a lot of computers and as discussed previously, FL Studio upgraded to the max, so I could just use that - but I would also love to go DAWless.

Gotcha, and yeah the BSP being mono only for melodic stuff is a limiter for sure.

As a Squarp Pyramid owner, I'd recommend that. 64 MIDI tracks at any given time, and a whole lot you can do within each track. A ton of great MIDI effects/tools that most hardware sequencers don't have. Also can do CV/Gate stuff (including conversion to/from MIDI) if you need it.

Ever check out an FL Studio Fire that Akai made? https://www.akaipro.com/akai-fire

  On 6/30/2022 at 5:10 PM, Taupe Beats said:

Gotcha, and yeah the BSP being mono only for melodic stuff is a limiter for sure.

As a Squarp Pyramid owner, I'd recommend that. 64 MIDI tracks at any given time, and a whole lot you can do within each track. A ton of great MIDI effects/tools that most hardware sequencers don't have. Also can do CV/Gate stuff (including conversion to/from MIDI) if you need it.

Ever check out an FL Studio Fire that Akai made? https://www.akaipro.com/akai-fire

I've got one AKAI Fire, it's a nice enough tool for controlling FLS, but if I were to consider using something other for that, Novation's FLKey 37 would be it.

I've been lusting over Squarp's Pyramid, but the price point's a bit high - but then again, it seems to have about everything one needs to do DAWless things. The problem is as always that when there's alternatives, it's hard to make an educated choice based on reviews, tutorials, and manuals, you'll need to get your hands on the thing, but then you're already committed to something. Pyramid has some features that I'm big on, like euclidean, polyrhythmic, and polymeter sequences - so I guess that's the one I'm going for.

Still waiting for a small laptop tray to keep the keyboard from falling off so easily, but so far it works well:

Total cost for a new, off brand monitor arm, a used VESA laptop tray, and all the shipping and tax ended up around $35.

Now I'm lusting after this. Not the coffee, mind you.