the watmm GAS thread

Not critical at all but I'm curious so I'll ask here. Is there a hardware device that will take a midi gate in as a trigger (hopefully with the ability to filter which notes to accept) to send random modulation of selected midi cc's?

Drambo for iOS does this and it's one of the cooler tricks I've ever found. I've never seen this in hardware. Squarp Pyramid comes close but that's clock-based rather than MIDI gate.

  On 3/24/2024 at 7:27 PM, Taupe Beats said:

Not critical at all but I'm curious so I'll ask here. Is there a hardware device that will take a midi gate in as a trigger (hopefully with the ability to filter which notes to accept) to send random modulation of selected midi cc's?

Blokas Midihub, and ZOIA/ZEBU. I have both, and they're great. They have a rather steep learning curve, but the payoff is huge.

  On 3/24/2024 at 7:27 PM, Taupe Beats said:

Not critical at all but I'm curious so I'll ask here. Is there a hardware device that will take a midi gate in as a trigger (hopefully with the ability to filter which notes to accept) to send random modulation of selected midi cc's?

Drambo for iOS does this and it's one of the cooler tricks I've ever found. I've never seen this in hardware. Squarp Pyramid comes close but that's clock-based rather than MIDI gate.

maybe: https://blokas.io/midihub/

  On 3/24/2024 at 7:35 PM, dcom said:

Blokas Midihub, and ZOIA/ZEBU. I have both, and they're great. They have a rather steep learning curve, but the payoff is huge.

 Thanks to you and @auxien for the response! That Midihub device looks amazing.

Bought a 200€ SMSL D-6S DAC. Nothing fancy when it comes to features, aside from 2024 state of the art digital to analog conversion, 32bit / 700 something kHz specs, ridiculously low THD / SNAD and balanced XLR outputs. Here are some measurements if one's curious : https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/smsl-d-6s-balanced-dac-review.48813/

TBH, I was curious to see if there'll be a difference with my good ol', mastering grade, German made, boutique SPL Crimson. The D-6S slays it, such a drastic difference my jaw dropped. I'm not sure I've ever heard such pristine sound comoing out of a computer (that includes top studios I've attended sessions at). I'll keep the Crimson for its gorgeous pres and DAC though.

I've heard details in my own tunes I didn't even know were there, and I think I have great monitoring and decent ears. But fuck me that's insane one can buy something so affordable which can output such neutral, transparent (sound-stage / frequency balance) and fast (transients) sounds. I'm gobsmacked. Sound-design and mastering will be even more pleasant now, so cool!

Ps: the equally cheap and stunning E1DA 9038SG DAC/headphone amp in the picture (forground) is banana too. D-6S is the unit in the back, feeding my Amphion amp & monitors.

  On 1/19/2024 at 8:26 PM, auxien said:

i’m going to be buying the new Korg opsix module. increased polyphony, perfect form factor, i’m ready for some deep hardware FM playtimes.

it's now on the way to me. making some space for it 

currently GASsing for an Intellijel Cascadia:

PGH Voltage Lab 2.

Early access version is finally out :

https://madronalabs.com/products/sumu?locale=us

@auxien

Nothing interesting to my eyes/ears this year on superbooth 

  On 5/17/2024 at 9:26 AM, d-a-m-o said:

@auxien

 

Expand  

still sounds interesting to me, hopefully there's a lot of digital control possible. a few more sounds from it:

this one looks interesting too, maybe not tonally too unique but it looks like an interesting interface and basic setup for a new company:

Twisted Electrons have something new but there's no info on it yet, looks to be somewhere between the MegaFM and the BlastBeats, but with the added jankiness of a touchstrip (which seems like it's already pure wretched shit in use):

relatively basic but totally lovely sounds from these:

I wanna send auxien to Superbooth, those comments are golden.

^ looks like fun!

For anyone with an OG Polyend Tracker, the new beta firmware adds 4 tracks of MIDI to the existing 8 audio/MIDI tracks! Can't wait to try it out, I sequence everything from the Tracker so this is incredibly helpful. Actually been trying to launch tempo synced phrases of drum sequences in Renoise because of the 8 tracks, might still do this for fun but this helps loads

GAS hitting hard right now because of the Native Instruments summer sale. I wanted to buy the Komplete 14 suite, which is also sold as a bundle with their hardware material. The m32 keyboard is sold for less than 20€ as part of the bundle, and then there are the Maschine products...

I used to love my MPC500 which I do not use anymore because of how uneasy it is to manage. I do not need another groovebox but at the same time, I feel very disappointed with the Tracker mini and would enjoy a return to pads-based groovebox. Plus, the actual deal looks like a steal.

First world problems once again I know. It's a good thing the deal is ending in July lol

  On 6/8/2024 at 11:03 PM, Stock said:

GAS hitting hard right now because of the Native Instruments summer sale.

ah yeah i had a few moments of that when i saw the Izotope stuff was on sale, been on the fence about getting some of that to help with my mixing/mastering quality since i'm usually handling it on my own. i'm often fast and loose with my hardware recording quality control so some of the cleanup tools might be a good investment there, idk.

  On 6/8/2024 at 11:03 PM, Stock said:

I used to love my MPC500 which I do not use anymore because of how uneasy it is to manage.

i'd looked into the MPC 1000 for a bit, even after some years most people were saying they held up well on quality. i don't think i'm ever going to be an MPC guy tho. what's uneasy about the 500? workflow or other things?

  On 6/8/2024 at 11:03 PM, Stock said:

I feel very disappointed with the Tracker mini and would enjoy a return to pads-based groovebox. Plus, the actual deal looks like a steal.

i've heard mostly good about the Tracker/Tracker mini (with the plus now too solving lots of 'complaints' of the original it seems). no doubt they're powerful little machines within their limitations.

no GAS for this particularly but he got some nice grooves and solid sounds in here. gets good about 1/3 of the way in

We can skip these melodic pattern generators and just give AI to complete the track from start to finish 

Probably won't replace my OB-6 with it, but I do think the Moog Muse is a nice little design for an analog poly synth at the price point. Some interesting little deep features on top of a pretty much complete knob-per-function design.

  On 8/3/2024 at 6:49 PM, Bubba69 said:

Probably won't replace my OB-6 with it, but I do think the Moog Muse is a nice little design for an analog poly synth at the price point. Some interesting little deep features on top of a pretty much complete knob-per-function design.

it's a nice synth but I'd probably still add a Trigon 6 to my OB-6; I'm not a big fan of moogs tbh, I much prefer Sequential synths, if we're talking about analog synth

Hmm, what have I got recently...

On the desktop Korg SQ-64, Shik N32B , Electra.One mk2 , Elektron Analog Four mk2, Elektron Analog Rytm mk2, Elektron Octatrack mk2, Vermona PERfourMER mk2, Behringer Neutron, Roland TR-8S, Roland SYSTEM-1m, DSI Tetr4, Fred's Lab Töörö.

In eurorack a PGH Structure 208 enclosure, 1010music Bitbox mk2, Qu-Bit Nautilus, Qu-Bit Surface, Qu-Bit Nebulae v2, Polyend Poly 2, PGH Lifeforms Double Helix, PGH Lifeforms KB-1, PGH Lifeforms Percussion Sequencer, PGH Lifeforms MIDI 3, PGH Lifeforms SV-1, a couple of ALM Pamela's New Workouts w/ PEXP-1 and PEXP-2 expanders, assorted utilities, mostly by Rides in the Storm.

I think I'm good for a while now, zero GAS pressure ATM.

After years and years of lusting after it I finally got a vermona retroverb lancet and I must say it exceeds my expectations. It sounds absolutely amazing just doing feedback drones and the filter is super nice as well. Didn't really think I'd be using the filter/drive except for adding some subtle flavour to the reverb but it's great to just use as a synth vcf too. Attaching some sound samples if anyone cares.

I'm enjoying the syntakt so much lately that I am thinking of getting a digitakt (1) and maybe replacing my octatrack. I've gone so far back into a hybrid DAW+hardware setup that I don't feel like I need the power features of the octatrack anymore, crazy thing for me to say since I invested so much of my workflow into it over the last few years, entire last album based around it... They are just so damn cheap I'm thinking of picking up a used one and seeing how I get on with it. I'm thinking if I need to spice things up with stereo samples I can use the daw. I mostly use it for chopping up breaks at this point and nothing else, since the Hapax has become the centerpiece sequencer for me. Might just pull the trigger and then I'll have both for a while and sell the one I don't want.

By the way.. rumor has it that a Syntakt update is around the corner with some new machines borrowed from the rytm (SY Chip, BD/SD acoustic, HH lab, and a Euclidian mode.)

not actually GASsing for this but it looks like a pretty mature & fun little machine. it's almost an, ahem, evolution of the desktop Evolver in its core basis & its attitude/tendencies towards more atonal/experimental vibes, but obv the interface here is a lot more brought out in the open & performable.