the watmm GAS thread

struggling to enjoy this guy. i cant seem to find any sounds i like by stepping through the filter banks by CV. il give it another 2 weeks but it might be the first module i get round to selling. 

I still don't quite know what a z-plane filter is, I guess it's something I need to hear instead of read about?

Speaking of modular, I have a feeling this may be my gateway drug..

It was a fun build, except for clicking the enclosure together at the end, which took me about half an hour lol. I soldered the potentiometers in *slightly* wonky, and as a result had to do some minor carving of the front plate holes with a pair of scissors (similar to when a record doesn't fit on the turntable spindle). Great little synth! I can imagine cranking out some wacky 0F.digital jams with it and either a patchblock, volca kick or nanoloop..

New gear from novation:

  On 4/19/2017 at 5:55 AM, modey said:

I still don't quite know what a z-plane filter is, I guess it's something I need to hear instead of read about?

 

Actually z-plane filters on various e-mu samplers etc made that signature barking bass sound in late 90s drum'n'bass

Edit: Damn, now i want e-mu E6400

Peak doesn't sound bad at all, but at the rumored price of ~$1300 I don't know who this is for. I'm watching the videos but not seeing or hearing anything unique from it. It's surely capable and solid.... Modulation and wave table options are the most interesting things, but they seem meek and underpowered. Effects are decent at least. For half the price it might make a splash, but as it is I'm not sure who /needs/ that Novation sound...lol

  On 4/19/2017 at 4:42 PM, auxien said:

Peak doesn't sound bad at all, but at the rumored price of ~$1300 I don't know who this is for. I'm watching the videos but not seeing or hearing anything unique from it. It's surely capable and solid.... Modulation and wave table options are the most interesting things, but they seem meek and underpowered. Effects are decent at least. For half the price it might make a splash, but as it is I'm not sure who /needs/ that Novation sound...lol

I agree.

the Peak sounds amazing to me, though if that is the price it has loads of competition and out of my price range.

that reverb was probably the nicest i've heard built into a synth.

I've gone from wanting a nord rack 2 for my live setup, to thinking about getting a nord modular rack.. or maybe the nord rack 3 which just got listed on ebay for $1000AU.. or maybe I could get the NR2 plus one of the cheap micromodulars that's floating around Australian sale groups.. and then I think, why do I even need a nord modular anyway, the octatrack does more than I'd ever want in terms of sound fuckery, and the nord lead's architecture and panel design is so lovely and inspiring that it sucks me in every time and I end up just fucking around with sounds for hours every time I sit down in front of it.. the GAS is very much still alive in me lol, except now I'm in the nord cult and must have them all..

Nord Modular options have always been tempting to me too. The Micro would probably be perfect for you modey, with your generally tiny setup for playing, right? Options and polyphony are obviously limitations, but limits are good!

  On 4/19/2017 at 8:09 PM, QQQ said:

that reverb was probably the nicest i've heard built into a synth.

Possibly, yeah. The reverb on the Nyx is pretty sweet too.

Also, look at this crazy shit: 

fuck, that polyend stuff is nuts. I didn't even realise it was a real drum beater until the camera panned down. I dream about having a live setup entirely made up of physical items being struck by beaters and then going back into octatrack for processing..

Been selling off some old pedals that don't get used enough, and turning the money around into new gear.

Just got a 3trinsRGB+1c kit in the mail, going to put it together over the weekend.  Hopefully in another month or two I'll have gotten the analog video noodling good enough that I'll have something to share.  Main problem is capture, no matter how I do it, the colors never even come close to how good it looks on the old Amiga monitor I use for feedback, and I don't own any kind of digital camera that is good enough to do it justice if I shoot straight off of the screen.

Just went through about two days of trying to talk myself out of buying an op-1 (not for the first time). I put my Bass Station II and SP-404sx on Amazon to sell. I'm thinking of taking at least the SP back down, even though i haven't used it in a while. 

Someone talk me out of buying the op-1, please! I am going on a long flight in may, and I want some kind of toy. The Novation Circuit is a lot more price friendly, I just wish to hell that you could sample directly into it. 

Also, anyone want to buy a BSII?

OP looks like fun but i'd def have Elektron over it. Maybe look into the digitakt?

What are you aiming to do? OP does alot.

  On 4/26/2017 at 2:53 PM, Chesney said:

OP looks like fun but i'd def have Elektron over it. Maybe look into the digitakt?

What are you aiming to do? OP does alot.

Exactly. Mostly I just want to come up with skeletons for tracks, mangle samples (I rarely program synths anymore, so I really want something that can sample easily, and a lot), and have fun doing it (so the Korg series is out). The 404sx is great with sample time, but the sequencer is useless and I am very over resampling, for now.

Also, holy shit! This might be the wallet killer. 

Yeah looks interesting. I hated my MPC1000 but hopefully this is improved. I'd still take the Digitakt over it though.

(edit: wrote this before I saw the posts in the last 15min)

Yeah it really depends on what you want to do.

I had the OP-1 for around 6 months but ultimately sold it because I like to have a bunch of ideas floating around unfinished, and like to save patterns into sequencers, rather than having temporary/destructive idea sessions. It was a bit *too* jam-based/whimsical for my liking, plus the limited connectivity meant that I couldn't easily integrate it into my setup. Having said that though, it's got a synth engine on it that seriously rivals the monomachine in terms of being able to create unique, beautiful digital sounds. And the sampling workflow is very quick.

The Circuit is a pretty different machine, but with a similar principle. I don't use mine much at all anymore (in fact, I'm considering selling it to fund more nord purchases :P), but it really does inspire creativity right out of the box. The dual 6-voice synth engines are very deep, and the reverb is super lush (though admittedly it becomes a bit much sometimes—it definitely has a signature sound). The sample engine is a little underwhelming though, not just because it doesn't sample directly, but because there's not a great deal of manipulation that can be done to the samples once they're in the machine. There's pitch, length/envelope, distortion, filter, and I think that's it.. even so though, the re-pitching is kinda nice for melodic content.

Circuit is probably better if you're the kind of person who likes to record a bunch of patterns and save them for later tweaking. OP-1 is better for musique concrète, or off-grid musical creations that blur the line between samples and synthesis. I'm not sure which one I'd recommend more tbh.. actually I'd say you'd be better off with a gameboy advance and nanoloop 2 :D

  On 4/26/2017 at 2:46 PM, Auditor said:

Someone talk me out of buying the op-1, please!

Do you like how it sounds? I don't.

  On 4/26/2017 at 3:17 PM, psn said:

 

  On 4/26/2017 at 2:46 PM, Auditor said:

Someone talk me out of buying the op-1, please!

Do you like how it sounds? I don't.

 

Sometimes...there are at least videos out there of it that aren't just shitty house/club music. I am now, like within the past 30 seconds, pretty intent on either the digitakt or the mpc. Patience is good (is what I keep having to tell myself).

The OP-1 has some of the best synthesis engines I've heard from a digital synth. It's not all lo-fi chippy stuff (though it does that very nicely), it can get surprisingly lush as well. I'd like to have one again, just as a synth to play live, but they're just so expensive. Definitely a luxury item.

I only mentioned the digitakt because it's the cheapest of all the elektrons. And sort of the best of both worlds between the octa/MD/RYTM. I have not really looked into the MPC because I still have a sour taste in my mouth and not convinced Akai have it together enough to pull something out of the bag without problems.

I actually really liked the MPC1000 once I got JJOS on it. I haven't used it in quite a while, though. Probably time to sell it. 

Yeah, I used to own an Octatrack but never gelled with it. I realize a statement like that is probably heresy around here. I found that, if I'm in the studio, I just find it much easier to work with midi and a cmputer. That's why I'm looking for something portable. Got all I need for the studio. 

I find myself reaching for my OP-1 quite often when I want to make some lush chords that the elektrons or modular can't. I've taken mine on a few trips and made full compositions when combined with a smart phone. Being battery powered and having a built in mic is helpful. 

Yeah I get that about the octa. I still have not gelled with it myself even though I think it's amazing. I wouldn't sell it. I wouldn't judge any other box by the octa though, I couldn't live without the MD or A4.

I tried the JJOS's on the MPC too but still, not for me. I also hated the SP404 I had, gave it away ha.

It's safe to say we're all different and don't get the same out of the same gear.