the watmm GAS thread

yeah the keybed is by far the best mini keys I've ever played. Like I've said before, I'm not even using mine for its sounds, but as a controller it's great!

Haha great shot peace7, heard a lot of good about those keys too.

I just ordered parts for a new computer. Ryzen 7 processor, rackmount case, etc., because I've been pushing Ableton pretty hard lately and need something a bit beefier and future-proofed, plus I can get some massive HDDs for cheap in it and start recording all audio all the time when hardware jamming. And because fuck Apple and the bullshit they've been on with their attitude towards computers the last few years.

Did I mention that I'm gonna be able to sell my 6 year old Mac for the same cash I'm spending on this brand new comp? Fucking insanity, that Apple tax.

  On 5/29/2017 at 3:52 PM, auxien said:

Haha great shot peace7, heard a lot of good about those keys too.

 

I just ordered parts for a new computer. Ryzen 7 processor, rackmount case, etc., because I've been pushing Ableton pretty hard lately and need something a bit beefier and future-proofed, plus I can get some massive HDDs for cheap in it and start recording all audio all the time when hardware jamming. And because fuck Apple and the bullshit they've been on with their attitude towards computers the last few years.

 

Did I mention that I'm gonna be able to sell my 6 year old Mac for the same cash I'm spending on this brand new comp? Fucking insanity, that Apple tax.

I saw a 2006 white macbook standard with a cracked case for sale in a local shop for $175 last week.  Not joking.

^Dude I believe it. Good for me that I'll be able to sell this computer for a decent price. But the way Apple has been raising the prices of all of their Macs has me losing interest all around. I know they're going to be redoing the Mac Pro for next year, but who know what sort of insane prices they'll be charging.

  On 5/29/2017 at 6:27 PM, auxien said:

^Dude I believe it. Good for me that I'll be able to sell this computer for a decent price. But the way Apple has been raising the prices of all of their Macs has me losing interest all around. I know they're going to be redoing the Mac Pro for next year, but who know what sort of insane prices they'll be charging.

My boss gave me one one of those Macbooks for free last year, I've been sitting on it hoping a new AmigaOS branch will come out that can run on it (it's in that weird zone where it's the last generation PPC that AmigaOS doesn't work with but it's not Intel so nothing new will work on it either).  That got me thinking maybe I should just sell the thing, even though it's pretty beat up.

I never got in to Macs because I've always lived near enough to universities that good quality, slightly out of date PCs show up free pretty regularly.  Haven't actually bought a NEW computer since my very first one when I went to college in the late 90s, I've been coasting on free or cheap used stuff since then with no problems.

I have a Macbook Pro from 2009 I got "fairly" cheap because a new model had come out and the local shop wanted to get rid of the old models. Over the years I've upgraded it to 8GB RAM and a terabyte of disk space (both SSD/HDD). Last year it was already getting fairly hot in the summer, but this year I might finally have to get a new one to get with the times. Embarrassing, but I think the main reason is that it's having a hard time loading intensive web pages like Facebook.

No way in hell am I going to buy a brand new one though, I'd only consider that if it were a work machine I actually earned money with. Apple.com lists some refurbished MBP's starting from $1699, that actually sounds quite reasonable if they even last half as long as my current laptop. I think over the years I put around 2000€ in it, which makes it cost around 20€ per month. So in the end I don't really mind the Apple tax because the hardware is solid as fuck. :)

  On 5/30/2017 at 3:40 AM, thawkins said:

I have a Macbook Pro from 2009 I got "fairly" cheap because a new model had come out and the local shop wanted to get rid of the old models. Over the years I've upgraded it to 8GB RAM and a terabyte of disk space (both SSD/HDD). Last year it was already getting fairly hot in the summer, but this year I might finally have to get a new one to get with the times. Embarrassing, but I think the main reason is that it's having a hard time loading intensive web pages like Facebook.

No way in hell am I going to buy a brand new one though, I'd only consider that if it were a work machine I actually earned money with. Apple.com lists some refurbished MBP's starting from $1699, that actually sounds quite reasonable if they even last half as long as my current laptop. I think over the years I put around 2000€ in it, which makes it cost around 20€ per month. So in the end I don't really mind the Apple tax because the hardware is solid as fuck. :)

I got a DOA 2010 Macbook Pro a few years ago (it completely stopped booting after the previous owner put in an SSD, even with the original drive in it, and just gave a "bad RAM" beep code even with fresh, new old stock factory RAM installed) for free but it got to the point where I couldn't get it to work without swapping in a motherrboard, and in 2015 a completely untested motherboard for that model with no returns offered was almost $400.  Nope.

EDIT: on the other hand, around the same time a roommate of mine found one in the street that had been run over, took it home, pulled the motherboard out, discarded the body and keyboard, mounted it in a plywood box with a power supply, and used it as a desktop with an external monitor, keyboard and mouse for years with no trouble, so I guess they're pretty durable.

I bought a new imac last year, 27", retina screen, etc etc, no regrets. It's a fkn beautiful machine. I also still use my 2009 macbook pro, which overheats in summer every now and then but is still good enough to do most things I need it for. On the other hand, my $1200 ASUS laptop from 2008 became such a piece of shit after only a couple of years when at first the optical drive died, then the battery.. I still have it, surprisingly, so who knows what else is wrong with it after almost 10 years lol

All of a sudden this is a Mac thread, but:  My work computer that I'm typing this message on right now is a used Early 2008 Mac Pro that I picked up for less than $400.  Upgraded to 32 GB RAM, SSD for main, HDD for other tingz... but I gotta setup redundant RAID on this thing...  3TB HDDs are so cheap now, wtf.  Sweet.

yeah I reckon I could keep my mbp going for another few years if I chucked an SSD in it, etc. My only gripe with it is that it's one of the older ones with the optical drive (which still works fine!), so it's a bit fatter than the later generation versions. 

  On 5/30/2017 at 5:54 AM, modey said:

I bought a new imac last year, 27", retina screen, etc etc, no regrets. It's a fkn beautiful machine. I also still use my 2009 macbook pro, which overheats in summer every now and then but is still good enough to do most things I need it for. On the other hand, my $1200 ASUS laptop from 2008 became such a piece of shit after only a couple of years when at first the optical drive died, then the battery.. I still have it, surprisingly, so who knows what else is wrong with it after almost 10 years lol

I don't have any emotional stake in the whole "mac vs. PC" thing but I will say I've been using a 2010 or '11 Asus laptop (one of those red ones that came out right before the next generation of CPUs hit and were marked down about 40% within a year) since 2012 and pretty much leaving it turned on 24 hours a day, and it still works fine. Had a loaner Macbook Pro for most of 2012 from work and hardly ever used it, but it seemed pretty solid.

My experience in general has just been that there's not much diference between a Mac and a PC of similar quality, except the Mac is more expensive because it's a luxury item (but it's mainly a luxury item because it's more expensive).

The thing about Macs is that there aren't really any low end models made, so any mac is probably going to be pretty decent (barring things like the defective motherboards that plague a lot of the mid 2000s macbooks, where you have to physically keep pressure on them to make them boot because some of the components weren't soldered down properly on a big percentage of them), whereas there are a TON of low end, unreliable PCs from a ton of different manufacturers floating around so it's easy to get one that just doesn't work well.  I think a lot of the bias against PCs (which are ultimately the same hardware running a different OS, unless you go back to the early 2000s or before) - leaving aside the people who just go for the whole lifestyle branding thing of course, I mean among people like us who actually use computers as tools - is because people are comparing one manufacturer that focuses on a few models of fairly high end computers to dozens of manufacturers who make everything from computers every bit as good as any Mac down to computers that cost $100 and are lucky to last a year.

One big advantage Macs have is that you can resell them for decent money if you get a new one, though.  Even really good PCs usually don't keep nearly as much value.

I went nuts over memorial day weekend and purchased the following ...

• Mutable Instruments Clouds
• WMD Arpitecht
• Expert Sleepers Disting 4
• Intellijel Quadra
• 2hp Freez

Whoopsie

I finally bought a MIDI cable to control my MS-20 mini, and realizing that I could use my keyboard's arpeggiator on it made me want to get a looper to perform ambient synth stuff, early-OPN style.

First I thought of getting a Kaoss Pad but it was too pricey so I looked upon the guitar effects and decided to order an Electroharmonix Nanolooper 360.

First time the GAS hit me that hard, and I didn't even tried to resist it which can be a problem I guess lol

I definitely wasn't trying to turn this into a Mac vs. PC debate, I'm just kind of glad to have finally made the decision that Mac isn't for me going forwards in the capacity of writing music. For what I need from a computer for writing music, a PC that'd designed to give me power where I need it and also be upgraded as necessary is ideal. Macs are great, and mine has served me well for years writing music and just for general porn-storage WATMM access. It's just not the future for me.

  On 5/30/2017 at 7:15 PM, acid1 said:

I went nuts over memorial day weekend and purchased the following ...

• Mutable Instruments Clouds
• WMD Arpitecht
• Expert Sleepers Disting 4
• Intellijel Quadra
• 2hp Freez

Whoopsie

I saw someone (I think maybe Richard Devine?) playing with that Freez on instagram and it seems pretty goddamned fun! 

Too late, it must be fought out Thunderdome style, to the death.

  On 5/30/2017 at 8:26 PM, auxien said:

I definitely wasn't trying to turn this into a Mac vs. PC debate

 

 

Tron: Mac vs PC

  On 5/30/2017 at 7:15 PM, acid1 said:

I went nuts over memorial day weekend and purchased the following ...

• Mutable Instruments Clouds
• WMD Arpitecht
• Expert Sleepers Disting 4
• Intellijel Quadra
• 2hp Freez

Whoopsie

Congrats! That sounds like a lot of fun. Modular sounds fun. I'll probably start going a little nuts once I have more space.

Modular is GAS level 9000. There is ALWAYS something you want, and the clever fuckers keep pumping out new modules every day.

What is your favourite drum machine? In terms of fun, plays with others and jamming out tracks. I've got a Nord Drum and it's capable of some great sounds but sometimes you want to just piss about with a drum machine that has it's own sequencer (that isn't a Monomachine...) have in the past been tempted by the Tanzbar, Rytm, Drumbrute and the TR8 (although I'm not sure I could buy it as it's ugly as hell). 

Rytm apparently does retrigs which is interesting... 

I have tried most seq/sample/drum machines (before the recent gear boom) and the Machinedrum is the only thing that did what I imagined could be done (at the time)

I really wanted to love the spectralis but so many bugs and odd menu choices. The only one I kept is the ESmk2.

Although since, I have lots of fun on the beatstep pro/up k2x combo (similar to trigging a DRM)

Rytm is amazing to me, nearly every time I dig in I'm surprised by the strong and unexpected sounds I can get out of it. I absolutely love the analog synthesis for the most part (hats and toms could be better/more diverse in their abilities), and the sample capabilities provide a whole other layer of possibilities which I've only begun to utilize. The sequencing possibilities within the machine are powerful, and though they're not perfect for everyone, they're very rewarding to those who can work with it. Performance and scene modes are often underutilized but very interesting for jamming, though the FX are generally just adequate/occasionally weak. Overbridge capabilities are as much as you can imagine for a piece of analog gear. Expensive, but to me it's worth every penny; but that all depends on what you're going to do with it, of course.

Probably not a popular opinion, but this is still my favorite (non-sampling) drum machine.

Definitely the sports car of drum machines.

I still miss the RY30 sometimes. It's not a very good-sounding drum machine but you can do so much with the sequencer. I don't think I'd get another one, though.

There's a couple 80s drum machines that I haven't used but I still want. Not naming any names.

Yeah my desert island drum machine is a rytm but the mduw mk2 is a close second. Comes down to the analog engine vs 16 part polyphony for me, plus you can do the ctrl-all stuff on the rytm with strom

@sweepstakes agree on RY30 and other oldschool sequencers. They seem to have much more advanced sequencers back then (more based on building songs) rather than current sequencers which are more focused on building small phrases/loops

Pretty sure HAB drum sequencing is an RY30