the watmm GAS thread

  On 11/29/2016 at 1:25 AM, messiaen said:

i have more options for crazy filters now im onto eurorack...

 

 

I did that thing again where I don't use a module for ages, consider selling it, decide to give it a go just to make sure first, and end up using it all the time.  After ignoring the A-124 for far too long, it's been the only filter in my last two tracks, if memory serves.  So there's a tip for you.  Wasp!

My GAS has been bad lately after deciding to get more into hardware and dive in to eurorack lol.  I've saved a bit by DIYing everything but I've still spent quite a bit in about 6 months by building a Sonic Potions LXR drum synth, MI modules -- Yarns, Clouds, Braids, Ripples, Peaks, Links, Shades, and Kinks, 2x Ornament + Crime modules, and a GI Synthesis Grains oscillator.

Gotta slow down with the approaching holidays......

It's been a lot of fun working w/o the computer though.  I just hit record in Live and turn off the screen while I goof around.

Does anyone have any pedal recommendations for solo electric guitar stuff?

Like, I wanna keep shit mostly naturalistic, but add some subtle shades here and there for emphasis...

I'm not up-to-date on guitar tech whatsoever, so I am basically clueless...

Depends on what you want to do?

 

I have done a couple of solo guit pieces at gigs and used very basic stuff. Pedals can pretty much be all the same so you could easily pick a nice pedal from each gategory and cover all bases.

A nice delay, chorus, reverb can go a long way and of course main thing is the sound of the amp.

If i'm at home just playing around maybe writing some stuff i'll set up a Memory man, eventide space, Boss DD3 and a boss EQ.

  On 12/3/2016 at 7:15 PM, LimpyLoo said:

Does anyone have any pedal recommendations for solo electric guitar stuff?

Like, I wanna keep shit mostly naturalistic, but add some subtle shades here and there for emphasis...

I'm not up-to-date on guitar tech whatsoever, so I am basically clueless...

Boss GP-10 is all I ever use anymore. It uses a GK pickup and can simulate amps, guitars, alternate tunings, effects etc and also has a pretty decent subtractive synth engine. May not be what you're after but it is deep as fuck. I'm seriously considering removing the standard pickups from my steinberger and sealing the gaps so it looks even more futuristic.. Edited December 3, 2016 by modey

  On 12/3/2016 at 10:49 PM, Chesney said:

Depends on what you want to do?

 

I have done a couple of solo guit pieces at gigs and used very basic stuff. Pedals can pretty much be all the same so you could easily pick a nice pedal from each gategory and cover all bases.

A nice delay, chorus, reverb can go a long way and of course main thing is the sound of the amp.

If i'm at home just playing around maybe writing some stuff i'll set up a Memory man, eventide space, Boss DD3 and a boss EQ.

Thx modey and chesney for the ideas

 

What I'm looking to do is have setup for solo jazz gigs...just my Eastman and a Henriksen jazzamp-10...and some pedals.

 

I know I wanna use compression (maybe an opto pedal, but I dunno yet...there's some cool 1176-type pedals that look/sound amazing)

 

But beyond that, I dunno...maybe a pedal for subtle reverb swells...

 

Chesney you got some sick-ass gear, yo...that Eventide pedal is amazing (and prolly outta my price range)

  On 12/3/2016 at 6:31 PM, hautlle said:

I've saved a bit by DIYing everything but I've still spent quite a bit in about 6 months by building a Sonic Potions LXR drum synth, MI modules -- Yarns, Clouds, Braids, Ripples, Peaks, Links, Shades, and Kinks, 2x Ornament + Crime modules, and a GI Synthesis Grains oscillator.

How hard was it to find the parts for the MI stuff? Did you have to custom order the panels and PCBs and source the BOM for the other stuff, or did you find kits for these?

  On 12/3/2016 at 11:36 PM, sweepstakes said:

 

  On 12/3/2016 at 6:31 PM, hautlle said:

I've saved a bit by DIYing everything but I've still spent quite a bit in about 6 months by building a Sonic Potions LXR drum synth, MI modules -- Yarns, Clouds, Braids, Ripples, Peaks, Links, Shades, and Kinks, 2x Ornament + Crime modules, and a GI Synthesis Grains oscillator.

How hard was it to find the parts for the MI stuff? Did you have to custom order the panels and PCBs and source the BOM for the other stuff, or did you find kits for these?

There's an awesome Google spreadsheet (search for "MI DIY FB PCB" put I'll edit later with actual link -- on my mobile right now) with links for Mouser/Digikey carts that have been built and BOMs for all the MI modules. Parts are relatively easy to find, all my ICs and passives come from the aforementioned Mouser carts. Alpha 10k pots (most common used) + knobs are coming from Tayda because they're a better price. Some people buy bulk from alibaba or places like that too.

 

My panels are from Magpie Modular or Oscillosaurus -- they just make panels. PCB/Panel pairings can be bought from Modular Addict, Magpie, etc.

 

Synthcube sells some of the MI stuff as kits.

Heard good things about EHX Cathedral for reverb swells. Obviosly, short digi delay is good for rev type feels. I guess for Jazz you wanna be pretty clean anyway. I'd recommend the Boss EQ pedals for dialling for specific tones. Just cutting some of the high freqs and boosting the low a tad gives you pseudo classic dark jazz timbres.

just picked up a Blofeld for 180 quid. reviews say its glassy and pristine sounding, quite looking forward to it. 

  On 12/9/2016 at 4:08 PM, messiaen said:

just picked up a Blofeld for 180 quid. reviews say its glassy and pristine sounding, quite looking forward to it. 

It's nice. A friend of mine has one I keep coveting because he only uses a few presets on it.

Awesome deal on the Blofeld. I've been considering one for next year, I'm rather enjoying the Pulse 2 I just got a few months ago.

Eh, I gave into my GAS and got an Octatrack. I'm lost as fuck.

Yeah from all I've seen, there's a hell of a learning curve on the Octatrack. The people who stick with it and really need that sort of tool swear by it though, so good luck. In case you haven't heard of him, there's a guy on YouTube, Cuckoo, who does tons of Elektron tutorials and might be a help.

  On 12/9/2016 at 4:51 PM, acid1 said:

Eh, I gave into my GAS and got an Octatrack. I'm lost as fuck.

Start simple. Load in some one-shot drum sounds you like and a couple loops. Get some simple patterns going, maybe add a couple parameter locks for variation, nothing too crazy. Make some variations of the patterns you can switch between. Save all the parts, make enough differences between parts (e.g. sample/fx assignments) that they have their own character.

 

Then, start messing with scenes and the crossfader, tweaking the effects. Add some one-shot trigs to do fills with. Maybe put some slices on those loops so you can trigger those. Add some slide trigs, retriggers, microtiming, etc. Try changing parts to see how that affects your patterns.

 

Then try playing with live sampling, per-track pattern lengths for polyrhythms, using the MIDI sequencer (arps!) on external gear. Try to make some melodies just using the pitch. Try to see how much of a complete beat you can cram into one OT track. Use the filters for extreme variation - try making your entire beat out of a white noise sample using the filter w/ resonance to accentuate bass or create ringing snares and hi hats. Tweak some of the options in the playback menu, like turning off the "start silent" option so you get the tails of previous samples. Sky's the limit!

Basically treat it like a glorified OG Electribe in the beginning. You can have a good time just doing that, and when you get bored of that you can morph your beat-bike into a beat-spaceship.

wow, good stuff. Blofeld is a wicked synth if you get used to where the clicks and bugs crop up. So much mileage out of that thing. Dig deep and get glassy gold.

Octa is fun as hell but yeah, easy to get lost. Whack in a sample put some trigs down then hold scene buttons down and tweak everything. Then blow your mind with the crossfader. Easy to make bonkers sounds for fun but harder to get something useable. It's all down to an idea and the sample I think. You can stumble on good stuff for sure.

Mate bought the analogue heat. Keeps banging on about how amazing it is. Damn, i'm skint.

  On 12/9/2016 at 5:22 PM, Chesney said:

Mate bought the analogue heat. Keeps banging on about how amazing it is. Damn, i'm skint.

It looked stupid to me when it first came out and after I watched some videos it became apparent how nice it would be for sculpting, tracking, and as a FSU box for jamming. Doubling as a stereo USB interface is a very nice bonus. I really can't justify the price new but I'll keep an eye out as it starts popping up used. 

I think actually the stupidist thing I'm having a hard time wraping my brain around with the octatrack is adding fills. Besides setting the cross fader to adjust the pb start sample, and the freeze delay on master, I haven't figured out an easy way to add subtle drum variation. I really wish the OT had the same brains as the A4 and AR.

Sold my Nord Lead to buy a Tetra.

 

Got the Tetra.

 

The very next day i wanted a second one for polychaining.

Im selling my x0xb0x to buy it.

 

When im gonna get it im probaby gonna want another one for 12 voices polyphony.

 

Tetra are awesome.

I also lusted for a split 8 this afternoon on ebay.But im too poor for it.

 

Thank God i dont have a credit card.I would be ruined in a month.

Going to be getting about $600 of unplanned extra income in about a month and I'm torn between doing the sensible thing and getting the parts and custom panels I need to finish some back-burner projects, or do what I'm probably actually going to do and grab a 0-coast or Korg Odyssey module (probably the 0-coast becasue it's smaller, more likely to be hard to get down the road, and I already have a couple modest east coast style synths).

 

Too much (relatively) inexpensive, good gear out there these days.

  On 12/9/2016 at 6:16 PM, fxbip said:

Thank God i dont have a credit card.I would be ruined in a month.

 

 

Seriously.

 

I cancelled my cards a long time ago when I was deep in record collecting (worked at an old-school crate digging shop, worked at a thrift shop, was bringing home sometimes 50 or more cheap records a week and swapping them for other records and gear, making my girlfriend insane with all the records, etc) for a while and it was a good move.  I was up to like $1200 in debt at one point, which is a hell of a lot of debt for me.

Edited December 9, 2016 by RSP

Oh man, I'm only just starting to nail my credit card debt, after 8 years of constant use and unsuccessful attempts to pay it off. I did the zero interest balance transfer on to another card earlier this year and should have it paid off in 6 months or so.. can't wait to have that extra $200 per month or so.. to spend on gear :P

 

edit: speaking of record collecting, I've swapped that addiction with gear collecting. I can't remember the last record I bought..

Edited December 9, 2016 by modey

  On 12/9/2016 at 6:16 PM, fxbip said:

Sold my Nord Lead to buy a Tetra.

 

Got the Tetra.

 

The very next day i wanted a second one for polychaining.

Im selling my x0xb0x to buy it.

 

When im gonna get it im probaby gonna want another one for 12 voices polyphony.

 

Tetra are awesome.

I also lusted for a split 8 this afternoon on ebay.But im too poor for it.

 

Thank God i dont have a credit card.I would be ruined in a month.

Just sold my Tetra after 7 years or so. It's a powerful synth. Your recent tunes using it are sounding nice.

  On 12/9/2016 at 6:10 PM, acid1 said:

I think actually the stupidist thing I'm having a hard time wraping my brain around with the octatrack is adding fills. Besides setting the cross fader to adjust the pb start sample, and the freeze delay on master, I haven't figured out an easy way to add subtle drum variation. I really wish the OT had the same brains as the A4 and AR.

Ahh, I didn't realize you had the A4 and AR, yeah, those are newer machines so I imagine there are some features on 'em that you'll have to Think Different to be able to emulate.

 

As far as fills, well, the aforementioned one-shot trigs will do some of that for you. But the scenes (controlled by thecrossfader) may also help. You might also look into some LFO tricks if you are just looking for general variation and not necessarily something you have fine-grained control over. The OT has plenty of LFO tricks up its sleeve - the ability to draw your own LFOs (can you do that on the Analogs) is fucking huge and I often overlook it. 

 

Even not owning the A4 and the AR I can tell you that the OT has its own tricks up its sleeve. Just by itself the ability to sample not only on the fly, but as part of a sequence, and in a very intricate and precise way, is fucking HUGE. But that's the nerdy shit and, frankly, you gotta walk before you can run....