the watmm GAS thread

Damn it, just when I think the GAS is gone I find this:

https://iestyn-lewis.github.io/czpl/

Hardware patch librarian for CZ series synths, with 10,000 user memory locations.

That tracker talk with keyboard shortcuts kind of makes me want to try one out to learn. Also thanks for mentioning Microtonic, hopefully I'll have time to look into it in the near future. I think in general I am the kind of person who taps or records loops in real time, but that's just maybe because it's the only workflow I've used so far. I have had some experiences with step sequencers and they were really fun, because you could just play a totally random sequence and after a few repeats and tweaks it already comes alive. Same with nanoloop.

As for GAS, I discovered that the left foam film of my Beyerdynamic headphones has a huge hole in it - I guess that means I have sharp ears  . I looked at ordering replacements and while the films cost like 2€ a piece, the official website doesn't deliver to anywhere else than Western Europe (whatever the hell that is supposed to mean - it's all EU now usually), the Japanese distributor didn't list the films in the webshop and Thomann asks like 50€ for delivering 2 foam films which could fit in regular mail. I'm not sure what's better - get someone in Germany to order and forward or go to some tinkering supplies store to buy some random foam.

Oh and there's a Yamaha MO6 and a Nord Modular rack on craigslist which I really would be interested in if my gear budget for this year wouldn't be blown way past any expectations already.

You should try Sunvox, it's free for most platforms (and I really do mean most, it runs on almost anything) and really good.

Seriously though, almost everything:

ahaha, sweet  (is the Pandora pretty good or what?)

Thanks for Sunvox, it looks amazing and complex. Hopefully doesn't have a huge learning curve.

Sunvox looks awesome but I could never get into it. I don't know if it was just the latency on Android that was bugging me or what. The interface is a little awkward for me too. I might try it again when I'm on vacation, away from the lab, and low on excuses not to. 

The trackers I really got into, in chronological order, were Modplug, Buzz, Renoise, and LGPT. LGPT possibly runs on almost as many platforms as Sunvox - I especially enjoy it on the PSP. When I dust it off every year or so, it's like riding a bike. I'm sure I would have fun with Buzz too if I tried it again - the development community that sprouted organically around it came up with some mindblowing stuff, for example what amounted to a software implementation of the Octatrack's live sampling, about 7 years prior.

One of these days I want to properly learn Milkytracker too. I love the feel and minimalism of it, but I never really found a workflow with it.

  On 11/27/2017 at 4:38 AM, sweepstakes said:

Sunvox looks awesome but I could never get into it. I don't know if it was just the latency on Android that was bugging me or what. The interface is a little awkward for me too. I might try it again when I'm on vacation, away from the lab, and low on excuses not to. 

 

The trackers I really got into, in chronological order, were Modplug, Buzz, Renoise, and LGPT. LGPT possibly runs on almost as many platforms as Sunvox - I especially enjoy it on the PSP. When I dust it off every year or so, it's like riding a bike. I'm sure I would have fun with Buzz too if I tried it again - the development community that sprouted organically around it came up with some mindblowing stuff, for example what amounted to a software implementation of the Octatrack's live sampling, about 7 years prior.

 

One of these days I want to properly learn Milkytracker too. I love the feel and minimalism of it, but I never really found a workflow with it.

The android latency sucks, and honestly unless you have a big tablet or something it's no fun working with it on touchscreen.  Desktop version with a mouse and keyboard is way more fun, since you can really take advantage of the tracker sequencing that way.  A tracker without a keyboard kind of defeats the purpose.

I'm not familiar with LGPT, I've got to take a look at that.  I definitely liked Buzz a lot back in the day, but I haven't messed with it much since the new versions started coming out.

I'm mostly OOB these days so I don't really use trackers much at all anymore but I still really like them.

I like that Sunvox supports GPIO so you could theoretically make a custom hardware interface for it, or use it to control, I don't know, solenoids or something. Not something you see much in free music software.

Also it's really stable.

LGPT is weird unless you've played with LSDJ which it's very similar to. It takes the ability of Buzz to run different length patterns in parallel and also lets you run them at different tick patterns/rates for grooves or double/half/etc. time. Patterns are only 16 steps but they can be transposed and also there's an intermediate "chain" construct between that and the top-level song sequencer that makes the phrases more manageable. And the chains and patterns only control one track at a time but you get 8 tracks, so it's really easy to mix and match.

I'm making it sound awkward (and it does look super nerdy with all the hex and blocky text-only UI and whatnot) but once you get over the brief learning curve, it's a fast workflow and is surprisingly performance-friendly for a tracker. It's one of those things I don't really finish tracks in but I always enjoy and learn from using it.

This reminds me that I actually got started on a tracker - Sound Club. I made a lot of songs with it, but I think they're lost forever now because I have nothing backed up from that era and all the hard drives are broken, lost or formatted.

What I find attractive with this talk about trackers and keyboard shortcuts is that it kind of makes me feel that it's a great way to do live impros using a laptop because you already have a made-for-purpose control surface in a computer keyboard. The live commodore64 breakbeat guy posted in the breaks thread made me think about that too. I really wasn't aware that it's possible to work that fast in a tracker. I remember dragging shit with my mouse and copy-pasting, which wasn't a very quick way to work.

  On 11/27/2017 at 6:34 AM, thawkins said:

live commodore64 breakbeat guy posted in the breaks thread

  On 11/27/2017 at 6:29 AM, sweepstakes said:

LGPT is weird unless you've played with LSDJ which it's very similar to. It takes the ability of Buzz to run different length patterns in parallel and also lets you run them at different tick patterns/rates for grooves or double/half/etc. time. Patterns are only 16 steps but they can be transposed and also there's an intermediate "chain" construct between that and the top-level song sequencer that makes the phrases more manageable. And the chains and patterns only control one track at a time but you get 8 tracks, so it's really easy to mix and match.

 

I'm making it sound awkward (and it does look super nerdy with all the hex and blocky text-only UI and whatnot) but once you get over the brief learning curve, it's a fast workflow and is surprisingly performance-friendly for a tracker. It's one of those things I don't really finish tracks in but I always enjoy and learn from using it.

That sounds pretty good.  I used LSDJ off and on for a while.

The modulation matrix in the upper left corner of this modular system:

  On 11/27/2017 at 2:54 PM, sweepstakes said:

 

  On 11/27/2017 at 6:34 AM, thawkins said:

live commodore64 breakbeat guy posted in the breaks thread

Whoa, what?

 

I misremembered, it is an Amiga, but you can see the him using the keyboard in this video. 

  On 11/27/2017 at 7:00 PM, RSP said:

The modulation matrix in the upper left corner of this modular system:

 

Ah, yes, that's pretty much exactly it, minus that pair of columns on the right side.

  On 11/28/2017 at 3:17 AM, thawkins said:

 

  On 11/27/2017 at 2:54 PM, sweepstakes said:

 

  On 11/27/2017 at 6:34 AM, thawkins said:

live commodore64 breakbeat guy posted in the breaks thread

Whoa, what?

 

 

I misremembered, it is an Amiga, but you can see the him using the keyboard in this video. 

 

 

Ahh yeah I think I have seen this before. Good stuff. I like what he says about the immediacy of it - this is why I like hardware and old crusty software.

selling vermona retroverb lancet, mint, 3 months old, almost 3 yrs of warranty left

for you, 390 euros + shipping

i really liked this thing but i have to sell it; i'm moving to a new apartment, need lots of money asap

; _ ; i hope i'll buy it again one day

edit: i even sold my speakers today :( this is sad!

Provisionally trading an old Synthrotek Eko module  built and tested but never use because I didn't end up going Eurorack for my neighbor's Korg SQ-1.  Hopefully he'll like the Eko enough to do the trade, because the SQ-1 is one of those things that would be really fun to have but I don't need enough to buy.

  On 11/27/2017 at 6:29 AM, sweepstakes said:

LGPT is weird unless you've played with LSDJ which it's very similar to. It takes the ability of Buzz to run different length patterns in parallel and also lets you run them at different tick patterns/rates for grooves or double/half/etc. time. Patterns are only 16 steps but they can be transposed and also there's an intermediate "chain" construct between that and the top-level song sequencer that makes the phrases more manageable. And the chains and patterns only control one track at a time but you get 8 tracks, so it's really easy to mix and match.

 

I'm making it sound awkward (and it does look super nerdy with all the hex and blocky text-only UI and whatnot) but once you get over the brief learning curve, it's a fast workflow and is surprisingly performance-friendly for a tracker. It's one of those things I don't really finish tracks in but I always enjoy and learn from using it.

LGPT > Renoise/Redux ?

  On 12/2/2017 at 8:56 AM, acid1 said:

LGPT > Renoise/Redux ?

https://youtu.be/LwyAKfB_IYQ

Sorry, let's try YouTube again.

  On 12/2/2017 at 3:26 PM, sweepstakes said:

 

  On 12/2/2017 at 8:56 AM, acid1 said:

LGPT > Renoise/Redux ?

Apples and oranges really.

 

LGPT seems really cool but I always found the interface was the weak point of LSDJ.  Not that it was bad, it's really good, more just that a tracker without a QWERTY keyboard always feels like it's missing the most important aspect of the whole tracker workflow.  Same reason I don't really like Sunvox on portable devices even though I think Sunvox is an amazing program - being able to enter note and parameter values really fast from the keyboard is kind of what makes a tracker a tracker. I guess deep down maybe I'm more of a Nanoloop type of person.

^ yep, that's why I never really got into lsdj (or lgpt for that matter), apart from not being able to do anything interesting with the DMG's super limited audio chip (I know people who have though, holy shit there is some innovative stuff out there).

I've been really enjoying using renoise lately, the new duo I've started is really taking off; we're making sample-based footwork/rave/beatless trance/post-trap stuff with no external plugins, passing renoise files back and forth until a track is done. It's been a good exercise in plunderphonics as well; I've been having fun chucking in samples from all kinds of sources like 90s TV commercials, Megadeth songs, cooking shows etc. I've also been sampling the fuck out of my gear, especially the nord, which really excels at rave stuff!

  On 12/3/2017 at 2:00 PM, modey said:

^ yep, that's why I never really got into lsdj (or lgpt for that matter), apart from not being able to do anything interesting with the DMG's super limited audio chip (I know people who have though, holy shit there is some innovative stuff out there).

 

I've been really enjoying using renoise lately, the new duo I've started is really taking off; we're making sample-based footwork/rave/beatless trance/post-trap stuff with no external plugins, passing renoise files back and forth until a track is done. It's been a good exercise in plunderphonics as well; I've been having fun chucking in samples from all kinds of sources like 90s TV commercials, Megadeth songs, cooking shows etc. I've also been sampling the fuck out of my gear, especially the nord, which really excels at rave stuff!

Nice, looking forward to hearing it.  The duo I've got going over the last couple months is going to start playing out in January, doing some live, improvised soundtracks to Kenneth Anger movies to start out with.  I'm still playing the minimal setup of Otatrack, CZ101, Anushri and now Tanzmaus, and he has set up a second, smaller Eurorack case specifically for live work.  Still needs some practice but it's starting to come together pretty well.

https://soundcloud.com/romella-belx/jammmmmmm

jamming out on my mates octatrack with my modular yesterday. made me want one tbh. tonnes of fun. 

Been really enjoying using the Microtonic VST, has anyone else used it? I found it it's approach to drum synthesis really intuitive, easy to wrap my head around but also full of potential. Isthere anyone out there who owns that machinedrum or a Rytm who can tell me if the synthesis engines for either of those machines are as intuitive and versatile as microtonic? not super into the 909 sounds or traditional drum sounds really looking for a more experimental approach although I'm not averse to using classic drum sounds.. and that's with the maker tonic seems great at. The thing is, it's also greatfor experimental techniques. I'm also really interested in polyrhythms, and I don't know if machine gun is capable of this, but it's not a dealbreaker.

Note to self: Stop using voice-to-text to post on watmm. So many typos...