the watmm GAS thread

  On 1/25/2017 at 4:59 AM, sheathe said:

Anyone want to buy my tempest?

This:

or this:

?

Either way, both are good-- why sell?

Yeah why sell? You were stoked on it when you got it.

  On 1/25/2017 at 2:54 AM, modey said:

 

  On 1/25/2017 at 1:55 AM, auxien said:

 

  On 1/24/2017 at 11:35 PM, modey said:

lol, speaking of which, I was listening to pan sonic on the way to work and thought maybe I should pull out the ES-1 again for some 0F.digital weirdness

Where did you hear this Pan Sonic interview or whatever it was?

lol no I was listening to one of their albums and remembered that they use electribes

  On 1/24/2017 at 4:43 PM, LimpyLoo said:

Poor MC-303...

 

*cue Randy Newman song*

I'm actually pretty psyched to get it, although I'd never have bought one.

The person who gave it to me says she has some "old analog gear" and she might have more things for me later (serious hoarder who is finally getting proper therapy and unloading stuff) but I assume in this case "analog" actutally just means "hardware from the 90s/not a computer" which is still fine by me.

The 909 snare sample is maybe the worst sample I've heard on a professional piece of gear, though.  There's a fairly high noise floor on it and then they apparently didn't bother to trim it to a zero crossing, because there's an audible click at the end of it.  Haven't dug in deep enough yet to know if you can adjust the decay time on the drum samples to get rid of that. I'm mainly interested in it as a stripped down step sequencer/arpeggiator though, I probably won't even use the internal sounds at all.

  On 1/12/2017 at 12:58 AM, modey said:

True. I've found aftertouch tends to act more as an "on or off" kind of thing, rather than continuous pressure. The SY22 seems to be sensitive to varying degrees of pressure, but perhaps the aftertouch strip needs a clean, since it's only a very small window of pressure that actually affects the level of whatever is assigned..

I feel like that varies a lot from keyboard to keyboard.

I was using an Alesis QS7.1 as a master keyboard for a long time and the aftertouch response was really nice on that.  Last year I found a Korg 130 (arranger  version of the last-gen AI2 keyboards from the late 90s) and I prrefer the feel of the keyboard but the aftertouch response is kind of awful.  No matter how low you set the sesitivity it jsut jumps from nothing to pretty high almost instantly and you can't ever really feel it in the keys.  With the Alesis, there was actually something like a millimeter of play between key down and full aftertouch, with some kind of stiff spring or pad or something giving resistance so there was an obvious, tactile line between no aftertouch and aftertouch, but there was also so much range that you could use the aftertouch as a secondary pitch bend and it was really playable even for a keyboard hack like me.  Completely out of the question on the Korg.  If you're a guitarist, think of it as the difference between sliding up a fret (Korg) vs bending up a half step (Alesis).

So your experience could be down to the keybeds you've tried.

  On 1/25/2017 at 5:40 PM, RSP said:

 

  On 1/24/2017 at 4:43 PM, LimpyLoo said:

Poor MC-303...

*cue Randy Newman song*

 

 

 

I'm actually pretty psyched to get it, although I'd never have bought one.

 

The person who gave it to me says she has some "old analog gear" and she might have more things for me later (serious hoarder who is finally getting proper therapy and unloading stuff) but I assume in this case "analog" actutally just means "hardware from the 90s/not a computer" which is still fine by me.

 

 

The 909 snare sample is maybe the worst sample I've heard on a professional piece of gear, though.  There's a fairly high noise floor on it and then they apparently didn't bother to trim it to a zero crossing, because there's an audible click at the end of it.  Haven't dug in deep enough yet to know if you can adjust the decay time on the drum samples to get rid of that. I'm mainly interested in it as a stripped down step sequencer/arpeggiator though, I probably won't even use the internal sounds at all.

I have an EG-101 which is a 303 and 202 DR Sample sort of hybrid with a keyboard and D-Beam :)

The amount of control on the synth is limited to a few knobs for filter etc but you could edit more synth options on them with a suitable controller - back when I used mine a lot I had a Phatboy controller which could send the necessary NRPN midi. However, I don't think you could edit the drums in the same way as they are just rom samples AFAIK all mapped GM channel 10 style.

Anyway, I'll stick up for them (the EG & MC) as at the time I had it a Pentium II 350mhz was a pretty high end pc and the VSTi options were Steinbergs Neon and a little synth from Muon (Tau???) - while there is plenty of crap in the Rolands by todays standards they delivered at the time for certain duties like pads and synth strings etc. The 303 sounds wasn't great ironically and of course they sound nothing like the vintage analogues either but the price had already gone up on those.

Cubase VST, Rebirth, Soundblaster Live with the EMU ASIO hack and the 101, I was happy :)

shitty pc and fl 2-5 were the golden ages for me (plus the addition of a microkontrol as a controller somewhere in there)

  On 1/25/2017 at 6:02 PM, RSP said:

So your experience could be down to the keybeds you've tried.

Yeah, good point. I just remembered that I tried out a Sledge in a store last year and it had a very tactile aftertouch (like the alesis you mentioned), it was the first time I'd felt that on a keyboard!

  On 1/25/2017 at 8:10 PM, Grain Bastard said:

 

I have an EG-101 which is a 303 and 202 DR Sample sort of hybrid with a keyboard and D-Beam :)

 

The D-Beam is probably the most maligned feature in the history of gear

And I feel it's my duty to make a case for it once and for all

I had an SP-808

It was...interesting, let's say

But it had an inbuilt synth

It had a massive bank of awesome Roland effects

And it had a D-Beam that let you perform/modulate pretty much every parameter on the entire machine

You wanna crank the portamento and play the synth like a theremin?

D-Beam got you, dawg

You wanna perform dub-ish delay/reverb explosions like a fucking sorcerer?

D-Beam is on the case, homeslice

You wanna fuck with the bitrate with a wave of the hand?

D-Beam fucked your mom last night, asshole

Do you want your electronic performances to look like a data entry job?

Or like a fucking sorcerer on cocaine who just got a used MC-303 at Guitar Center for $89.99?

i hav had th worst beer gases recently. lik something died inside.. need to upgrade i guess? 

  On 1/25/2017 at 8:10 PM, Grain Bastard said:

 

  On 1/25/2017 at 5:40 PM, RSP said:

 

  On 1/24/2017 at 4:43 PM, LimpyLoo said:

Poor MC-303...

*cue Randy Newman song*

 

 

I'm actually pretty psyched to get it, although I'd never have bought one.

 

The person who gave it to me says she has some "old analog gear" and she might have more things for me later (serious hoarder who is finally getting proper therapy and unloading stuff) but I assume in this case "analog" actutally just means "hardware from the 90s/not a computer" which is still fine by me.

 

 

The 909 snare sample is maybe the worst sample I've heard on a professional piece of gear, though.  There's a fairly high noise floor on it and then they apparently didn't bother to trim it to a zero crossing, because there's an audible click at the end of it.  Haven't dug in deep enough yet to know if you can adjust the decay time on the drum samples to get rid of that. I'm mainly interested in it as a stripped down step sequencer/arpeggiator though, I probably won't even use the internal sounds at all.

I have an EG-101 which is a 303 and 202 DR Sample sort of hybrid with a keyboard and D-Beam :)

 

The amount of control on the synth is limited to a few knobs for filter etc but you could edit more synth options on them with a suitable controller - back when I used mine a lot I had a Phatboy controller which could send the necessary NRPN midi. However, I don't think you could edit the drums in the same way as they are just rom samples AFAIK all mapped GM channel 10 style.

 

Anyway, I'll stick up for them (the EG & MC) as at the time I had it a Pentium II 350mhz was a pretty high end pc and the VSTi options were Steinbergs Neon and a little synth from Muon (Tau???) - while there is plenty of crap in the Rolands by todays standards they delivered at the time for certain duties like pads and synth strings etc. The 303 sounds wasn't great ironically and of course they sound nothing like the vintage analogues either but the price had already gone up on those.

 

Cubase VST, Rebirth, Soundblaster Live with the EMU ASIO hack and the 101, I was happy :)

 

Yeah, I've got to say, having been inside it to change the battery and clean the scratchy volume pot, it's pretty overbuilt for a fairly inexpensive piece of 90s gear, and I like the feel of it.  I've never owned an 808 or anything but I've got a second-gen RS09 with the same kind of buttons and I'd take the keypad on the MC-303 over the 808 style buttons any day, they feel pretty great.  Hell, I'd take them over my high school guitar teacher's old TR-707's buttons.  So that's cool.    And frankly, I do like cheesy sounds.  I traded a Synsonics that I got cheap and repaired for a DR-5 Dr. Rhythm Section last fall and even though I don't sequence on it I actually love using it as a sound module (and also as a controller, it has a pretty unique interface and the chord mode is really fun).  I'm not sure the sounds are even multisampled at all, it gets into 16 bit console sound chip territory.  Not sure I'd pay ebay prices ($50 last I checked) but I'm glad I have it around.  I'll probably use the sounds in the MC303 sometimes for similar reasons, although they're maybe a bit too good for that.

Roland's late 90s/early 00s effects are pretty great.  Limpyloo, I've got to be honest I use that SP-303 you gave me more as an effects box than as a sampler these days (I really like it as a sampler, way rawer sounding than the MPC, but I don't do much sampling these days) and I love it for that.  It's got the Roland algorithms but something about the converters or something, I don't know, it just sounds uglier than other Roland gear from that period I've used, in a good way.

  On 1/26/2017 at 1:39 AM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 1/25/2017 at 8:10 PM, Grain Bastard said:

I have an EG-101 which is a 303 and 202 DR Sample sort of hybrid with a keyboard and D-Beam :)

 

The D-Beam is probably the most maligned feature in the history of gear

And I feel it's my duty to make a case for it once and for all

 

 

I had an SP-808

It was...interesting, let's say

But it had an inbuilt synth

It had a massive bank of awesome Roland effects

And it had a D-Beam that let you perform/modulate pretty much every parameter on the entire machine

 

You wanna crank the portamento and play the synth like a theremin?

D-Beam got you, dawg

You wanna perform dub-ish delay/reverb explosions like a fucking sorcerer?

D-Beam is on the case, homeslice

You wanna fuck with the bitrate with a wave of the hand?

D-Beam fucked your mom last night, asshole

 

 

Do you want your electronic performances to look like a data entry job?

Or like a fucking sorcerer on cocaine who just got a used MC-303 at Guitar Center for $89.99?

 

Dude, back in the day I used to write badass melodies with the D-Beam on my MC-505.  It's some next-level shit.

  On 1/26/2017 at 2:09 AM, Redruth said:

i hav had th worst beer gases recently. lik something died inside.. need to upgrade i guess?

I ordered some canned baked beans from Amazon Prime Now yesterday and ate them last night.

  On 1/26/2017 at 12:01 PM, sheathe said:

 

  On 1/26/2017 at 2:09 AM, Redruth said:

i hav had th worst beer gases recently. lik something died inside.. need to upgrade i guess?

I ordered some canned baked beans from Amazon Prime Now yesterday and ate them last night.

 

You've got to make those baked beans from scratch if you want the deepest bass and smoothest, creamiest mids.

I'm trading a Midiverb II for a Roland S-760 with the whole SCSI, monitor and mouse kit with it. Anyone have any experience with it?

Beer beans

  On 1/26/2017 at 5:14 PM, sheathe said:

Beer beans

I see and raise: MAPLE beer beans

caustic

just in my studio eating beans drinking lacroix and coffee messin w/ m' GEAR

why would you ruin perfectly good coffee by having nasty lacroix in the room with you

They had to shut off all of the water in the building to repair a drain at work today so I've got the day off.  Only reason I'm not baking beans right now is that I need the oven to bake some bread.

Also having fun figuring out what they had in mind with the MC-303.  If it was my first sequencer or I was expecting an all in one production setup (like most people who bought them new probably did) I'd be pretty unimpressed, but as a no frills step sequencer for external gear I'm having a good time with it so far.  If only you could switch between X0X and real time recording on the drum track without stopping playback (as far as I can tell you can't).

soooo I may have ordered a volca kick :P

lol

This guy came in the mail today and was assembled about an hour later

Quite a bit of noisy fun so far.

For all my big talk I've been feeling the urge for a certain early 80s digital reverb that's still kind of under the radar and inexpensive because it's an OEM version of another, more well known one.

I'm not going to name names just in case I decide to put a bid on one after I get paid tomorrow.