the watmm GAS thread

Just learned about the Flame MIDI Talking Synth and I really want one now. Pretty rare from what I gather, though. Been looking into synths that are capable of talking lately and this seems nearly spot on what I'm looking for.

https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/tech/flame-midi-talking-synth-24286

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHyNAhIZdd8

I've been meaning to get a Speakjet chip or two for a while, while they're still available, but it's hard to justify spending $25 on somethig when I'm not sure what I'd actually do with it.

What do you mean you don't know what to do with a talky synth? There's plenty to do with a talky synth, just look at all the psytrance! 

Got my Roland A33 today, feels great to have a real keyboard again. I tried playing some scales but I am rusty as hell. The only downside to the thing is that it's obviously been owned by a smoker in the past, so if anyone has any good tips for removing that awful smell, please let me know. :)

Stick some silica gel pouches inside. the ones you get in shoe boxes.

Or activate dcharcoal, which is what is usually used for things like books and records.  Get a bag of plain charcoal for a barbecue (not the "match light" kind that has starter fluid in it or anything, just plain charcoal), pour some of it into the bottom of a big box, and then put the keyboard in with some coffee cups or something under it so it doesn't actually sit on the charcoal.  And then leave it for a few weeks.  Cigarette smoke is a tough one to get rid of though.

Plugin Discounts has PSP E27 on sale for $40.25 USD right now and it really does sound every bit as good as everyone says. I'm very, VERY impressed.  I even violated my "no iLok plugins" resolution for this one.

EDIT: not anymore.

  On 7/15/2018 at 11:07 PM, TRiP said:

anyone have any hands on play with the DFAM?

 

Just saw they retail for juuussst about what i'd shell out if I was swimming in cash...for some reason I thought they went for around the 1K mark

Yeah I have one and I fucking love it.  For me and my style it's perfect.  I wish I had more because it can produce both drum and synth sounds; with the Beat Step Pro it's easy as fuck to program in melody lines, and that way you can get around the 8 step limitation.

The last few pieces I've been working on are exclusively on the DFAM.  It can take a while to record a song, because I essentially have to record a take, play that back and record another on top etc etc, but it's worth it.  

  On 7/21/2018 at 11:29 AM, b born droid said:

 

  On 7/15/2018 at 11:07 PM, TRiP said:

anyone have any hands on play with the DFAM?

 

Just saw they retail for juuussst about what i'd shell out if I was swimming in cash...for some reason I thought they went for around the 1K mark

 

Yeah I have one and I fucking love it.  For me and my style it's perfect.  I wish I had more because it can produce both drum and synth sounds; with the Beat Step Pro it's easy as fuck to program in melody lines, and that way you can get around the 8 step limitation.

 

The last few pieces I've been working on are exclusively on the DFAM.  It can take a while to record a song, because I essentially have to record a take, play that back and record another on top etc etc, but it's worth it.  

 

Here's a tiny little clip of something I'm working on of just the DFAM; https://www.dropbox.com/s/d6bhn3y1fvq327q/Man_Moth_v6_Clip.320kbps.mp3?dl=0 There's probably 3/4 layers there.  Kick, Bass, Percussive sounds and a synth.  Some of those are run through the Waldorf 2-Pole.  Can't remember if I had anything on the master bus when I bounced it, but you get the idea.

  On 7/21/2018 at 11:39 AM, b born droid said:

 

  On 7/21/2018 at 11:29 AM, b born droid said:

 

  On 7/15/2018 at 11:07 PM, TRiP said:

anyone have any hands on play with the DFAM?

 

Just saw they retail for juuussst about what i'd shell out if I was swimming in cash...for some reason I thought they went for around the 1K mark

 

Yeah I have one and I fucking love it.  For me and my style it's perfect.  I wish I had more because it can produce both drum and synth sounds; with the Beat Step Pro it's easy as fuck to program in melody lines, and that way you can get around the 8 step limitation.

 

The last few pieces I've been working on are exclusively on the DFAM.  It can take a while to record a song, because I essentially have to record a take, play that back and record another on top etc etc, but it's worth it.  

 

 

Here's a tiny little clip of something I'm working on of just the DFAM; https://www.dropbox.com/s/d6bhn3y1fvq327q/Man_Moth_v6_Clip.320kbps.mp3?dl=0 There's probably 3/4 layers there.  Kick, Bass, Percussive sounds and a synth.  Some of those are run through the Waldorf 2-Pole.  Can't remember if I had anything on the master bus when I bounced it, but you get the idea.

 

Nice! Sounds pretty wicked and menacing   

Love to hear the finished thing when she's done.

  On 7/21/2018 at 1:02 AM, RSP said:

Plugin Discounts has PSP E27 on sale for $40.25 USD right now and it really does sound every bit as good as everyone says. I'm very, VERY impressed. I even violated my "no iLok plugins" resolution for this one.

$119 now

  On 7/21/2018 at 9:13 PM, fletcher said:

 

  On 7/21/2018 at 1:02 AM, RSP said:

Plugin Discounts has PSP E27 on sale for $40.25 USD right now and it really does sound every bit as good as everyone says. I'm very, VERY impressed. I even violated my "no iLok plugins" resolution for this one.

$119 now

 

Must have just ended, I checked right before I posted it to make sure it was still on sale.  I guess I lucked out, I thought it was on sale for the whole month.

What I wouldn't give for some good quality, vinyl dust covers that weren't really expensive.

Too bad I suck at sewing.

  On 7/18/2018 at 3:17 PM, Chesney said:

Stick some silica gel pouches inside. the ones you get in shoe boxes.

  On 7/18/2018 at 4:56 PM, RSP said:

Or activate dcharcoal, which is what is usually used for things like books and records.  Get a bag of plain charcoal for a barbecue (not the "match light" kind that has starter fluid in it or anything, just plain charcoal), pour some of it into the bottom of a big box, and then put the keyboard in with some coffee cups or something under it so it doesn't actually sit on the charcoal.  And then leave it for a few weeks.  Cigarette smoke is a tough one to get rid of though.

Thanks for the tips, if it keeps bothering me, I'll do something more about it. Yesterday playing it didn't bother me too much, I guess it's not really so present in an air conditioned room especially if you don't go out of your way to smell it up close.

It's a really good keyboard though, happy I got it.

One time a whole nest full of baby birds that was up in th roof of the place my band practiced somehow came down through the ceiling and into th room, and were in there 5 days in the hottstpart of summer bfore anyon wentin to practice, so ndless to say they died and my amp and th drummer's kit got all covrd in dadbabaybird and smlled BADfor a few months but it cleared up.

Crap thislaptop keyboard really is starting to di, thisis not good.

  On 7/23/2018 at 4:04 AM, RSP said:

One time a whole nest full of baby birds that was up in th roof of the place my band practiced somehow came down through the ceiling and into th room, and were in there 5 days in the hottstpart of summer bfore anyon wentin to practice, so ndless to say they died and my amp and th drummer's kit got all covrd in dadbabaybird and smlled BADfor a few months but it cleared up.

 

 

Crap thislaptop keyboard really is starting to di, thisis not good.

If it makes you feel any better, my new MBP's keyboard is going to have to be replaced for the second time this year. I am not sure what model yours is but it seems we both suffer from some guy's delusion that having a thinner laptop is always desirable and better.

I broke and ordered the DFAM...so now i'm properly broke

went down a dfam video hole, these put me over the edge

the videos for the deckard's dream sound really lush. 

https://www.deckardsdream.com/

it's definitely a good amount of money but there's monosynths that cost the same or more 0_0 

I have finally had a breakthrough with the Yamaha DX200. I have a love/hate for inexplicable synth quirks. In this case, the DX200's amp attack (that's right folks, a Yamaha FM synth with legit subtractive-style filters and filter/amp envelopes) wouldn't work for a damn. Made any kind of patch creation a waste.

Factory reset it (only lost about 2-3 presets I made, boohoo), and everything suddenly works perfectly. 

As far as the synth itself, it's an odd duck to be sure. 6-Op FM synth with the subtractive elements listed above. And to top things off, it's practically impossible to know what carrier you're modulating. It's got this really wild system of choosing "1", "2", "3", or "all" to mess with some of the FM elements (amount, harmonics, decay). But unless you have the manual open to the page with the Algorithms listed (or were smart and printed a copy of that page out), you have *no* idea what you're messing with. It's not really a big deal because FM synthesis is so confusing and technical that it's rare you'll know what you're doing anyway. But even with some basic understandings of what FM algorithms will optimize in particular style tones (leads, pads, etc.), the DX200's layout becomes a total clusterfuck (the DX7 at least put a visual of the algorithms on the synth!).

Long story short: This thing is great for random sound design and sampling but with more of a fun factor than other FM synths (save for the Volca FM). It's actually a 4-track groovebox (1 synth track, 3 drum/sample tracks, can't load your own samples). 

Even more brief summary:  Skip FM hardware synths and buy FM4 or TF7 for iOS. FM4 is the best layout I've ever seen for FM sound design.

  On 7/25/2018 at 8:09 PM, Taupe Beats said:

I have finally had a breakthrough with the Yamaha DX200.

A few years ago, I was on the hunt for a DX200 since it was so intriguing and different. An FM groovebox? Crazy! It seemed to have some really quirky patch building like you said which made it more appealing.

I have an eventide H9 but I'm a little annoyed that program changes have such a long delay and it sounds like shit if you do it during a song live.

Any suggestions on a nice verb unit that has instant program switching and possibly spillover?

Also what do you guys use to make your hardware setups sound fucking nice and lush and loud and not fucked up. I don't use computers anymore so I can't use plugins.

I have a behringer compressor/limiter thingy and a RNC compressor. Just wondering if I should  throw a stereo graphic EQ in there? maybe an exciter? something to add subtle saturation? I want to experiment with some things.

I desperately need one of these but only for about 3 hours so I can wind a couple old pancakes of tape onto NAB reels, so obviously not at anywhere near that price (which is actually very cheap for those things, the originals are more like $200-$300 used).

At this point I think I'm going to have to try to make my own with a router and some masonite and hope it works well enough for this one job.

  On 7/27/2018 at 3:07 AM, Bubba69 said:

Also what do you guys use to make your hardware setups sound fucking nice and lush and loud and not fucked up. I don't use computers anymore so I can't use plugins.

I can't be much help here because I'm usually trying to make stuff sound fucked up, but I will say the OTO BAM has nearly instant program switching (fraction of a second of dropout, no spillover unless I'm misremembering - I almost never use presets on it) and sounds great, but isn't cheap.  All my other reverbs are old and low end and have pretty slow program switching, so no help there.

  On 7/27/2018 at 3:07 AM, Bubba69 said:

Also what do you guys use to make your hardware setups sound fucking nice and lush and loud and not fucked up. I don't use computers anymore so I can't use plugins.

 

I have a behringer compressor/limiter thingy and a RNC compressor. Just wondering if I should  throw a stereo graphic EQ in there? maybe an exciter? something to add subtle saturation? I want to experiment with some things.

Yeah, basically experiment. I use all sorts of ways/things to get the sound how I want before going into the box or to tape.

Nice old mixers

Valve Pres

Tape

Analog Heat

Few compressors

Outboard FX

Analog delays

Synth Ext inputs

Samplers

using the room (different speakers, Amps, mics, objects to capture differently)

I have the RNC too, great little box and does a good job on the master too.