the watmm GAS thread

yeah, no matter how many cables I buy, I never have enough.. or they're never long enough.. or they're too long

and yeah, space is becoming an issue, as well as comfort—I'm not spending much time in my studio these days as I tend to get a sore arm from mousing. I think I need to get a better chair and/or adjust the height of my desk. Actually I wouldn't mind giving a standing desk a try.

In my GAS news.. sold the JV1080. Might replace it with a Roland Cloud subscription or the Wavestation VSTi if I find myself needing some digital pads again. That said, I have UVI Synsations as well and have barely used it in anything. 

Traded my Reface DX for the CP; it's very expressive and really nice to just play.

Roli Lightpad is pretty impressive in terms of how well it works with Max. I can imagine making some interesting interfaces for it. As well as that, it's quite nice as a controller in note mode. A bit hard on the fingers, but similar note layout to a guitar (goes up in 4ths) so I picked it up pretty quickly. Might keep an eye out for another one or two, if I can find them cheap secondhand. 

Now, if only I actually had motivation to make music :P .. on the plus side, I've been focusing my creative energy on cooking, which is pleasing my girlfriend. I made lasagne with homemade pasta sheets last week, pancakes on the weekend and laksa (from homemade paste) lastnight.

I think I just need to accept that creativity has uptime and downtime, and I'm in a downtime patch at the moment. I might use this time to collate all of the best hardware jams from the past two years and compile some big weird super album that is edited together like a mixtape. I sat down for a couple of hours today and went through a bunch of stuff and I have hours of material; I think I need to treat it like the Italianz stuff where we just edited together a bunch of our tracks, overlapping things and adding more recordings along the way. Big soundscapey collages.

Cooking is a good one. I try to build stuff when I've got some kind of musical block.  It's also a good time to program a bunch of sounds orcollect a bunch of samples, too.

  On 8/22/2018 at 1:02 PM, modey said:

Traded my Reface DX for the CP; it's very expressive and really nice to just play.

Yeah, it seems really nice for such a small keyboard. I was interested in these after watching Nahre Sol's videos - she seems like a pretty serious musician and she gets great sounds out of that little thing.

  On 8/22/2018 at 1:02 PM, modey said:

I think I just need to accept that creativity has uptime and downtime, and I'm in a downtime patch at the moment. I might use this time to collate all of the best hardware jams from the past two years and compile some big weird super album that is edited together like a mixtape. I sat down for a couple of hours today and went through a bunch of stuff and I have hours of material; I think I need to treat it like the Italianz stuff where we just edited together a bunch of our tracks, overlapping things and adding more recordings along the way. Big soundscapey collages.

That sounds like a pretty healthy attitude. I am changing jobs right now and I expect to have less energy until that stabilizes. Also it should get better for me when the weather cools down a bit (it was 42C a couple weeks ago) so I can actually enjoy being outside and moving around to get my brain juices flowing again.

Interesting, I'm in the opposite situation. It's been so cold (for Australia, at least) for the past few months and that's been leaving me feeling a bit unmotivated; as well as that, my job is really getting me down as I feel like I'm stagnating and need to move on, but don't know how to apply my skills to a different field. As a result I've been super uninspired and having feelings of inadequacy etc. If only I could convince someone to pay me for sound design lol

I've been ready to buy the Polyend Perc Pro and it's sold out with no update on when it will be available again. And the price is absent, which makes me worried that they're going to fucking raise it again 

  On 8/22/2018 at 11:58 PM, modey said:

Interesting, I'm in the opposite situation. It's been so cold (for Australia, at least) for the past few months and that's been leaving me feeling a bit unmotivated; as well as that, my job is really getting me down as I feel like I'm stagnating and need to move on, but don't know how to apply my skills to a different field. As a result I've been super uninspired and having feelings of inadequacy etc. If only I could convince someone to pay me for sound design lol

I'm sorry to hear that - I've been there very recently. Things started getting better at my old job but it was happening very slowly, and I've been a bit underpaid and we were using kind of dated tech. Some folks I used to work with connected and offered me this new gig. I'll make slightly more money, but the real plus is I'll be able to walk to work again, which I greatly missed. I've been a lump for the last couple years - uninspired, gaining weight, never going out - and I attribute it to no longer walking ~1h daily, just shuttling between work and home on the freeway.

Also, yeah, I hate summer and love fall/winter, lol, so I guess we are kind of opposites there.

I would be surprised if someone wouldn't pay you for sound design. I have no idea how to go about doing it, but you are one talented and prolific guy - I think you just need to find a market niche for your hard work.

Yep. I think work-wise we're on the same page. I fortunately have a bit of free time at work to do some online learning and work on some personal projects, but the work itself is boring with no real promise of anything changing. Considering I work at an education company, that's pretty bad. Guess they're more about educating customers than staff.

And yeah, I also used to walk ~1h each way to/from work. Two years ago I moved slightly further away from the city though so that walk is now closer to 1.5 hours each way.. so not really doable unless I leave for work at 7.30. I wouldn't mind getting back into walking home in the warmer months though. I started it with my girlfriend earlier in the year and it was quite pleasant as the walk takes us through parks and past a zoo.

Regarding sound design work, it just seems like one of those impenetrable industries. I'm nowhere near good enough at promoting myself, I can't even get a good portfolio (showreel?) together let alone convince people that my 21 years' experience with making electronic music is worth anything lol

  On 8/22/2018 at 3:28 PM, sweepstakes said:

 

  On 8/22/2018 at 1:02 PM, modey said:

Traded my Reface DX for the CP; it's very expressive and really nice to just play.

Yeah, it seems really nice for such a small keyboard. I was interested in these after watching Nahre Sol's videos - she seems like a pretty serious musician and she gets great sounds out of that little thing.

  On 8/22/2018 at 1:02 PM, modey said:

I think I just need to accept that creativity has uptime and downtime, and I'm in a downtime patch at the moment. I might use this time to collate all of the best hardware jams from the past two years and compile some big weird super album that is edited together like a mixtape. I sat down for a couple of hours today and went through a bunch of stuff and I have hours of material; I think I need to treat it like the Italianz stuff where we just edited together a bunch of our tracks, overlapping things and adding more recordings along the way. Big soundscapey collages.

That sounds like a pretty healthy attitude. I am changing jobs right now and I expect to have less energy until that stabilizes. Also it should get better for me when the weather cools down a bit (it was 42C a couple weeks ago) so I can actually enjoy being outside and moving around to get my brain juices flowing again.

  On 8/23/2018 at 6:11 AM, modey said:

Yep. I think work-wise we're on the same page. I fortunately have a bit of free time at work to do some online learning and work on some personal projects, but the work itself is boring with no real promise of anything changing. Considering I work at an education company, that's pretty bad. Guess they're more about educating customers than staff.

 

And yeah, I also used to walk ~1h each way to/from work. Two years ago I moved slightly further away from the city though so that walk is now closer to 1.5 hours each way.. so not really doable unless I leave for work at 7.30. I wouldn't mind getting back into walking home in the warmer months though. I started it with my girlfriend earlier in the year and it was quite pleasant as the walk takes us through parks and past a zoo.

 

Regarding sound design work, it just seems like one of those impenetrable industries. I'm nowhere near good enough at promoting myself, I can't even get a good portfolio (showreel?) together let alone convince people that my 21 years' experience with making electronic music is worth anything lol

Yeah that feeling of stuck-ness is a drag. I found ways to make the work interesting and sharpen my saw, and I love the people I work with. But I started to feel simultaneously like one of the bigger fish in the pond (not a fan of that feeling) and on the other hand like a dipshit compared to the smartypants R&D folks who got all the glory (it's a kind of weird org structure). I'm looking forward to working with a couple people who are much smarter and more experienced than me, and going back to being a humble apprentice struggling to keep up.

Yeah, that's the boat I've been in. Our office used to be a reasonable walk from my home, then the company moved a town away. The first year I took the bus, which still left a mile-long walk but it was pleasant. The second winter I had to trudge through the snow, though, I was feeling pretty done with it and got a car... then, of course, I gained 30 pounds.

Your YouTube videos seem really well received - do you think that might be a nice outlet or at least a stepping stone to some opportunities? I mean, your Terry Riley nanoloop one even got picked up by CDM, etc. Seems promising, if it's something you have some enthusiasm for.

Oh, yeah, GAS... I want a bass guitar and the Soundcraft MTK-22 I've been meaning to pick up for a while now. Also Analog Four is looking tasty. I was getting fired up for some kind of semi-modular, and I still think the new Minibrute with the sequencer on it looks amazing, but I kind of lost my enthusiasm for it. I guess I'm about due for a new computer.... I might even go back to Windows because it seems like all the MacBooks available at the moment are garbage.

  On 8/23/2018 at 6:53 AM, sweepstakes said:

Yeah that feeling of stuck-ness is a drag. I found ways to make the work interesting and sharpen my saw, and I love the people I work with. But I started to feel simultaneously like one of the bigger fish in the pond (not a fan of that feeling) and on the other hand like a dipshit compared to the smartypants R&D folks who got all the glory (it's a kind of weird org structure).

oh man, sounds exactly like my work. I'm in a team with people who don't mind doing the same work all the time, but the areas I want to move into are way over my skill set to the point that I feel really dumb talking to those teams about the kind of work I want to do, mostly because I don't really know what they do but know it's interesting. If that makes sense?

  On 8/23/2018 at 6:53 AM, sweepstakes said:

Your YouTube videos seem really well received - do you think that might be a nice outlet or at least a stepping stone to some opportunities? I mean, your Terry Riley nanoloop one even got picked up by CDM, etc. Seems promising, if it's something you have some enthusiasm for.

Dunno, really. I think I'll keep at it somewhat—I've had one or two offers to make tutorial videos for companies, just very independent stuff, but I guess it's a start. I lose motivation quickly with that stuff though. I've got nowhere near the confidence or coolness to get to "proper" youtuber level, but I do get some kind of satisfaction from the education aspect of it. But on the other hand, it kinda takes away the small amount of time I have for creative pursuits, so it feels a little shallow. I don't tend to revisit my youtube videos in the same way that I revisit my old tracks, and that makes it feel a bit less permanent, I guess. I haven't been in the best place mentally lately though, so maybe my opinion on that will change, and this thread probably isn't the best place to discuss it, but hey I wrote it so it's here lol

  On 8/23/2018 at 2:41 PM, modey said:

oh man, sounds exactly like my work. I'm in a team with people who don't mind doing the same work all the time, but the areas I want to move into are way over my skill set to the point that I feel really dumb talking to those teams about the kind of work I want to do, mostly because I don't really know what they do but know it's interesting. If that makes sense?

Yes, that's really similar to my situation. I was able to change roles a couple times which kept me more engaged, but I've recently felt close to hitting a ceiling regarding what I can learn. While the grass definitely looked greener in R&D, it felt invitation-only and I had pretty much the same feelings as you about it. In your case it's particularly ironic since it sounds like your organization's focus is education.

I will say that if the skills you seek are code skills, there has never been a better or easier time to learn that stuff, it just feels overwhelming because there are so many options out there. But yeah probably a discussion for a different thread.

  On 8/23/2018 at 2:41 PM, modey said:

Dunno, really. I think I'll keep at it somewhat—I've had one or two offers to make tutorial videos for companies, just very independent stuff, but I guess it's a start. I lose motivation quickly with that stuff though. I've got nowhere near the confidence or coolness to get to "proper" youtuber level, but I do get some kind of satisfaction from the education aspect of it. But on the other hand, it kinda takes away the small amount of time I have for creative pursuits, so it feels a little shallow. I don't tend to revisit my youtube videos in the same way that I revisit my old tracks, and that makes it feel a bit less permanent, I guess. I haven't been in the best place mentally lately though, so maybe my opinion on that will change, and this thread probably isn't the best place to discuss it, but hey I wrote it so it's here lol

That sounds like a cool opportunity, but if you don't have the passion for it or don't see it as an "upgrade" to anything of the various things you have going on, maybe it's not worth it. On the other hand, it does sound fairly non-committal, so if it's a fair deal for the work you put into it both pay- and attribution- wise, maybe it is worth dipping your toe in the waters just to see if you like it.

  On 8/23/2018 at 2:41 PM, modey said:

Dunno, really. I think I'll keep at it somewhat—I've had one or two offers to make tutorial videos for companies, just very independent stuff, but I guess it's a start. I lose motivation quickly with that stuff though. I've got nowhere near the confidence or coolness to get to "proper" youtuber level, but I do get some kind of satisfaction from the education aspect of it. But on the other hand, it kinda takes away the small amount of time I have for creative pursuits, so it feels a little shallow. I don't tend to revisit my youtube videos in the same way that I revisit my old tracks, and that makes it feel a bit less permanent, I guess. I haven't been in the best place mentally lately though, so maybe my opinion on that will change, and this thread probably isn't the best place to discuss it, but hey I wrote it so it's here lol

 

For what it's worth, even though I don't really follow and watch your stuff on youtube, I do envy you for having the balls to stream and upload videos. I would not worry about not being a proper youtuber, because I hardly can stand the style of presentation and all those fukken effects and self-promotion. Being a streamer/youtuber and making a living out of it seems to be mostly dependent on the online ad industry, and thus does not sound to me like that's a good career path long-term.

It seems to me that the path to success is instead finding your own style of doing things that you're comfortable with, working and developing your skills for that one day where you may get lucky and break through. And if it's true that it's 99% hard work and 1% luck, then boy would it be really stupid if you caught that 1% of luck but whoops you were not prepared to take advantage.

By the way with regard to revisiting your youtube stuff - for the last year or so I have tried to edit/render any works in progress to a listenable form and keep them on my phone, and then listen to all of it on shuffle. It happens really often that I hear some idea that I had tossed to the side long ago, but now sounds really good or I just get inspiration to build something out of it. Maybe this one weird trick helps you as well - especially if you happen to have a long walking commute or something monotone where you can listen.

As for not being in the best place mentally - I have had my ups and downs as well, but making music and playing drums seems to be the best cure for it. Hope I don't jinx it now...

  On 8/24/2018 at 1:52 PM, thawkins said:

Being a streamer/youtuber and making a living out of it seems to be mostly dependent on the online ad industry, and thus does not sound to me like that's a good career path long-term.

 

The way Youtube has been doing things the past year or so it's not even a good one short term.

  Quote

 

if it's true that it's 99% hard work and 1% luck

Not even close, but working hard on something you like can be its own reward.

https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/how-much-do-influencers-make/

done got the goddamned GAS for this little fuckin' beast. 

Just barely missed a 25,- local money unit TMI, a simmons trigger to midi converter.

Didn't really think about this until I saw this being offered but this would be super handy to get really tight external drum sequencing as you could use your soundcard to send triggers to sequence drumboxes etc. Is this a thing people do or am I overlooking something here? Seems like a good way to get tighter sequences if you're unable to afford a multiclock (and it doesn't seem to correct notes, only clock, so if you'd want to sequence from a daw then you'd still get clock jitter?) or something similar.

http://motu.com/products/software/volta

https://cycling74.com/forums/maxmsp-motu-828-to-cv

  On 8/28/2018 at 10:23 PM, user said:

Just barely missed a 25,- local money unit TMI, a simmons trigger to midi converter.

Didn't really think about this until I saw this being offered but this would be super handy to get really tight external drum sequencing as you could use your soundcard to send triggers to sequence drumboxes etc. Is this a thing people do or am I overlooking something here? Seems like a good way to get tighter sequences if you're unable to afford a multiclock (and it doesn't seem to correct notes, only clock, so if you'd want to sequence from a daw then you'd still get clock jitter?) or something similar.

Not sure about this. I think a trigger to midi converter is handy for hooking your piezo drum triggers to EZDrummer or some VST so that you can DIY your own digital drum kit.

As for tighter drum sequences and jitter, I think the TMI is going to have orders of magnitude more latency issues than dealing strictly with MIDI, because in the case of the TMI, you always have to convert audio into a MIDI message which means you have both audio latency and MIDI latency. RSP shared some really good information about MIDI timing stuff in this thread https://forum.watmm.com/topic/95499-midi-over-usb-am-i-doing-it-wrong-or-does-it-really-just-suck/

  On 8/29/2018 at 4:58 AM, nikisoko said:

http://motu.com/products/software/volta

https://cycling74.com/forums/maxmsp-motu-828-to-cv

Thanks, will have to look at this later. Is this about dc coupled soundcards?

  On 8/29/2018 at 6:28 AM, thawkins said:

 

  On 8/28/2018 at 10:23 PM, user said:

Just barely missed a 25,- local money unit TMI, a simmons trigger to midi converter.

Didn't really think about this until I saw this being offered but this would be super handy to get really tight external drum sequencing as you could use your soundcard to send triggers to sequence drumboxes etc. Is this a thing people do or am I overlooking something here? Seems like a good way to get tighter sequences if you're unable to afford a multiclock (and it doesn't seem to correct notes, only clock, so if you'd want to sequence from a daw then you'd still get clock jitter?) or something similar.

 

Not sure about this. I think a trigger to midi converter is handy for hooking your piezo drum triggers to EZDrummer or some VST so that you can DIY your own digital drum kit.

 

As for tighter drum sequences and jitter, I think the TMI is going to have orders of magnitude more latency issues than dealing strictly with MIDI, because in the case of the TMI, you always have to convert audio into a MIDI message which means you have both audio latency and MIDI latency. RSP shared some really good information about MIDI timing stuff in this thread https://forum.watmm.com/topic/95499-midi-over-usb-am-i-doing-it-wrong-or-does-it-really-just-suck/

 

Cheers, the tmi actually adding latency was my biggest questionmark, for some reason I thought having a dedicated box doing the conversion would lessen latency but I guess it's a slow 80s box that doesn't exactly do instantaneous conversion. Read that topic but a lot of this stuff is hocus pocus to me until actually trying things out I guess.

Sold my minilogue, think I'll reinvest the cash in a multiclock and use the internal sequencers on my machines as much as possible. Very curious how things will pan out.

To be a bit more clear - I don't think a dedicated box would be bad with latency actually, definitely not worse than having a modern computer do the same processing. However I would like to think that having a modern computer send MIDI only (instead of doing audio signal processing + MIDI), is definitely comparable to the old 80s dedicated box.

I want to pick up an akai rack sampler to go with my rs7000 for my computerless setup. Is that a silly idea?

  On 9/1/2018 at 12:48 AM, yek said:

I want to pick up an akai rack sampler to go with my rs7000 for my computerless setup. Is that a silly idea?

I got an S5000 this spring and was absolutely worth it.

  On 9/1/2018 at 4:55 AM, RSP said:

 

  On 9/1/2018 at 12:48 AM, yek said:

I want to pick up an akai rack sampler to go with my rs7000 for my computerless setup. Is that a silly idea?

 

I got an S5000 this spring and was absolutely worth it.

Volca FM will arrive on Sunday. Was considering digitone but just liked the sounds of the volca more in YouTube vids, and figured it was time to get a rudimentary understanding of FM (from the couch).

Ah, nice! Didn't really gel with mine at first but finally warming up to it now. Very nice running it through some external filter of some sort, basically have it hooked up to the waldorf 2pole most of the time.