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Beaucoup Cuckoo posted:https://dirtywave.com Ahhhhh fuuuuck if I didn't already own the Polyend this would be a no brainer but no matter how bloated I am with GAS I just can't justify 550USD on a THIRD sequencer to sit along my MPC1k and Polyend  I KNOW I'll be kicking myself the first time I want to travel with a gadget -- this thing looks to be the perfect portable step up from PO-33  The PT isn't clunky or anything but let's be honest, it's a big box compared to this. some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 14:04 on Jan 18, 2022 |
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Jan 18, 2022 14:01
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One or two weeks back I mentioned I'd started recording a track that used the Roland MKS-70 for all melodic parts. Well, I just completed the track. I programmed 5 original patches for this song and used 2 factory presets. I built a custom drum kit for the track in Native Instruments Battery 3, and designed a couple FX patches in N.I. Massive. There were three stages to the production process. First I composed and arranged the song in Cubase using some General MIDI patches from a VSTi called Sonic Cat Purity. After the arrangement was complete, I replaced each of the General MIDI tracks by choosing appropriate patches (programming them as needed using the MKS-70's front panel controls) and recording audio stems. All of the MKS-70 patches in the song use the synth's "dual mode," which layers the sounds from both synth engines across the whole key range. Once all the audio was recorded, I did all the automation and mixing, using effects plugins mostly from Steinberg, Waves, and Valhalla DSP. Anyway, here is the first track: Bright Star, for the MKS-70. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rMBYKodYvI SoundCloud: Bright Star (Roland MKS-70 Demo Song) With this song complete, I have already set up for the next one... 
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Jan 18, 2022 17:44
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Radiapathy posted:One or two weeks back I mentioned I'd started recording a track that used the Roland MKS-70 for all melodic parts. Well, I just completed the track. I programmed 5 original patches for this song and used 2 factory presets. I built a custom drum kit for the track in Native Instruments Battery 3, and designed a couple FX patches in N.I. Massive. Sounds awesome, and very interesting to read about the process.
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Jan 18, 2022 18:13
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Radiapathy posted:One or two weeks back I mentioned I'd started recording a track that used the Roland MKS-70 for all melodic parts. Well, I just completed the track. I programmed 5 original patches for this song and used 2 factory presets. I built a custom drum kit for the track in Native Instruments Battery 3, and designed a couple FX patches in N.I. Massive. Some really cool gear there.
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Jan 18, 2022 18:13
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Thread poll for no particular reason: Do you sequence through your daw or hardware most often and why? (Bonus answer is GOKU)
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Jan 18, 2022 18:35
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Hardware 100% Because I am too easily distracted when making music at a computer. If I sit at a DAW it is virtually guaranteed that within 15 minutes I will be on youtube looking for some DAW trick or feature I don't really understand that well. This would be all well and good except that it never ends there and what started out as an "ableton EQ settings" search somehow ends up with me watching mustie1 repairing an old motorcycle two hours later and -- oh yeah I was supposed to be making beep boop music  Yes it's all willpower. I could do the same looking up stuff about my hardware sequencers, or I could -- you know -- just try to focus more, but I give myself every chance at success I can.
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Jan 18, 2022 18:57
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I just like toys with colored lights and beeping sounds
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Jan 18, 2022 21:05
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Nice job with the MKS-70, well done!a mysterious cloak posted:Thread poll for no particular reason: Hardware because I touch computers professionally and I don’t want to ever ever touch them. These days mostly analog sequencers but I drank the elektron koolaid a long time ago.
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Jan 18, 2022 21:30
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A MIRACLE posted:I just like toys with colored lights and beeping sounds
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Jan 18, 2022 22:02
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a mysterious cloak posted:Thread poll for no particular reason: DAW because I don't have the space for hardware outside of my guitar and OP-1. But I have a Push2 so its kind of like a hardware version of Ableton since i don't have to look at the screen.
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Jan 18, 2022 22:14
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Startyde posted:Nice job with the MKS-70, well done! Startyde posted:Hardware because I touch computers professionally and I don’t want to ever ever touch them.
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Jan 18, 2022 22:40
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a mysterious cloak posted:Thread poll for no particular reason: Hardware 100% because I'm not a musician so I just randomly twist knobs and press buttons until I like what I'm hearing.
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Jan 18, 2022 22:54
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I use Cubase as my sequencer, but will send the MIDI out to my Alesis SR16 drum machine and Arturia Microfreak through some cheapo behringer pedals and record that back in. I'm way faster getting beats and melodies down this way, and given I've grown up on DAWs/computers since Reason 2.5 and non-guitar hardware is a fairly recent thing for me I find this works really well for me, especially as it means everything is in time without too much faff. The microfreak sequencer is neat and I like the slice n dice mechanic but the SR16 is...a bit archaic. Tbh I preferred the sequencer on my deceased DR202 for drums before it started belching smoke
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Jan 18, 2022 23:12
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a mysterious cloak posted:Do you sequence through your daw or hardware most often and why? (Bonus answer is GOKU) I use hardware sequencing for freeform things and figuring out licks in my head would fit in meter. I use a DAW for writing and arranging structured music.
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Jan 18, 2022 23:40
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Still seeing no love for the SQ-64, too bad.
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Jan 18, 2022 23:41
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should I get an electribe to go with this circuit rhythm what I really want is a wavestate. but I've been trying to wait for the big one. waitstate edit this looks sweet https://www.synthanatomy.com/2022/01/casio-ct-1000v-new-keyboard-with-vocal-synthesis-is-coming-soon.html A MIRACLE fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Jan 19, 2022 |
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Jan 19, 2022 02:37
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does anyone know anything about the N64 sample playing hardware? I just learned that it can do variable pitch playback (I assumed those were burned into the carts, but no!) but I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about breaking it out to use as an instrument (whereas I can think of at least gameboy, nes, snes, and genesis projects). could well be a huge pain in the rear end for very little gain but I don't even know where to start finding that out
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Jan 19, 2022 02:44
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a mysterious cloak posted:Thread poll for no particular reason: - Sequencers - Drum computers & drum machines (TB-303 clones in particular) - Filterbanks Right now it's mostly Cirklon, NerdSEQ (in concert or not with Pamela's New Workout in one of my cases), and 0-CTRL. And internal sequencers in some gear. (I guess I'm also not counting the Keystep, but that gets used a lot all over.) Mobius and Oberkorn 3 are less used right now, but super nice & fun to work with, with some special specific uses with some gear. The MPC and Octatrack (and Digitakt) aren't really being put into regular sequencer duty right now either. I'm almost certainly forgetting something, but this is most of what gets touched (or not) right now. I have a couple SQ-1s and they're super handy as tiny "general purpose utility sequencers", I can recommend them to anyone. I looked at the SQ-64 shortly after it came out and I think I was hoping it was gonna be cooler in some way than it ended up being. I guess that could still change over time with FW updates. Every now and then I look at it again but I haven't been tempted to pick one up. Right now I'm still thinking about grabbing a Toraiz Squid if I can find a good used price on one, its been on my list a while. Totally unnecessary though. The top of my sequencer wishlist is a SAM-16. EDIT: I forgot two things. One, a Doepfer Dark Time I picked up at the end of last year, and two: the "why?" question you asked in general re: HW sequencers. Re: the Dark Time real quick, I'm still getting it integrated into certain setups and uses, but the basic usage model is pretty straightforward: an analog step sequencer UX (though it's not analog). I'm curious about and thinking I'll mostly use it with eurorack & modular stuff -- sort of as a more portable mini-Oberkorn (or maxi-SQ-1) -- but we'll see what actually happens. Re: the "why?" question, it's a good question. I come to HW sequencers for a lot of the same reasons others already mentioned, in part, and largely depending on my mood at the time. In many ways a lot of these that I have are just more dedicated computers, still running software (firmware), but without a lot of the other BS of a general purpose platform (and so without some of the flexibility too), but also for the UX and workflow choices each presents, plus what each can interface with. I guess that's why I have more than just one (or two) main sequencer(s), and why I feel interested in continuously checking out new ones. The Cirklon is nuts, it's super deep and configurable, it's very tight with timing, especially in concert with a good clock, it can really run pretty much everything, but it's also expensive, and if you wire it in as a brain for everything, then it becomes hard to detach and extract if you then want to use it in smaller standalone setups. Sometimes a pure analog sequencing experience is what I want, sometimes I want to ditch quantized values, sometimes I want to try out a particular sequencer's affordances and way of working, or seeing what I can get out of a less featured sequencer. I don't have a professional studio-esque setup at home, I just have a bunch of gear I want to use and/or play with, and keeping all of it connected isn't really feasible right now, so having options to try different things out appeals to me, without also having to rearrange everything that might already be setup with one of the other sequencers. I'd say I look at different sequencers as being just as individual as different synths in some ways, despite there being broad similarities across the range. Just 'cuz I apparently can't resist, some of my favorite software sequencers are M, RnT2, Architect (really more than just a sequencer), KeyKit, etc., etc. (e.g., Plogue Bidule, Max/MSP, and so on). I even use an old Atari ST version of M in Steem on Windows (since there's not a native version there) and route the MIDI out to e.g., Bidule... minidracula fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Jan 19, 2022 |
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Jan 19, 2022 03:01
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a mysterious cloak posted:Thread poll for no particular reason: I bought a model of hardware sequencer (alongside a drum machine) 15 years ago for $40 specifically because Le Tigre used it. I learned back then how to operate it for making drum loops, so it seemed like a no-brainer to just stick with what I knew and already had when I bought my first synth last year. edit: Speaking of which, it did the thing MMT-8's love to do (erase the entirety of their contents) on me this past weekend. It was the first time it's done it in like 13 years. I did a sysex dump recently, so I only lost about a mostly unproductive month's worth of stuff. kidfresca fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Jan 19, 2022 |
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Jan 19, 2022 03:11
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a mysterious cloak posted:Thread poll for no particular reason: Hardware sequencer. Whichever happens to be on the unit itself.
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Jan 19, 2022 16:46
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The Voice of Labor posted:awww yeah. time to shift the focus of gas onto soldering microscopes and reflow stations! *buys diy Rings kit for $150* *solders in 64-pin microchip upside-down* *searches Amazon for a cheap reflow station that can be here by the end of the week*  This is my hobby. This is what I do for fun in my spare time. 
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Jan 19, 2022 17:03
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Get that special solder that makes fixing stuff easier
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Jan 19, 2022 17:20
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”hi, I’m Hainbach, and it’s good to have you back” https://youtu.be/auhQWzSCAmc
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Jan 19, 2022 17:28
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“Wow, a Mutable Instruments Rings module costs $359, but I can get a diy kit on sale for $150! Sure, I have to solder it together myself, but I’ll save so much money!” “Guess I should get some SMT tools as well! Wow this $25 kit comes with magnifying goggles, tweezers, a flux pen, and an IC holder! What a deal!” “Wow these goggles suck. I have to put my face an inch from the PCB to see anything, and it works better with one eye closed” “Wow this flux is loving toxic! I should spend $35 on a fan with a carbon filter on it!” “Wait a second, this isn’t No Clean flux! Apparently if I don’t wash it off, it can cause corrosion! Better spend  on a No Clean flux pen, cuz I don’t want to deal with all that!”“This IC holder is loving useless!” “Why are all my components sticking to my tweezers? Are these loving magnetic?! Time to spend on non-magnetic tweezers! ”“Oops, I aligned this 64-pin IC based on the wrong dot! How do I unsolder 64-pins?” *uses soldering wick for 3 hours* “gently caress, I hope this microchip still works when I’m done, they’re out of stock with a 53-week lead time.” “Hmmmm, maybe I can save this with a hot air reflow station. Amazon has some for $45 that are wired wrong and might electrocute me or catch fire and don’t actually output the temperature you set it at… or I can spend $60 on one that at least has proper temperature calibration.”  “Oh look, I could’ve bought a nanoRings on Reverb for $169. It would’ve done everything Rings does, but only taken up 8hp instead of 14hp.” Do never SMT.
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Jan 19, 2022 19:20
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a mysterious cloak posted:Thread poll for no particular reason: Everything through Renoise. The timing is atrocious and sometimes I think I miss out on those happy accidents from hardware stuff, but every time I try to use hardware sequencers I just can't do anything. Like I can make a 4 bar loop or something and then go "ugh, now what". Related: I have an Intellijel MIDI 1U with 3 CVX expanders for a total of 30 assignable CV outputs via up to 8 different MIDI channels, for easy Multi-timbral control of a bunch of modular stuff.
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Jan 19, 2022 19:54
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Rod Hoofhearted posted:
SMT kits (most sdiy kits tbh) are kinda "scammy" in the way the pricing works, like the savings are all gonna be when you start filling BOMs yourself and hitting those fat price breaks on common stuff like standard value caps and resistors (pro move is to just grab a very cheap 10 of everything book on aliexpress). The microcontroller situation probably makes this harder because I'm guessing a kit is the only way to get one right now but the way to do it is combine a couple into one cart on Mouser (either multiple modules or multiples of one, to sell the others) Me and my SMT homie messed with a reflow station for a bit but they're super pita and threw a breaker once. Much easier ime is the low temperature solder, like it melts at like 130 or something, you just reflow joints with that and then the whole thing is putty, then pull it off and clean the board I actually prefer SMT to through hole now... except for those friggin micros. But I think theres a way to get them pre-placed on boards from certain fab houses, who will just do all the SMT components with stencils and pickers, so you just have to solder jacks and pots and stuff. This was surprisingly cheap 3 years ago but I mean its been a wild 3 years lol
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Jan 19, 2022 20:01
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A MIRACLE posted:should I get an electribe to go with this circuit rhythm I had an Electribe 2S (the sampler version, has a cut-down version of the 'synth' engine from the regular 2 also) and was pretty underwhelmed and sold it. It has kind of clunky synth signal flow (the envelopes, particularly were mystifying for me to figure out), and transitioning between patterns is kind of slow, and it also doesn't preserve track mute states between patterns. Made it kind of difficult for me to use how I want. (I basically make 90's style techno, where muting/unmuting drum trackis is about 90% of the trick) I still have my original Electribe S (the green sampler version) I bought 15 years ago and use it in my productions (has a nice simple interface and interesting sound character, good as a secondary sample player to tweak live synced to my main gear) My main box now is the Roland MC-707, which I picked up used for $600.00 and does everything I want it to. Especially with the latest (1.70 I think) software upgrade.
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Jan 19, 2022 20:05
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JamesKPolk posted:does anyone know anything about the N64 sample playing hardware? I just learned that it can do variable pitch playback (I assumed those were burned into the carts, but no!) but I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about breaking it out to use as an instrument (whereas I can think of at least gameboy, nes, snes, and genesis projects). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64_technical_specifications mentions 16-bit, 48 kHz PCM, summing up to 100 channels which is a lot but that's just addition. In other words: not really that special. You don't get 8- or 12-bit crunch, you don't get funky transposition algorithms, just Unreal Tournament-style tracker tunes with pretty deece fidelity.
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Jan 19, 2022 20:16
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JamesKPolk posted:SMT kits (most sdiy kits tbh) are kinda "scammy" in the way the pricing works, like the savings are all gonna be when you start filling BOMs yourself and hitting those fat price breaks on common stuff like standard value caps and resistors (pro move is to just grab a very cheap 10 of everything book on aliexpress). The microcontroller situation probably makes this harder because I'm guessing a kit is the only way to get one right now but the way to do it is combine a couple into one cart on Mouser (either multiple modules or multiples of one, to sell the others) Yeah, after I did two easier SMT kits, I checked mouser to see if I could save some cash by buying my own components and building two or three uO_c kits, but electrolytic capacitors and most ICs are out of stock with 53 week lead times (which I assume actually means “we don’t know”), so kits are the only way to get those things right now. I still might grab a uO_c kit from SynthCube if they have another 25% off or maybe even 20% off sale, but otherwise I think I’m backing away from SMT for a while. I enjoy through-hole soldering, and even when SMT goes well, I don’t enjoy it the same way because there’s a lot of, “is this going to work?” and stress involved with it.
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Jan 19, 2022 20:36
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Rod Hoofhearted posted:Yeah, after I did two easier SMT kits, I checked mouser to see if I could save some cash by buying my own components and building two or three uO_c kits, but electrolytic capacitors and most ICs are out of stock with 53 week lead times (which I assume actually means “we don’t know”), so kits are the only way to get those things right now. honestly I'm taking "can't get parts this year" as a great reason to dive into the stuff I already have. Kinda nuts??? Laserjet 4P posted:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64_technical_specifications mentions 16-bit, 48 kHz PCM, summing up to 100 channels which is a lot but that's just addition. well poo poo. was kinda hoping the transposition was interesting at least. but thanks for saving me a couple months w/ a dremel
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Jan 19, 2022 21:17
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Rod Hoofhearted posted:“Wow, a Mutable Instruments Rings module costs $359, but I can get a diy kit on sale for $150! Sure, I have to solder it together myself, but I’ll save so much money!” I feel like one major takeaway I had from watching my dad fix our Commodore 64 when I was a kid was "do always use an IC holder for ICs". It makes replacing them so much easier if you accidentally toast them, completely eliminates any chance of you accidentally toasting them from the heat of the iron, and allows you to easily fix mistakes like putting them in the wrong way around.
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Jan 19, 2022 23:07
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tylertfb posted:I had an Electribe 2S (the sampler version, has a cut-down version of the 'synth' engine from the regular 2 also) and was pretty underwhelmed and sold it. It has kind of clunky synth signal flow (the envelopes, particularly were mystifying for me to figure out), and transitioning between patterns is kind of slow, and it also doesn't preserve track mute states between patterns. Made it kind of difficult for me to use how I want. (I basically make 90's style techno, where muting/unmuting drum trackis is about 90% of the trick) As an Electribe 2 S fan boy, I can understand not being a fan as it has some random and weird limitations, but I did want to point out that you can save track mutes to a pattern, absolutely. The envelopes are a little closer to synth controls than typical sampler/grooveboxes, which can be useful, but it would have been nice if they had a few other things accessible outside of the menus. While I have a soft spot for it, there are definitely better hardware samplers.
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Jan 19, 2022 23:07
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ricecult posted:but I did want to point out that you can save track mutes to a pattern, absolutely. Oh yeah I understand that, I guess I didn't explain exactly what I meant. For example: Imagine you have 2 patterns, A, and B with a kick drum on track 1, and it is state is unmuted in all four patterns. If you're playing Pattern A, mute track 1 and then switch to pattern B, track 1 will now be un-muted (as that was what it's state was when saved). Now switch back to pattern A and it will remain un-muted (because you're re-loading the saved mute-state of pattern A). I guess you could save patterns on the fly as you play, but that wouldn't solve the problem of having the mute state of the NEXT pattern you intend to play match up with the one that you're currently playing, and I also seem to remember that it would sometimes hesitate if you tried to save a pattern on the fly while playing. That one in particluar bothered me a bunch. It is a very nice little machine though, especially if you can get it for sub $300, and I really liked being able to run it off of batteries (had some fun jam sessions off the grid with it) but it was a little redundant once I got the MC707.
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Jan 19, 2022 23:29
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Lead out in cuffs posted:I feel like one major takeaway I had from watching my dad fix our Commodore 64 when I was a kid was "do always use an IC holder for ICs". It makes replacing them so much easier if you accidentally toast them, completely eliminates any chance of you accidentally toasting them from the heat of the iron, and allows you to easily fix mistakes like putting them in the wrong way around. do they make those for surface mount QFP stuff? I'm normally a socket everything person, that would be a game changer
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Jan 19, 2022 23:42
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Any idea what’s the closest thing to Koala that is made for macOS? I’d like to fiddle with my launchpad while also having more ports.
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Jan 20, 2022 00:30
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JamesKPolk posted:do they make those for surface mount QFP stuff? I'm normally a socket everything person, that would be a game changer Ah -- thought you were talking about through-hole. I'm by no means an expert, and have never soldered anything SMD, but would something like this work? https://www.jameco.com/c/IC-Sockets-PLCC.html Edit: oh, guess not, that's a different pitch to QFP. Yeah kinda looks like the only things available for QFP are expensive "burn-in" or "tester" sockets. Lead out in cuffs fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Jan 20, 2022 |
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Jan 20, 2022 00:54
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Oh, I know all about IC sockets in through-hole, but yeah, I don't think those exist for SMT. Would be nice!
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Jan 20, 2022 01:19
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tylertfb posted:Oh yeah I understand that, I guess I didn't explain exactly what I meant. For example: Imagine you have 2 patterns, A, and B with a kick drum on track 1, and it is state is unmuted in all four patterns. If you're playing Pattern A, mute track 1 and then switch to pattern B, track 1 will now be un-muted (as that was what it's state was when saved). Now switch back to pattern A and it will remain un-muted (because you're re-loading the saved mute-state of pattern A). I guess you could save patterns on the fly as you play, but that wouldn't solve the problem of having the mute state of the NEXT pattern you intend to play match up with the one that you're currently playing, and I also seem to remember that it would sometimes hesitate if you tried to save a pattern on the fly while playing. That one in particluar bothered me a bunch. I see what you're saying, yeah that's right. If someone was looking for something like the electribe but with the other approach to mute states, they would probably be better off with an Elektron unit.
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Jan 20, 2022 08:25
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I should prob just keep the analog 4. I just feel inadequate at it if that makes sense
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Jan 20, 2022 08:47
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"A MIRACLE" posted:I just feel inadequate at it if that makes sense My relationship to all gear, creativity, and life in general Fuk it yolo Beep boop
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Jan 20, 2022 11:17
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