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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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Where are you guys selling your synths? I have a long history on eBay, but I got sick of people winning my auctions and NEVER loving PAYING, and then having to re-list 30 days after the auction. (Also didn't like how they discouraged Buy It Now vs auctions, etc.) So I sold my first synth on Reverb. Roland MKS-70 in excellent condition. It sold within 12 hours of listing. A day after the buyer received the package I left them positive feedback (hoping that would remind them to feed me back). Well then a day after that they message me saying the thing is making a terrible noise when not playing and they are disappointed. They sent me an audio recording and (assuming they weren't being shady) something definitely happened to the synth in transit. The thing was studio-ready when I boxed it up (I even have raw audio recorded from it just 3 days before I listed it), and I packed it well- I've sold a lot of synths. Anyway, because of the cost I had to pay for Reverb's "Safe Shipping" service when shipping the thing to the buyer, and this seems to just mean that an employee will step in to moderate between the buyer and seller on disputes. They withheld my payment because of the dispute, and nearly 2 weeks after the buyer received my synth I got an email from Reverb that they offered the buyer a "partial refund" (which of course was taken out of my cut of the synth). I'm really hoping the buyer was being honest and not trying to just get a great synth for less-than-market prices, but I have a closet full of old synths I was planning to unload on Reverb (two of them much more expensive than this one), and now I'm not sure what to do. Is eBay any better in matters like this? (Thinking about it, at least Reverb appeared to have human beings interacting with me, while interacting with eBay is like doing a Turing test, so I dunno.) Anyway, experiences selling/shipping your gear on either site?
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Feb 3, 2022 21:44
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A MIRACLE posted:Reverb and craigslist as a backup. I try to sell locally whenever possible which is pretty easy here in mega city one I am gonna test the local waters with my pricier boxes next time. I know there are synth nerds here. Glad to hear others have had better luck on Reverb, though. Since most of the synths I'm selling are >30 years old I'm wondering if there's ANY 100% safe way to pack these things. Like the MKS-70... it has 3 or 4 boards connected by a hinge inside. If the box got turned upside down for any amount of time, who knows what could happen in there. I might switch gears and sell a couple less-expensive/more recent gear just to see what kind of issues happen before listing anything precious again. EDIT: Sweet_Joke_Nectar posted:…what u sellin (GAS is real). Maybe some folks in the thread might be interested. These are all the synths I'm planning to unload, in no order: Roland: MKS-20, MKS-30, MKS 80 (two of them, both rev. 4), MKS-50, D-110, MKS-7 Waldorf: Blofeld, Pulse 2, Streichfett, Rocket I'm recording a complete song with each of them before listing them, so it's a slow trickle. Probably 1 a month? (Working on the first MKS-80 track now, and the patch programming is a huge headache.) EDIT 2: Forgot about the Roland Boutiques. I will def. record tracks with each of them, but not sure yet whether I will sell. Anyway, potential future listings: JX-03, D-05, JP-08, JU-06a Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Feb 4, 2022 |
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Feb 3, 2022 23:54
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minidracula posted:Someone or someones (plural) here was/were considering the Dtronics DT-RDX for their reface DX at some point, and I just happened to notice that my friendly local neighborhood synth shop happens to have a used one available right now for $150, if anyone is still interested:  Cheers, Marty!
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Feb 6, 2022 04:26
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petit choux posted:There are seven buttons in a row on the face of the synth, and these buttons just replicate them with something you can use your feet on. I didn't have to disable the ones on the panel either so you can use either. Oh, and those buttons are labeled osc, filter, eg, mod, delay, reverb and arp and mostly those are pretty much what they do. Eg means envelope gain I think. And some of them have other functions if you turn a knob at the same time. Wow, your encoder setup is fascinating! (Took me a while to figure out the purpose of the jars.) You are on your way to one-goon-band status.
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Feb 7, 2022 19:44
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Trig Discipline posted:Similarly I don't know anything about prog but I think I accidentally made some. That was great! What did you use for drums? Got any quick production notes? P.S. Really love that Nothing Never Lasts Forever thing you're working on, too.
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Feb 8, 2022 17:36
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Martytoof posted:2. I thought menu diving was what was keeping me from DX programming being more intuitive -- turns out it's just not knowing what I'm doing! Don't get me wrong -- having the controls in front of me is really REALLY good, and cutting out having to surf from menu to menu and use the lame touch/swipe controls is worth the price admission alone, but it just exposes that I need much more time in front of the keyboard. And to probably watch some more FM tutorials so I can more confidently make use of the knobs I now have access to. Bro, I get it. There have been several times in my life where I said, "I am finally gonna learn FM synthesis" and each time I just walk away confused. I've read about it, I've walked through hours-long tutorials, I've taken extensive notes. But I can't program an FM synth for poo poo. I just don't get it. I rely heavily on presets or sampled instruments (NI/UVI) if I need FM kinda sounds.
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Feb 10, 2022 07:12
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a mysterious cloak posted:okay here's another one of my dumb surveys: I produce music only on a desktop PC, custom-built for that purpose. This is my second DAW PC, and I will build another some day when/if graphics cards are easier to shop for. (I shop for the fastest fanless or at least quiet card I can find.) Cubase is my DAW of choice because it does everything, and because I've been using piano roll style sequencers for almost as long as they've existed. (Ran Cubase 1.0 on Mac, and other sequencers on Atari 8-bit and STs for years before that.) I've tried other DAWs, as well as hardware sequencers, workstations, and groove boxes, but I always find myself missing a favorite tool or feature. Anyway, the tools I use suit the way I write music. Generally I get a kernel of a song idea, and it grows into a fuller song outline in my head over a week or two. I don't even fire up the DAW until I at least have solid Verse/Bridge/Chorus in mind. I map out the song structure with markers and then I fill in the blanks. Rather than finding inspiration in my tools, the inspiration is external, and I just seek tools that offer me the quickest path to commit my ideas into something audible. (Part of the reason that I'm slowly shedding all my vintage synths; they're mostly a pain to program and record, and I'd rather use that time arranging and mixing.) Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Feb 15, 2022 |
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Feb 15, 2022 22:53
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I just finished the second installment in my planned series of hardware one-synth challenges. This one uses one of my Rev. 4 Roland MKS-80s. I programmed 8 original patches on the device with the aid of the KiwiTechnics Patch Editor. Due to the large number of MKS-80 parameters, the patch editor has to spread them across two different "pages," so most of the device's physical controls map to more than one MKS-80 parameter, based on the page. I made a "map" of MKS-80 controls that let me cross-reference the numbered parameters from the Roland manual to the Patch Editor. I used the MKS-80 for all melodic parts, a custom NI Battery kit for drums, a couple custom Massive patches for risers, and a Kontakt instrument for a single impact sound in the chorus. For mixing I used effects plugins from Steinberg, Waves, Sound Toys, and Eventide. There are additional notes about the MKS-80 and the programming effort in the video. This is actually the sixth version of this particular song I've recorded, although it's the first-ever one done with professional tools and modern production. (I originally wrote it when I was in high school, when I played all my parts live in a single take, while recording to cassette tape. Most of my early recordings are unlistenable.) The song is really named Simone, after my first girlfriend. I changed this version's title to "Five Weeks," since I post my tracks on Facebook, where I am FB friends with most of my exes, and most of them know about that girlfriend. There are lyrics and one day I'll add the vocals- but my main goal here was to feature the MKS-80, so I programmed a lead patch to carry the main melody. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORdA69wBr9A SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/ultimateoutsider/five-weeks-roland-mks-80-super-jupiter-demo-song
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Feb 22, 2022 17:20
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The Voice of Labor posted:roland pma-5s A Roland GM device I never heard of in a PDA form factor? I can't NOT buy this thing. EDIT: Bought.
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Mar 5, 2022 02:13
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Simone Poodoin posted:Not sure if this is the right thread for this but I would like to have a drum machine with the capability to record samples from it's inputs and preferably not as expensive as a digitakt. Does such a thing exist? The Novation Circuit Rhythm (NOT the Circuit Tracks) has hardware sampling capabilities, and is half the price of the Digitakt. There is also the Elektron model:sample, which is not strictly a drum machine (billed as a groovebox) but of course does drums and has hardware sampling as well, also for around half the price of the Digitakt. I don't have experience with them, but the Novation unit looks pretty cool IMO. I'm generally confused by most Elektron hardware.
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Mar 5, 2022 02:53
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While testing out the Roland PMA-5 I bought I discovered that it had not been initialized to factory settings, so it still had some user-created songs on it. Most of them were very simple single-instrument melodies, but one of them was this endearingly cheesy 80s/90s-late-night-talk-show-theme-style track. I don't know whether the prior owner composed it themselves, but I recorded it for posterity before I wipe the device clean. Roland PMA-5 Song02 Also, it appears that SoundCloud quickly fades tracks in, instead of playing them at full volume? The WAV plays exactly as intended locally, but SoundCloud is gobbling up the first note of the song.  Gotta remember that for future uploads.EDIT: This is also the first time I've recorded anything through my Maker Hart Loop 8 mixer, which was recommended to me here a while back when I started getting into the Roland Boutiques. I've heard arguments for and against the Maker Hart models in the time since, but I found the signal very clean. The only issue I had with recording was gain staging along the way from the PMA-5 to the interface- I found it very easy to max out the inputs from the PMA-5. Had the PMA-5's volume set to only like 1/4 volume with the fader on the mixer up only half-way, and that was high as I could go without peaking. (Turns out it was at least partially because I used Channel 1, which is labeled for mics, and appears to have double the gain of channels 2 and 3. At least I had phantom disabled.) Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Mar 9, 2022 |
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Mar 9, 2022 19:41
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Agreed posted:Finally got this drat track done, it was supposed to be a January release but I have a baby boy who's 4 months old so it's iffy when I can sit and work on tracks right now, and this one had some stuff I struggled to get tracked well but managed in the end. All synth sounds including bass are from the Cherry Quadra, configured to do its 4 different things at the same time mapped across my keyboards. Guitar tones are from... uh... buncha stuff, Nembrini amps for the harmonized guitar parts and this plugin called Rhino from Aurora DSP for the later heavier sections. Very cool! Really like the swirling guitars. That Quadra synth VSTi looks really cool, too!
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Mar 13, 2022 03:02
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RocketMermaid posted:[INCEPTION HORN] It's really weird how CME are doing this. The fact that they're copying Behringer's copy of the Arturia Keystep, and not the original Keystep is part of their marketing. The product page even has "inspired-by-behringer" in the URL: https://www.cme-pro.com/introduces-swidi-inspired-by-behringer/ Just... why? Isn't the Keystep the more well-known of the two controllers? This just seems like some really bizarre industrial trolling, and I don't see how CME benefits. I mean, sure, we're all talking about it now- but it has negatively affected my opinion of CME. EDIT: It looks like they're all in on wireless MIDI right now; I don't think they even make regular MIDI controllers anymore. I have one of their earlier desktop models. Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Mar 23, 2022 |
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Mar 23, 2022 16:28
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Rod Hoofhearted posted:As for negatively affecting your opinion of CME, why? They’re ratfucking the ratfucker, good on them. Also, CME used to have some good and unique products, and it's disappointing to see them go the "market follower" route. As for Behringer, my feelings are complicated. I have zero problem with people doing reproductions of hardware that's no longer being produced, but so closely copying products that are still being actively manufactured and sold does suck. But I am a little hypocritical for saying that considering I've bought 2 of Behringer's rip-off DIs and one of their rip-off cable testers. 
Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Mar 23, 2022 |
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Mar 23, 2022 19:30
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kidfresca posted:I will never say WIDI though, it's WiMi to me. Plus WiDi is already a pre-existing wireless technology. (I worked on it!) CME just fuckin up right and left.
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Mar 24, 2022 06:08
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tylertfb posted:Is there a good site(s) for current synth/hardware/software news? Are any other forums worth checking out? Sonic State posts press release-type info about all new plugins and traditional hardware synths (occasionally modular stuff): https://sonicstate.com/ They have a podcast that I actually love, but simply don't have enough podcast listening time for these days now that I'm no longer commuting to work or walking 10 minutes to the nearest bathroom or cafeteria: https://sonicstate.com/sonictalk Just a bunch of dudes with industry experience who fuckin' love synths.
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Mar 29, 2022 20:47
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Flipperwaldt posted:I haven't kept up with Sonic State since they got pushback for platforming an NFT true believer and in reaction gave him a full hour episode to, idk, explain it better. lol, i missed that saga! gotta look that up.
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Mar 30, 2022 00:14
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B33rChiller posted:Would you just look at this beautiful wizardry? It looks and sounds loving amazing. But goddamit these boutique guys: quote:It is resolutely an instrument to be played by musicians, not machines. Therefore it has no MIDI and does not contain LFOs or internal sequencers. Yes, you can get a $155USD MIDI bridge for it, but the thing already costs $4400USD, cmon.
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Apr 4, 2022 01:35
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a mysterious cloak posted:Side effect of not being depressed all the time any more: my creative mind has gone completely dark. I still love listening to music, but there is basically almost no interest in even trying to noodle around with my set up. Same goes for the drums which I've played since I was 9 years old. Coincidentally, I'm half-way into my third produced track in three months, and last night I pulled my vocal mic and boom arm out of storage, since I'm gonna be recording vocals for the first time since 2018. Eagerly awaiting the end of this creative period.
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Apr 7, 2022 07:48
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So Math posted:The past couple years, the biggest thing that keeps me writing songs was committing to a songwriting competition. Partly for having an external prompt and deadline. The feedback was good. Also, I realized that the things I wanted to develop were not going to go far in a general songwriting space. Which is pretty great for figuring out what you actually want to do. The Rockstar cover competitions we used to have in this subforum kept me going for a couple of years. Really sad they fizzled out. What competition(s) have you been submitting to?
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Apr 7, 2022 23:37
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I am working on a project that showcases the Roland MKS-50 (same guts as the Alpha Juno 1/2). I designed all the patches in an Alpha Juno emulation plugin called AudioRealism ReDominator, and I am using the KiwiTechnics Patch Editor to translate my ReDominator sounds to actual MKS-50 patches. (My very first synth was an Alpha Juno 1. It died in storage a long time ago, and I later replaced it with the MKS-50.) I just wanted to call out something really clever the Patch Editor device does in Alpha Juno mode: One of the unique things about the Alpha Juno/MKS-50 is the envelope. Rather than standard ADSR, the envelope has 4 time parameters and 3 level parameters (T1/L1, T2/L2, T3/L3, T4). In Alpha Juno mode, the Patch Editor gives you two different ways of manipulating the envelope, split across 2 different virtual pages. Page 2 gives you direct control over all 7 envelope parameters (controls 29-35 below; the numbers correspond to the table of MKS-50 programmable parameters in the Roland manual):  But Page 1 lets you control the envelope in ADSR format by combining different parameters into the same sliders (see how parameters 29-35 are arranged, compared to page 2):  This is so cool! While I always liked having the ability to do more complicated things with the Juno's envelope, sometimes ADSR is all you really need, and the extra sustain stages can kind of get in the way when sketching out a new sound. Another cool thing about the Patch Editor is that it only illuminates controls that are valid for a given "page." The lights don't match my control labels in the photos because the pictures I used were from when the Patch Editor was in MKS-80 mode. In practice, though, the lights are very helpful in guiding you to the correct controls.
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Apr 8, 2022 18:31
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Matt Zerella posted:Also TE dropped a mini mixer/audio interface with a built in synth and a bunch of other stuff... Hell has frozen over. Teenage Engineering released something I have a practical use for... but at that price it's gonna have to wait.
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Apr 21, 2022 18:49
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Rolo posted:Is there a way to turn off the Keystep while it’s plugged into a USB port? Should I care if it’s on all day with my PC? Yes there is! I use these USB cables with power buttons: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07X82661H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 There are a lot of USB cables like this out there, but MOST OF THEM don't actually pass data; they're purely for charging, so the switch functions as a literal power switch. This particular cable is data-capable, and I have every one of our USB headsets connected to them. (I find myself switching between speakers/headset/daw a lot, and it's much easier to reach for the lil power switch on my desk than to unplug the USB headset altogether.)
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Apr 22, 2022 19:55
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So just this morning I learned that a Portland OR-based game developer named Panic Inc is releasing a cool new handheld game console called the Playdate: https://play.date/ While it's not a synth, I felt it was worth mentioning here since the industrial design was done by Teenage Engineering! The whole thing is about the size of a Gameboy Advance, but only as thick as the Advance's screen.  A distinguishing feature is this little crank that flips up on the side and serves as a 360-degree analog controller. I wonder if they'll develop a Tempest clone!
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Apr 25, 2022 19:12
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JamesKPolk posted:The next move is gonna be keeping things in the boxes on shelves and never plugging them in/racking them, like funko pops. Savvy synthesists, take note! I have two unopened Roland Boutique boxes sitting on my bookshelf right now. (JD-08 & JX-08)  I have challenged myself to record at least one track with each of them, and resell them if we don't click.  I'm in the middle of a track with a Roland MKS-50 right now; sidetracked due to a giant Cubase 12 rabbit hole, but will be resurfacing to complete more tracks soon.
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May 10, 2022 23:32
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McCoy Pauley posted:Having spent part of the day resolving a weird issue where HALion was showing me all kinds of content in Artist 12 that I couldn't access and I thought my licenses were messed up and reinstalled everything, but it turned out it was that Cubase had installed extra HALion content I didn't own without me realizing it . . . one sympathizes. Funny enough, one stretch of said rabbit hole was writing a 2500-word guide on getting HALion and Groove Agent presets to work. That's literally the sixth article I've published over the years on how to get presets/library content working in Steinberg plugins. I'm ride-or-die for Cubase, but Steinberg has got to figure this poo poo out. You may have solved one underlying mystery for me, though. See, I've been trying to repro that exact issue you describe- unusable Pro content when running Artist- but this lovely new licensing system of Steinberg's keeps forcibly (but silently) activating Cubase Pro on the computer where I installed Artist. I have seen that Pro content gets installed by the Artist content installer, but didn't have any issues loading the Pro presets. I think the reason I've never seen the problem you describe because I'm never really running artist due to this Steinberg Licensing shitshow.
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May 13, 2022 06:45
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VoodooXT posted:RIP Vangelis Man, I was just thinking about him last night, how he was not just a synth guy but a capital-M Musician; a man who pushed his tools to the limit to manifest what he heard in his head into something he could share with the world. Nothing but respect.
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May 19, 2022 19:18
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Pollyanna posted:do you include FX as part of a synth patch, or leave it dry and expect to user to add their own? I ALWAYS design patches dry, no matter how good a given synth's internal effects are. I prefer to use my FX plugins for all effects (mainly because I know my handful of go-to plugs very well and it's easy for me to get the sound i want out of them). Pollyanna posted:Is it better to provide flexibility, or to make a patch that stands entirely on its own? When I use a preset from a synth like Nexus, I will either significantly dial back the patch's onboard effects or disable them altogether and then apply my own in the DAW- but while browsing/auditioning presets I do often find the built-in FX helpful for imagining what it would sound like in my track. There are some companies who kind of have trademark FX that I try to avoid (for example, almost every UVI library has tons of patches with this weird effect that alternates every other note in the stereo field- like a stereo ping-pong delay, but it's the source notes that get ping-ponged. Hate that poo poo, disable it 100% of the time.)
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May 24, 2022 20:14
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Pollyanna posted:I’m comfortable baking in chorus, unison, distortion, and octaver/pitch-shifting, cause if you take those away then the sound becomes a different sound altogether. I’m less comfortable baking in delay, compression, EQ, and especially reverb because it’s still the same sound even without them, and those effects say something about the sound in the context of other sounds. (Phaser and flanger are kinda borderline here.)
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May 24, 2022 21:40
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I loved Prince, Bowie, Vangelis, and the Beatles, but Fletch is the first of my "formative" artists to pass. Depeche Mode made me want to make music. They're one of a handful of bands whose influence you can actually hear in my work. I've also covered them many times throughout the years, using their songs as a guide to help me develop my own skills as a musician/producer. And 60 is too young. I'm heading out to take a walk in the rain while I listen to my DM playlist and vape some Indica. This one's got me hosed up.
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May 27, 2022 04:29
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a synth rig someone just posted on r/synthesizers. when you see it you'll poo poo bricks.  SPOILER: who the gently caress puts their HS5s on their sides?!?!?
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Jun 24, 2022 20:10
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JamesKPolk posted:HS7s on side w/ other better monitors on top of them were in so many sound on sound studio shots over the years I assume its just from that.
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Jun 27, 2022 03:23
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I just learned of a site where you can enter the name of a subreddit, and it tells you the other subreddits where members of that sub post most often. I was pleased to find that r/synthesizers was the 5th most popular sub with r/Portland members. I live in a city of synth geeks!  (also happy to find that r/mls is about soccer and not the multiple listing service. just housing anxiety things.)
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Aug 9, 2022 00:02
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Chainclaw posted:My local shop does consignment sale at a reasonable overhead if I'm willing to wait, otherwise they pay 50% of what they can sell it for used. I've sold a good chunk of gear on consignment through them, much easier than listing it online myself, taking photos, answering questions, and shipping it. I am probably gonna end up doing this. I have a number of vintage Roland rack units I had planned to sell on Reverb, but after my first lovely experience selling my MKS-70 on there, I'm reluctant to try again. Basically, buyer waited until after I left positive feedback to report that the unit was damaged (I had packed it super well, and had even recorded a full track with it before selling the thing, so I know it worked fine out the door). It's possible it could have been damaged in transit (35-year-old electronics after all), but Reverb agreed to compensate buyer to cover repairs- taking this out of my cut, of course- without telling me first. I will take a big haircut by using the local consignment shop, but that experience was so drawn out and stressful, I don't think I could handle it- particularly when two of the synths I want to sell are 2-3x more expensive than the MKS-70 in the current market. No way I'll ever sell a valuable item on eBay ever again, either; had too many people snipe my sales only to never actually pay, leaving me in limbo. I don't know why they do that- are they other sellers trying to sabotage competing sales? (You can't relist the item for like weeks afterward when buyers do that.)
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May 8, 2023 19:00
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