Crazy Cat Gentleman Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 you know, like the guitar thread, but for people who play other stuff. Portland has this cool synthesizer "library" that I've been taking advantage of this year. first I got a Moog Mother-32. decently cool, and the first Moog I'd gotten my hands on. my next checkout was a Novation Bass Station II, and I'm gonna have to buy one of those. just waiting for the local synth shop to have one of their 10%-off sales so I can get it for under $400. and right now, I have a Moog subharmonicon. kind of a squirrely little sucker, but I'm getting the hang of it. I think some people call it the "happy accident" synth, and I have to agree, since I mostly make it sound like crap until I get the sequencers' rhythm knobs lined up just right and it starts playing the greatest thing ever. last night I had just such an experience, and then I decided around midnight that it needed a beat, so I just had to dig out my drum machine. I was screwing around with all that till like 5 or 5:30 AM, and I was so jacked up by it that I didn't fall asleep till probably almost 8. ugh. what other sorts of music makers do we have around here? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfife Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 thats bad ass! I also spot sony mdr 7506s. Good choice! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfife Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 I know a shitload of people who used to play guitar in bands around Detroit that turned to synths and stuff over the last dozen or so years. I personally don't think I've given synths enough time. I love how they sound (sometimes) and I used to own a Micro Korg a few years ago.... I messed around with it for like 3 hours and was it didn't click so I gave up. Stupid lack of persistence from an instrument player. I know it will take longer than that! I'm just not much of a knob turner, I don't like tweaking knobs on pedals and amps in guitar either, so it's probably just me. One thing I've wondered.... and maybe it's not really an issue. Let's say you got something super sweet going. It rocks the shit out of those 7506s. Is it easy to reproduce it "exactly" a couple days later when you're looking at turning nobs at such fine frequencies and shit? (I put exactly in quotes as I realize I don't reproduce my guitar parts exactly every time). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biff Mayhem Posted February 21, 2022 Share Posted February 21, 2022 So it's okay if the the cool people (guitarists) come visit the nerds here? Asking for a friend. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Cat Gentleman Posted February 22, 2022 Author Share Posted February 22, 2022 10 hours ago, pfife said: I'm just not much of a knob turner, I don't like tweaking knobs on pedals and amps in guitar either, so it's probably just me. I don't mess with knobs too much when I play guitar, but I looooove it with synths. not necessarily while I'm playing on a keyboard, but if I'm messing with a longer sequenced part, then yeah, totally. 10 hours ago, pfife said: One thing I've wondered.... and maybe it's not really an issue. Let's say you got something super sweet going. It rocks the shit out of those 7506s. Is it easy to reproduce it "exactly" a couple days later when you're looking at turning nobs at such fine frequencies and shit? (I put exactly in quotes as I realize I don't reproduce my guitar parts exactly every time). it depends on the synth. this Subharmonicon I'm messing with can quantize frequencies, and, well, I don't have a ton of hardware experience, but I think most polyphonic synths and stuff with keyboards and/or digital readouts can. the Mother-32 I had last month doesn't, so unless you have perfect pitch, you're breaking out your tuner. as for tone parameters, that depends even more on the synth. something relatively simple like the Moogs I've borrowed doesn't have much, just a simple envelope or two and the standard cutoff and resonance knobs for the filter. can't even select low-pass/high-pass/band-pass/24dB/12dB on those (except HP/LP on the Mother-32). but a complex modular system... you better document your patches or you might not get them back. at least if you're a sub-amateur like me. here's me twisting knobs while the Subharmonicon's sequencers do their things: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Cat Gentleman Posted March 24, 2022 Author Share Posted March 24, 2022 New toy. Being a cheap bastard, I do a fair amount of software synth. When I got my first Raspberry Pi, I tried my usual setup on it, just to see if it would work, and it kind of did. Tried it again more recently and found it was terrible, huge lag between hitting a key on the keyboard and getting sound. Plus the on-board audio isn't great in general, just 11-bit, and I wanted some improvement. So I got this HiFiBerry DAC/sound card with XLR outputs and a case to fit it all in, and it's pretty sweet. Went with the XLR outputs so that I could hook it to my multitrack recorder without having to screw with random cables and adapters and crap. And now I can do soft-synth stuff without needing my music station to be near my computer desk. Very important now that I've upgraded to a 24-track recorder. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfife Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 On 2/21/2022 at 7:18 PM, Crazy Cat Gentleman said: I don't know how I missed that you had posted this. It sounds super rad dude! I love how you meld from one thing to the next. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Cat Gentleman Posted March 24, 2022 Author Share Posted March 24, 2022 2 hours ago, pfife said: I don't know how I missed that you had posted this. It sounds super rad dude! I love how you meld from one thing to the next. thanks! I'm super-pleased with how it turned out, given the near-total lack of mixing ability I had when making it. glad someone else gets a kick out of it, too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Cat Gentleman Posted April 20, 2022 Author Share Posted April 20, 2022 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfife Posted May 7, 2022 Share Posted May 7, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Cat Gentleman Posted May 8, 2022 Author Share Posted May 8, 2022 🤯 nope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VegasTiger Posted May 13, 2022 Share Posted May 13, 2022 The view from my chair. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Cat Gentleman Posted May 14, 2022 Author Share Posted May 14, 2022 (edited) oh, sweet! just today, I got a second tier for my keyboard stand so I can keep the Bass Station II in a convenient spot: I also got my Raspberry Pi finished up recently. that's it behind the recorder, the grey box with notes cut out of the lid. the big keyboard hooks to that via MIDI, and the laptop is displaying synth software running on the Pi. (laptop is a Chromebook, so I can't install synth software on it.) Edited May 14, 2022 by Crazy Cat Gentleman 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfife Posted June 10, 2022 Share Posted June 10, 2022 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biff Mayhem Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biff Mayhem Posted October 17, 2022 Share Posted October 17, 2022 For the "Ringo sucks" people: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gehringer_2 Posted October 17, 2022 Share Posted October 17, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, Biff Mayhem said: For the "Ringo sucks" people: there's another UTube story out there and I don't remember the details well but IIRC, the claim was that some time near the break up, Ringo had walked out on the group and Paul had had to fill in on the drums, but apparently (from the audo evidence) the producer (Martin?) persuaded Ringo to come in overdub the hard part of the track and it wasn't clear from the story if the rest of band even knew, but when the reviewer broke down the audio tracks it seemed pretty clear a better drummer had taken over. I did see Ringo say for himself that one of the characteristic things in his drumming was the artifact of being left handed but using a right hand setup. It changed his crossover timing just enough to give him a unique sound but that wasn't something he'd ever planned. Edited October 17, 2022 by gehringer_2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfife Posted July 3, 2023 Share Posted July 3, 2023 So yeah @Crazy Cat Gentleman the synth bug has begun to bite me. I bought a roland ds 61 on marketplace and have checked out 2 synthetic from the local library (Korg Minilogue and Arturia Microfreak). I also added a boss sy200 to my guitar rig. I really love arpeggiators on the synths. So far my fav one is that Microfreak. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Cat Gentleman Posted July 3, 2023 Author Share Posted July 3, 2023 51 minutes ago, pfife said: So yeah @Crazy Cat Gentleman the synth bug has begun to bite me. I bought a roland ds 61 on marketplace and have checked out 2 synthetic from the local library (Korg Minilogue and Arturia Microfreak). I also added a boss sy200 to my guitar rig. I really love arpeggiators on the synths. So far my fav one is that Microfreak. nice! I'm not super familiar with most of that gear, but I know about the Minilogue—it was probably a candidate when I ended up getting my Bass Station II. or maybe it was the Monologue. in any case, enjoy your bleeps and bloops! unfortunately the music bug has kind of left me, as it does now and then, and I haven't touched my stuff in kind of a while. hate when that happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Cat Gentleman Posted August 9, 2023 Author Share Posted August 9, 2023 Welp Finally bought one after borrowing one about a year and a half ago and having a blast. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biff Mayhem Posted August 10, 2023 Share Posted August 10, 2023 13 hours ago, Crazy Cat Gentleman said: Welp Finally bought one after borrowing one about a year and a half ago and having a blast. I'll take "things beyond my comprehension" for 200 Alex. 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Cat Gentleman Posted August 10, 2023 Author Share Posted August 10, 2023 4 hours ago, Biff Mayhem said: I'll take "things beyond my comprehension" for 200 Alex. 🙂 I'm pretty close to that myself, TBH. the polyrhythm knobs make almost no sense to me, even though I've read/heard explanations and basically understand them. the whole thing is basically just "twist some knobs and hope for an interesting result" to me. but I like it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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