Page 66 of 101
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 5:59 am
by mks
If I could get them cheap enough, I might check those out. I think $60 for a new Beats wasn't that bad. If I were to go down the 303 route, I would consider TB-3. Who knows though, the Bass might be cool. I actually thought the Keys was last on my list.
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 7:16 am
by mks
I don't know, Korg makes some cool stuff every once in awhile. Might pull this out soon for this experimental set I'm thinking about. Not analog, but a lot of sounds packed in this little box. This is actually a little pad machine.
So many little droids...
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 12:36 pm
by nowaysj
no work
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 1:21 pm
by wolf89
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 5:42 pm
by fragments
You know what happens every NAMM? What ever the piece of gear I spend a year researching and finally buying, turns out a ton of new cool shit that fits the bill comes out at NAMM...this year it was sequencers! Then about two months after I buy a sequencer the street price drops by 50% : ( Probably also because they are going out of production and won't be supported anymore.
FML
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 5:55 pm
by nowaysj
FA
(Fuck Arturia)
===
I'd also like to draw a little comparison - the Arturia Minibrute was like the first keyed cheap analog synth in a generation (ignoring dsi, for whatever reason) and I was super excited. Preordered when announced at namm. Waited a loooong time for that fucker. Got it and was underwhelmed. Now compare that to the ax60, which admittedly is a poly, but the sound of the ax60 is like real analog. It is fucking crazy and alive, and does shit of its own accord, it is surprising, it can go to sonic places it shouldn't go, it wasn't designed to go. The minibrute was tame by comparison. It was sterile and flat. Even with the metalizer, the fucking brute force, and whatever that other thing was, oh yeah, like super saw, none of those little synth tricks (and these are the things that make synths interesting, their particular little quirks) did it for me. I found myself returning to vsts, with the minibrute sitting in the power position on my desk. The Ax60, I can't keep my hands off it. I'm trying to work on HUBB'S DNB TUNA! EXTRAVAGANZA, but I'm just drawn to the ax60 to make fuuuuuuhhhked up sounds.
The Volca Bass IS NOT JUST A TB 303 CLONE. It has much greater range than that. The 303 concept is paramount on it, no doubt, but it is not hard to go well beyond that.
Now the volca lines sound like real analog to me, alive analog in the way the minibrute didn't, but even they don't sound like this vintage... just fucked up analog of the ax60.
Anyone have experience with the deoxits, f5 and/or d5? The faders on the ax60 seriously look like they've been to iraq. It is a dust dessert in there. I'd like to flush them out. I've used the F5, the fader deoxit on an mc-909 and I felt like it took too much of the lubrication out, like the faders were way smoother before I deoxed them. I don't know... your thoughts on shooting f5 into there?
Also, got a used patchbay that I haven't wired up. I was thinking about shooting some d5 into the inputs to clean up whatever goo might have accumulated in there. Watchy'all think about that?
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 9:17 pm
by fragments
I still like my MicroBrute :p
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 9:19 pm
by nowaysj
Think the micro may be more interesting than the mini.
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 9:58 pm
by fragments
nowaysj wrote:Think the micro may be more interesting than the mini.
That is my impression...unsynched LFO to pitch...its like Boards of Canada all day long...
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:02 pm
by nowaysj
Bro, lez hear some examples of that.
I'm committed to moving in a BOC direction. Strongly strongly committed.
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:32 pm
by fragments
nowaysj wrote:Bro, lez hear some examples of that.
I'm committed to moving in a BOC direction. Strongly strongly committed.
I'll try to get you a recording ASAP. Just remember I don't have their melody writing skills ;p
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 10:50 pm
by nowaysj
Don't forget harmony, and tape machines!
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:18 pm
by 3rdeye
nowaysj wrote:So, is the volca bass anything more than a tb303 clone?
And anybody wanna buy one?

I think the Bass is a great box - in many ways it suits my needs more than the Keys. The tuneable oscillators are a big plus, making it good for dubby chords and such. But i'm finding it a bit limited for bass sounds, ironically. Plus the filter's a bit noisy for mids etc. I think I'll be using it more for leads and stabs and using the Bass Station II for subs and other bass parts.
My MC-505 arrived today - in pretty much mint condition which is impressive considering how old it is! Looking forward to getting stuck into some dubtechno with it when I get home
Oh and nowaysj I had a go on a friend's Microgranny the other day - that thing is the tits! Went to order one straight after a 2 minute fiddle and the buggers are on backorder, but I'll defo pick one up in the next couple of months. Such an interesting way to work with samples and they sound pretty crazy!
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:35 pm
by fragments
nowaysj wrote:Don't forget harmony, and tape machines!
Volca keys chords and recorded to cassette? I can do that.
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:37 pm
by mks
I'm totally thinking about getting one of these.
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:41 pm
by nowaysj
fragments wrote:nowaysj wrote:Don't forget harmony, and tape machines!
Volca keys chords and recorded to cassette? I can do that.
Like 8 times. Like cassette to cassette to cassette to cassette
Volume down each time.

Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:51 pm
by nowaysj
Dudes. You can't put me back in the box. Everything I'm touching in hardware is INSTANT gold. Computer is going to be fx and tape machine for the time being, until I can get all the way out of the box. This is just incomparable.
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2015 11:53 pm
by 3rdeye
nowaysj wrote:Dudes. You can't put me back in the box. Everything I'm touching in hardware is INSTANT gold. Computer is going to be fx and tape machine for the time being, until I can get all the way out of the box. This is just incomparable.
I'm loving the change as well man. Feels just, well, fresh!
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 12:26 am
by fragments
nowaysj wrote:fragments wrote:nowaysj wrote:Don't forget harmony, and tape machines!
Volca keys chords and recorded to cassette? I can do that.
Like 8 times. Like cassette to cassette to cassette to cassette
Volume down each time.

So what you are saying is I can just record tape hiss and you won't know the difference
as to OTB versus ITB... I don't think I'll ever go only all OTB...using a DAW as a multi tracking and final polish environment is too easy however, I think I'll be having a new Electribe Sampler as the end of the chain for my all OTB stuff.
Re: Gear lust
Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2015 3:50 am
by nowaysj
I'd really like to live record to tape, or multitrack to tape, then take that into the box and mix the stems. But really really, I'd like to record to multitrack and then back out through mixer and mix onto 2 track tape. It'd be nice to have 6 1176's, 4 la2a's, and all the rest.
But I would love to just have stems to mix in my daw. Honestly, I don't really mix at all, I only mix during writing. Fl (or my use of it) is not great at producing stems, and my working projects can be messy and invariably max my ram and CPU out, so I don't have a lot of resources left for that sweetening kind of mixing, so just don't do it.
Speaking of which, I'm thinking of trying reaper out again to use that as my tape machine. Any of y'all using reaper?