Ramp-Music.net

We have blinkenlights!

May 26, 2009 Gear

 

The big thing going on for me these days

May 19, 2009 Gear

I’ve been meaning to post a photo of this for a while, but it’s a little weird since I’ve been “In the process,” of this acquisition for so long and yet it doesn’t look like much at all at this stage. Anyway, here’s a photo of the synthesizers.com chassis:

 

 

 

I was going to be in the photo for scale, but I took my top off when I was working on the server and didn’t feel like putting it back on, so you get just the chassis. It looks small in the photo, but that stand is about desk height and it’s larger in person than I expected it to be. The installed component is the power supply, and the spool of cable is in fact 20 cables wrapped up neatly — they will go to supply power to the individual modules as I install them. The one loose cable to the left will connect to the power control module, which is what you plug the AC cord into from the wall and what has the on/off switch and the auxiliary feed for additional chassis on it. The bubble wrapped parcel sitting in it is just the power cord and a bunch of screws to be used to install the modules themselves.

I actually own two modules so far — the MIDI interface and the power control module. However, they are at Erin’s place, and I’ve been good about leaving them there until after WisCon, at which point I’ll have been in the U.S. for over 48 hours and will be able to bring them across duty-free. The next batch of modules won’t fall near a convenient event like that, so I’ll just have to pay the duty on them and take that hit. As soon as I install them, I’ll post another photo, and I’ll update it as new modules come in — I’m buying them in batches of a few at a time, so it will only be a small number of total installments.

Anyway, um. That’s it, I guess!

Whee!

Embarrassing Confessions

May 8, 2009 Uncategorized

I’m kind of in a holding pattern on composition while the house is being painted because my studio is completely full of junk from other rooms.

In the meantime, I can’t believe I just poured my soul out to a mostly technical (but occasionally surprisingly social) mailing list about synthesizers.com analog modulars thusly:

Hi, everyone!

I hope that this isn’t an inappropriate sort of post for the list. (Also, it’s pretty rambly; forgive me!)

I got the chassis / power supply / cable harness for my new system via the entry level system purchase plan last week. It’s unboxed and sitting in my den. I ordered the On Stage stand that Morbius recommended, and it’s come in at my local dealer and is ready for pickup on the weekend. My first two modules (Q137 and Q104) have arrived at my girlfriend’s place in Niagara Falls and I’ll be bringing them home with me after I go down for the weekend of the 23rd so I can bring them back duty-free. I’m saving up toward my next payment, which will hopefully be a triple payment so I can get the oscillator, envelope generator and amp all in one go and be able to begin getting some sounds while I wait to be able to pick up the rest of the modules. I even downloaded photos of all the modules that I think I want to get over time (mostly dotcom modules, a few STG) and photoshopped together a colour poster to put on my cubicle at work to keep me excited about it.

So I’m sort of on the precipice of this thing, and eventually this is of course going to add up to a lot of money. But also, it’s pretty new territory for me. While I cut my teeth on hardware, it’s always been digital and moreso, I’ve always been a sampler guy rather than a synth guy. I started with a Korg DSS-1 back in the mid-late 80s for a couple of months and then switched to an E-Mu EMAX, then an EMAX II and eventually an E4XT, complemented by a Planet Earth world music module. I did have a Roland Super JX-10 for a while (and briefly before that a JX8P), but I primarily used it as a controller keyboard and never got very involved in programming it. For the past several years, I’ve been entirely software-based, primarily using Native Instruments’ stuff — Reaktor, Kontakt, Battery and FM8 are really my core tools, and I recently added Miroslav Philharmonik (okay, it came as a freebie when I bought T-RackS 3, but I’m liking it). I did switch from a Roland A-33 over to an AKAI EWI4000S, which has an internal synth, but again, I use it mainly as a MIDI controller to drive the woodwinds on Miroslav Philharmonik, and haven’t played with its synth much. Even in the softsynths, I program sounds to some degree and whip up instruments in Reaktor a fair bit, but more often than not, I get halfway there in the synth and then just take it the rest of the way using effects or other techniques in Logic. I also never did get around to really incorporating the control surface that I bought (an Evolution UC-33e) into my workflow, so I’m almost totally mouse-based.

So, on an intellectual level, I think that the dotcom makes a lot of sense for me in terms of covering new ground, taking me in new directions, entering new territory. I’ve got plenty of capacity for glitchy sounds, for digital sounds, for “authentic” sampler-based sounds, but there’s a gap around warm, fat analog tones. Also, I’ve moved so far away from anything very hands-on that I think that the interactivity will itself constitute a huge shift for me. And of course, these days, as indicated by the keyboard->EWI change, I’m all about the big shifts.

At the same time, it’s a lot of money for me (especially as I’ve gotten used to the price of softsynths, where $500 is a pretty major expenditure that needs some huge justification), and although I’ve kept up a pretty high-pitched squeal of excitement ever since I started down the decision-making path and then actually ordering it and so on, I’m hitting that point where my brain is dwelling on the whole, “What if I get it all complete and I just don’t get it? Like, I don’t have what it takes to mesh with this kind of instrument, or I just make one obvious patch and don’t come up with anything really inventive to do with it otherwise, or it sits there and fails to fuel the inspiration engines through some failing in how my brain works?” I’m totally convinced by all the research I did that this is a fantastic system for a lot of people, but I’m worried that it’ll go over my head, or under it, or to one side or whatever.

Did any of you have any real doubts about this before you dove in? Did any of you come from a similar sort of background? Did it take a specific sort of experience to make it all *click* for you? Or did you mostly work up to this system from other hands-on analog synths or performance-oriented mindsets where this sort of fell into your workflow pretty naturally? Do these systems just have so much magic to them that when I actually get it this is going to look totally silly in retrospect? Did any of you find yourselves on the threshold with cold feet? (I mean, I’m committed to finishing out at least the entry level plan, but you know what I mean.)