August 13, 2012
Kickin' It Old School...
by Chris Randall
I apparently decided to spend the entire weekend dealing with various computer problems instead of doing anything productive. On Saturday morning I was just gonna kick out a little jam video, like the couple dozen I've done before. Easy peasy, right? Not so much, no. Virtually every piece of soft- and hardware I own decided to fuck off in such a way that troubleshooting was required. (Hell, I even had to flash the OS on the Virus.)
In any event, by 8PM on Sunday, I finally got everything working. At that point I was feeling fairly AAARRGH, so my normal working tempo of 80-100 got doubled, and obviously my back-brain thought it was a good idea to channel mid-career ?-Ziq and Aphex Twin. (As Jamie Zawinski terms it, the "Silica gel, DO NOT EAT" era of electronic music.) So here you go. I resisted two urges: first, I did not use the Amen break, and second, I didn't name it Hasty Boom Alert With 100% Less Forethought. I'm not looking for praise or anything, but if those two points could receive their due acknowledgement, that'd be cool.
Anyhow, since I did this one with the lights off, not so easy to see what I'm using, so here's a paragraph for the gear spotters. Sole 'verb is the Eventide Space. The first synth you hear is Phosphor. All the "drums" are actually bits of flotsam and such-like on my back porch, sampled directly in to Maschine as I was learning how it worked. The Maschine 2-buss has Automaton and Replicant on it, controlled via a Korg NanoKontrol.
The bass is coming from a MeeBlip SE; I slapped Filterstation on the outs, and a knob on the Nanokontrol is hitting both filter freqs; the filter topology is the MS20 LP models. As you can plainly see in the video, this is the chain that produces the wobble bass, or as I have now named this sort of manual filter LFO, Crobble bass. The main melody is from the Virus Ti.
12 comments:
"Virtually every piece of soft- and hardware I own decided to fuck off in such a way that troubleshooting was required."
This is the magic and wonder of computers. I've never gotten over how often this happens, and laugh when troubleshooting a situation and someone says "It's not likely they both quit working at the same time".
Nice tune. Right in my soft spot.
bb
This is the magic and wonder of computers. I've never gotten over how often this happens, and laugh when troubleshooting a situation and someone says "It's not likely they both quit working at the same time".
Nice tune. Right in my soft spot.
bb
On one hand, software updates suck. On the other hand, one of my synths needs a new LCD and the other needs some sort of work done on its power supply. I'm hoping that it just needs new power regulation chips, or perhaps new capacitors. And the SH101 needs new faders and possibly a new CPU.
So it could be worse, but you already know that.
Also: nice track.
So it could be worse, but you already know that.
Also: nice track.
My issues were actually 100% software, but with things like the Virus and Maschine, the line gets somewhat blurry. I mean, I _think_ of the Virus Ti as a piece of hardware, but really it is a computer with a big slab of DSP horsies up in it. The Maschine is really just an HID with some buttons and LCDs and such.
Considering the amount of money I've spent on keeping that CS-5 in working order (well over a grand at this point, knocking on $2K's door) having to do an OS update on the Virus is just time spent. But the net effect is the same: you want to make a sound, the sound you want to make is unavailable right now. Creativity: stifled.
-CR
Considering the amount of money I've spent on keeping that CS-5 in working order (well over a grand at this point, knocking on $2K's door) having to do an OS update on the Virus is just time spent. But the net effect is the same: you want to make a sound, the sound you want to make is unavailable right now. Creativity: stifled.
-CR
That's why...when I got a vibe going, I turn on my writing studio circa late 80s...don't have time to fight with getting Pro Tools to re-clock itself after switching sample rates...no I don't want to update Mac OS... Once that vibe is gone sometimes its hard to find it again..
I'm with kslight. At the moment, my most important pending 'update' is getting my Sony ES cassette deck serviced. I feel an unwelcome disconnect from my past with not being able to play my old tapes, and record to my still healthy stack of blank ones. As for software issues, thankfully my biggest one is the time every week spent installing updates which, seemingly, keeps my crashes and other issues at a minimum... It's necessary. You DON'T want your creativity stifled. Ever. Life's - potentially at least - too short, as a close friend of mine painfully realized today when another of his close friends dropped dead of a heart attack at age 35. And, yes, good piece in the dark CR. Keep 'em coming!
All gear requires maintenance, and it generally only DEMANDS it exactly when you don't want it.
My studio remains a hybrid of hardware and software. I mostly use the hardware for writing and the software for recording. I wouldn't change a thing, and I'm grateful to be a musician in 2012.
For me, the best approach continues to be "absolutely as little gear as possible". I don't just mean synths and plug-ins. I mean as little cabling, as few effects, the most minimal mixer set-up.
I try to get rid of anything I'm not always using, anything temperamental, and anything I don't LOVE.
My studio remains a hybrid of hardware and software. I mostly use the hardware for writing and the software for recording. I wouldn't change a thing, and I'm grateful to be a musician in 2012.
For me, the best approach continues to be "absolutely as little gear as possible". I don't just mean synths and plug-ins. I mean as little cabling, as few effects, the most minimal mixer set-up.
I try to get rid of anything I'm not always using, anything temperamental, and anything I don't LOVE.
god if could follow this creed, i reckon this short life would be so much simpler..
why do i need to nurse 'inanimate' things along sometimes..?
cr, love the old school sound with special sauce..
why do i need to nurse 'inanimate' things along sometimes..?
cr, love the old school sound with special sauce..
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