Welcome to Jim Wicked's Blaugh!
26-05-01 I Want To Be Slept In
| I've found a way to get my ass into gear with rebuilding studio stuff! If I camp out in the car for about half an hour or so when I get home from work, I don't want to just crawl into bed and be lazy! As such, it's been a productive week, comparatively speaking. I've got nearl all of my stray Eurorack modules installed; I just need to get behind the newest rack and hook up all the power. Also got a good start on installing modules into my MU modular system. Finally got that new cabinet from Synthesizers.com. It's geeky and I already ranted about it on GearSlutz, but basically, it's kinda bumming me out that it's such a different company from what it used to be when they were based out of a rural Texas town. But yeah, I installed the new power supply in the cabinet and dropped all of my non-Dot Com MU modules into it. Two problems: 1. I lost a module. I checked the tracking information, and it was delivered in March, but I can't find it. I could kinda understanding losing a Eurorack module because they're often pretty small, but the SSL Delay is a big honker! 2. I'm missing an entire order from Musonics! Ordered five modules in their Vanilla series (SEM clones, basically) toward the beginning of March, and it hasn't arrived. The box I thought had them was from when I grabbed a couple laptops on sale. Hell yeah! I looked up the order info, and it hasn't been marked as shipped. I'm kind of shocked because it's an expensive order, but also because STG/Musonics has been in business for a while, so it seems weird that they would miss a whole order like that. So yeah, my newest MU cabinet is incomplete now. Phooey. I did a weirdo thing and ordered a crap ton of stuff that I just sold off a couple months ago. I missed the rompler stuff. So since the idea is to just have a stack of preset sounds to build songs from, why not get more traditional synths to go with them? Not many preset machines jumping out at me, and I don't want to spend a bunch of time editing patches, so I decided to get a bunch of the more basic Behringer synths. The idea is since they don't have patch memory, I can just put them on a shelf and casually tweak them as needed while still mostly relying on presets. I'm not going back into gear hoarding mode though, so I've got at least a couple synths getting sold out. I mean, three acid-techno rigs was ridiculous, so having a fourth is just insane, right? This one is just an all-MIDI extravaganza, though. Fun times! Still lusting for an MPC1000. Got a 401k withdrawal to pay off some bills. (Spoiler alert: I did NOT pay bills!) I was hoping to pony up for a mint-condition MPC1000, but got sidetracked by the Behringer thing. Jokes aside, I did catch up on a couple bills, so it wasn't a total wash. I'm thinking I just want to get things put together to an undertermined certain point, and then just cool it on buying gear for a while to catch up on the other bills and actually use the gear I have. It feels like that's always the goal, but it's kind of attainable now. I didn't sleep for shit last night. I'm tired, but surprisingly, I'm not dozing off at my desk or twitching with anxiety like I usually do when I'm this worn out. This is going to be a loooooong weekend. Date night today leading into tomorrow, and then my tiny town is hosting an EDM club night downtown tomorrow night. Gotta go support them if I want to see more of them later on, right? Current Gear Lust: MPC1000 and finish out the weird techno rig Last media consumed: Don't Come Back From the Moon Current musical infatuation: Peanut Butter and Jelly the LONG WAY! Mood: I Don't Know How I'm Wide Awake Still |
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| I was so excited to get back to work and drop something in my blog. It was something personal, but I don't remember for sure what it was. There's a training thing for work I'm thinking of signing up for. It's in Oklahoma. (Insert first mention of Panic Disorder.) I haven't been on a plane in years. I was doing good taking trips and stuff, but I stopped so I could do more staycations, and now my confidence in myself is low. It sucks because I've found that as long as I stick with it, I can overcome and not freakout, but the brain is what it is. Wifey says she'll come with me for this trip, so that'll help. I think a lot of it is that I won't have my mom waiting for me when I get back home. I went to North Carolina and to Reno to visit my dad after mom passed, but I used the fact that my dad was at the destination to give me relief. This might have been what I wanted to blog about, but I think there was something else. Speaking of staycations, I've got another one coming up in three weeks. The next couple weeks are going to drag at work. I wish I could just stop my medication now so I can focus on getting my studio and workstations ready. Kayla's work schedule is messing me up because I had a routine, and now it's gone. LOL. I was in the studio for the first time in a couple weeks last night to grab something to sell. It's a mess in there, but it feels like a more controlled mess than it used to be. Installing all those modules I bought should be fairly cake (if not a little fun!) My little groovebox-oriented modular case is in the way of everything, so I need to find a place for that. The portable workstations are going to kill me. I'm thinking of breaking down my acid station and putting it on a wire shelf to put on a keyboard stand. It's fun pulling down the bed tray and sitting it in front of me, but the Elektron boxes are too far back to be comfortable, and the whole thing is heavy as hell. Also thinking about terminating and selling my industrial-techno tray. I get the acid I want from the acid tray. It doesn't make sense to have both of those. It barely makes sense to have a workstation oriented toward acid and techno that's all Roland gear, but those are just a lot of fun to play on. I've got a lot of gear that needs to be situated. I've still also gotta put together the Sonicware workstation. My workstation centered around the Drumlogue is gonna change, though. It was intended to have the two Wirehead synths and the MC-101, but I just listed the MC-101 for sale last night. It's capable of a lot, but I look at all that menu-diving and shudder. No idea what I want to put in its place yet, just that the MC-101 isn't going to be fun for that kind of thing. I've just got a lot of shit to do. Current Gear Lust: MPC1000 and more patch cables Last media consumed: Toxic Avenger Remake (started watching with Dez, but we didn't finish) Current musical infatuation: That new Madonna single is so SEXY! Mood: Flamboyant and drained |
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| I took some time last night to trim down the acid techno table. Talk about barebones; it's just a Donner B1, D1, IK Uno Drum, and MPC500! Current Gear Lust: A compact mixer with lots of features that doesn't exist. Last media consumed: The Pit and The Pendulum (Stuart Gordon version starring Lance Henriksen) Current musical infatuation: Boneless One (somewhere between acid house and ghetto tech) Mood: Stoked |
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| I finished my little acid techno bed tray thing. Got it all MIDIed up, got all the settings tweaked to where it all plays from one button, and worked out any odd hiccups. There's still a hiccup with the Model:Samples because it defaults to not sending out clock, even though I programmed it to do otherwise. It's a small inconvenience that I'll consider as part of the bootup process. As an aside, I have to admit that writing this the old-fashioned way with mandatory HTML coding as I go is fun. There's definitely I want to do to make this section easier to read, though. I just really need to sit down and polish up on my HTML "skills". But yeah, the bed tray is cool. It's funny how it's taken me this long to get here, but this setup is exactly what I had in mind when I decided I wanted to make an acid techno workstation in the first place. It's just an IK Uno Drum, Donner B1, Donner L1, IK Uno Synth Pro X, an Elektron Model:Samples, and possibly a Model:Cycles later on. I got so sidetracked that I never got to distill this thing to its purest form of drums, 303 synth, 101 synth, sampler, and a more flexible synth for filling out the spectrum. I've got mixed feelings overall. For one thing, it's satisfying to finally be at this point, but I'm hindered by my skills and experience making acid, and the fact that whole setup feels too large for such a small space. I could program the Uno Drum, L1, and B1 just fine, but the Uno Synth Pro X feels like it's not in the greatest position, the Model:Cycles isn't comfortable to reach, and the mixer is just in an all around bad place. I'm not 100% happy with this, so I'm trying to figure out how to improve. So where do I go from here? I think getting this off of the bed tray is going to be the best option. It's not as portable as I'd meant for it to be (gear is hanging off of the edges on all four sides). A wire shelf placed on a keybaord stand would be great for it. This does start making me wonder what to do with the other gear. I had planned another setup with another B1 and L1, MPC, Hexdrums, Minifreak, Starrykeys, and D1, but that now feels insanely overkill. It's pretty much just a variation on this other setup with a couple bobs and bits added. Although, the Hexdrums feels less overkill now. It's still a $1300 drum machine, but the Uno Drum feels like it's too limited. It sounds good on its own, but I think I like the Hexdrums' flexibility more. On top of this, I'd also planned a Roland rig with a T8, S1, P6, TR8S, SH4D, and an MC-307. That would be a lot less 'authentic', but all the built in effects makes it sound great. I've just gotta use a better mixing solution than I was for all those YouTube techno videos. My point is that all three of these setups were designed to accomplish the same sort of thing, so I should really just pair it down and figure out what it is that I want and will get the most use/fun out of. The QS6.1 is due to arrive today. It's exciting, but I don't think I'm going to have time to play with it. I want to spend this evening after work with the acid bed tray seeing what it is I like or don't like and weather or not its worth the effort of building more workstations with this setup. Also, I think I'm going to go ahead and break up the E-Mu/Alesis gang. I just really think it'd be more fun to have the Orbit, Proteus FX, Pro/cussion, and ESI-4000 completely separate from the 'A-Station' as that's intended to be like my rock and roll station. Yay. JW out for now. Current Gear Lust: Gear I already have. (This is a good thing. LOL) Last media consumed: Short Circuit 2 Current musical infatuation: Cheesy early 80s pop tunes Mood: Adrift |
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| I don't know when (if ever) I'm going to get the time to tackle this website thing. Also, I need to relearn HTML code. It's been a very long time since I've needed anything more complicated than an a href link or an img src. LOL. I've been pretty bad about studio work lately. After that huge selloff, I still need to put a lot of stuff together in order to become fully operational. Also, now that the seal has been broken on selling, I'm giving a lot of stuff the side eye and wondering just how necessary a lot of it is. Do I really need three separate acid setups? I've got one nearly finished that hopefully I'll get to test out tonight. I'm honestly pretty excited. I've been on a big acid kick for about a year or two now. But yeah, the more gear I sell, the more I can buy in exchange. It will probably end up being a bad decision, but I impulsively bought an Alesis QS6.1 this weekend and a few expansion cards. I was trying to hold out for a cheap E-Mu Orbit to go with my Pro/Cussion, Proteus FX, and ESI-4000 Turbo, but I got severely sidetracked. I'm terrible with money. LOL. Still, that's gonna be fun to play around with. I like those old all-in-one multitimbral preset boxes. It's fun using them for their intended purposes. The entirety of the Myst soundtrack was done with an old E-Mu MPS+, and it's legendary. It's why I keep coming back to the Proteus FX since in reality, the FX is a beefed up version of the MPS+ without the keys. I'll probably end up selling it all off anyway so I can focus on just the modular, but it's fun to get outside of my comfort zone. The problem is that I've "out of my comfort zone" for way too long. I haven't been productive in forever. What I should do is sell off anything that's not part of the main studio's modular paradigm, but I'll just end up buying it all again. Just since I started the selloff, I've bought and sold a Model:Cycles twice (and I'm on the verge of buying another one to round out acid station #2), refunded at least six buyers so I can keep the gear I sold them before it goes out the door, and I'm seriously kicking myself for selling the E-Mu racks and the Technox. At least I had another Proteus FX that ended up being easy to fix, nobody bought the ESI-4000, the Pro/Cussion was cheap to repurchase, and even at exhorbitant prices, the Orbit isn't going to cost me more than $500. That Technox was a huge mistake, though. I'll probably never find one that cheap again. Though speaking of the E-Mu's and the Alesis, I've hypothesized a workstation. Before I realized that it's a great place to mate the E-Mu Gear, I was gonna call it the 'A-Station' because it was going to consist of just Akai, Access, and Alesis synths. Virus TI2, DM10, QS6.1, and an undecided model of MPC for the A part. Jotting down these notes, I'm thinking about switching it back to the E-Mu stuff being an independent workstation because that will be a heck of a lot of channels to manage, and I still like the idea of an E-Mu stack used as a box of presets for casual composition. It's almost time to go home, so I should wrap this up. In short, I'm excited to get involved in that little acid station today. Fingers crossed I have the gumption for it! Current Gear Lust: Elektron Model:Cycles Alesis QCards Replacement Modules for the Groovebox System (Queen of Pentacles, ASQ-10) Flame FM Kosmos Module Flame Fire Module Last media consumed: Artemis II livestreams Current musical infatuation: anything with an acid synth in it Mood: Hopeful? |
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