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So am I sick or what ?


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So I am finally finished my FASTFINGERS2 lead synth and sequencer for the C64. I'm supposed to finish up the instruction manual and start recording my next CD.......but I have also bought a $h!%load of YM2149 chips and I would like to make a pocket sized lead synth ??????

 

I'm like Jeckel and Hyde . One side musician, other side mad music experimenter builder.

 

 

CAN ANYONE RELATE ?

 

DAN

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Yes. A different realm of endeavor perhaps but similar syndrome.

 

I am obsessed with certain ideas on how I want/need my guitars to perform.

I keep doing a Strat/Tele build and refining what I prefer as I go.

 

So my main players are all (always) a work in progress.

 

Current favorite has gone through an evolutionary process as I find the neck configuration I want to play.

Now using the widest, fattest Warmoth neck with super jumbo frets and fully scalloped fretboard. It took a while to adapt to it, now I don't want to play anything else.

 

Still getting my electronics where I want them. I am using two EMG SA pickups, neck and bridge. I like that. I use the SPC mid boost. I like that.

Just a 3 way switch.

But...

Over time I realized that I leave the SPC on, full up - always. No need to have a knob there.

I've also come to realize that I never use the bridge pickup by itself, always the neck or neck/bridge. So maybe just an on off switch for the bridge pickup is all I need.

 

I do very occasionally use the volume control for swells but not often. If not, I would bag that too. I never adjust the volume for any other reason, I've learned to control my tone and dynamics by using a very heavy pick and a light-to-heavy touch and/or shifting my picking position from the neck to the bridge.

 

I could almost just hook both pickups up to the output jack and call it good. That is tempting. Building another one, I may try that. I can always add in anything I really need.

 

Always messing about with my DAW and plugins, stereo guitar amps, combining microphones, etc. It never ends and I like it that way. Cheers, Kuru

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I don't know if this is true or just a fable.

 

There once was a fabulous carpenter. He could build anything and then something happened to him. He started spending more time a fixing up his shop and less time actually building furniture. Eventually he never had time to build furniture, only time to fix up his shop.

 

Dan

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I don't know if this is true or just a fable.

 

There once was a fabulous carpenter. He could build anything and then something happened to him. He started spending more time a fixing up his shop and less time actually building furniture. Eventually he never had time to build furniture, only time to fix up his shop.

 

Dan

 

Sounds like MIDI in 1984 :)

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I am completely the opposite. I want to spend as little time as possible fiddling, and as much time as possible creating. Anything that interferes with this, I consider an irritating roadblock, one that I will blast through so I can continue creating.
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I don't know if this is true or just a fable.

 

There once was a fabulous carpenter. He could build anything and then something happened to him. He started spending more time a fixing up his shop and less time actually building furniture. Eventually he never had time to build furniture, only time to fix up his shop.

 

Dan

 

Sounds like MIDI in 1984 :)

 

Thanks Craig best laugh I"ve had today :D

 

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I don't know if this is true or just a fable.

 

There once was a fabulous carpenter. He could build anything and then something happened to him. He started spending more time a fixing up his shop and less time actually building furniture. Eventually he never had time to build furniture, only time to fix up his shop.

 

Dan

 

I am my own "test staff", my latest modification(s) gets played at least 5 times a week with at least 2 of those paid gigs.

The time spent scalloping and tweaking was well worth it to me.

 

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I am completely the opposite. I want to spend as little time as possible fiddling, and as much time as possible creating. Anything that interferes with this, I consider an irritating roadblock, one that I will blast through so I can continue creating.

I have a somewhat different outlook...to me, fiddling is R&D, which leads to creations I didn't anticipate. For example fiddling with Jam Origin has given me a whole bunch of useful ideas. The fiddling I DON'T like is troubleshooting, wondering why something isn't working right, updating a program which then leads to needing to update something else which then leads to cursing either Windows or MacOS :)

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Well yeah, I am talking about fiddling under the hood - troubleshooting, updating, installing, etc.

 

The fiddling I do enjoy is things like: "I wonder what this would sound like if I route _______ into ____?" or "What does my guitar sound like if I put paper clips on the strings?" But this is obviously creating or experimenting, not wondering why I can't hear something, wondering why something isn't working, updating, etc.

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Well yeah, I am talking about fiddling under the hood - troubleshooting, updating, installing, etc.

 

The fiddling I do enjoy is things like: "I wonder what this would sound like if I route _______ into ____?" or "What does my guitar sound like if I put paper clips on the strings?" But this is obviously creating or experimenting, not wondering why I can't hear something, wondering why something isn't working, updating, etc.

 

Exactly!! As I often say...I prefer to ask "What if I do this..." than "How do I do this." If you ask how to do something, you're trying to create something that's happened before. If you ask what if, you might very well come up with something new and different.

 

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Many years ago, I looked at the process of building and refining tools vs. creating music with said tools, mainly because I realized that I had literally lost several years in messing around with my studio gear rather than making any music. (Well, and I got a Ph.D. in there, too, but that wasn't much of a distraction, was it?)

 

I ended up writing a rant about the problem and posting it to an electronic music mailing list (remember those?) in the early 1990s, pretty much as I was finally learning to kick myself loose and get creating again. I should find it on the Internet Wayback Machine and post it here.

 

And then there's the joke that we all laugh at, some of us more uncomfortably than others:

 

I used to make music using loops.

But that seemed like cheating somehow, so I started creating my own loops from drum sample sets.

But that seemed like cheating somehow, so I started recording my own samples to use in the loops and playing them on a keyboard.

But that seemed like cheating somehow, so I started playing my own recorded samples on electronic percussion pads.

But that seemed like cheating somehow, so I started recording my own drum parts on an acoustic drum kit in a studio.

But that seemed like cheating somehow, so I started recording my acoustic drum kit in my own home studio.

But that seemed like cheating somehow, so I started carving my own drums and fitting them with goatskin heads sourced from local farms.

But that seemed like cheating somehow, so I started raising my own goats for the skins.

That seems like cheating at some level, but I am not sure how, and besides, I haven't had time to do any music at all lately, between the carving and feeding the goats....

 

mike

 

 

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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I also remember another experience that I had in the 80's. I wasn't producing a sequencer back then...just making a sound for music. It may have been with my Mirage. I spent 3-5 hours making this rich multi harmonic sound. The next day, when I went to use it I found that it was only useful as an opening sound. I couldn't do much more with it. After that, I used canned patches or layers of canned patches.

 

Dan

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As a technician and keyboard/guitar player I'm fascinated by the science and technical aspects of sound. Over the years I've modded guitar amps, studied synths and delved into computer programming but it's often turned into a wormhole for me. Currently I'm trying to keep the more technical aspects of it all more peripheral because the time I can spend at it is somewhat limited.
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I don't know if this is true or just a fable.

 

There once was a fabulous carpenter. He could build anything and then something happened to him. He started spending more time a fixing up his shop and less time actually building furniture. Eventually he never had time to build furniture, only time to fix up his shop.

 

Dan

 

Sounds like MIDI in 1984 :)

 

Sounds like Eurorack in 2020.

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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I don't know if this is true or just a fable.

 

There once was a fabulous carpenter. He could build anything and then something happened to him. He started spending more time a fixing up his shop and less time actually building furniture. Eventually he never had time to build furniture, only time to fix up his shop.

 

Dan

 

Sounds like MIDI in 1984 :)

 

Sounds like Eurorack in 2020.

Pfft. Sounds like almost every person who ever tried to use a modular synth since like ever.

 

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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So to add to the insanity, I have decided to add a hidden feature to my program which will be revealed in the summer. And now we are "burning" to cartridge.

 

Yes Craig! I know all too well about experimenting with sounds. Try this one on.

 

You create this great new sound.

It inspires you to write a new song.

When the song is done you try another sound that you like more.

 

SO DID YOU NEED TO MAKE THAT FIRST SOUND ANYWAY ?

 

DAN

 

P.S. I'm trying to get into the VCF in New Jersey April 24-26 to show off my Lead SynthSequencer for the C64. If I get in, expect to be surprised by the sounds coming out of that thing.

http://vcfed.org/wp/category/east/

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You create this great new sound.

It inspires you to write a new song.

When the song is done you try another sound that you like more.

 

SO DID YOU NEED TO MAKE THAT FIRST SOUND ANYWAY ?

/

 

Nobody needs to make any sound. To write the song, you made the sound. It worked.

 

SO IF AN ARTIST HAS CREATED SOMETHING DOES ASKING A QUESTION AFTER THE FACT MAKE THE CREATION BETTER, WORSE OR NOT CHANGE ANYTHING? :- D

 

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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