David Emm

All too true. Well, that's it. I'm now pro-nuke. I'll build my own. Sure hope my Kickstarter works. 🥳

That makes me wonder about the point where we lose the last person who knows how to play a cello. 👻 Tracker enthusiasts aren't likely to take up the slack. I don't think people will ever give up on a mostly-pure thing of joy like music, but between the undercutting of music education in general and the disruptive side of consumer electronics, the avenues for bonding with an oboe over a Jupiter X are ever-shrinking. Real mastery demands immense sweat and commitment. Its something to consider.

A "Wrenchenspiel" from Soundpaint (a recent discovery) for a mere $10. Yes, its tuned wrenches and boy, are they sweet. The company offers a lot of standard instruments in various forms, among them huge brass & string sections. There are several classy pianos to be had as well. A lot of the goods are avant-garde-y and intriguing. You have to set up an account, but that also offers you several free things. The prices and memory loads are surprisingly small. The framing instrument that holds their goods has a very nice arp and a lot of useful parameters like variable swing. Its very well thought out. Give it a look. https://soundpaint.com/products/wrenchenspiel?variant=42894275018923 http://www.soundpaint.com

I'd like to drop in a polite vote for the MicroKorg 2. It doesn't seem like the ideal fix when you already have hella power with a MODX and a hefty Nord, but its not at all a bad idea to have a synth from that category. IMO, the Jupiter Xm and GAIA 2 join the MK2 as great pinch hitters if you want to go light here & there. All three are worthy inheritors of their predecessors' crowns. The demos have been impressive.

"Anyone" and "extraordinary" are contradictions in terms. One side or the other will be ascendant. The various examples on the site are pretty slick, but the mechanism seems like exactly that: mechanical. Its a next-step issue to me, because I'm insta-bored when one of the legions of, say, Push users pushes Play and grins as 4/4 YAWN punctuated by stabs issues forth. I can't hear much of the PERSON in it. I'm not anti-automation; I'm anti-LAZY automation. One example of what works, in my mind, is someone using that as a base and playing 'live' over it. I always seem to build a pattern or enhance a nice synth loop with things that are pretty clearly hand-rendered, or so I like to think, anyway. Gawd knows I'm one who saw Pink Floyd live and was awestruck by the immensity of it all, but I was similarly wowed by Leo Kottke, holding the crowd in his hands with just a 12-string and a chorus pedal. I'm all for AI if it enhances what you do, but not if it encourages you to be more creatively lazy. Udio is probably good for producers on a deadline and not so much for composers who labor over each note. It seems wise to accept the potential trap it can become.

>>> I sound jaded, it's only that I'm seriously ground down from the constant "All AI is bad. It's SkyNet. All of it is evil. We are all going to lose our jobs." And I'm not saying that some of that might not come to pass, but it's just seriously wearisome when arguments are couched in "all AI is _____." This is exacerbated by the fact that most people don't know what AI is, understand that most of it is based on machine learning rather than any sort of actual "thinking", that people use AI every single day and don't realize it, or that AI consistently helps with medicine, science, and technology, looking for patterns and sifting through immense amounts of data so we can all benefit. Fair points, all of 'em. AI is just the most recent buzzword for what's been around for a long while now. The ethical uses don't stand up and yell; they just work. Not seeing that more clearly is a societal group failing, not a tech issue. Moral people generally don't get headlines the way our werewolves do. I stand by seeing it as pre-SKYNET, not as a doomcryer, but as a fatigued pragmatist. Things that were once easy online have become clogged by hackers and excessive security measures. A couple of years ago, I joined Twidder out of curiosity. Within 90 days, I was outta there. Too bad, because the fun moments were memorable. I hate seeing such amazing technology burdened by porn, hacking and infighting. Well, maybe the hacking and infighting. There's also the unavoidable maxim about a hammer being good for both building and murder. I won't name my first DAW, because the company all but had me in despair, thinking the odd abuse and dysfunction were the norm. I left them in the dust once I located those that were their antithesis. Apple exhibits some suckage, but they're also broad & stable. I'm locked into companies like Focusrite and Cherry Audio, who could easily be applying AI to simply up their game(s). I'm going to keep them in mind and do less painting with so broad a brush. I do need to fold a little more of Ken's view into my thinking. I just can't get this great Harry Nilsson ear worm out of my head... Good for God He goes and makes the planet blue and all the thanks He gets from you is look at all that poo-poo in the yard.

No petition ever stopped a bully from jamming your own fist in your face and repeating "Why are you hitting yourself?" You have to kick them firmly in the yarblockos and thus dissuade them. Last time I looked, AI has no such appendages we can kick. Marketing is one of the early tools of SKYNET. I'm already assimilated and so are you. Look where we are! No one ever tries to include an ethics/morality sub-routine. The unavoidable onslaught of shareholders won't give a rat's what Steve Wonder thinks. The day they can clone "Isn't She Lovely" for a popcorn ad, you'll know its time to put on your apocalypse poncho. HAL-9000 was an AI who offed 4 co-workers and look how well THAT went!

I think its a matter of demanding lowered expectations until the idea of the artist making even a little extra cash becomes laughable. The last few safe places are those like Bandcamp, who (the last time I checked) take a simple percentage after X number of sales. Otherwise, if you are an independent, its quite reasonable to see Spotify and similar such "services" as being out to rape you with knives. Nature points out the folly of Man, Godzilla. Its an interesting sociological curve. An astounding new idea appears, has a shakedown cruise that secures its appeal and then an equity fund group or conglomerate turns it into toxic waste. I find it magical that I can listen to music or buy a Memorymoog with a few clicks. I just wish I could get that corporate, crank-fueled Doberman's teeth out of my arse. C'mon, that's the cheek where my wallet is! Sorry to be so curmudgeonly. Do I look inflamed to you? 🤨

That demo ups my appreciation for the instrument by several notches. You could outdo the pianos with a couple of the higher-end VSTs, but otherwise, they're impressive. Synths and organs are fairly easy to construct, but pianos/EPs are the acid test of engine quality. This one has casuals and cover bands written all over it, with a few brave souls who will add the giant fantasy patches they've built in Pigments.

I've been using DAWs since a generation or three before I took up Logic 8. I laugh a bit at that, because it seems as though there is a serious tug of war going on between formats. Apple would LOVE for you to have an iPhone, an iPad, a laptop and a desktop at home. The crossover point between convenience and madness is pretty slim. Excessive management of your platforms will nuke part of your productivity. There's probably only a small percentage of e-music enthusiasts who peck away at an iPad in the park, only to run home and transfer it into Logic. If you start with an iPad, how can you not eventually feel the itch for the greater horsepower of a MacBook or iMac? I know the answer to that one: the day Apple releases a 24" foldable "pad" with a touchscreen, 16 GB of RAM and at least 1 TB of storage. 💪

Editing more than a small handful of partials is a gateway to Hell comparable to one of those 50-cord Eurorack patches. The results are often so esoteric that the music reeks of academic oddity. I prefer physical modeling and resynthesis to additive or FM. Crisp bells and glassy pads are far easier to achieve taking those routes. I'm less about exotic event sounds and more about those best implemented on a keyboard. Tusker is right about resynthesis sometimes yielding less than ideal results, but as with Autosampling, there's a middle ground that sings properly. Sweeping harmonics can sound gorgeous; I just find myself getting what I need without having to go to the micro-madness level in things.

This was part of my porn. Dividing my fap time between airbrushed megababes and pics of synths I barely comprehended left me a bit shriveled. 🤓

Tripping through synth sound expansion packs is a guilty pleasure. Sure, I encounter all too many seeming keepers. Part of the challenge has been to enjoy the session, but also not make a Favorites list 150 patches strong and expect it to go anywhere. The gods forgive my arrogance, but I can relate to Tony Banks saying "People brought me new synths all the time and each of them had at least 3 or 4 good songs in them." That's the bell I enjoy ringing when I buy another patch set. Otherwise, I create the majority of my own beats & loops. Or, by example, I found an arp I liked using a bland sound, so I dropped the MIDI data into another track and found a better sound for it. Then I applied it to a drum kit, cut out half of its drums and played some counterpoint over the now less busy material. I apologize to nobody for a tweaked percussion track that's 2/3 Me. The CR-78 is a dignified secret weapon in its simplicity. Anything that challenges you to bring out your best is a winner.

UGH! Hey, you! I had a mouthful of hoagie when I saw the shot of the red goo! Thanks a pile! 🤨😁 The XP-30 was a dreamboat. I was gently muscled into a very nice trade, but I would have been far better off keeping it. The range of sounds & welcoming keybed were impressive. The XP-50/80 GUIs were too fidgety; the 30 was right in the pocket for me as a sort-of pianist. I became a Korg man because their company voice hit the most marks for me, but I still see the XP-30 as a high point. The Juno-X is probably as close as Roland will come to a re-release, with the market being mostly controllers and near-flagships now. The XP-30 was the first "VST in a box," IMO. Shweet.

There you go: one of Arturia's target players speaks. They're not a tiny startup; they have a potent customer base. The Astrolab isn't just some weekend quirk breadboarded together. They clearly burned the midnight oil and came up with an elegant hybrid. It provides for both more seasoned customers AND preset players who just want to mod the filter once in a while. The former could easily put it above a DP or clonewheel with their punchy personal sounds on display. The second will have a library of merit that they can tweak with minimal sweat. I'm curious to hear what early adopters will have to say 90 days in, because its not a normal stage piano. Its an interesting bridge between computer-based rigs and full-blown workstations. Woody's comment on the dubious fulcrum point for the keys is sobering, depending on your playing style, so its not a holy grail. Still, I don't think its making a shameful start. It just has a few oddities going, like every other e-music device has had since Charles Addams's first Battery Actuated Multiple Mouse Organ, the BAMMO. It failed because it burned out mice too quickly and people ran from the hall at the stench when it was played. Final thought: every company has a unique, subtle TONE across their ranges. If I'd already leaned into Arturia's, I'd be on this as an inspired addition.