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scottasin

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About scottasin

  • Birthday 11/30/1999

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  • occupation
    highschool student
  • Location
    Fort Collins CO
  1. I'm still goin in to work tomorrow. I work in a microchip fabrication plant, we're producing chips that will end up being put into an actual cell phone months in the future. Its a large place, I'd say there are over 100 daily workers in the plant. They've told all office workers or anyone who doesn't work directly on or supporting the production line to stay home, however they aren't stopping production at this point. Its worth noting that we are in a clean room while we're working and wearing gloves, face masks, safety glasses, and head to toe suits, all with the original intent of preventing any particles that could come from our bodies (from hair all the way down to breath condensation) from entering the air in the plant. In theory, this would mean an environment that has a low risk of transmission. However, that doesn't help with breaks, and the fact that people are taking the gloves off that they're working in with no hand wash station around, and putting their sweaty mitts all over everything. I've seen colds and flus go around the workforce in record time before. Starting tomorrow, depending on where/who we work with we have to enter and exit through specific doors and have a temperature scan each time we enter the building. That means in the morning we'll all be lining up together outside at the same time... At the moment there are no confirmed cases in my county, however there are also no test kits. There's 150+ cases in the state and I have to assume its circulating around undetected at this point, considering the lack of testing generally being done. I get the feeling that my workplace will shut down for nothing less than a direct government mandate stopping all business. I'm only 28, but there are three people in their 60s in my work group alone, and the workforce tends more towards middle aged (read: higher risk than myself) individuals. I feel like I'm part of a science experiment and I don't like it.
  2. I've got his signature delay and reverb pedal, its totally amazing. Its also made by 'budget' brand Mooer and is far and away the most feature filled yet instantly useable pedal I've ever seen at the price. Sure, the DSP algorithms/chips are seemingly the most mass produced set, but in a mix, no one's gonna notice. I got 2 delays, a reverb, and a looper, all individually routable inside the pedal, for under $300. I've never seen another one, but I've seen tons of Strymon's that cost around twice as much and can't do some of the cool shit this can.
  3. A lot of the best musicians I've ever met or had the honor of sharing a stage with played "trash" gear by the internet's standards... and guess what? they sounded fantastic. Music gear is only as good as the person playing it. My favorite example was Guitarist Fareed Haque on a fly in gig, Squier strat into an inexpensive amp modeler (maybe a sansamp?) and straight into the board. Never heard him once complain to the sound guy about tone, despite having seen plenty of guitarists get whiny about their perception of the way their multi-thousand dollar amps are being mic'd and presented FOH. I myself am still faithfully playing my Nord Electro 2, which is many models outdated, and the organ sound is still plenty good enough to get compliments from both musicians and regular folks in the crowd. I've also gigged plenty with a Casio Privia, which is not considered a "stage" keyboard and you'd never see one in a professional rig... but yaknow what? Its got a good piano sound, its small and light, it has 1/4" outs... it does everything I need it to. I'm always amazed by the number of people I see with Yamaha Motifs and using them for essentially the same purpose. Its total overkill, but its an 'industry standard'.
  4. Oh, I'm totally out of space for new keyboards. If I weren't renting/living with roomates and moving seemingly all the time I could probably put together a more efficient studio room, but with the situation as it is, my keyboard setup is whatever I can get set up in my room. I always end up with a keyboard or two in the closet or under a bed. However, although I may not be able to use them all at once, they do all HAVE a specific use, and when I'm recording I end up using stuff that I don't normally keep set up all the time. I've always wanted a CS80 and if an affordable, slim profiled clone comes out, I can genuinely say that would render my Moog Opus obsolete. At this point the only way I can fathom more keyboards is direct replacements and upgrades.
  5. I'm in this boat. Modular is cool and all, but damn do I like playing chords and having direct expressive response.
  6. well, I messed up my trusty Casio Privia (PX-330 I believe, bought in 2011 for ~$700)... I'd always heard that you should never store a keyboard on its side but never knew why and didn't think much of it, and left it for the past several months on its side, not in a case, in a garage, where my roommates smoke cigarettes... Went to set it up and most of the keys (getting worse as you get lower) stick horribly together. On the bottom couple of octaves, pressing one key pushes down almost a whole octave at once. There's noticeable staining from the smoke, and there's clearly tons of dust under the keys. The actual brain of the machine seems to be fine, but I really doubt the action is reparable. So, I've gotta replace it. I would like to get something in the $500-$800 price range, with built in speakers, and a solid action. It would be for practicing, live stage use, and recording, but take into consideration that I was totally happy on all counts with my old Privia for those uses. The piano sound (hopefully with a mono optimized option) and action are my top priorities, with Wurli sound next, and all else falling after that. I put hands on the new "improved action" Casio models at the local GC and hated them. They may have 'improved' the texture on the top of the keys, but I really don't like the new slim/lightweight action. I'd take the extra few pounds and sound engine of my old Privia over the new models just based on key feel alone. I was amazed that they didn't have any comparable Yamahas on the floor, so I'm not sure how I feel about them, but I remember that back when I made my original purchase that Casio was generally better action and Yamaha had 'better' samples. I'm wondering what your opinions are on DPs for home and stage use in the range are, and whether you think I should just try to find an older comparable Privia model, or if you think something newer would give me more bang for my buck and still leave me happy?
  7. Lisa Bella Donna (already mentioned) is definitely someone who I've discovered recently that stands out as unique. There are a lot of technically virtuosic keyboard players who play synths, but she seems to be a true virtuoso synth player, and really gets the ins and outs of the instrument, the way she switches between arpeggiator use, recording sequences on the fly, and live playing all on one instrument is not like anyone else I've seen. Funny enough, the video posted above reminds me a lot stylistically of an artist a friend introduced me to. He's a video game composer utilizing mostly 8-bit sounds. Lisa's harmonic choices are amazingly reminiscent. The second half of this track comes to mind. I also feel like the 'synth explosion' is maybe not as much touring live artists, and a lot more youtube personalities. touring with a modular setup or several analog synths is a lot tougher than putting together a weekly youtube video with whatever new gadget you got last month. [video:youtube]
  8. I'm originally from GR but now live in Colorado. I've seen this house up for sale within the last few years, whoever got it last didn't stay there for too long. If I was about to build a full featured studio, this would be high in contention for where to do so. Sadly though, thats not exactly what my current plans are. EDIT: just saw the video is from 2014. I wonder what the current status of the house is?
  9. I, for one, am very excited. Price point has been the main thing keeping me from jumping into modular, and this with their new case should be a good way for me to get started. Take some of the simple modules I know I'll need from this line and then get a few more exciting ones to go with it.
  10. They made some serious social media posts asking about how to approach a CS80 clone... so I very much hope thats what it is. Seems more likely its their Euro Rack module line which they teased in product form more recently in the Poly D and Euro Case videos.
  11. +2 +3 whether y'all like the style or not, the Jamband scene is bigger than its ever been. That feeling is the whole point behind what they do.
  12. Maybe where you are, but its alive and well and growing in my part of the country. The top Tribute acts out here do not run tracks. In my band, all 5 of us sing, so no vocal tracks. I'm in Colorado, and have almost never encountered backing tracks out here. I'm certainly not in the tribute act realm of the music scene, the people I've played with aren't trying to be top 40 pop stars, but of the hundreds of gigs I've played and bands I've shared bills with, only one used backing tracks from what I can recall (and they were a tribute act, Pink Floyd, and they were kinda divas and disrespectful of the sound guy).
  13. if you've got the time, this guy tends to cover it all pretty well [video:youtube]
  14. I've just got to chip in with a quick two cents here... while backing tracks are certainly widely prevalent, there are also tons of great, widely respected, and well selling artists out there who either don't use backing tracks at all, or use them very minimally. Maybe Colorado is fortunate not to have a major pop music city, because the vast majority of both local bands and visiting touring bands are essentially free of backing tracks as far as I can tell. People out here really love their bluegrass and hippie music. The "Americana" scene is another huge market where bands seldom use backing tracks (check out some Brandi Carlile or Jason Isbell videos, both won Grammies recently). I've watched tons of live videos from my favorite artists and all the songs sound different and soulful each time. Indie pop has plenty of fantastic bands as well that play all live instruments. Youtube is your place to go if you want to see how authentic an artists live performance is, and also your place to gauge how popular that artist is. One of my favorite examples of a modern top 40 artist who has their musicians playing live is Maggie Rogers. She had a #1, 3, and 6 on the Biillboard charts this year, and clearly has a live band playing with her and regularly changes the arrangement of songs based on the musicians playing with her... although the point of this thread is kinda made because the keys and backing vocals often seem to be canned... but I write that off because she herself is the producer of most of her tracks and is classically trained, and went to NYU for production, so I'd guess she came up with the keyboard tracks herself. Here's Maggie Rogers, Brandi Carlile, Jon Batiste, and Chris Thile doing Bob Dylan. Live music isn't dead.[video:youtube]
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