Out Of The Office Open Thread...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
We’re leaving for Phoenix this morning, with stops in San Francisco and the lovely desert oasis of Ft. Irwin. I’ll be in intermittently until our arrival, whereupon I will no doubt make some witty and endearing remarks about the dry heat.
So, have at it. Any conversation between here and there is your responsibility.
EDIT: In Phoenix, getting cooked.
10 comments
Make sure you stop in hell on your way to Phoenix. I hear it's a lot cooler there.
No, East Texas is not on the way to Phoenix from there. Check a map.
bb
I unfortunately have to go to Phoenix next week. What's cool to do there besides drink in air conditioning?
Why is mixing so boring to do and so wonderful to have done???
I love mixing, personally. I find it absolutely exciting.
Does anybody here use Metasynth? Talk to me.
- c
@Dale
It kind of depends what you like to do. There aren't really any good music shops, unfortunately. Well, not good for electronic music anyway; there are some good guitar shops. It's pretty much hopeless to do anything but be inside at this time of year. It's 106 outside right now and my wife and I just came inside from doing yard work. I think I just lost about 8 pounds via sweating.
@beauty pill
I use Metasynth. Still haven't really mastered getting much useful out of it, but I do like tinkering with it. I'm considering dropping the money to buy it relatively soon. I've just been using the demo since it's fully functional.
Curiously, I've been wondering lately where the community draws the line with using presets.
With all the new synth technology and massive libraries of sounds and samples, I'm of the mind that if it fits in the mix and works in the song, who cares? I don't know about any of you, but I don't necessarily see the need, nor miss spacing out and twiddling with a wavestation or an ESI-32 w/ stacks of zip drives for hours at a time to build up a library anymore.
Anyhow, it seems to me that the only people that would really care seem to be other electronic musician-type people anyways. Would it ruin a piece of music you are enjoying if you suddenly realize 'hey, that's the exact preset number xxx in xxxxsynth!'?
I don't see that it matters if you use presets or roll your own programs. If it's the right sound for what you want to do, it's the right sound.
There are certainly times when I love just diving into programming a synth, but it pretty much has to be time without boundaries. It's certainly not all that useful if you have to start from scratch during a moment of inspiration (and that's why I sequence MIDI, because I can change what sound the synth is playing after the fact and still have my moment of inspiration down).
If I hear a recognizable preset in track, it doesn't ruin the piece. If anything, it makes me think, "hey, I could do that, I have those synths right here". Which invariably leads to something completely different from the piece I was listening to once I get into playing with them. As a person with extremely low self-esteem, that boost of "hey, I could do that" is immeasurably helpful.
I have a Gibson SG. Is that a preset?
- c
I don't think there's anything wrong with using presets, but on the other hand I never do. I almost always start with a preset though, I don't need to reinvent the wheel every time. I've never pulled up a sound that I didn't think I couldn't change to suit my needs better, even if only a slight change occasionally. And most presets are cheazy. Normally I will keep changing it as things go along so it gets farther away.
It does make me think there's a lack of imagination going on when I hear a preset or loop in a song, but I think that when I hear most rock bands.
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