# The Unusual Wednesday Bullshit... - Site: Analog Industries - Author: Chris Randall - Date: 2011-01-19 - URL: https://analogindustries.com/2011/01/the-unusual-wednesday-bullshit/ On the bright side, we've got the vast majority of our shit in to the new house in Tempe, and are now living there. On the not-so-bright side, Cox fucked up the transfer order for the Intertubes rather massively, and we won't have Tubes until tomorrow afternoon. So I'm sitting in a nice little coffee shop in Tempe, but only because there's apparently no such thing as a hot chocolate shop. (I don't drink coffee.) I'm also looking forward to the fairly heavy-duty project of re-assembling my studio/office in its new and much more spacious home. I've got a particular workflow plan for the next cycle of Micronaut releases that will require some thought. I'm going to record and mix them DAW-free, only allowing computer use for MIDI sequencing (if that) and mastering. It should be intensely amusing to all concerned, I'm sure, but it involves some thought; my system is necessarily heavily reliant on computers, and I can't just pack my main music PC in a box until the job is done because I need it for many other things. So, I essentially have to have two complete rigs: a DAW-free side of the room, and a DAW side. My big rack, which contains both the A/D/A and summing for the DAW, and the H8000FW and Lexicon 300 (which both sides will share) is sort of the Line Of Demarcation at this point. It'll be tricky to pull this off, but an interesting challenge. Anyhow, that silliness aside, we should be back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. If you write the AD Info@ address for support, it might take a little longer than usual for a reply. ## Comments (20) **noisetheorem** (2011-01-19): I have done this before. I ran all my hardware from an MPC and had my PC connected only to a buss on my mixer and getting a pair of MIDI ports in/out for syncing. I have an edirol UM880 that was used for routing MIDI around if I needed one of my other boxes to be in control. Recently, I went back to the old way because there is no way that editing MIDI data on an LCD cannot suck. Even a big display like an MPC5000 has. It just got to the point I didnt use the hardware at all, and just went crying for software because it was just *easier*. Yeah, I am a pussy and couldnt stick to what I thought I wanted to do, but I learned that software has just taken over for sheer convenience alone. Oh, and I sold the MPC. **Chris Randall** (2011-01-19): Yeah. There's anachronistic, and then there's just plain old-fashioned waste of time. I was pondering going back to my really old ways and using an MC-500 for sequencing, but then I was like "well, that's just silly. I've got 6 perfectly good computers sitting right here, the least of which destroys the MC-500." -CR **tom vx** (2011-01-19): Sounds interesting... Are you recording audio to tape, or is that an exception to the DAW rule?? **patchen** (2011-01-19): I recently made a similar step. I now compose on the MPC an don't go to the computer until it's time to mix. The MPC1000 with JJ OS2XL is a pretty killer package for sequencing and song production. So many things from the ease of naming files to the actual engine are so much improved and so quick and easy. It does have grid style editing, but in the end, yes, it is still much easier to edit on the computer. But really, the upside to me is that now I just tend to 'do takes until I get it pretty much right' as before I would obsess over the piano roll. Kind of a refreshing change for me really. I'll still edit some note lengths here and there but the grid editor makes this pretty easy. I'm a total convert an really love my new 'old' way of working. I too rely heavily on a computer for work and so it is sooo nice to tell the mouse to fuck off for a while when it comes time to make music. You don't really know me from Adam (har-har), but I highly recommend this combo for production. That is, until Roger Linn gets his act together and releases "his" version of the Tempest with proper sampling. If you do go this route, look for a newer black model as they do not have the pad issues of the older blue ones. Get a hard drive installed, get JJ OS2xl and get to work! **Chris Randall** (2011-01-19): I've never liked the MPC for production. It just doesn't jibe with my logic processes. Dunno why. @Tom: the only time this shit will meet an a/d convertor is when it is getting mastered. Plain and simple. (Aside from my various digital effects, of course.) -CR **wgparham** (2011-01-19): I for one love my MC-500. Not that I use it a heck of a lot these days. You should sequence everything on a QY-70. -William **boobs** (2011-01-19): i've done stuff like this at various times w/various degrees of success and fun. the elektrons + other synths made for good times and nice jams all multi tracked into the computer then mixed.. also, some "modular only" jams. Using a computer just to capture audio is nice. there is only so long i can look at a timeline in logic/live etc going by before i need to get out of the computer or look at pron. things like audiomulch and numerology are a good compromise because it's pretty easy to set something up and avoid the timeline scenario and just jam and 'feel' things out. congrats on the new digs CR. more studio space is always nice. enjoy the two sides of your room and may the line of demarcation remain firm but fluid. **Mike** (2011-01-19): It would involve a trip to the UK, but my old studio Metropolis do a direct to vinyl service. This is built around bands/artists performing live in the studio being mixed through the SSL and sent straight to the mastering room where it is passed through the console and sent to the lathe in real time. I worked with some pretty terrible acts doing this and a few good ones. You don't need to hit a computer at any point in the path if you don't want. **inteliko** (2011-01-20): Muthafuckas used to be like lightning on drum machines and hardware seqs back in the day...youd get broken buttons and shit...ppl would complain..YO Dont him My rm1x's buttons so hard... **jasonmd2020** (2011-01-20): Hmmm... Maybe you should try going virtual old school and use that iPad app you wrote for Tascam to record with. **seancostello** (2011-01-21): I understand not drinking coffee - it makes me totally crazy (as I sip my white mocha while typing). However, I don't know if I have ever encountered someone who smokes cigarettes but who doesn't drink coffee. That seems like a very rare combo. **studio nebula** (2011-01-21): Strange as it may seem, this is one of the things that CR and I had in common even before we met: I don't drink coffee either, in general. I have a routine tea habit (black during the day, green in the evening, but not all that much of either) but I almost never drink coffee. I sometimes drink coffee while vacationing overseas, a tendency which originated a number of years ago in a hotel in Paris which did everything very well except make tea. Typically the only coffee I drink in a calendar year is consumed in Japan, where canned coffee, both hot and cold, is present everywhere in vending machines. There's nothing like rolling a hot can of Deepresso between you palms while standing on a cold shinkansen platform in the morning. --Adam **fussylizard** (2011-01-21): @CR I saw your new studio setup on Twitter and it appears you keep your synthy toys on a shelf, not set up ready to play. I find I only play what is in front of me, and if I have to actually find cables and what not to hook something up, I usually don't bother. So how does that work with your workflow? Are you not going crazy constantly plugging and unplugging things? **fussylizard** (2011-01-21): Oh and happy 7 yrs to AD, Inc. BTW! **poxyloxy** (2011-01-21): Re: No Coffee It seems pretty obvious to me. Can you imagine someone as delightfully snarky and smarty-pants as CR drinking a couple cups a day? What that would do to his wife? And of course to his own self-image as he watched himself be righter than everybody else 1000% more than when uncaffeinated.? Just speculatin'. **beauty pill** (2011-01-21): Yeah, being right all the time is rough. Trust me, I know. - c **inteliko** (2011-01-22): Octratack noodlin vids popping up..them buttons are gonna be a bitch in a 18 mos... v1.5 with new stronger buttons. **Chris Randall** (2011-01-22): Yeah, well, I bet you guys don't smoke like a chimney. Pussies. -CR **Chris Randall** (2011-01-22): @fussylizard: Once I get everything in place, we'll talk about the Office. Rest assured. -CR **boobs** (2011-01-22): i wish i was healthy enough to smoke like a chimney and drink coffee. i drink tea. if i drink coffee i think i'll end up on the local news "portland man punches woman in lesbian coffee shop. says he won't put up with penis based discrimination any longer. just wanted a cup of coffee"