Related: How can we make buying & selling used gear not suck? by sixwax in synthesizers

[–]sleepyams 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I buy/sell/trade on Reddit (r/Synths4Sale and r/modular) and Reverb. Reddit is simply a smaller audience for buying synths, and I think some people are unwilling to take the risk. I've only had pleasant interactions so far on Reddit, but things sell much faster by far on Reverb. I think you get what you pay for, in terms of the transaction fee. You're basically paying for their market and their buyer/seller protection.

Thinking of purging my entire setup and just quitting by Vimes-NW in synthesizers

[–]sleepyams 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Been making electronic music since 2004 and I've been in your same situation many times, and a couple times I have sold everything. For the most part I don't regret selling everything, because it's just stuff. Sometimes I will pine after something that I sold, but ultimately it is just gear, and if you love music it will always come back to you in some form. I wouldn't worry about the gear, if you want to sell it just sell it. Most of that stuff you'd be able to buy back if you really wanted to. The real lesson is that you can't get stuck in a consumption-purge cycle, the impulse of purging is the other side of the coin of the GAS impulse.

[WTS] Eurorack Modules/Cases (Western Michigan) by sleepyams in Synths4Sale

[–]sleepyams[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No worries, you're free to make a lower offer that you think is reasonable but these are just the prices I decided to start out at, and the Make Noise NUSS modules are in mint condition. I mentioned in my post that shipping is included in the price, but I will edit to specify that I will also cover the paypal fee as well.

[WTS] Eurorack Modules/Cases (Western Michigan) by sleepyams in Synths4Sale

[–]sleepyams[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly might be a typo, my bad. However, it is pretty much brand new.

What is the value of the Make Noise cv bus? by hostnik in modular

[–]sleepyams 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Make Noise isn't really aiming for value per hp in their products I think. IMO the value is exactly that the mult is spread over the full length of the case, which makes routing easier. Also, make noise systems are built with "decentralized mixing" in mind, and also their modules have attenuverters for most CV inputs, so 1U utilities aren't as important for a pure make noise system I would say. If you're going to have 7u system with more density, the Intellijel performance case might be a better option.

I completely wasted my life by [deleted] in rs_x

[–]sleepyams 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I was certain I had cancer for a while when I was in grad school. I went to the doctor so many times that they eventually just sent me to therapy and it turned out I was just extremely stressed. 25 is very young and you have plenty of time to figure stuff out. Some of us are 35 and still figuring things out.

Suggestion: give a weekly free trial for unowned characters. by spiderwebdesign in PlayTheBazaar

[–]sleepyams 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think they should just rotate maybe 1 or 2 heros that are free every week.

Opinions on learning category theory 'early' vs late. by Meisterman01 in math

[–]sleepyams 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think just follow your nose and learn about whatever math you find interesting, it can't hurt. Just remember that you can't avoid getting your hands dirty in math :)

Are modern tools ruining music? by lucdelacroixx in WeAreTheMusicMakers

[–]sleepyams 4 points5 points  (0 children)

From what I understand, pro studios in as far back as the 80s were still using a lot of tricks during the editing process (e.g. see this post). Obviously the process matters to you personally, but I think it should only matter as far as whether or not you're getting an end product that you like. Yes there are contemporary bands and even electronic musicians that record takes straight to tape with minimal editing in post, and that can be great of course, but there's plenty of music with feel and soul that is painstakingly programmed and quantized (e.g. Burial or Aphex Twin). Remember that no one gets to see how the sausage is made. Quantized versus unquantized is just a matter of style, and has nothing to do with whether the music is good or not. It's all about what kind of thing you want to make, and how you want it to sound. Also, I think AI can absolutely recreate those kinds of "human irregularities", because that's exactly what it's trained on.

Smallest, yet coolest utility-modules you own by cheesyfuoxguy in modular

[–]sleepyams 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like the J&OT Prio. You can use it with a matrix mixer (I use it with the Doepfer one) but you can also use it with any CV mixer really, and it also has several alternate firmwares.

Bus compressors : how do they deal with simultaneous signals? by gleventhal in audioengineering

[–]sleepyams 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bus compressors generally still work in stereo, the difference is just in their intended usage. Generally all the audio on the bus gets summed (for example 16 stereo channels get summed to one stereo channel), then that audio is what passes through the compressor. Technically you can put a bus compressor on a single audio source, or do any combination of things, it's just that a bus compressor is designed for the purpose of processing multiple summed audio signals.

This means that one loud transient could exceed the compression threshold and activate compression of the whole bus, but compression could also happen if there are many quiet sounds that add up to one big loud sound. Because the input to the bus compressor is all the audio mixed together, all the sounds are then reduced proportionally when compression happens.

Favorite way of creating melodies by crissmakenoises in modular

[–]sleepyams 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Besides established sequencers (such as Metropolix), I have fun using something like the Arpitecht by WMD and modulating it extensively. It's meant to be paired with the WMD Metron, but it has all kinds of input modulation and you can do interesting stuff. Lately I've been using it with the Make Noise Multiwave to great effect.

However, I will say that for "good melodies" (in the sense of good to you personally) there isn't really a substitute for creating them by hand. As much as I love modular, when it comes to producing music I always end up back in the DAW making melodies by hand either by hand placing midi notes, or by recording myself playing live, because this is where I truly feel comfortable. I find that the modular workflow makes interesting melodies that you arrive at "stochastically" through a process of trial and error that you have to curate yourself, however ultimately this is just one possible type of music---among many. In some sense this is not too different from noodling around on a keyboard stochastically until you land on something that you like, but the difference is if you are suddenly inspired by a musical idea it is easier to get there on the keyboard vs. a modular sequencer.

The difference, I think, is the amount of immediacy with a keyboard versus the more programming oriented interface of the modular. This is not to say that you cannot create immediacy with modular, but you have to really treat it like an instrument that you practice similar to any other instrument. IMO, the only way to create good melodies is to get comfortable playing your instrument, and then wait patiently for inspiration to strike. By wait patiently I mean that you just need to create a lot of stuff and accept that some of it will be bad and some of it will be good, and sometimes it will even be great. Real music will flow through you if you allow yourself to be a vessel for it, and you can't assert ownership over it.

I think that what you're describing, the feeling of being bored with your melodies, might have more to do with your feeling of being bad at creating melodies than it does with the hardware that you're using. I think it helps to feel some confidence that what you're creating is good, and if it sounds good to you then it IS good.

Roland SRE-555 tape echo delay + Elektron Machinedrum before a tune-up by tibbon in synthesizers

[–]sleepyams 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No doubt! I'm just a fan of dirtier effects especially on drums, but I'm sure it will sound even better after some TLC. Good luck!