your ITB tracks

[Barfunkel]

I've been thinking about getting an API Lunchbox and filling it up with a few well-chosen EQ's and compressors. I have very limited space available for my gear currently, so a large mixer or a bunch of rack gear is unfortunately not a realistic possibility. A Lunchbox would fit very well, and there's tons of great modules available.

Not something I'll be getting this very moment though, gotta find a job first!

[Mattias]

Lunch-box units are ace and fun to work with!

[Lost to the Void]

I've been thinking about getting an API Lunchbox and filling it up with a few well-chosen EQ's and compressors. I have very limited space available for my gear currently, so a large mixer or a bunch of rack gear is unfortunately not a realistic possibility. A Lunchbox would fit very well, and there's tons of great modules available.

Not something I'll be getting this very moment though, gotta find a job first!

Do you need a large mixer?
Could you not get by with a decent 8 or 12 channel?
Something like an old Yamaha 02r with effects built in.
Or maybe something like a fat track pro?
Either option won't take up much room.
I wouldn't worry hugely about compression, EQ is far more important.
That 10% you need to get up to scratch is not that far away.

You can look at compression at a later date

[Barfunkel]

The Yamaha you mentioned is a digi mixer, right? I've been eyeing an Allen & Heath QU-series mixer for a few weeks now actually. Seems to pack a LOT of punch in a small space. 4 band fully parametric (and most importantly great sounding or so I've heard) EQ on every input, compressor on every input, 4 FX blocks with nice FX, good converters, can record straight to hardrive. Supposedly very user friendly too, despite lacking things like dedicated EQ knobs per channel. I'm definitely interested, as analog isn't a must (as I can always combine a digi mixer with some nice analog outboard).

Dunno about the Fat Track, seems a bit too limited? I currently don't need a huge amount of tracks, but in the near future I'll need a few more. Say, 16 mono channels with a nice sounding EQ, 2-4 auxes with returns, insert on most/all channels, overall good sound quality, isn't huge and doesn't break the bank (say, 3000€ at the very most). Any suggestions?

[Lost to the Void]

The reason I mentioned the Yamaha is that an old mate of mine used one for his minimal setup, he used to take it out live and the processing in it was really nice. Motorised faders and recall and so on we're handy for recording down in one go, he used to record straight to DAT, all his vinyl releases came from that setup. It had a nice sound, and I think the 01 and 02 go pretty cheap.

He used an Akai s1000 (that I borrowed from him recently for my rave album), an novation drum station (I think also a bass station rack, though my memory is hazy), an Akai vx90 and a freebase 383 all running to the Yamaha 01V on his records and live pa's.

A weird but tidy little setup.

The Allen and Heath also might be a good buy for you.

Incidentally the VX90 is a lovely module, you can get some very interesting textures from it, but it's not very hands on, being very much about menu diving.

[Hades]

We're all such gearslutz,

Not me, I was when I was younger, pouring over all the latest music magazines and shit, obsessing over kit, always looking for something else to add.

Then something happened, a change of philosophy or something, in the early 000`s, probably around when I had my first vinyl releases I think.

Now I couldn't give a fuck about gear really, I`ll use whatever, I am the most important music making "thing" to me.
All the boxes and wires and crap are just a means to an end, and for me, they distract from the actual music itself.

Once you stop caring so much, and lose some of the gear nerd headspace, the music really goes back to the centre of everything.
I stopped interacting at gearslutz partly because of this (apart from the fact that all the good people left years ago), it really is the worst gear wankathon full of the most tedious gear nerds the world can ever possibly have.

Now days I buy and sell equipment to serve a purpose with no attachment to it at all.
I`ve got gear in storage and sitting in my mates studio in spain that I have not seen for years.

Ok, I do love my guitar a little bit too much, but that`s because it has flames on it, and it`s so camp, and uber metal.

I bought 2 pieces of HW in 2014 (and none in 2015 uptill now)
I have switched both one maybe 3x in total.
And of the few pieces of SW I bought, I'm only using maybe 30%

So yeah, my gearlust is definitely not as big as it once was.
Doesn't mean I won't be interested in some piece of gear, but I'll always ask myself : why ? and honestly, do I really need this ?
With live 9, you can find a clips folder in the browser, which has all kinds of clips, but no folders, so it's all mixed up.
I have my own clips folder that I use all the time, but sometimes I just like to go to Live's clips and take one out and start doing stuff with that.
Just for the fun of it and because you feel like anything can be used as a tool.
They're all tools / instruments in the end.

You never needed a skull for your techno, but I think you need one now for your flamey guitar...
That and/or a Europe poodle wig ! *


*the best part is that anyone who reads this now will have "the final countdown" inside their head for at least 10 minutes or more

[Lost to the Void]

Yeah I don't think of you as a gearslut either, you're a musician ,you have what you have accrued and you like to play your instruments.
Gearslutz are those numpties who obsess over gear, they collect it, like men do when it comes to pointless collections, like a stamp collection, always looking for new shit, like vst whores, and they talk about it endlessly and obsessed over the functions, but never really discuss musicality at all. It's like the purpose they built for is irrelevant.

I was a gearslut at one time, I think it was down to some kind of musical frustration really, I'd walked away from my band and was accruing gear but not really with any purpose. I was quite lost in that time.

[Barfunkel]

Even though I have 3000 posts on GS, I don't consider myself a gearslut either. Currently I have 2 synths, a drum machine, a sampler, a mixer, a mic and an FX unit. I don't even want a huge setup, I want precision tools, quality tools.

My (realistic) dream setup would consist of what I have now, an analog poly, an acid machine (like the new Avalon), an FM synth, a really nice mixer and a Lunchbox with some well-chosen modules, + a few effect pedals. Ie. something that could easily be done with a 5 year old laptop and a copy of Ableton + some plugins. I don't think that setup would be THAT gearslutty. It'd have everything I need to make the kind of stuff I make with a bit of variety and high fidelity, but not have a large room full of 30 synths and 10 drum machines (plus the trendy modular), like many on GS do.

[Hades]

I guess we all need to have been a gearslut at some point in our life to get over that part and not be a gearslut any more.

I mean, most people I know have at some point been a horder of gear, some to the extreme, others a bit less, but it's like the most common way to learn you don't really need all that gear is by having bought too much and noticing how it only slows you down and doesn't really help you to create any better music.

[Lost to the Void]

I still know a few terminal gearsluts.
It's frustrating because they are good musicians, but both of them are always looking for the next bit of kit, the magic bullet, and it never ends, and they are never happy with what they have or what they do with it.
"I just need X and then I can set down to finishing my music"
I'd dearly like to just throttle them and wake em up, but seems like it has become so habitual now. It's like they have forgotten why they are getting the gear.
Still, I'd rather have mates with a gear addictions than drug addictions.

[Hades]

I'd dearly like to just throttle them and wake em up, but seems like it has become so habitual now. It's like they have forgotten why they are getting the gear.
Still, I'd rather have mates with a gear addictions than drug addictions.

Last time I had gearlust, was when I bought my Xpander from a guy that had over 70 vintage synths.
I really needed my money for a new laptop, but oh no, I suddenly saw this add for an Xpander.
And I had been interested in an Xpander for ages,
all of a sudden, I even forgot why I had scratched it off my "to get"-list...
I know now : highly instable synth.
And damn me : I learned a proper lesson by getting a rare vintage synth instead of using my money to get a new laptop.

But yeah, when I got the Xpander, the guy said (highly amazed) "so you really make music with these synths ?"
FFS : how dumb can your remark ever be ?
What are these things designed to do ?
They're instruments : they should and will be used to make music with them.

Can you imagine some guy acquiring all these kind of high-end handy tools like a festool drill/screwing machine and a Metabo sawing machine,
and then never cutting any piece of wood or screwing a single screw into his wall ?
No doubt people like that must exist, but it just seems like they exist a lot more in the music gear world.
People who just get gear and gear and gear, but never make a single piece of music with the gear they buy.

But yeah, once in a while my mrs will admit it's reassuring to have an electronic musician as a husband cause she doesn't have to worry where I am all the time,
(oh no he ain't off looking for booty in the nearest bar, he'll settle for some beer from the fridge and the synths in the studio)
even my kids run straight up to my studio as the first place to look when they want me to do something.

[Barfunkel]

I know a collector a bit like that. Owns dozens of expensive vintage synths, never (and I mean never) makes anything. VERY occasionally plays some melodies on them from his favorite italo disco records.

It's of course their money and their right to have any hobby that's legal and morally right. It's still very strange to collect tools and not use them for what they were intended for. Kinda like collecting chainsaws or hammers, just for collecting's sake.

[Lost to the Void]

Talking about the VX90 makes me want to track one down now.

Oh dear.

I think I should punch myself in the dick.

[Hades]

I think I should punch myself in the dick.

no doubt !
want me to do that for you as a friendly gesture ??

[Barfunkel]

Talking about the VX90 makes me want to track one down now.

Oh dear.

I think I should punch myself in the dick.

Akai VX90? Don't buy one. I used to own, I think I used it in exactly one track. It's a bitch to use and the sound is nothing special, it just doesn't sit well in a mix imo.

[Wiu]

I guess I'm going through my gearslut phase then.

I am a bit of a hoarder in general though. Large vinyl collection, CD's, DVD's & Blurays, Xbox games etc etc. In my defense, I do actually use most of the gear I own though and often finish (amateurish) tracks. I'm not nearly as bad with plugins nowdays though. I really did cut those right back when I switched to a new setup.

[Lost to the Void]

Talking about the VX90 makes me want to track one down now.

Oh dear.

I think I should punch myself in the dick.

Akai VX90? Don't buy one. I used to own, I think I used it in exactly one track. It's a bitch to use and the sound is nothing special, it just doesn't sit well in a mix imo.

I loved it when I used it, I used to get these wonderful metallic shimmery weird sounds out of it, I shoulda bought it from my mate when he went mental and sold loads of his gear for fuck all, like 50 quid or something. It`s a total shitter to edit though for sure.

[msl]

I really needed my money for a new laptop, but oh no, I suddenly saw this add for an Xpander.

Come on who the fuck wouldn't want an Expander

I think I should punch myself in the dick.

Yeah you should go for the AX80 instead what a beautiful looking synth...


Generally I'm too broke to be a real gearslut, but if you gave me 100k tomorrow I'd know what to do! Could spend it in a day... a smallish Neve console, big fuck off PMC's the list goes on.



.

[tsurani]

People do collect tools that they never use. Lots of people collect Snap-on tools and basically never use them. People even have Facebook and Instagram accounts for their collections. I think of collectors as basically organised hoarders.

When I first got into producing music I was lucky enough that some people had set up a local place you could go to for free.
It had lots of great kit, and that is what I learnt on. It was back when making music on a pc was still a nightmare so if you were serious you needed outboard.
When making music on a computer got to a point that it was not a nightmare I got a computer at home and did my own thing always lusting after lots of kit.
A couple of years ago some friends bought a load of kit Large A&H mixer, 808, 909, 707, MPC 60, 2000, 3500, Octatrack, Analog Four, Juno 106, Moog Prodigy, SH 101 Devil fish 303 etc. etc. pretty much the type of setup I see loads of people on the forums lusting after . some nice compression and mic preamps.
I went and spent a couple of days in the studio with them and realised I didn't need any of it.
If I had the money to spend I would not have very much outboard kit

[Hades]

I really needed my money for a new laptop, but oh no, I suddenly saw this add for an Xpander.

Come on who the fuck wouldn't want an Expander

well, theoretically, yes.
I mean, the thing is a sound designers wet dream : 5 envelopes, 5 LFO's, FM, 3 tracking generators, 3 LAG's, 3 ramps.
and tons of filters : 4xLP, 3xHP, 2xBP, 1xnotch, 1x phase shift, 2xHP+LP, 1x notch +LP, 1xphase shift + LP = 15 different filter types.
20 modulations possible per voice.


Practically though. I just needed a new laptop badly, and saw the Xpander for sale just before I went on holiday.
So this really wasn't a good moment to be spending 2500€ on an old vintage synth...
But I figured : new laptops will always be there, and when I tested the Xpander out, it seemed to be working fine (and sounded wonderful).

Later on 1 of the 6 voices stopped working, which isn't a biggie, you just switch it off.
But usually I gotta do a "soft reset" every time I turn it on cause it starts producing sound automatically.
Sometimes this is fun though, cause you never know what the thing does, it has a life of it's own.
I guess I just learned to look at the synth as my "high maintenance woman" of the studio.
The filters are still superb to work with, just like all the modulation options, and it has 2 VCA's, so you can always just turn up the VCA 2 knob and it starts producing sound and you can start working with it. In the end it's mostly an expensive sample source.
And of course, my laptop died 6 months later...