Thursday, January 03, 2008

New year's update

Once again, it's been too long since my last update...

Firstly, I hope everyone had a good and relaxing holiday break!

No new modules since the sequencer, money has been slow, but I have got a few more mastering projects coming my way and I did get some money for the holidays but I'm trying not to blow through that so fast. That and, as you'll read, I've got more uses for it. That, and I've learned my lesson about buying stuff before NAMM.

Over the break, I got back into playing guitar more. It started with playing around with the TM-6 as a wah and for about a week I played guitar more than played with the modular. It was involved in a few sounds, using the filters mostly, but I generally was just using the guitar and having a lot of fun. Even not having played (or practiced, which I never did much anyway) I haven't gotten too rusty...it's certainly a lot easier to come up with riffs/lines on the guitar than the synth/keys for me and that's probably why I had so much fun.

This new attention to the guitar also rekindled my lust for pedals. I've always liked pedals, but was always buying and selling them as they didn't hold my attention very long...the few that did though, I have kept and I feel now, years later, that my ears have improved enough that I'm able to pick and choose pedals better.

Through Pete @ Leisure Cove, I got turned onto Build Your Own Clone and the DIY pedal kits that they offer. BYOC has quite a few kits, one that I am particularly excited about, the "Lazy Sproket", a Boss SG-1 Slow Gear clone. Despite it's simplicity, I really liked that pedal, but it was always way too expensive. It's the pedal that actually got me browsing eBay way back in 99 or thereabouts. I was always hunting for a Slow Gear...and was always outbid on the few that came up. Well now, I can build the thing myself for $74.99. Fuckin-A.

All of their kits are very interesting and very well priced. The other's that particularly interest me are the "250+" DOD 250/MXR Dist+ clone as well as their Digital Delay. The icing on the cake is their forum, which has a very active membership with what seems like hundreds of various mods to the kits. I'm *really* excited about getting into this.

In modular news, I've ordered the majority of the parts for my custom case and they should be arriving very soon. I actually ordered 2 extra of the Vector T-strut mounting rails since it was only a few more bucks to get the price break for 10 of them. So if anyone wants 2 rails, let me know and I'll give you a great deal; I don't think I'll have a use for them. I'm hoping to finish the case quickly and not drag ass like I have with the joystick controller. The fact that having the case finished will allow me to sell my Doepfer A-100P suitcases, therefore having money for modules, will be a big motivator. Which reminds me, I'll have 2 Doepfer A-100P cases available for sale soon too; if you are in the market for one (or both!) let me know.

I'm looking forward to NAMM again this year; I always have a good time, but I have very few work-related meetings lined up this year so I'll pretty much be cruising the show the entire time. I've got a few people to say hi to in person now which will be fun to. If any of you want me to check out anything specific @ NAMM, please leave a note in the comments (or this thread on the Muff Wiggler Forum) and I will make sure to check it out and get as many details as possible.

It's not all rainbow farts and sunshine here though, my MacbookPro has fucked itself up nicely. For the last month or so it's been acting oddly when charging batteries and I actually had to replace one of the batteries as it no longer held a charge for more than 30 minutes or so. Now, it simply refuses to run when the battery is used; it will only work when connected to the AC adapter. The battery is fine too, I've tested it with several colleague's MBPs as well as tried their batteries. The shitty part is that my MBP is out of warranty and I didn't buy the extended applecare. I've bought the extended applecare for every mac I've ever owned and never needed it, and this time, ever so ironically, skipped it with this laptop.
Actually the really sucky part is the fact that the wonderful MagSafe connector comes out so easily by design (to save your laptop from flying across the room should someone trip on the power cable)...now if I pickup the thing wrong and the plug pulls out, the computer dies...which has happened like 5 times in the last 2 weeks. Bad sectors anyone!? I've yet to back my system up and take it in for repair, so I'm in for an unknown charge in the near future (another reason to not go splurging on modules.

That's it for now. Adios.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

hey that is bizarre, i bought my first pedal ever a few days ago Electro Harmonix Memoryman with Hazari was also looking at the Boss RE20 but the EH seemed more fun...

I was trying so hard to save every cent as I know NAMM is just around the corner and I expect the Livewire AFG to be here hopefully the Chaos Computer and some Plan B stuff too :-) then i gotta get my head down and save for the Wiard

Zerosum Inertia said...

Happy 2008 man!!:D
BYOC looks great, I have been eyeing it for a while waiting for the right time to jump in(which I dont know when that will be....er...now??hehe)

I know what you mean about the ease of playing guitar vs keys, which is where the pedal lust does come into play, its great making a guitar sound like a synth, but being able to play it like a guitar.

Have fun at NAMM

Unknown said...

oh i did buy the Bugbrand postcard weevil too :-) its great noise unit

kakihara said...

Hey Happy new year there! :D
Sorry I didn't post the "tabla sound thing" as I've told you because I didnt end up recording it as planned since my A124 died...:(
However I think I have that recorded somewhere on my hard drive... I'll start looking for it now that holiday insanity is over for 1 year!

BTW, the Vector T-Strut, is it the 150 hp one? If so i'll take both!
let me know

g.

felix said...

yeah they are the 150HP ones (Vector pn# TS300).

Sweet, I'll let you know once they arrive. I'll sell them for half price, $7 each, plus whatever it might be to ship them. Sound good?

shoot me an email, so I've got your info:
james.cigler at gmail dot com

J.w.M. said...

Happy 08!
I can't wait to hear some samples of that lazy sprocket.

As for NAMM... just get a bunch of pics and info about the new Metasonix product!!!

As for the MacbookPro, would you still recommend it? I'm idly in the market for a laptop powerful enough to replace my desktop and was thinking pretty hard about the MacbookPro. What do you think?

felix said...

Will do!

Yes I would definitely still recommend a Macbook or MacBookPro; it's fantastic wether you want to run mac os or windows. However, I would wait until after Macworld to see if any new hardware is released. I think Macworld is either next weekend or the weekend of NAMM...it's this month either way.

illiac said...

Hey!

I would be very interested in taking one of those euroracks off of your hands when your ready.

onomat@gmail.com

Great blog btw!

-Brandon

Unknown said...

hey

i would love to see at NAMM photos of Livewire, Plan B, Doepfer,Metasonix etc...I live on the otherside of the world so you are so lucky going to meet the people who make this stuff...mind you we have paul perry,ken stone and robin whittle here :-)

J.w.M. said...

Does John Blacet ever make an appearance at NAMM? If so, I'd be interested in seeing photos of his booth. Somehow I doubt that he does, though...

felix said...

I don't know actually, but I will look around while I'm there. If he does, I would expect he'd be at the AH booth rather than have his own.

The AH booth is a great idea because NAMM booths are very expensive and by doing a group booth like that, it makes it easily affordable for the manufactures to make an appearance.