I think my home studio is ready

I haven’t written anything about my homestudio for a while. I think I can write something about it since I feel it is now in state which you could say ready. You can use any other word which means it doesn’t need any changes for now. No major investments needed.

I made kind of new year’s resolution but not really to stop buying new music gear for a year. If something breaks I will buy replacement and upgrades are allowed but nothing really new for a year. I broke that already once because one plugin I have been looking for sometime was in sale for small price. I could have done without it but it was cheap. Next breaking of this plan might happen with Make Noise’s DXG. I could justify it by saying it is upgrade to Optomix. DXG is stereo low pass gate. Optomix is mono low pass gate. Both are same size. Optomix is in stereo system. Having stereo low pass gate would make more sense. I am not sure if I will get DXG or not. Need see and hear more of it. Optomix might be better in some patches.

It is bit weird to have feeling your home studio can do everything you could want from it considering the size you can dedicate to it. Bigger real studio could do much more but I couldn’t expect more from space I have dedicated. I think starting to record guitar and bass gave me this feeling. Everything just clicked. I stopped thinking what I could need in future. I started to think what I can do with what I currently have.

One of the last changes I made was to start using audio interfaces outputs. I added pedal board which allow me to use stereo pedals with everything. Now I can use different synths’ external inputs from DAW. Have planned to do that for ages. Finally did it. Should have done it much earlier.

The last change was hardest to make. I took Minibrute 2S away from setup and replaced it with Lyra-8. I had not used Minibrute 2S since I got eurorack cases. Played with it for a while but I couldn’t justify keeping it in setup when Taiga and other modules can do almost everything it can. Yes there is difference in sound but it creates other option which doesn’t really matter. I can do much more with Taiga case than with Minibrute 2S. Only thing Minibrute 2S can do what Taiga case can’t do is sequencer trick I use in video below. I don’t use external sequencers too often. That video is only time I have done something I have released with external sequencer.

I think it is good idea to limit unnecessary options. Lyra-8 gives something no other synth gives. Have had Lyra-8 for several years. I have used it only in one video. It has been more of a therapeutical thing I use every now and then when I need to get my mind away from something. Not sure what to do with BARP 2600. Haven’t used it either since I got eurorack cases. It can still stay because it doesn’t free space like Minibrute 2S did.

I am almost same point with camera gear. There are two lenses I kind of want to get. I could replace older lenses with them. I could call that upgrade which it would really be. My GAS has got to a point where I have started to think about selling gear without getting anything new. Weird feeling.

Eurorack system is ready

I listened one of the Great Courses’ online courses. It told you are less likely to reach your goals if you tell about them to someone. That is why I haven’t written about homestudio process lately. After doing that I have finished some parts of it. Let’s start with eurorack system.

It looked quite different last time I talked about it. I got rid of all the Pittsburgh Modular modules. I don’t remember at which point I realized I could have light and dark row. It wasn’t in original plan but when it looked possible I started to select modules by color. I didn’t have to leave anything from system because of color. Just select similar module with correct color. Got almost all the functionality I wanted. 12hp larger case would have got all. Wanted to have mixer which could do feedback loop but didn’t have room for that. This set up can probably do feedback loop but I haven’t figured it out yet.

Another thing not in original plan was stereo modular. Went to stereo after I learned Doepfer has stereo module and my local store had one. Had already XPO and QPAS at that point but wasn’t sure if I should go stereo. Had to take MMG from system to make room for A-121s. MMG is my favorite filter but it didn’t fit to system with A-121s and A-121s can do some of the things why I like MMG so much. Not as good but good enough. After going to stereo decided to get two Dixies. I have wanted Dixie II+ as long as I remember. Just haven’t have point where getting one made sense until now. Now getting two made sense. I was bit disappointed I had to calibrate both. Factory calibration was so bad for oscillator which is famous for stability. They are stable after calibration but I would have expected factory calibration to be better.

After getting oscillators and filters it was time to decide utility modules. Didn’t have any picture what I wanted. Just checked what was available and what improved the system most. Dark row would have Div Kid’s RND STEP if any store had it. I have three different sample and hold modules in system. RND STEP would have replaced one or two of them. Those modules have other functionality which will keep them in system even if RND STEP became available in future. And both which it might have replaced are on light row and RND STEP would go to dark row.

Having two different colored rows and system with complimentary modules make it really hard to replace anything in system. Any new module or modules have to able to do what modules they replace did and they have to have correct color. System will stay as it is now for a long time. Got last modules just before Superbooth. There were some interesting modules but I don’t feel like I need any of them in this system. Spectraphon is interesting but there is no room for it in this system.

Instruo’s new tagh is interesting too. If it was released couple months earlier it would be in this system. Instruo and Make Noise make best looking modules. If it was not about money and space I would have full Instruo system because their modules look so good. Even without new Tagh there are three Instruo modules. Those were last to be added to dark row. Wanted something from them and functionality of those three improved the system.

Now I can start learning the system and not watch Spectraphon videos on Youtube.

New Year 2023

It is that time of the year again. Won’t be making resolutions. I make plans. Plan for 2022 was make home studion which could stay as it is going forward. That almost happened. One midi keyboard and one guitar pedal not being available when I wanted and new eurorack case prevented that to be finished by the end of the year but it will happen early this year. Trigon 6 module might find its way to studio when it is available but everything else should be finished early this year.

New eurorack case has turned out to be quite interesting. Every time I feel I could keep Lifeforms in case I find something weird from them. Midi to CV conversion has weird feature which appeared in current setup. It is really annoying but it can create cool randomness when used correctly. Addition to that I have had really had time calibrating SV-1. I get them working perfectly but next time they are all over the place. It could be temperature and calibrating them when they are cool. Unless I get them to stay in tune without constant calibration there will be major changes in what modules will be in that case.

When I set home studio I got proper workspace for drawing and video editing. Wasn’t planned but it made sense to do that too. After I got work spaces in proper condition 2022 year 2023 will be year to git gud. There are things to get good at. Making music, drawing and 3D animation with Blender. Nothing that I start from zero because year changed. It has been on going process which I try to focus more this year. There is one bigger secret drawing related project I want to do. Publishing it depends how it works out. 3d animation would be for music videos at the moment. I like how Cinematic Laboratories and Make Noise use 3D animation in their videos. I did that few years ago in few videos. Music is just fun and I like to get better at it and produce more of it.

Trying to figure how to schedule this year so I manage to learn everything I want. There is a problem of using it or losing it. I have few online courses to take on each topic. But which order to take them so I don’t take the course and then don’t do anything with it afterwards. I feel I need to learn basics of Blender every time I use it. Goal is to time learning in a way I start to use what I learn. At the moment learning Blender again for fourth or fifth time and music theory seem most optimal route. I haven’t found course which teach one thing I need for that secret art project. I would like to know if there is good online course on how to draw same character again and again and make it look same every time. You can get there by drawing but I like to learn on which things I should concentrate on. I learnt to draw male and female faces after someone pointed good web site teaching the differences. I haven’t found good enough information on drawing the same character again and again.

If you wonder why I am learning Blender for forth or fifth time there is a simple answer. Earlier times rendering time has been huge issue even when using rendering farms. Now it should be better. I have some ideas for 3D animation besides music videos but it has been too time consuming so far. It might still be but I want to try again and there is online course which tells how to make 3D animations fast with Blender.

Plans changed

I learned I would have to wait for the case I was planning to get for few weeks. Desperation made me try if RackBrute would fit into my home studio. It was tight but when I set stand to correct position and everything to correct angle it did fit. Which meant no need for new case and more room for modules. This time picture is from home studio. It is Lifeforms & Make Noise based system. For now. Make Noise will stay there. I give Lifeforms change to show they deserve to be in case.

I started modular journey with Lifeforms modules. Lifeforms modules work in mysterious ways. Designers made them for their own use. At least it feels like it. You can’t trust documentation fully. After calibrating SV-1 and playing the setup with tuner on I have found how it actually work. I think I do. Splitters which we supposed to be passive work with V/Oct signals but multiple which should be buffered doesn’t. SV-1’s filter feels like it has 100% key tracking on. There are many other things which doesn’t work like I expect.

Lifeforms will stay there for now. Mainly because replacing them is quite expensive. In previous system Lifeforms were mainly utilities. In previous plans other modules were there to support Lifeforms. This one is different.

Make Noise part is quite close to my dream Make Noise system. It is smaller system Make Noise have in their latest videos minus Mimeophon and STO replaced by MMG. XOH is on its way. My local store didn’t have it. Had to order it elsewhere. Initial feelings of XPO and QPAS are really good. So far experiences are mono only but both sound really good mono. There was one disappointment with XPO. Sync is not hard sync. I probably shouldn’t expect module to have hard sync if module has sync in. It is not as big disappointment as SV-1’s sync. XPO can do gritty sound I would have used hard sync without hard sync.

Plan was to have homestudio setup complete by the end of the year but latest change of plan changed that. It almost is. Midi keyboard might change. The one I want wasn’t available. It lead to this eurorack case thing. There is one pedal I want. It wasn’t available when I build the pedal board. Now this. Swapping modules left empty spots to utility case. Knowing myself those empty spaces will disappear.

Should I get new eurorack case?

Have been tempted to get Cre8audio’s West Pest lately. I have room for one relatively small synth and I’d like to have something more west coast oriented. Other option is Endorphin.es Shuttle System which costs ten times more. West Pest isn’t versatile enough and Shuttle System is quite expensive. Then I remembered I have Pittsburgh Modular’s Lifeforms SV-1 and Double Helix. My first eurorack modules. Both are on Rack Brute which doesn’t fit to current setup but I can still play with them. I could get versatile system if I build it around them without cost going too high.

SV-1 was my gateway to eurorack. It was good starting point. It was full voice. Back then only such options were Moog Mother 32 and SV-1. Now there are other options and SV-1 is discontinued. SV-1 has couple design choice which prevent it to be really good. First is sync. There is not hard sync. I have no idea what sync does but it is not hard sync. Manual doesn’t tell what it actually does and walk through video didn’t either. It just doesn’t give hard sync. I don’t know how you should use it. I honestly had forgotten it had sync option when I saw walk through video mention it. When I tested it I understood why I had forgotten it. It is useless. Which makes oscillator FM useless too. At least in way I use FM. FM knob has really small usable range if you want synth to stay in tune.

Another weird choice is to have passive splitter. V/Oct signal needs buffer. Oscillator 1 is hard wires to midi but oscillator 2 is not. This means you have to connect V/Oct output to oscillator 2 or you can it only with one oscillator in case you have Double Helix too. Double Helix has two oscillators both having own V/Oct inputs. SV-1 can’t control both oscillators alone if you want oscillators to stay in tune. All this trouble because SV-1 has passive splitter and oscillators don’t share pitch information. I understand second oscillators can be used as LFOs when you don’t connect anything to V/Oct. For this reason SV-1’s splitters should be buffered. It would allow you to share V/Oct with other modules without need of separate buffered multiple.

Double Helix is (or was because it is discontinued) Pittsburgh Modular’s west coast voice. It has two oscillators and contour section which has wave shaper and low pass gate. It doesn’t have oscillator sync. Maybe they didn’t know how to do hard sync and heard too many times how SV-1’s sync didn’t work like users expected.

If you can overcome these problems modules sound pretty good. If you build system around them you first need buffered multiple and secondly oscillator which can do hard sync. You shouldn’t need fifth oscillator but this time there is no other option. After those system needs more envelope generators. One ADSR is not enough. After ADSR was VCA. Last 6 hp was filled what I thought made most sense. Another wave shaper can do more than Double Helix’s wave shaper. This setup should be able to give what I want from west coast oriented system. It would be cheaper than Shuttle System. Haven’t decided if I would get this yet. Picture is from Modular Grid. I won’t link to rack because I might delete it later. You can find it from my profile when this is published.

I survived Black Friday sales without buying anything physical

I survived Black Friday sales without buying anything physical. Nothing I planned to buy anyway was in sale. It was different story on software side. Ableton Live upgrade was from Black Friday sale. Kind of lost my sense with software sales. Probably should have taken trial version of everything I bought before buying. Would have saved some money that way. After few purchases I started to do it. I had plan to minimize my setups. Black Friday sales didn’t help with it.

Starting to think getting back to Ableton Live was correct move. Only things I miss from Cubase are Chord Track, Chord Assistant functions and ability get sections easily to full screen. Probably will miss video and Expression Maps when I need them. Cubase does some other things better but I don’t miss them. Ableton Live is just faster and better at what I want to do. Cubase needs lot of tweaking until you get everything easily available. You need templates because sometimes you need overly complicated routings to get what you want. Google Cubase and Elektron Overbridge for examples.

Roland SE-02 found its way to my setup. Max For Live controller made it usable. My setup would look different if I used Live when I selected synths for setup. Had to select ones with VST controllers because Cubase doesn’t have usable way to control external synths. You can do it but it is not usable. Wrote about device panels and how they don’t work earlier. You can find free or paid Max For Live controllers for synths and tweak them to your liking. If you don’t find one you can make one yourself. You don’t need someone else to make one and hope they upgrade controllers when synth get upgrades. If Cubase had something like this I would be still using it.

Then there is functionality you can’t get from Cubase. More about that in next post. It needs some video editing. Video is already shot and music for it is ready. I made song based on idea I couldn’t do in Cubase. But that will be in next post. You won’t have to wait it as long as this post.