Losing the path

[aholidayatthesea]

For like the same price of a Roland cube you can get this 15w tube amp which has a 1w option. I just got one and it's killer. Just a suggestion.

http://www.monoprice.com/mobile/product/details/611815

[Inconuucl]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ1G8cRBUxU[/youtube]

I need to hear it in person, but not bad.

[Inconuucl]

Altough I'm more interested in getting something like the Hotone mini amps, which sound great.

[askashrub]

**&** UPDATE **&**

Gave it one last go the day before I was planning on taking it back... and fell in love.

Music is weird.
There is no lesson here.

It's a Volca Sample and I'm keeping it.

[jrfox92]

You should try doing some weird MIDI stuff with it if you find the standard sequencing it does too rigid.
Adding some randomized lag might help with making things a little more interesting

[askashrub]

You should try doing some weird MIDI stuff with it if you find the standard sequencing it does too rigid.
Adding some randomized lag might help with making things a little more interesting

That sounds cool.

For me, I realize it's just a Volca thing.
Felt the same way when I got the FM.

First, they fall short of my expectations, second, they make me happy as shit.
Just takes me a bit of time to stop trying to make them something they're not and work with them.

I'll never be all about dat sequencing life, but I can see how the Sample will fit into my flow.
I find myself regularly picking it up and getting immersed for 20 minutes, just trying stuff.
I really enjoy the interface and how I can manage to get just about any sample to do something I like.
At the end I have a weird loop I can melt through the rest of my gear.

I am feeling romantic about it.

[Strange Tales]

Rigid sequencing is dumb and I will never own a piece of equipment that uses it. Being able to fuck with sequencing is a huge reason I got into modular in the first place because I can't fit my head in a rigid sequencing hole.

[aholidayatthesea]

Curious to see some interesting volcasample stuff. The aesthetics and size made me want to buy it, but I already have an MPC so it was hard to justify. Can you do any cool real time manipulation of the samples?

[askashrub]

Curious to see some interesting volcasample stuff. The aesthetics and size made me want to buy it, but I already have an MPC so it was hard to justify. Can you do any cool real time manipulation of the samples?

Yeah, I had an Octatrack on the way while I was debating whether or not to keep the Sample.
It had a lot to do with my doubts.
But I found the Sample to be its own little thing, and worth having both.

Regarding real time manipulation, yes and no.
It's light on punch-in effects that you can pop in and out on the fly.
Just reverb and reverse (and a badass loop function I'll get into below).
So manipulating samples within a sequence is hairy, because you need to know how to get them back to how they were.
(Unless you're cool with letting the sequence mutate throughout the performance).

You do have the option to jump to particular steps of a sequence, or quickly deactivate steps.
The latter is cool, I feel it could be pretty useful with a bit of practice.

BUT, the whole appeal of the Sample is tactile sample tweaking.
All of the Sample's parameters has a dedicated knob, no menu to dive into.
And you can motion sequence most of them.
I've been getting beautiful results motion sequencing the speed of the sample, combined with panning.

And it has some tricks.
That loop function: You can pop that in and out for individual samples, which will loop for as long as you set them to.
The cool bit is that if you decrease the length of the sample you can get these sputtering glitches.
You can also use it to make drones. And all kinds of shit really. It's beautiful.
Combined with motion sequencing, you can use it to cause normal samples to wig out for a set period of time.

I think if you're using it to trigger samples, it's amazing.
(Though it only has 4mb of storage capacity).

As a sequencer, it's limited, but in ways I find inspiring.
As a drum machine, it's killer.

I keep winding up with loops that sound like old Wu Tang instrumentals.
Not something I would ever do on purpose.
So that's cool.

[askashrub]

And somehow, I missed the most important bit:
It's the most pleasant form of sample manipulation I've ever used.

Not ideal if you have a very specific end goal in mind, but it's really, really fun to transform samples by twisting a bunch of knobs.
I keep surprising myself with what comes out.

I'm excited to see what happens with more familiarity.

[aholidayatthesea]

Might be something worth looking into then.

The octatrack is supposed to be a beast. All the reviews I've read are something akin to "once you go through the months of laborious training, you can do anything your heart could possibly imagine and everything it wasn't creative enough to imagine on its own."

[askashrub]

Might be something worth looking into then.

The octatrack is supposed to be a beast. All the reviews I've read are something akin to "once you go through the months of laborious training, you can do anything your heart could possibly imagine and everything it wasn't creative enough to imagine on its own."

Yeah that's a whole other can of worms.
I've never been as excited by a device before.

I'll be treating it as my secondary instrument going forward.

[JonnyAngle]

I have totally lost the path recently.

I've been super busy at work, so that doesn't help. I used to go in the basement and fuzz my brains out, but Fuzz is so boring to me lately. I don't know how this even happened.

I do have a huge erection for delays and reverbs now, but how do you lose the fuzz boner?

I want the new Frazz Dazzler, but I'm worried it will just get thrown on the shelf.

What's up with that fuzz bros and sisters?

[Jwar]

Been there man! It's pretty easy to get underwhelmed by fuzz when there are so many and for the most part they all sound the same! LOL!

When I feel like that, I just take a step back and stop using them.

I went on a huge OD kick when I stop liking fuzz for a bit and found out that I fucking love overdrives with my active bass. So crunchy and just meaty and awesome!

Just don't do anything stupid like sell them all. I've done that shit and regret it so bad man. I want so many pedals back that I've had, it sucks.

So just don't fuck with them for a bit and come back to it later, you may find you'll love them again.

OH! And try to play without headphones. If you really do have to play like that a lot, it will fucking kill your love fast man.

[JonnyAngle]

I think the headphones are killing it for me.

I came home from work for a few minutes to play with an amp and it was the kitties titties