Lack Of Focus

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dawman
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Lack Of Focus

Post by dawman »

I be trippin’.
I use to do Mahavishnu Orchestra on a Yamaha QX-1. I was really fast and good with that as I was under pressure to stay ahead of the crowd ( qx-1 not available in USA) before they started gigging publicly (brought mine back from a Japan).
But now I’ve bought an MPC Live and WaveStation and really suck, can’t focus well, burnt out on new terminology. Trying to translate or relate for that matter to old Pattern and song sequencing and it’s really tiresome.

Too old to do drugs I must now re-adjust and force myself out of laziness to learn.
All I have is a really cool looking rig right now, no skill set yet.

Image
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valis
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by valis »

It'll come. Isn't adulting fun.

My son is still 4 and now that we're able to go back to work we're sans daycare where I am. That means if the wife had work slots open I'm on daddy day care duty, or vice versa (we typically used Grandma when daycare wasn't an option before, but that's probably not going to occur again for obvious reasons). It'll be another year or two before he's fully capable of self entertaining and so it's feeling right now like I'm working at 1/4 impulse speed, and am still stuck way out in the Delta Quadrant...
dawman
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by dawman »

Yes. Taking care of kids is also draining me.
Everyone but me is working too. Have to keep the money coming in.
Before I could do what I wanted when I want.

I go to the Akai MPC threads where everybody is pimping a beat (snoring) or posing.
Questions go unanswered, and the rtfm cackles chime in.
Turns out these dip shits didn’t know answers to begin with.

No MIDI CC Project recall.
Dumb software too. I leave the same sounds in RAM as I don’t need different kits.
Just because you load a new project made of MIDI Files it loads the same samples over and over.
Wasted time.
If you’re a live performer folder diving and loading clears the dance floor.
Dumb shits yelling rtfm must gig in their bedroom studios not in the real world.

Think I’ll pay my daughter n law to stop working.
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at0m
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by at0m »

dawman,

maybe you expect to go fast on this, maybe too fast?

some trick that worked for me in the past - ymmv, it's different for everyone:
-RTFM and swing between drooling in awe and getting lost in bore.
-toy some around on machine of said Manual. get lost again.
-back to RTM. but this time, learn one trick/thingie per day/week/whateverSchedule
-take some notes.
-rinse, repeat.

then on to the next machine. i do one machine/device at once. partly cos i'm too poor to by lots, partly cos splitting up my attention is tough.

have fun ;p
more has been done with less
https://soundcloud.com/at0m-studio
dawman
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by dawman »

Actually it’s what I’m doing and it’s working, but I fast forward through movies I’m so impatient.
I’ve got until a vacc(me is invented so I’ll be dialed in by then.

Thanks at0m
Best 2U & Your Loved Ones
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yayajohn
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by yayajohn »

Dawman; i was eyballing that MPC Live for a while now and almost pulled the trigger a couple of times. Now the Live II is out-crap more money now!
I want it to take on the road with me for boring hotel time. Too much shit in my bag right now with the Linnstrument and laptop but plan to downsize the laptop. Would really like to get a new ipad but I hear the MPC doesn't plug into it?
So what's your take on that thing - worth the money?
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by dawman »

I’d get the used Live Ones that are popping up everywhere.
The outputs on this thing are hot as hell too.
I can’t get Soundcard Outs to sizzle like that and the low end is sick.

My buddy has a Live 2 and the speakers are pretty loud. I love the way I can take this upstairs to my bedroom and learn it with the MPC Bible Tutorial.

I use my old AKG cans.

Battery lasts for days though, mine lasted 5 1/2 hours full tilt.

You might like the CV Outs on the Live 2.
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valis
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by valis »

Built in speakers on the Live 2 is nuts, would have loved that thing in my early/mid 20's (and I'm sure it's great now).
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yayajohn
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by yayajohn »

dawman wrote: Tue Jun 09, 2020 4:56 pm I’d get the used Live Ones that are popping up everywhere.
The outputs on this thing are hot as hell too.
I can’t get Soundcard Outs to sizzle like that and the low end is sick.

My buddy has a Live 2 and the speakers are pretty loud. I love the way I can take this upstairs to my bedroom and learn it with the MPC Bible Tutorial.

I use my old AKG cans.

Battery lasts for days though, mine lasted 5 1/2 hours full tilt.

You might like the CV Outs on the Live 2.
Thanks, i'll keep my eye out for a used one, risky though with equipment like this - abuse factor is high. CV out would be nice but don't really need the speakers.
Anyway, I have to sort this all out before I take the plunge.
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by dawman »

Fun for the whole family. The most recent Keebler loves it because she watched me playing around with my 2.1 PC speaks.
808 Bass busts those cracker boxes effortlessly.

There’s the usual bottom feeders @ eBay and GreedVerb.com. 1,100, etc,
Got mine from Sweetwater as a Demo (in laymen’s terms open box) for 850.
I sort of freaked out because a few days later they were quacking about Live 2.

I’ve got the guys to watch and learn from already on YTube.
There’s so many ways to use these, a truly creative mobile way to get down fast.

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valis
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by valis »

Interesting, have to admit I've been stuck in DAWs for years due to my familiarity with computers. Maybe I ought to consider something in addition to my synths to learn...
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yayajohn
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by yayajohn »

Dawman; that pic is a great advertisement for the build quality lol. She goes right for the colored knobs haha.
You Tube is a free education! Remember when we had to pay for video tapes?
@valis; careful or you'll catch the bug and end up with piles of useless shit in your beautiful and very organized studio :lol:
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dante
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by dante »

dawman wrote: Sun Jun 07, 2020 9:18 pm I be trippin’.
I use to do Mahavishnu Orchestra on a Yamaha QX-1. I was really fast and good with that as I was under pressure to stay ahead of the crowd ( qx-1 not available in USA) before they started gigging publicly (brought mine back from a Japan).
One of the best concerts I ever been to was Mahavishnu at the Palais on St Kilda here Melbourne decades ago. I took my Dad, a classical musician and he was blown away.

Did you ever do Lila's Dance on the QX-1 ? I remember the keys on that were solid as - like a real typewriter.
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Bud Weiser
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by Bud Weiser »

dante wrote: Fri Jun 12, 2020 11:55 am
dawman wrote: Sun Jun 07, 2020 9:18 pm I be trippin’.
I use to do Mahavishnu Orchestra on a Yamaha QX-1. I was really fast and good with that as I was under pressure to stay ahead of the crowd ( qx-1 not available in USA) before they started gigging publicly (brought mine back from a Japan).
One of the best concerts I ever been to was Mahavishnu at the Palais on St Kilda here Melbourne decades ago. I took my Dad, a classical musician and he was blown away.

Did you ever do Lila's Dance on the QX-1 ? I remember the keys on that were solid as - like a real typewriter.

I loved my QX-1 !
Still own in very good condition, but after decades lost workflow completely.
I guess I´d have to RTFM and learn new to use it again.
I´m a big fan of Mahavishnu Orchestra !
I appreciate they didn´t need any sequencer at all for their music.
They can´t,- because at that time, there was nothing existing than S&H, arpeggiators and analog monophonic CV step sequencers offering a handfull of steps in a row at best.

:)

Bud
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valis
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by valis »

Mmmmm QX-1. I had to 'make do' with an MMT-8 before I made the 'big jump' to cakewalk (before Scope era, and Logic at that point went best with a very pricey outboard Disk Recording box for best recording results).
dawman
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by dawman »

QX-1 Is just a giant 8 track beast, the very first really. I rolled with gigs for 6 years as a trio. Made so much music and money that I became kind of popular for the vocal automations and got tens years worth of work from that, never had downtime like now.

Kind of nice not having to learn shit you’re not enthusiastic about.
I’ll enjoy not having the proper focus a while longer/
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dante
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by dante »

Well around the same time as the QX1 I used the beast below - at least it had TV output but the official sequencer was an 8 track step time notation sequencer. But I got an unofficial DMS 16 track system and turned it into a real time 16 Track. Originally i had a 64K version CX5 but my flatmate let me use his MKII which was no slouch at 128K !!!
Yamaha CX5 MkII
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valis
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by valis »

TV output, reminds me of my Tandy Color 80. I could sequence on that in basic (was it BASICA or TBASIC, I forget...)
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by dawman »

Nice Dante. Always wondered how many cats were using those.
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ronnie
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Re: Lack Of Focus

Post by ronnie »

I definitely hear you. I'm basically in total quarantine because I'm in the high-risk category. Since late March, I've been in my home studio a lot. Mostly practicing piano on my Kurzweill via Pianoteq on the Scope box. I dusted off my KORG PA600 just for fun. I had to re-learn everything KORG workstation. I had already set the audio outs and midi to roundtrip via an Edirol UM-880 midi patcher. (so I have 5 controllers: The Kurzweill for a piano feel, and ancient but fantastic Roland MKB (a heavy beast that it is) for organs, one Roland A-500 by the daw side of my setup, an A-800 by my scope setup and the PA600 under that). The Roland A's have a great feel for anything especially superb for synths in Scope and VST. I need the keyboard feels to be right!

I picked up the KORG PA600 workstation last year. I sold my PA60 that I used on one-man gigs. I had completely reprogrammed that with my own styles, sequences and it took Triton samples and installed a hard drive. I really haven't looked much at the PA600 since I took it out of the box. Their new RX and DNC samples sound really pretty good (not as good as a Ketron) but when played right, it's actually pretty amazing. I paid around $1000 for it at the time (the Ketron was like $5000 - should come with license plates!). The audio outs are also pretty good. The sequencer is great and it will play wave and mp3 besides the midi.

I started to mess around with it routing it through my Scope box into my DAW machine via ADAT. While I knew the PA60 intimately because I used it live, there was a learning curve. I also had to remember what midi was connected to what (MIDI-OX helped me out on that).

In any case, I've been goading my wife to sing again for forever (back in the day, before we got married) we had both worked at CBS in the studio. We didn't know each other because she was in San Diego and I was in NYC. She did Santana, Cal Tjader, and whatever they gave her. I did some A&R and studio work and got to hang out with Richard Rogers and Elmer Bernstein. Okay, so we met in NYC and like got engaged in two weeks. At first, we did a lot together. Jazz lounge stuff as a duo then we got day gigs and the kids came, etc.

With us being in quarantine she finally gave in to record something. I think her chips are pretty good! We rehearsed some jazz tunes with just me on the piano until she was game enough to record, even though she was reluctant to put anything out there.

So I put the PA800 to use. I had a nice arrangement in a midi file of Bobby Caldwell's What You Won't Do For Love. It had lousy Standard GM instruments so I redid all the instruments with the much nicer Korg samples. Did some panning, eq, and effects in the PA800 and passed it through Optimaster into Cakewalk. Then I recorded her in Cakewalk. I made a nice vocal strip of VST's personalized for her (learning curve!, I have collected 1475 VST's over the last 20 years) and we recorded it. I sent her out and back to Scope through Optimaster. This is what we got:

<a href=”https://soundcloud.com/soundassets/what ... love-final” >Doris & Ron doing What You Won't Do For Love</a>

Then she wanted to do "When Sunny Gets Blue" acapella totally "a piacere" (no set tempo). So I recorded that. Then I wanted to add piano. (Pianoeq through Scope) That was a bitch as she was all over the place. I must have tried a thousand times. Here is the best one. Not perfect on my part, but she sounds pretty good.

<a href="https://soundcloud.com/soundassets/when ... -doris-ron” >Doris & Ron doing When Sunny Gets Blue</a>

What I don't like about all the gear and software is it's so freakin' technical! New stuff is a bitch. The intuitive hype is just that. YOU have to get intuitive and you can't do real music at the same time as you're trying to figure all this shit out. Sometimes I think it's easier to learn a Bach or Chopin etude than playing around with the gear. But once you get it down, especially the real-time stuff, it's fantastic.

Here's wishing all of my comrades here, good health and a long life to keep on truckin'.
"I’ve come to the conclusion that synths are like potatoes, they’re no good raw—you’ve got to cook ‘em, and I cooked these sounds for months before I got them to the point where they sounded musical to me." Lyle Mays
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