Anachostic

“Ok, I think I’m just about done with the music studio.” – Anachostic, a couple months ago.

So that was a lie.  Let’s quickly summarize events in the studio since my last satisfaction point.

• Became dissatisfied with power routing and decided to make alterations
• Retrofitted new power jacks onto four devices to support standard cabling of varying lengths
• Modified hardwired devices to have a pigtail power jack supporting  standard cabling of varying lengths
• Purchased more cables: shorter power cables, longer power cables, longer audio cables, RCA to 1/4” cables.
• Bought a better rack mixer, which gave me an extra available rack space
• Added another rackmount synth
• Modified the routing of a couple synths in the rack to go through the patch bay, giving me more rack space
• Ditched my mini desktop keyboard for one with full-size keys
• Decided to make a battery swap on a device known for having a non-standard battery that leaks
• Discovered some new software that allows software control of hardware.
• Replaced a backlight on an older device.
• Ordered the stand for the larger devices (this was in the roadmap, so technically not a new project)
• Finally got around to repairing a device sitting around.

That’s probably enough of a summary.  Here’s some of the details of the vague items.

The General Music Equinox has a Ni-Cad battery that is known to leak and cause damage.  Most all synths have lithium batteries, usually a 3v coin battery.  Not this one.  It’s a 4.8v rechargeable battery.  It’s literally not available anymore, so your only choice is a retrofit of something else.  I found a battery pack used by security lights that’s 4.8 volts, but I wanted to do it better than just a hard-wired fix, so I had some research to do.  The power pack had a plug on it that I learned is called a JST connector, and once I found the proper size, I ordered a cable so I could make a connectable power jack from the circuit board.  Because of course that battery will need changing in the future.

The new software is called Ctrlr, and it’s sort of a Sysex editor and librarian.  You can download control panels for a variety of synths and they will talk to the hardware and make the patch changes.  Amazingly, you can also host these panels in Cubase as VST instruments.  So you get the automation of a VST instrument out of your hardware device.  Fascinating.  Although it’s in a programming language I’ve never heard of, it’s intriguing enough that I might try my hand at creating some panels for synths that I have that aren’t represented yet.  I could convert Fexman into a panel for the MU80 and MU100.

At one point, I thought my rack was full.  I had everything wired to the rack mixer and was out of mounting space.  But then, I got really irritated at the noise level from the used mixer I had bought and decided to upgrade.  That gave me an extra 1U of space.  I thought maybe I could get an effects unit and wire it into the patch bay.  That made me think, the Yamaha MU80 and MU100 can be used as effects devices, why don’t I wire them into the patch bay?  And that freed up more rack mixer inputs and more mounting space.  I found a new synth to fill in 1U space: The Korg TR Rack, which is the Korg Trinity in rack form.  The later version, the Korg Triton, is a 2U box and also has sampling ability.  As the synths get newer, I get less interested.  The Trinity is more of a pure synth and as such, suits me better.

And speaking of newer devices, one of the newest that I own, the Roland Juno Di, hasn’t worked since day 1 of purchase.  Granted, I bought it knowing it was non-functional, and although I tried to troubleshoot it, it was far beyond my skill.  I had a shop in Orlando that said they could fix it if Roland would ever make the parts available.  Tired of waiting, I contacted an authorized Roland repair center and I got word that it is fixable and for $250, it would be fixed that day.  The problem was a bad mute line, which I have seen other techs repair in videos, but it involves schematic reading and skilled use of an oscilloscope, both of which I have no experience in.  So it’ll be nice adding that device to my collection.

The new stand comes tomorrow and it’ll hold four devices.  And you know what, it’s not enough.  I have more.  But I do have the 2-tier stand I can use and a couple keyboards don’t have to come out of storage, so it’ll all be ok.  I think.  I’m pushing the limits of my MIDI ports.  So that will be six keyboards on the north wall, six on the south wall, and eight in the rack.  A nice, round number, 20.  And then the two in storage still.

So awesome.  You got a shit-ton of gear.  What are you going to do with it?  Like, maybe, make some music?  I haven’t been ignoring that, really.  I have plenty of ideas jotted down that I can flesh out.  The problem is these new technologies I come across.  Ctrlr is a totally new frontier and I could lose a lot of time just learning and exploring and creating in it.  I ditched the Tuna mini controller and got an Oxygen 25.  That cost me time figuring out how to configure the Oxygen to automate Cubase.

Then there’s the problem of so many sounds.  That’s actually one of the reasons I got out of using VSTs is that there were so many sounds it was overwhelming.  And here I am, in the hardware realm, with the same problem.  I’m thinking I’m going to have to start a notebook and write down devices and patch names and song ideas while I’m browsing sounds.  Many times, I’ll find a nice sound, some up with an idea that utilizes its special elements, then move on to the next sound.  sometime, I’ll record the idea, and I have plenty of them to go back to.  But sometimes, I just hear a sound that’s like “I know what I would use that for” and when the time comes when I need it, god forbid I’d ever find it again.

So there you go, all caught up on the drama for another month.