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random memory
 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-28 03:55 [#02619501]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



growing up, amongst the Cool Toys in the basement was a
beast of a 6U rack unit that weight at least 50lb, and it
was, like... you know in CSI, where they shoot a bullet into
a tank of water for ballistics analysis? It was exactly
this, except it was a creamy old CRT inside a dark tank with
mounting for a film camera to bolt on where you'd fire the
gun in. it came with who cameras: an SLR (konica?) and...
polaroid!

and the idea was, before, like, digital imaging, this would
let you get a screencap of a digitally generated image for
use in a scientific paper or whatnot.

but i didn't get what it was, at ten. i just thought it was
awesome. i would annoy dad because i'd go down and power it
up and peer through the hole where the camera lens was
supposed to dock and play the knobs and buttons -- exactly
those same satisfying clicky pushtoggles with LEDs they used
on all the SCI prophet stuff -- to get cool colors and
patterns out of it, without even having a video input
present.

when dad gave it back to the university he'd ganked it from,
i was mad. he just had no further use for it and wanted it
out of his basement before i broke it. i was more: hey, no,
stop. i love this thing. but at that age you have no vote in
the matter with dad's stuff

now i was just remembering it, and thinking: you could drop
a modern SLR like a rebel EOS (also inherited from dad) into
that thing and get the most stunning creamy photos of CRT
imagery on the planet.

that thing spent 20 years being "50lb 6U rack unit GTFO my
lawn obsolete" and now, dammit, people would rob their
auntie for what that could do. and now it's possible none
may exist anymore


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-28 04:59 [#02619502]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



i guess. i dunno. i was ten. i wouldn't see those buttons
again until, for some reason, i went and blew my whole lot
of summer job money on a synth literally as old as i was,
SCI Prophet VS. and in retrospect, like, i was messing with
an ms2000 at guitar center in the months before at lunch
break at school, i could have had that for $500 or so,
keyboard version. but, no, instead, prophet VS keyboard
version, ebay, like 3x the cost, and i have absolutely no
idea how to use it. for years i thought i'd made a mistake,
but a few years after that it turned around and wound up
being one of the most charismatic, defining keyboards i've
ever had. and i think back to my state of mind in making
that decision, and really, it didn't make sense to me at the
time, myself: like, why am i buying this fussy ancient thing
for 3x the price?

in retrospect, i think it was my experience with that
ancient video rack beast. just a raw spot in my soul and
those buttons were so lovely and i wanted them back


 

offline ijonspeches from 109P/Swift-Tuttle on 2022-06-28 07:58 [#02619503]
Points: 7624 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



its a recurrent fantasy of mine to have some sort of huge
interface with all kinds of levers, buttons and knobs as
multipurpose usb controller.
buying numerous potentiometers is one thing, gathering
levers another but most of all i havent got a clue as to how
to gather them all on one board, that would connect them all
and be recognizable by all software and games.
usually i just hack a gamepad, mouse, or use a usb
gamecontroller from china, but they all have very limted
amounts of connections especiall concerning
linear/incrementel/analogue input.



 

offline ijonspeches from 109P/Swift-Tuttle on 2022-06-28 08:02 [#02619504]
Points: 7624 Status: Lurker | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02619502 | Show recordbag



building a diy slr crt photobox shouldnt be tought m8.
i pick up old crt tvs on the curb all the time. gather some
old furniture to make a box to block out all other light and
you should be good to go just putting a camera in there. if
that is what you meant.


 

offline ijonspeches from 109P/Swift-Tuttle on 2022-06-28 08:30 [#02619505]
Points: 7624 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



nice memory btw, love that magic


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-28 08:34 [#02619507]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict | Followup to ijonspeches: #02619503



my good sir and/or madam,

even before this modern age of buying gear where they've
helpfully labeled patch-points they didn't bother to put on
the panel themselves, there have been hobby kits to build
whatever format you want. the dark old days, ucapps.de, even
that was insane, and now you can get something that is
nowhere near that autistic. i'm not even sure what to
recommend because things keep recursively getting better
there


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-28 08:37 [#02619508]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict | Followup to ijonspeches: #02619504



i don't think you understand. this was like a freaking
mini-theatre for the nicest, warmest CRT i have ever seen.
into this was fed a control panel, very much what you'd get
on a sequential circuits rackmount unit, but also some
knobs. this let you do all sorts of pretty things with even
no actual input, into that warm CRT, in a little theatre for
the CRT, and then all this is wired in to synchronize the
refresh rate of the CRT to the camera shutter and you get an
actual clean image as opposed to some trash with a scan line
in the middle. this can all be controlled via serial or
something

replicating the sync with scan rate alone, no thanks, makes
me want to scream just thinking about it


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-28 08:43 [#02619509]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict | Followup to ijonspeches: #02619503



control panels, though. when i was five or six my parents
took me to a since-closed store and bought me my first
digital watch. i very crisply remember going to the store
and seeing all the million watches in the glass display case
behind the counter -- which i was not old enough to see over
yet, at the time -- and just being utterly captivated. i
loved that watch very deeply and i wish i could remember
what became of it

anyways, the next day, wearing the watch, it is drawing time
in kindergarten, and, thinking of that display case full of
watches, i begin drawing watches. but very quickly, this
turns into control panels. pages and pages of drawing
control panels. i actually still have them in a bin
somewhere and should probably scan them

but yeah. i do quite have a thing for complex control
panels, even still. part of it is like... the whiff of
potential; control and access to functionality. but deeper,
i just delight in complex things put into order


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-28 08:46 [#02619510]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



and also lee scratch perry's custom mixer where, like, some
of it looks like they just stole some controls off a boat


 

offline Tony Danza from Fabulous Hollywood on 2022-06-28 22:17 [#02619516]
Points: 3420 Status: Regular | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02619502



yknow if you were into softsynths you'd love the U-he Zebra,
it very much has that Prophet VS vibe, the mix of analog and
digital sounds. well, virtual analog anyhow. and it has four
assignable xy pads to crossfade oscillators or whatever


 

offline ijonspeches from 109P/Swift-Tuttle on 2022-06-29 07:30 [#02619517]
Points: 7624 Status: Lurker | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02619508 | Show recordbag



right, there had to be more to it.


 

offline ijonspeches from 109P/Swift-Tuttle on 2022-06-29 07:40 [#02619518]
Points: 7624 Status: Lurker | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02619510 | Show recordbag



yeah, like this lever from lunar lander arcade is very precise and looks rad imo
the longer the lever the more accurate the control, if it
stays in position that is. while i figure they would get in
the way a lot unless they are placed really well, i sense
this gives an incredible feel and joy.


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-29 14:01 [#02619519]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict | Followup to Tony Danza: #02619516



softsynths, right. i remember those -- developing a
permanent hunch from countless hours trying to turn a knob
with a mouse; never getting laid. losing entire projects to
force-pushed version upgrades courtesy of someone you paid
something for, treating you like a criminal. pirating cubase
sx 3.x really was an upgrade

but, no, what really deterred me was, i dunno, like, 2007, i
was all: "dfgkjdfghkjdfg i am sick of this computer crap! it
feels like i can't touch the music, like i am working with
one of those science glove boxes for hazardous fings and
screw this i'm just getting some hardware gear"

and now, quite literally, last shit i uploaded, it's kind of
like: you know, my live hardware shit is now actually...
better than my massively overbuilt software shit that took
weeks for a track? and thanks i think im good


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-29 14:03 [#02619520]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



but tony danza works for the plugin mafia. he's been
brainwashed. what can you expect


 

offline EpicMegatrax from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-29 14:11 [#02619522]
Points: 23981 Status: Addict



actually, oddly similar vibe -- i'd been using my fucking
"smart" fone as an alarm cock for ages, and one night,
admittedly a bit drunk, i somehow manage to mash it into
"zen" mode -- so now the alarm i've just set doesn't happen,
and i sleep through a meeting at work. and i tell my boss:
when you've done this shit nothing you can say will make it
better, really, but, if i were to try: fuck this fondleslab
universe; i'm buying an alarm clock

instead, i found out they still make the watch i got when i
was five and i got one of those. time, date, day of week,
alarm cock, stopwatch, countdown timer. zero bullshit.
interface is just this gloriously satisfying flowchart of
simplicity i could admire all day

but it doesn't run plugi^H^H^H^H^H apps like the smartfone
does, or track my steps, wherever i go [sting bassline]

has a DAW or plugin been caught being used to steal
someone's music as they write it yet? seems a viable
strategy


 

offline Tony Danza from Fabulous Hollywood on 2022-06-29 15:07 [#02619523]
Points: 3420 Status: Regular



Andy Rooney, ladies and gentlemen!


 

offline ijonspeches from 109P/Swift-Tuttle on 2022-06-30 07:44 [#02619528]
Points: 7624 Status: Lurker | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02619520 | Show recordbag



dubturbo


 

offline ijonspeches from 109P/Swift-Tuttle on 2022-06-30 07:45 [#02619529]
Points: 7624 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



if i had one of those watches id spend all day trying to
reack kitt


 


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