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EpicMegatrax
from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-28 03:55 [#02619501]
Points: 25264 Status: Regular
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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
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EpicMegatrax
from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-28 04:59 [#02619502]
Points: 25264 Status: Regular
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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
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ijonspeches
from 109P/Swift-Tuttle on 2022-06-28 07:58 [#02619503]
Points: 7845 Status: Regular | Show recordbag
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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.
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ijonspeches
from 109P/Swift-Tuttle on 2022-06-28 08:02 [#02619504]
Points: 7845 Status: Regular | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02619502 | Show recordbag
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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.
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ijonspeches
from 109P/Swift-Tuttle on 2022-06-28 08:30 [#02619505]
Points: 7845 Status: Regular | Show recordbag
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nice memory btw, love that magic
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EpicMegatrax
from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-28 08:34 [#02619507]
Points: 25264 Status: Regular | Followup to ijonspeches: #02619503
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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
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EpicMegatrax
from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-28 08:37 [#02619508]
Points: 25264 Status: Regular | Followup to ijonspeches: #02619504
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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
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EpicMegatrax
from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-28 08:43 [#02619509]
Points: 25264 Status: Regular | Followup to ijonspeches: #02619503
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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
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EpicMegatrax
from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-28 08:46 [#02619510]
Points: 25264 Status: Regular
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and also lee scratch perry's custom mixer where, like, some of it looks like they just stole some controls off a boat
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Tony Danza
from NAFO Suicide Hotline on 2022-06-28 22:17 [#02619516]
Points: 3647 Status: Regular | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02619502
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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
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ijonspeches
from 109P/Swift-Tuttle on 2022-06-29 07:30 [#02619517]
Points: 7845 Status: Regular | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02619508 | Show recordbag
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right, there had to be more to it.
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ijonspeches
from 109P/Swift-Tuttle on 2022-06-29 07:40 [#02619518]
Points: 7845 Status: Regular | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02619510 | Show recordbag
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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.
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EpicMegatrax
from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-29 14:01 [#02619519]
Points: 25264 Status: Regular | Followup to Tony Danza: #02619516
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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
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EpicMegatrax
from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-29 14:03 [#02619520]
Points: 25264 Status: Regular
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but tony danza works for the plugin mafia. he's been brainwashed. what can you expect
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EpicMegatrax
from Greatest Hits on 2022-06-29 14:11 [#02619522]
Points: 25264 Status: Regular
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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
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Tony Danza
from NAFO Suicide Hotline on 2022-06-29 15:07 [#02619523]
Points: 3647 Status: Regular
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Andy Rooney, ladies and gentlemen!
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ijonspeches
from 109P/Swift-Tuttle on 2022-06-30 07:44 [#02619528]
Points: 7845 Status: Regular | Followup to EpicMegatrax: #02619520 | Show recordbag
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dubturbo
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ijonspeches
from 109P/Swift-Tuttle on 2022-06-30 07:45 [#02619529]
Points: 7845 Status: Regular | Show recordbag
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if i had one of those watches id spend all day trying to reack kitt
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