2023: A Year in Gear (What You've Bought or Want to Buy in 2023)

[McLilith]

not me unless washing machine or vacuum cleaner count? (they're marginal, because both will be sampled).

If you purchased either of those products with at least 50% of your purchase motivation being sampling, then I think it counts.

[whyterabbyt]

Im sincerely hoping I dont buy anything else until Ive finished as much as possible of my backlog of things to build.

(yes, including the hurdy gurdy, vurt!)

Okay, two more PAL video processor things today, both intended to be bent Total £22. That's it now.

[rob_lee]

New arrivals



Case 1 looking alright stll waiting on x2 more Black Mantis to complete the setup, have another 22 modules but no space

[vurt]

looks sweet!

[rob_lee]

looks sweet!

Much sweeter when the other 2 cases come i'm just swapping out stuff to try whilst I wait for them.. got a full Erica Techno System to put in one case then 1 for LFO's and FX then another for OSCS/Mixers etc I could have bought a new car lol but this will do me for retirement jams

[vurt]

looks sweet!

Much sweeter when the other 2 cases come i'm just swapping out stuff to try whilst I wait for them.. got a full Erica Techno System to put in one case then 1 for LFO's and FX then another for OSCS/Mixers etc I could have bought a new car lol but this will do me for retirement jams

i cant drive anyway

[rob_lee]

looks sweet!

Much sweeter when the other 2 cases come i'm just swapping out stuff to try whilst I wait for them.. got a full Erica Techno System to put in one case then 1 for LFO's and FX then another for OSCS/Mixers etc I could have bought a new car lol but this will do me for retirement jams

i cant drive anyway

Me either tonight my son just got here with a nice bag of weed lol

[vurt]

weed and modular perfect combination!

[rob_lee]

weed and modular perfect combination!

Absolutely mate. The son (20) fancies getting in to modular but reckons he's gonna use my gear to learn it the daft little twat lol

[vurt]

[rob_lee]

Comes round here with some weed in the hope he can jam for free lol... i said errrrr you can buy your own modules with ya Royal Mail nightshift job money haha

[foosnark]

I got one of these thingies for Christmas:

Image1.png

https://www.amazon.com/Spectrum-Colorfu ... 0999S5SV6/

It shows a clock unless it "hears" something (built-in mic or a line in) and then switches to a spectrum or level display. The clock modes look nice and clear and bright.

When it detects audio (via internal mic or a line input), it switches to a spectrum or level display. This unfortunately is more of a toy than a useful tool. It works much better with a mono cable than the TRS cable that came with it, but there's still a lot of latency, dropouts, oversensitivity to the lowest band, and lack of sensitivity to quieter sounds. I suspect grounding issues or noise caused by using USB for the power supply, working alongside inherent jankiness.

There are a ridiculous number of menu options, display modes, color modes etc. but:

- The menu is in Chinese by default. There's a tiny little section at the end of the instruction sheets that explains how to switch it to English (with typos) or Russian.
- There's no option to switch the clock to 12H mode instead of 24H.
- There's some kind of "optimization" setting that the manual doesn't explain very well at all. It doesn't help.
- All of the color modes except one will cycle randomly, which is distracting and unhelpful. You have a choice of bold or pastel colors, individual bar colors or groups or the full page, but you can't stop the cycling except in the single custom color mode. There are no gradient modes, which you'd think would have been obvious, nor any gentle color changing animation, which would have looked nicer than clown colors madly randomizing every second.
- The two buttons for selecting modes make a loud obnoxious ugly beep which gets on your nerves when navigating two dozen menu pages.

So, not really recommended. The best it can do is act as an indicator that there is some kind of audio happening above some threshold (although it might miss it). Or as a nice bright digital clock that lacks a 12H mode.

The display itself is nice. I wish I could control it from my computer via the USB port...

[Shabdahbriah]

I got one of these thingies for Christmas:

Image1.png

Hmmm... maybe one or more 'light' or 'motion' sensor-to-CV thingies, would make it useful?

[foosnark]

I got one of these thingies for Christmas:

Image1.png

Hmmm... maybe one or more 'light' or 'motion' sensor-to-CV thingies, would make it useful?

Ooh good idea! I hope to get a Photon Smasher when they're available again and it might be perfect for that.

[Shabdahbriah]

I got one of these thingies for Christmas:

Image1.png

Hmmm... maybe one or more 'light' or 'motion' sensor-to-CV thingies, would make it useful?

Ooh good idea! I hope to get a Photon Smasher when they're available again and it might be perfect for that.

Ooo... that's COOL! {but, you would obviously need 3 or 4}