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

[WatchTheGuitar]

Yeah, aware of EU, don’t know how it works for someone in the US.

[McLilith]

Yeah, aware of EU, don’t know how it works for someone in the US.

I've never purchased anything from another country, mostly because I couldn't figure out what (if any) extra charges I'd have to pay, and exactly how I'd have to pay them. I've visited multiple websites, trying to sort it all out, but never could find anything definitive. I don't want to order something and get burned by unexpected expensive fees. I especially don't want to find out at the last second there isn't enough money remaining on my debit card to pay those fees!

If anyone in the US has experience buying gear from Japan, the UK, or the EU, I'd like to know how the process went for you?

[WatchTheGuitar]

In the other direction (US to UK) I’ve only ever bought one thing, an Archos AV500, and the dodgy seller marked it as a “returned repair” and so I didn’t end up paying duty.

[elxsound]

Yeah, aware of EU, don’t know how it works for someone in the US.

I've never purchased anything from another country, mostly because I couldn't figure out what (if any) extra charges I'd have to pay, and exactly how I'd have to pay them. I've visited multiple websites, trying to sort it all out, but never could find anything definitive. I don't want to order something and get burned by unexpected expensive fees. I especially don't want to find out at the last second there isn't enough money remaining on my debit card to pay those fees!

If anyone in the US has experience buying gear from Japan, the UK, or the EU, I'd like to know how the process went for you?

I’ve purchased many times from the UK, EU and Japan. My understanding is that there is threshold of $800 before paying import fees. But… reading, it looks like there is a threshold up to $1600. To get that, it seem you would need to send a specific form to the seller, and only certain countries.

Search for “Mailing and Shipping Goods - Customs Duty Guidance” to jump to the right section.
https://www.cbp.gov/travel/internationa ... -duty-info

[McLilith]

Yeah, aware of EU, don’t know how it works for someone in the US.

I've never purchased anything from another country, mostly because I couldn't figure out what (if any) extra charges I'd have to pay, and exactly how I'd have to pay them. I've visited multiple websites, trying to sort it all out, but never could find anything definitive. I don't want to order something and get burned by unexpected expensive fees. I especially don't want to find out at the last second there isn't enough money remaining on my debit card to pay those fees!

If anyone in the US has experience buying gear from Japan, the UK, or the EU, I'd like to know how the process went for you?

I’ve purchased many times from the UK, EU and Japan. My understanding is that there is threshold of $800 before paying import fees. But… reading, it looks like there is a threshold up to $1600. To get that, it seem you would need to send a specific form to the seller, and only certain countries.

Search for “Mailing and Shipping Goods - Customs Duty Guidance” to jump to the right section.
https://www.cbp.gov/travel/internationa ... -duty-info

That's reassuring. Apparently, nothing I've considered buying in the past from another country was expensive enough to trigger import fees. I'll just have to watch out for expensive shipping fees now!

Thanks!

[Shabdahbriah]

If anyone in the US has experience buying gear from Japan, the UK, or the EU, I'd like to know how the process went for you?

I've made numerous purchases from Thonk (UK), and a couple from Juno (UK) and Thomann (Germany). No issues whatsoever, and delivery was surprisingly prompt.

[Shabdahbriah]

... consolidating:

Turing Machine MK2 - Magpie.png

[cryophonik]

Ummmmm, someone stole all your twiddly bits

[foosnark]

If anyone in the US has experience buying gear from Japan, the UK, or the EU, I'd like to know how the process went for you?

I've made numerous purchases from Thonk (UK), and a couple from Juno (UK) and Thomann (Germany). No issues whatsoever, and delivery was surprisingly prompt.

Same here, plus Schneidersladen a couple of times. I've also ordered from JetPens and a couple other Japanese companies with no trouble.

... consolidating:

Nice. I kind of wish I'd gone for the TM mk2 (or Grayscale Permutation), since After Later Alan is a bit flaky. The noise generator gets a little bit louder when the Length bit is high, which means it's biased toward flipping 1s to 0s more than 0s to 1s if I have Chance set to a sort of middle ground between locked and full randomness.

Also I can hear a mechanical "CLUNK!" in the noise output when I flip the Write toggle switch.

I can work with it, but this is the second time I've bought from After Later and the second time their modules have had... quirks. (Tilt's gate outputs are extremely screwy and they told me it's a flaw in their design, not a defect.)

[McLilith]

Ummmmm, someone stole all your twiddly bits

[McLilith]

Someone definitely needs to manufacture "Ferris Wheel Synthesizer Stands" so we can keep over a dozen synths on one stand. Just press a button to rotate the motorized system till the synth you want to play next is in proper position.

All the synths would remain fully cabled, powered, and ready to play at all times. The units that you couldn't physically reach would still be accessible via MIDI, if you didn't want to rotate the rack to reach their physical controls. Everything would be under microprocessor control. So, the rack could remember all your favorite gear positions, and even respond to MIDI preset messages, so you could remote control the rack from your favorite DAW or sequencer if you want.

Now, I just need someone to start manufacturing these, and give me an early prototype so I can help test them.

[WatchTheGuitar]

How can the synths stay cabled up if the whole assembly can rotate like a big wheel?

[vurt]

that's why we let him do the testing

[McLilith]

How can the synths stay cabled up if the whole assembly can rotate like a big wheel?

The world already has rotating radar dishes, windmill generators, amusement park rides, etcetera that supply power and signals to rotating components. I'm confident this is an engineering challenge that can be sorted out. For one thing, the synths don't need to spin endlessly in one direction. They just need to rotate +/- 180 degrees. That should simplify things quite a bit.

[cryophonik]

Just equip each synth tray with audio ins/outs, power, USB, and MIDI connectors and route the cabling internally.

My prototype is almost done now, but I've ran out of duct tape, so I'm using packing tape instead. McLilith volunteered to test it, right?