FACE THE SOUND EARTH

Month: January 2020

  • Adventures in Eurorack Case Staining

    Alright, so you got modsynth case and you don’t want it looking like some Ikea but you also don’t have money or carpentry skills for more then Ikea cause you waste all your time and money on modsynth in the first damn place. Oddly there’s a lack of information about this specific subject too. Doepfer case is said to be fir wood not on their site but some unconfirmed word of mouth rando. You ever stained fir? I sure haven’t but if it is in fact fir it’s a German fir and historically things can get out of hand fast when Germans involved and well at these prices pardon my apprehension about slinging around chemicals all willy nilly.

    I poked around online, picked brains irl and I was getting different suggestions all over. Tutorial for anything else made from same or similar wood as your case? No way! You think I got time to look for torrents of “This Old House” with Bob Boomer Vila THEN watching all 41257412579 episodes of em only to get to 2 seconds of him wood staining a fucking banister in a house my generation can’t afford with that old-school toxic fume shit that ain’t even legal anymore cause linked to folks having flipper babies?

    201hds

    Hell naw and doubt they would be well seeded torrents anyways so buckle up buckaroo cause here’s a guide of the route I took.

    Step 1: take your rails out with a #3 Allen

    Doepfer case rail removal

    If already installed then don’t bother with removing bus boards and power supply. Waste of time and you might damage it along the way. No ones ever going to see in there anyways. Take brand/serial plates off it too cause the stain collects behind them and it could damage them. Dopfers are just 4 Philips.

    Step 2: Pre-Stain

    Prestain

    Pre-stain is super important. I did tests with and without. If you don’t pre-stain you will have splotches. 32oz can is like 10 bucks and you won’t even use half unless you Hans Zimmer but you HAVE to use this if you want it to turn out without it looking like shit. Very easy to apply use a brush or rag (use an old tshirt microfibers suck with wood) to really cover it good. Fully cover and saturate the wood. Dipping it into a big vat of the stuff whist reading Saul D. Alinsky would be ideal to give an idea how liberal to be with the stuff, comrade. Let it dry takes like half an hour. Rotate it around and do it again. Throw another coat on it too even. Wipe up and in and around excess along the way. Wait for dry.

    Step 3: Danish Oil

    Doepfer Danish Oil

    The cool thing about Danish Oil is it is like 3 in 1. Stains, seals & protects. There’s no polyurethane needed. That shit smells forever too so avoid it. You can wipe more on it any time you want if scratched or whatever. This is the brand I used I don’t know if others are better or worse. Bunch of different shades. Home Depo. Like 10 bucks. You could go with half that size if available. Brush or rub it. I did both. Says two coats but I just did a good thick one. All in all it was pretty painless and there really wasn’t much fumes. There’s an odor but it’s not bad enough to worry about pets and shit. Toss the rag outside and clean brushes soon as possible to lower fumes it’s not that bad to do inside though.

    Doepfer case walnut on walnut
    real walnut VS “real walnut”

    Before and afters:

    Doepfer case bare front
    front before
    doepfer case stained front
    front after
    Doepfer back bare
    back before

    Doepfer Back stained
    back after
    Doepfer case side bare
    side before
    Doepfer case side stained
    side after
    Doepfer case bare top
    top before
    Doepfer case stained top
    top after
    doepfer case stained bottom
    bottom after

  • Berhinger Clone Megapost

    I’ll update this post on the regs cause so much yet so little going on this year with Berhinger. In their quest to avoid any innovation, destroy livelyhoods of small boutique makers already doing better clones and pissing off snooty collectors that have originals (my favorite part) figured I’d start curating an article (containment post) to consolidate ever evolving pertinent things roland sys100 clone related and other developments, news etc…. oh why even stop there. I’ll just put other shit they cloning in here too.

    Maybe they only starting with roland, ARP, moog and Oberhiem then working their way up to Jurassic Park IRL or even clones of Morgan Freeman to install at every Walmart nationwide as the door greeters… the year is young still after all.

    I get both sides of the argument and feel that overwhelmingly it’s a net postive filling this market for the accessibilty factor alone for now but can’t help but wonder where the lines will be drawn. Their legal is likely sweating but their engineers are wearing Hawaiian shirts and working half days ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    clone

    Arp 2600

    Rob Keeble noted cloner of arp eurack format mods with AMSynths collaboration. 19 inch rack maintains original 4012 and 4072 filters. VCO1 added pulse mod, VCO3 added sine and triangle with modernized leds blinky af? Power consumption unknown still.

    27ad016648e14ee3a934f87c989c2b866cbb4179

    Roland sys100 clones:

    System 100 174 PARAMETRIC EQ
    System 100 173 QUAD SIGNAL GATE/ PATCH BAY
    System 100 172 PHASE SHIFTER/AUDIO DELAY/GATE DELAY/LFO
    System 100 165 DUAL PORTAMENTO CONTROLLER
    System 100 150 RING MOD/NOISE/ S&H/LFO
    System 100 132 DUAL CV/AUDIO MIXER & CV GENERATOR
    System 100 131 MIXER/OSCILLATOR/ HEADPHONE AMP
    System 100 130 Dual VCA
    System 100 121 DUAL VCF
    System 100 112 DUAL VCO
    System 100 182 ANALOG SEQUENCER
    System 100 140 DUAL ENVELOPE/LFO
    System 100 110 VCO/VCF/VCA

    some of the sys 100 concept renders & price: wont be same as released product…. led lit sliders confirmed

    Beringer sys100 render
    renders in a store at render prices
    sys100modsincase
    renders in a render case
    beheringer
    The Duke of Beheringer takes a break from not innovating to visit his subjects.
    110-1
    Prototype 110 VCO/VCF/VCA
    110-2
    Prototype 110 VCO/VCF/VCA
    renderberhinger
    renders in a render case

    more to come…

  • New Decade Who Dis?

    It’s 2020 who would of thunked it and color me underwhelmed! Seemed like only yesterday was a whole decade ago and I was on Wix unnecessarily paying more for a grossly inferior product I barely even used and prior to that… oops almost stepped on a label NDA sooo yeah, anywho kicking off this decade on a new server with fresh installs of Debian 10, Mysql, Apache, and WP version 5.3.2 & SSL secure. Thanks add1 for the helps.

    We had to fearlessly trudge and endure that decade of mediocrity to get to the Baby Yoda prize on the other side.

    Eat up, you earned it, kid.

    The decade that wasn’t a decade. Maybe in history books they will call it the “Secret Decade” or is that taken already by Korea being the “Secret War”? Shouldn’t Afghanistan have that title now? That wars old enough to drink and no one ever says boo about it but I digress maybe “Decade of Meh” would be better as to not step on toes here.

    Within the decade of meh there wasn’t really much cultural significance that wasn’t a reboot, revamp or perpetuation of what was already going on and no ones likely to talk about it. Another Marvel capeshit movie? Meh. How about Ghostbusters but Bill Murray is played by a woman? Meh.

    Noteably boomers en mass being unsatisfied with ruining the futures of all generations since or will ever be began salting the cybernetic fields of social media and games with bad maymays & horrible takes from phones.

    “Just get a summer job doing shoe shines outside Woolworths and buy a new house you lazy bum”

    Once contained in Yahoo news comment sections now even Tic-Tok and Fortnite isn’t safe from the eternal boomer’s wrath.

    Some bands reunited just to let us down? (Looking at you Sleater-Kinney) Other bands didn’t? (Looking at you Beastie Boys.. Q-Tip could do MCA’s parts) “mumble rap soundcloud type beat” was googled a lot? lulz. A car was launched into orbit with David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” playing to divert us from noticing there’s still no flying cars on earth that were promised in Jetsons?

    a e s t h e t i c

    Fine that was objectively cool. Not as cool as if thin white duke hadn’t passed but any effort that puts us closer to busting alien cheeks I commend.

    The Blues actually winning the Stanley Cup was something no one ever thought would happen.

    Oh lookie, hell froze over

    Sonic-ally big room EDM was as horrible as it was the decade prior. They STILL use that pryda snare exclusively too. Truly the stuff of nightmares. Why that fraudulent cringe still allowed on main stages with so much fire out there to pick from?

    In a right and just world there would be more pitchforks, torches, tar and feathers.

    A wishy-washed cornball parody of underground that exists to sell Ford Focus and energy drinks to meandering bipeds with trust funds prowling for coitus.

    Beared witness to dancing and tears of joy from those old exiles in Miami’s Calle Ocho district on 8th when Castro died was some shit to behold on a bit of a personal level. Wish my gramps & dad was around for that one. It carried over to the airport too even.

    press s to spit

    Strangers hugging, high fiving and dancing. I was leaving and even got kicked off a plane by plane cops for being a little too “in the spirits of things” How was I supposed to know vapes set off those alarm sensors? I got clean & sober since so likely to avoid little oopsies like that this decade. I don’t think I’m on any lists I wasn’t already on ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .

    Orange Hitler became a thing too. While I feel he’s not good for the mental health of the nation it’s glaringly apparent we had all these problems and divisions long before him so even that’s hardly anything original. Only tangible impact that it has in my day to day is having to endure others all over the spectrum blathering about it and more selective media consumption. The latter can be more challenging then it sounds at times.

    “Yeah the “Decade of Meh” I remember that. That was the one before the “Decade of Eh” right?”

    ditto

    Predictions for 2020s:

    With all the hundred dollar Behringer clones of the vintage analog Roland boxes and synth modules in conjunction with the access of digital people already have I expect a whole new generation Z will get more live with it. Acid techno revival maybe? Entirely new undiscovered things. They gonna find fresh sounds and capabilities with these instruments that none the pioneers ever thought of and that’s the most exciting part to think about. I’ve talked to others about it all and they feeling that part of it too.

    Prolly be like badass liquid sub styles of whatever that too. There’s always good liquid styles of everything if dig far enough. It was true back with early DnB & techno and its true now. Even liquid trap surprisingly works. I find a lot of stuff on SomaFM that wouldn’t expect.

    Further summoning my big brained soothsaying skills gonna venture out on a far limb and say Nyjah Huston possibly, maybe, perhaps becomes first gold medalist for skateboarding in the Olympics ever?

    BOLD PREDICTION I KNO.

    I got art projects going, some workspace upgrades and things coming up that I’m quite jazzed about. I’ll be writing more frequently on this site and sharing new stuff. Past already happened, future is unknowable. I heard someone say if one foots in the past and another is in the future you pissing on today in the middle. So here’s to now. Futures come from now. I stays in that now. Happy new year! Keeps it moving yo.