The best items of tech you have ever owned

[Beresford]

... if she stood before the sun, the shadow cast would be behind her.
.

Depends which which way she, or the poet, was looking; maybe the poet (or poetess?) had an overview.

I love the original quote. Also, Bergonzi, what it the make of this lovable watch?

[jayne lee wilson]

Depends which which way she, or the poet, was looking; maybe the poet (or poetess?) had an overview.

I love the original quote. Also, Bergonzi, what it the make of this lovable watch?

I thought I might have made a Haiku but I'm not sure of the rules (it could be hard, though not impossible, to confine yourself to 17 English syllables - but rules are made to be broken, right?)...
But then, it is usually best to juxtapose two images without comment; so I'd edit out the "and considered..."

Maybe we should have a Haiku thread....

e.g Ezra Pound...
Fu I loved the high cloud and the hill,
Alas, he died of alcohol.

And Li Po also died drunk.
He tried to embrace a moon
In the Yellow River.

[Bergonzi]

Also, Bergonzi, what it the make of this lovable watch?

It's a Citizen eco-drive.

[MrGongGong]

So if was this

https://www.esquire.com/uk/style/watches/news/g6053/10-of-the-best-watches-from-baselworld/?slide=10

Vs this

http://fuckyeahstudioporn.tumblr.com/page/2

No contest

[Richard Barrett]

No contest

That reminds me. A couple of weeks ago on a whim I bought the Arturia software emulation of the Buchla Easel. What an excellent thing! It sounds just as it should (ie. I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference), shame it doesn't have the weird pressure-sensitive keyboard that the original one had but the fact that you can save everything and MIDI-control everything more than makes up for that. Highly recommended (to MrGG that is, I don't imagine anyone else here would be remotely interested).

[MrGongGong]

That reminds me. A couple of weeks ago on a whim I bought the Arturia software emulation of the Buchla Easel. What an excellent thing! It sounds just as it should (ie. I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference), shame it doesn't have the weird pressure-sensitive keyboard that the original one had but the fact that you can save everything and MIDI-control everything more than makes up for that. Highly recommended (to MrGG that is, I don't imagine anyone else here would be remotely interested).

Thanks for this
I'm always in 2 minds about software emulation having heard so many bad things but will check it out.

[Dave2002]

This seems to be the sort of thing that richard and mrgg are discussing - https://www.kmraudio.com/buchla-musi...SABEgK15vD_BwE

The videos appear to show hardware, rather than a software emulation. Here is more - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JI0LzjvjjI
and here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_gu7xZXyFM

http://cdm.link/2017/12/arturia-add-...l-in-software/ - what/where is the interface to the software? A midi keyboard? iPad Pro with pencil? How is the thing controlled?

[MrGongGong]

This seems to be the sort of thing that richard and mrgg are discussing - https://www.kmraudio.com/buchla-musi...SABEgK15vD_BwE

The videos appear to show hardware, rather than a software emulation. Here is more - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JI0LzjvjjI
and here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_gu7xZXyFM

http://cdm.link/2017/12/arturia-add-...l-in-software/ - what/where is the interface to the software? A midi keyboard? iPad Pro with pencil? How is the thing controlled?

Software emulated instruments can be controlled in a huge number of different ways.
That's one of their attractions.
So it could be

MIDI keyboard
Trigger pads
Wind controller
Motion sensor
Skin resistance sensor
Computer keyboard
Another piece of software
Video trigger
Acoustic instrument interfaced via gestural mapping
The weather
and so on
more or less anything you fancy (including hamsters https://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/...done_small.pdf)

[Dave2002]

Software emulated instruments can be controlled in a huge number of different ways.
That's one of their attractions.
So it could be

MIDI keyboard
Trigger pads
Wind controller
Motion sensor
Skin resistance sensor
Computer keyboard
Another piece of software
Video trigger
Acoustic instrument interfaced via gestural mapping
The weather
and so on

Some physical or other interfaces are (much) easier to handle though, surely. Imagine driving a car by voice control. Don't try that at home - or on the roads.

more or less anything you fancy (including hamsters https://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/...done_small.pdf)

Ultimately, I was very pleased with the music that I was able to produce with my sequencer. - Conclusion p29

Where is the follow up study to find out what kind of music hamsters really like, and the effect on their well being? If the hamsters had been fed back the results of their "labours" that might have been interesting, and triggered off a whole "new" line of behavioural research.

[Richard Barrett]

Thanks for this
I'm always in 2 minds about software emulation having heard so many bad things but will check it out.

If you do check it out don't take any notice of the examples you can play on the Arturia website - they give no idea whatsoever of what this thing is for and what it can do, strangely, the assumption is that people will want to use it as some exotic kind of techno machine, which was not Don Buchla's original concept at all. I wouldn't be interested in using anything like this (or the original hardware) as a performance instrument though, and actually I haven't even had this one connected to any MIDI controllers, I've just been setting up sounds and letting them run while making adjustments and then recording the material for further transformation (the software runs as a VSTi as you would expect). As for having more or less control, of course the difference between a synthesizer and a car is that with the former nobody gets hurt if you crash.

[MrGongGong]

Some physical or other interfaces are (much) easier to handle though, surely. Imagine driving a car by voice control. Don't try that at home - or on the roads.

Yes, of course
So it all depends on what kinds of things you want to control
Note on, Note off... is fine with a keyboard of some kind
but other parameters (or even non "note based" music) are best done with other things