Volcas, fountain pens, and dirty mechanical keyboards.
I spent the greater part of a decade playing guitar in a punk rock band based out of Memphis, TN. We still play, occasionally, when I'm back in town, but I think it's rather played out at the moment. Maybe in 10-15 years once our audience has raised up their babies and are looking to come back out and get fucked up. Until then...
I've always loved #postpunk, #coldwave, #deathrock, and #industrial music (of the Skinny Puppy, FLA variety.. I can dig some modern EBM, and some Powernoise (XOTOX)). I finally decided it was time to pick up some cheapo gear and try making my own music without worrying about finding bandmates and practice spaces. DIY to the extreme? I discovered these little #volcas awhile back; they're cheap, analog, and very basic, which sounds exactly like what I'm looking for. I can appreciate really well-crafted music, but sometimes I just like stripping things down to the basics. These little boxes are limited and hopefully, will fit the bill nicely in what I want to make, which is basically 4 on the floor punk rock, but with analog synths. There's really 2 too many boxes here: I doubt I'll be using the Sample or the Kick much, but wtf, these things are cheap as chips on craigslist, so it doesn't hurt? Maybe I'll use the sample to load up and play old sci-fi/horror samples, industrial style. Or overlay processed vocals (I also have a teenage engineering Speak, haven't even opened the box it came in, though). The only thing I really want right now is an Arturia Keystep controller for the longer sequences and arpeggiator, and maybe Ableton Lite for tracked recording (I believe it comes with the keystep for free...).
The manuals the come with the Volcas are shite. Fortunately, there's a ton of youtube videos that show how to use them, and I also found a bunch of courses on askvideo.com for them. There's also a set of ebooks on google books that goes into each button/setting/knob in-depth. So there's plenty of learning options.
I've also got a few guitar pedals (delay, chorus, distortion) that I'll probably pull into the mix, as well.
Eurorack is something I've also been looking at. That's a very very dangerous path to follow down. I'm pretty sure it hits all the right triggers for me: GAS, Sounds, Collector Gene, "gotta have them all", etc. Let's see how well I can handle the basics...
Welp, I've got the gear, nothing to do but to do the damn thing.
EDIT: I've been looking at eurorack stuff. Found this guy on youtube and.. You know, I'm digging it.
