Latest gear you've acquired.....

[Scodiddly]

Given that they're having a crazy "we finally have chip suppliers again" sale at Metric Halo, I grabbed an LIO-8 mkIV to round out my I/O system. The preamps on the ULN-8's are great, but I didn't need a bank of more preamps to handle my external mic pre's — not pictured I have a UA 4-710

The world needs more mic preamps about as much as it needs more coffee mugs.

[alexdingley]

The world needs more mic preamps about as much as it needs more coffee mugs.

But when I really need that warmth, I have to use the British mug.

[Mark]

[markjazzbassist]

1981 Korg Polysix - I've been synthless for a while, and am a minimalist so wanted 1 synth, a poly that was fully analog (VCO, analog envelopes and filters) but had a lot of nice features (chord memory, arpeggiator, unison mode for mono lines, etc.) and this was always the one i wanted. found a good deal and lowballed and it got accepted. it's been serviced and battery replaced so i'm happy.

[Scodiddly]

The world needs more mic preamps about as much as it needs more coffee mugs.

But when I really need that warmth, I have to use the British mug.

Earl Grey, then?

[vvv]

Keeley 4 knob - nice compressor for guitar, loses some bottom w/ bass
Keeley Neutrino - may now be my board envelope filter (and I have two, paid $40 to get a FX one fixt)
Legato looper - very easy and handy
Mosky Vol Attenuator - for my HRDX FX loop
Tumnus - s'posedly a Klone - WTFDIK? - but it do sound good
Nobels ODR mini - nice drive, I am really liking this as always on to stack in front of other mini's, like the Disnortion, Timmy, Sugar, Tumnus … I shot 'em all out and that's my conclusion

[vvv]

Forgot anuvver mini-dirt:

J. Rockett Touch - I really like this, tho' haven't compared it or used it with any other dirts except Green Russian, where it worked well after

[Scodiddly]

A 1 terabyte SSD for my home desktop, and a fresh Linux install (this time Linux Mint). Wow I had not realized how cheap big SSDs had gotten! I needed an OS refresh anyway, plus I'm home sick for a few days so I've got plenty of free time. Also there's some memory coming, but...

... here's the thing. Virtual machines hosted on my computer. It's relatively easy (possibly easier than dealing with copy protection dongles and app, so there you go) to set up a virtual machine, any Intel thing of a recent decade or two. I've got me an XP computer running in its own little Matrix, I'm still working on getting it to talk to more outside devices but I've already gotten a couple very handy discontinued utilities running on it. Tempted to try my MacIntel install disks next, see how that runs. No longer dependent on keeping a fleet of antique laptops running! And if something goes wrong with the virtual computer, I can just restore it from backup in a few seconds. I can (and am) keep it off the net, in its own little sandbox with just a common folder to share files to.

[digitaldrummer]

A 1 terabyte SSD for my home desktop, and a fresh Linux install (this time Linux Mint). Wow I had not realized how cheap big SSDs had gotten! I needed an OS refresh anyway, plus I'm home sick for a few days so I've got plenty of free time. Also there's some memory coming, but...

... here's the thing. Virtual machines hosted on my computer. It's relatively easy (possibly easier than dealing with copy protection dongles and app, so there you go) to set up a virtual machine, any Intel thing of a recent decade or two. I've got me an XP computer running in its own little Matrix, I'm still working on getting it to talk to more outside devices but I've already gotten a couple very handy discontinued utilities running on it. Tempted to try my MacIntel install disks next, see how that runs. No longer dependent on keeping a fleet of antique laptops running! And if something goes wrong with the virtual computer, I can just restore it from backup in a few seconds. I can (and am) keep it off the net, in its own little sandbox with just a common folder to share files to.

big SSDs are getting cheaper, but... some are best suited for backup duty or for storing samples. Many of the cheap ones are 'QLC" (quad-level-cell) NAND and are slower on writing data, so not good as a primary drive for audio. Read performance will be very good (great for fast access to a sample library). TLC NAND will still have better write performance in most cases. also, once a drive starts to fill up, then write performance will tend to slow down (a long story...). And if you want even faster reads, try something like this with an M.2 NVMe on it - https://www.amazon.com/Valuegist-Adapte ... B08M3VTY6D

VMs are great for hosting old apps (and consolidating them) as long as they don't require direct access to hardware (like a security dongle, etc.). Keeping them off the net is necessary since XP and Win7 are full of known exploits that will never be fixed.

[Nick Sevilla]

Speaking of hard drives... 10 TB LaCie. As another backup drive. Well, it will be my work drive, the 5 TB I have now will go to storage now.

[Scodiddly]

big SSDs are getting cheaper, but... some are best suited for backup duty or for storing samples. Many of the cheap ones are 'QLC" (quad-level-cell) NAND and are slower on writing data, so not good as a primary drive for audio. Read performance will be very good (great for fast access to a sample library). TLC NAND will still have better write performance in most cases. also, once a drive starts to fill up, then write performance will tend to slow down (a long story...). And if you want even faster reads, try something like this with an M.2 NVMe on it - https://www.amazon.com/Valuegist-Adapte ... B08M3VTY6D

I ended up buying another Samsung, 870 series - c'mon, $60 would cost too much for a terabyte? Looks like it has pretty good specs,
and while I wasn't a power user in the first place I had no complaints about the 850 it replaced.

After a suitable "oh shit maybe it's on the old drive" period the old SSD will go into my laptop, which also needs an OS refresh and could use an SSD boost.

Now that gets us into the question of a Windows 10 laptop since I'm not sure I want to make my laptop be dual-boot again. What we've been doing at work lately is buying refurb PCs and laptops on Amazon, like $250 for a small laptop that's totally good for utility work like programming system DSP or running a Zoom session for a corporate event.

[digitaldrummer]

I've probably mentioned this before, but these are great (pick your favorite brand - but I think I bought one of this specific one and it worked OK)

https://www.amazon.com/BENFEI-Drive-Ada ... B07F7WDZGT

dongle.png (50.3 KiB) Viewed 27882 times

I use these for backing up (short term) and for moving big big files around (like big videos or audio sessions). You can use them as storage, but remember that files won't live on Flash/SSDs forever. Magnetic media will keep the data long enough... but SSDs will start to lose charge in the NAND cells after time. So the best way to fix that is to plug them in and let them just sit there for 24-48 hours. This is usually long enough for the background refresh to run and then they should be OK for awhile again if offline - maybe up to a year or more depending on age of the drive and environmental conditions.

[Nick Sevilla]

A used Wazacraft Boss Blues Driver. With box, manuals etc.

[trodden]

You can use them as storage, but remember that files won't live on Flash/SSDs forever. Magnetic media will keep the data long enough... but SSDs will start to lose charge in the NAND cells after time. So the best way to fix that is to plug them in and let them just sit there for 24-48 hours. This is usually long enough for the background refresh to run and then they should be OK for awhile again if offline - maybe up to a year or more depending on age of the drive and environmental conditions.

Whoah what? I did not know this! SSD's aren't long term? Fuck. I just spent $150 on a couple of SSD drives to use as my back ups.

[vvv]

A used Wazacraft Boss Blues Driver. With box, manuals etc.

totally under-rated drive that is the basis of many others

I been trying to find one atta good price for about a year

I like the Waza line - I have the red delay (DM3?) as does the guitarist in my little garage band

Me, I messed up and bought anuvver germanium Catalinbread Kama Sutra - I thought that was the one I didn't have but it's the silicon one I actually wanted

ah well, the guitarist in my little garage band (I try not to say, "my guitarist" because Cholly) likes when I make these mistakes because he gets 'em gifted (the bass pedals go to my former bassist) - happens once or thrice a year