Friday, October 19, 2007

FINALLY!!

I picked up the Moog Freq Box this week, as it finally arrived in town. It appears Moog had been having some problems with the final production of this latest moogerfooger. I got it from NJAMS here in Vancouver, so my thanks goes out to Chris & Kate for putting up with my constant inquiries since June as to it's arrival. So yeah, NJAMS are stocking them along with the full 'fooger line & this one will cost you about $450 Can., not really a bad price when you consider they're not an official Moog dealer & are forced to get them through the only company that is Canada's Moog dealer.

As for this pedal/module, so far I've only scratched the surface of it's uses. In fact I've only used a guitar & one of my shitty Roland exp. pedals. Next time (maybe Sunday??) I'm gonna run it back & forth to the S&H on the cp-251 with the guitar & also a bass.

My overall impression is thus: the Freq Box is almost a synth in a box, almost!! I say this because I've already found a dozen or so sounds/uses for it & that's only with the guitar. I was able to get some fun Theremin like pitch, nasty fuzz tones, drones, ring mod like tones & a few other interesting sounds. Basically I have no other pedal/effect like this one.

Anyways... there's a lot more I could say about it & I probably will once I place it in the flight case I built this summer. But that's for another post when I take some pics of that entire set-up.

So does anyone have an opinion or a question about the Freq Box??? Please comment away!

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Used Poly Evolvers... A Thought?

With the introduction of DSI's new Prophet 08 I've been wondering to myself if a lot of the used PE's would start showing up on ebay, AH, etc???

Well I obviously don't know if it is just a coincidence put I see AH has two PE's in their used section for about $1800. US. Hhmmm.

What do you think? Does anyone out their have a PE they'd like to tell me about? I've never really even tried one. I couldn't justify buying one even at these lowish used prices, but I must admit, it's really tempting.

Darren

PS. I realize we have sorta spoke about this issue on a previous post, but what the hell :-)

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

How's about a Sept. Bowl of Java.

Hopefully some of you can make it to The Grind on Main St. this Sat. Sept. 29th. @ 12 noon as this will be our best attempt at a monthly meeting.

I' d like to talk about the new DSI Pro 8 & your impressions on it?? Looks to be pretty affordable :-)
I finally bought a new sequencer, The mobius from Future Retro. Anyone out their have experience with it??
Probably a few other things on my mind...

How about you?? Any ideas, thoughts or questions??

Darren

Saturday, August 18, 2007

August meeting (retrospective)

Well, I have to say the meeting we had last Sunday was quite good. Where most meetings it ended up being Darren and I and someone else, we had 6 people attend, and it stretched out to 3 and a half hours long.

A lot was discussed. I would be hard pressed to put together minutes. However, here is the gist of it for people that want to know:
-Musical education
-mid 80's Korg synthesizers
-kaos pads and how much they do (or don't) suck
-loopers and live performance
-really massive effect racks
-a gig that 3/6 people attended or played in the night before
-feasibility of pursuing the idea of making the group into a 'society' (or even how cool it would be to have a seal)
-the future of the gathering, most importantly the idea of having a show and tell or a large scale jam
-paia synthesizers

There was a lot more, but I was without pen and paper, and was much more interested in participating than simply documenting it.


A side note, if anyone is a fan of the evolver synthesizers (I know I am), Dave Smith Instruments just announced a very new 8 voice all analogue version of the evolver called the Prophet 8. It looks beautiful, and I am sure it will sound amazing. The only three things that I did not like from the evolver was 1-too much digital stuff 2-no arpegiator 3-modulations are too sophisticated. It looks like 2 out of three of these issues has been rectified (this news is enough to cause my GAS to jump straight through the roof into bad-credit land).
information here

Thursday, August 9, 2007

August Meeting

Well it's meeting time again as we are coming up on the 2nd weekend of the month.
A few people can't make it for the usual Saturday-noon at The Grind so we are going to try for Sunday at a new local.

This meeting will then be held Sunday August 12th @ The Elysian Room, 1778 W.5th Ave. in Vancouver, at 1pm instead of noon. Apparently they have great coffee, as in a bit of a treat type of coffee.

Therefore, do not expect to find us at The Grind on Sat.

d.

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Radio Shack Alert!!

One of the members named Al, recently informed me that Liquidation World's around the Low. Mainland are clearing out NOS R.S. stock. In other words there are some deals to be had for the avid DIY'er. :-)

I've been to the Richmond location & spent $5.65 on about 20 pots, a handful of caps & a few other things!!! At regular prices this would have cost me in the neighborhood of $90, uummm.... can u say SCORE!!

You've been told. Done!!

So as for the August meeting, me & Al are thinking instead of the usual coffee talk @ The Grind why not get a vehicle & a handful of us could tour around to as many locations as possible on that Saturday?????

Please post to the comments if you are interested in this idea??

Darren

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Another Meetin'!!

Hey.

Well this Sat. is the 2nd of the month, so it's meeting time again!!
The Grind on Main @ 12 noon. How's that sound?
So that'll be Sat. July 14th.

Also if there be anyone that can't make it & would like to meet on a weeknight.... just let me know & we can arrange a sort of side meeting where i can bring you up to date on things.

Darren