THE DREADED GEAR THREAD

[Bubble-Congeries]

borrowed a DOD meatbox in the mid-90's and tried to never give it back. two years go I found out they reissued them, and I bought one for myself.

I've never used the original, but did buy the reissue when it was on sale at some point. Quite an interesting pedal to experiment with. It's not always easy to predict how it will sound in every application, which is very exciting.

[December Man]

Great thread - it's generated a lot of ideas. So many pieces of gear that seem common but I never knew existed as well.

My main rig is an SM57 mic plugged into small mixer with a two aux sends that go to a DOD Death Metal and a DOD Grunge. got them new 20+ years ago. add a pile of scrap metal and I can make a day of it.

borrowed a DOD meatbox in the mid-90's and tried to never give it back. two years go I found out they reissued them, and I bought one for myself. I have some DOD delays and couple of Ibanez metal distortions I got when they came through the local music store as used. a pair of Behringer knock offs (distortions). I have a WMD Geiger counter that I felt emotionally connected to and HAD to buy. plugged into my regular rig, I haven't found anything magical about it. but running normal sound (even simple drum loops) through it, it destroys all the evidence and make my soul smile. add a custom pedal Henry did for me that's half envelope/half Death by Audio Robot and that's all the boxes.

Add some synth apps for the phone that are for "experimental sound purposes" instead of "making commercial music" and that's about all I use at the moment.

in the wings waiting for me is a contact mic and a garage shop full of machines and metals - I haven't even really started on that adventure, and it seems like a proper noisey one!

I have a DAW and use a few plugins. Tactical Nuke is a wavetable distortion, and I just like wavetable distortion. The Freakshow Industries stuff sings to me, but I don't use it for noise. I'm just happy there's someone out there doing that stuff. Audio Damage has Grind, a wavetable distortion plugin that's free now. it's been dropped off the supported software list I think, so it's like a "get it now and use it until it doesn't work anymore" thing.

I still tend to think of things like I'm recording on a 4 track. one set of stereo tracks for the main performance. then another set of stereo tracks for the "supporting" performance. then I'm typically done. mix it and move on.

Hey Bob, big fan of your output. I wanted to ask, which mixer are you using? I always have this obsession with using as few pedals as possible, so the idea of 2 aux sends in a compact mixer is super appealing.

[bobMarinelli]

Thank you! You must have a long memory!

it's a Mackie 1202 I got off of eBay. I bought one when they came out, and ran it into the ground. that took about 20 years, but whatever. so I replaced it with the same model. I'm sure they're on reverb.com as well for about $100. mine is the old preamps (not the VLZ's). it just worked out that way.

[December Man]

Thank you! You must have a long memory!

it's a Mackie 1202 I got off of eBay. I bought one when they came out, and ran it into the ground. that took about 20 years, but whatever. so I replaced it with the same model. I'm sure they're on reverb.com as well for about $100. mine is the old preamps (not the VLZ's). it just worked out that way.

Fellow PA person who ended up with a copy of the Flutter split at some point way after it came out. Also the Blood and Bones CD has been in rotation.

Those older 1202s look so cool. Thanks for sharing. I have been using a Realistic mixer that, while it doesn't have any effects sends, does a nice job of distorting everything that I run into it. It can be a bit unmanageable at times, but I sort of like that it gives some of the things a life of their own.

As far as the rest of my gear, I have pretty much always used some configuration of a microphone, synthesizer, and tape player into a mixer with some effects. Vague, but I've always rotated things a bit. There were a few years where I went deep down the rabbit hole of vintage synths only to come to the realization that I prefer the trashy stuff that I started out with.

The one thing that I did recently acquire that has been a bit of a game changer is a cheap old sampler. It isn't the nicest, but being able to put together loops and drones on the fly (versus purely with tapes as I did prior) has really made working on stuff a more enjoyable experience.

[Thomas_B]

This thread has been super interesting to read. I’m always looking forward to reading new contributions. For Death Glaze, I currently use source sounds recorded to a Zoom H6. Source is edited and then recorded to tape, and that taped source is processed with different effects chains but they almost always consist of loopers and various distortion pedals, and all that goes into a mixer with the gain cranked. Lately, source sounds are field recordings, metal and plastic junk, but I’ve used some recordings of tree bark, and want to do more with natural objects, scavenged tree and plant material, stones, that kind of thing. I used narrow band noise and white noise from a portable audiometer previously, and in 2020/21 I used synths, but I haven’t touched those in recent years - in fact, I traded in a synth for the Zoom H6 I’ve been using lately.

[lovelife]

What gear do you all use for field recording?

[dust]

various zoom products, h2n, h4n, marantz pmd units for cassette, bunch of microcassette recorders etc. but the best field recorder is the one you have on you...in most cases for most folks would guess that is a smartphone, perhaps with a more reliable/feature rich application than whatever the default voice or video recorder is, perhaps not... e.g. iphone camera in video mode has software processing on in the mic inputs that can be quite pleasing or interesting depending on the source, or could potentially ruin whatever it is you're trying to capture, life is a gamble...

[Natalia]

Some pics of our setup from a recent jam.





Finding a concert snare stand for that car rim was hard, since its diameter is larger than most common snare diameters, it just barely fits. The large A-frame stand is made out of structural steel pipe + fittings. Had to do some welding on the top joints to fix the angle for the stand, otherwise it would flop around on the top. Sheet metal + steel plate were angle grinded down to size, holes drilled for the hooks + chains for suspension. For the larger pipe, there's an extension spring running through it, so it has a little bit of bounce and resonance as you hit it. The spring itself also makes a lot of cool sounds + textures. The important part of the stand is that it can be taken apart for storage and transport. The plan is to mic up all the metal, maybe with contact mics or drum mics of some kind. We want to accentuate the metal with effects like reverb, delay, pitch, panning, etc, just to add more dynamics to things. Still experimenting.

This whole thing is a constant work in progress. The more we jam the more we'll iron out the kinks, add more things to it. But, the whole setup is intended to be somewhat large and imposing, especially for a live context. Now it's just a matter of hauling it all to gigs.

[Natalia]

What gear do you all use for field recording?

TASCAM DR-05X, quite happy with it; I've got some really nice, clean recordings. Though I find at times it can be easy to clip, especially in very loud industrial settings. But I'm still learning how to use it.

[FrenziedDestruction]

if im going out to specifically collect sounds then i likely will have a collection of microphones and a tape player as well as my phone, if i just hear something cool when im out and about or where ever then in most cases i record it with my phone. a good alternative to the default sound recording app on iphone is "voice record pro" by dayana networks ltd, its free and you can do all kinds of useful things with it such as:

-adjust playback volume (nice for quiet sounds)
- +24-db audio boost
-slow/fast adjust playback speed (great for warping sounds)
-folders to sort your sounds into
-a built in server that you can use to download files from your phone via web browser OR upload files TO your phone from web browser

they also sell "nicer" microphones you can get for smartphones but most seem to be targeted at podcasters.
of course you can already use a lightning to 3.5 adapter to use your microphones you already have with it.

[Cruelsymphonies]

Hello,
My set up is pretty sparse but most parts do more than one thing. 4 in 1 out cut up thingy from electro lobotomy to kaoss pad to mandala effects bannanana or red panda tensor then dod carcosa or buzzbox then donner eq then zoom cdr modulation unit then mixer. Going into the cut up thingy is a shaker box hooked to a bass super overdrive and also a masf osc 3. Then to the right of my mixer a 404 which is pluged in via rca to the mixer. The zoom multieffect and kaoss pad can make a lot of different sounds and I have them programed so that it isn't too hard to switch effect live. I use my sampler for backing stuff to jam over like loops and shit.

Recording wise I record a lot with the live set up but I also experiment with all sorts of different pedal chains and additional performers. I record line in to my zoom h5 then I edit it all together in fl studio grabbing the best chunks and adding samples and vst effects. I add as much as I want because my stuff isn't supposed to sound live, it's supposed to sound as technical as possible and just be as interesting of a recording as possible. I am much more inspired by Parmegiani than raw american noise.

[Cementimental]

What gear do you all use for field recording?

Zoom H1 for 'serious' field recordings but more often just the voice memo thing on my phone, since most good sounds happen when you aren't out trying to do field recordings. The world goes mysteriously silent when you point a fuzzy mic at it. :D (Likewise stops moving much when you take the Super 8 camera out.)

I kind of miss carrying a minidisk recorder around and getting really nice sounding recording with a cheap old plug-in-power stereo camcorder mic or cheap binaural spy microphone disguised as in-ear headphones

[Bubble-Congeries]

The world goes mysteriously silent when you point a fuzzy mic at it. :D (Likewise stops moving much when you take the Super 8 camera out.)

It's maddenning. Some cosmic trickster at work, no doubt!

BTW, without getting too in the weeds, though I realize MiniDiscs actually record lossy audio, something about them always sounded nice to my ears. There's some kind of subtle magic happening with the analog/digital conversion or compression.

[Residual / RT]

The world goes mysteriously silent when you point a fuzzy mic at it. :D (Likewise stops moving much when you take the Super 8 camera out.)

It's maddenning. Some cosmic trickster at work, no doubt!

BTW, without getting too in the weeds, though I realize MiniDiscs actually record lossy audio, something about them always sounded nice to my ears. There's some kind of subtle magic happening with the analog/digital conversion or compression.

Yeah, the Minidisc algorithm for compression is pretty distinctive. I always liked it too, had MD players for years back in the late 90s / early aughts. I've been kind of toying with the idea of releasing a limited edition Minidisc release, I wonder if there's people who would buy noise on a Minidisc.

[Remi]

The world goes mysteriously silent when you point a fuzzy mic at it. :D (Likewise stops moving much when you take the Super 8 camera out.)

It's maddenning. Some cosmic trickster at work, no doubt!

BTW, without getting too in the weeds, though I realize MiniDiscs actually record lossy audio, something about them always sounded nice to my ears. There's some kind of subtle magic happening with the analog/digital conversion or compression.

I've been kind of toying with the idea of releasing a limited edition Minidisc release, I wonder if there's people who would buy noise on a Minidisc.

Likewise, hah. I'd assume that if you made an download available with the release, people wouldn't mind getting a copy.

[Residual / RT]

It's maddenning. Some cosmic trickster at work, no doubt!

BTW, without getting too in the weeds, though I realize MiniDiscs actually record lossy audio, something about them always sounded nice to my ears. There's some kind of subtle magic happening with the analog/digital conversion or compression.

I've been kind of toying with the idea of releasing a limited edition Minidisc release, I wonder if there's people who would buy noise on a Minidisc.

Likewise, hah. I'd assume that if you made an download available with the release, people wouldn't mind getting a copy.

Let's do a split

[Bubble-Congeries]

3-way!!!

I've contemplated the same, but don't have a good supply of blanks for it. One very exciting thing is how you can do micro-edits and shuffle playback, though. Could make for interesting listening!

[Cementimental]

I wonder if there's people who would buy noise on a Minidisc.

Not sure about noise but I personally started /r/VaporwaveMiniDiscs/ as a joke one time and it's unexpectedly blossomed into a thriving scene of people releasing vaporwave on minidisk :D

I'm surprised there weren't more Noise MD releases back when minidisc was somewhat current. Main stumbling block I suppose was that the technology was inherently crippled by copyright-related stuff so unless you had the most high-end decks it was almost impossible to make a digital copy with track markers, titles etc. Nowadays it's actually easier due to some open source software thing i haven't looked at yet. Also many of the major cassette duplication companies have started doing full-colour printed MDs !

[Residual / RT]

I wonder if there's people who would buy noise on a Minidisc.

Not sure about noise but I personally started /r/VaporwaveMiniDiscs/ as a joke one time and it's unexpectedly blossomed into a thriving scene of people releasing vaporwave on minidisk :D

I'm surprised there weren't more Noise MD releases back when minidisc was somewhat current. Main stumbling block I suppose was that the technology was inherently crippled by copyright-related stuff so unless you had the most high-end decks it was almost impossible to make a digital copy with track markers, titles etc. Nowadays it's actually easier due to some open source software thing i haven't looked at yet. Also many of the major cassette duplication companies have started doing full-colour printed MDs !

I personally think MD is the pinnacle of physical media, it was just perfect and I'm super bummed it had a relatively short lifespan. Would very much welcome a noise label specializing in MD releases!

[Bubble-Congeries]

Since these last few posts, I've been meaning to look into options for direct PCM data transfer to/from MD. I've been inspired.

I do have a very nice MD deck that a certain "noise tourist" gifted me before he went away. It allows me to do all kinds of things with cutting and rearranging recorded audio, but it doesn't allow for any interfacing for drag-and-drop access to the internal file structures. I know that such technology exists, but I've yet to do any real research or window shopping.