astralprojection

it's rolled up foils in an electrolyte liquid that goes dry after 10-50 years or so. Edit: the liquid inside is sometimes water based, sometimes its made up of boric acid and ethylene. but there's not a lot of liquid in there. Basically it's just moist. That's what she said.

thats awesome to read! very happy that youre happy with your purchases of 2nd hand stuff they can easily outclass alot of new gear with almost no money spent.

Replacing / upgrading caps can be a great idea for any peice of gear really, every 20 or so years. Good advice. Luckily it's very cheap and very easy to do. Just get new caps with same specs and you're good to go. There should be a few places selling them online in whatever country you're in. Something like 0-2 eur each. Which reminds me to swap the caps on my Philips as well as that probably hasn't been done in some 40 or so years

seems like it should be a great setup!! i really hope you are happy with your purchase. I dont see how i wouldnt be, with those things. But its all really alot of chance - to happen to grab something you really like. I probably had way too many setups before i found the perfect one for me, but theres always a ceiling, and theres always something better. so thats a good mindset to get rid of. you wont get any more satisfaction from something better- thats just a trap. Thats why I went with an old late 70s amp and some passive 90s monitors for my setup. Really no sense in trying to find something better. At least not with any sort of reasonable pricepoint. And money is ofc always the issue, for most people. Would i like to upgrade my ur22 to an apollo twin? would i like a pair of active genelecs? yes. but since thats not a reasonable quest i wont even set my mind there. tape can sound better than any cd can too, a great metal tape recorded from a cd, will end up sounding better than the cd :p just cause it adds a bit of subtle warmth and dulls out the sharpness a bit.

recently bought the upgrade from 9.5 artist to 10.5 pro. didnt look back! been using the stuff since forever.

samples are really sweet, wish you all the best of luck!

@GeorgeMoonstoneD your opinion is very valuable and interesting. but here is how youre wrong. filteria is on the same label as this xenomorph track you just said was offensive to have been compared to. which is ironic- theyre on the same label - filteria uses almost 100% the same gear that was used in the 90s - how is that not goa? how is that not just a natural progression of music - turned into neo goa - a beautiful high production standard genre. What is not goa about that. There are dozens more aritsts in the new goa style that are absolutely incredible at the music they do - and you diss them all by saying its not even goa. many of those artists (filteria, mindsphere) uses the same gear as used back in "the day" where you are somehow stuck. You said you were offended by the comparison between Filteria and Xenomorph. well Im offended by that statement, you just offended filteria, fans, and suntrip as a label. You basically said 99% of their catalogue is "not goa". That is pretty offensive if you ask me.

Sure, technics is fine when it comes to amps! Cd players too. What model is it of the technics? I'm familiar with a dozen or so models. I'm just curious since I love that stuff..

man. i feel you. life is a rough one atm.

someone just needs to get the ball rolling i guess

Cool, what kind of amp did you find? I have an old Philips one myself currently, think its from early 80s or late 70s dont remember. while its slightly noisy on loud volume it is really great stuff. Got it for 19 eur https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/philips_amplifier_f4122_00_00s_05_05s.html

the reference

Doesnt really matter much. Theres about a milion models from different makers that sounds allright. So any brand really (id stay clear of the really cheap stuff though. The plastic stuff that barely weighed anything - that is really not something i would recommend); that has a form factor you like with the desired inputs and not much more extra that you dont need. Goes for pretty much both integrated amps and cd players. If youre not comfortable buying either from 2nd hand shops or ebay or similar; and checking up on each model youre looking at to see if its suits you, then its probably easier to spend a fortune and get the best right out the gate. Like a studio grade interface with a pair of modern active monitors. but theres tons of charm with an old hifi system, but i suppose you have to find that thing sort of fun, in order to get good deals and get the stuff you really want. Theres a bit of legwork behind it. And if you plan to play records then its pretty much a must have. Otherwise youd have to buy a seperate phono pre-amp and connect that directly to your interface; which ofc is a very valid option too, and something that many producers sampling from vinyl; opt to do. However thats not really the category I see this thread in; and what i really would recommend is to spend that bit of time, on ebay or similar; and get some great old stuff and have fun with it.

Since you wanna connect your turntable, I'd recommend you find an old integrated amp from the 70s, 80s as those generally tend to have better phono preamps built in than some of the 90s models have. You could find a great one for 25-50 eur. Downside is they have a larger noise floor than the modern stuff. I'd also find a cheap old Cd player from the 90s, and some passive 4-8 ohm speakers (preferably monitors, if you can find a good pair, as a linear frequency response is more pleasant) Then you'd be set, and you wouldn't spend hardly anything and you would be reusing someone's fully functioning old gear. There's honestly not many modern new options that would sound better than this, unless you wanna spend 50-100x that. edit: i have since 3.5 years worked at a large 2nd hand shop, at the electronics dept. So for the past years ive done nothing but testing + refurbishing, pricing, and selling old vintage stuff that people turn in. Plus Ive always been a hifi geek since i was little, so i have some slight credential on the matter :p Its not until you get to the modern NADs that you really start to outclass the old stuff. And even then i would pick a 70/80s amp any day of the week over one of the new ones! This is a hifi/turntable/cd setup Im talking about just to be clear.

great insightful stuff there mikro! Thanks for typing all that up, really valuable information.

its good to read everyones thoughts on this, as difference of opinion is important - and very much a good thing. about vinyl vs cd; i meant it only as a reference to that we do love a little dirt on the signal path. I too prefer digital audio files; vinyl is just way too expensive; and cumbersome, and as you say Mikro; it degrades over time and thats just how it is.. But there is no denying that a record without scratch and dirt, on a properly set-up turntable with a decent amplfiication stage - sounds better than a CD can. I dont mean to sound like a purist or audiophile cause i really am not; but I also dont deny that the music sounds more alive on vinyl and more pleasant to the ears. I dont agree what is said about serum; that it is not good for Basslines; on the contrary i think its the perfect synth for basslines since the envelopes can be Exact; sloppy; snappy; slow, whatever you like - and the waveform can; too. So i dont see the logic behind that one, but agree to disagree. (For example you can set decay time of the envelope to be exactly 1/16 without first calculating it into ms, and you can draw your own custom envelope shapes. So in that regard it is really on top. And the ability to dirty-fy your waveforms via either FFT (select exactly what harmonics you want) or via whatever modulation you like - makes it extremely versatile too; specially creating "analog-like" sounds) also strongly disagree on Electric Universe I think his stuff has become borderline unlistenable over the years ^^

well most of those psytrance producers who have the cleanest (most soul-less) sound - knew about this stuff in early 10s. But its now become popular media and everyone does it. The technique itself, has lost its soul. I think its only a matter of time before we get back to our roots of analog - and dirt - and realise that sounds more pleasant - than being sonically raped by these ultra-clean tones and waveforms. Its great to try to be clean, and to phase-align your knb ofc; but in the process dont forget yorue not a robot or alien, youre a human. Vinyl sounds better than CD.

audioz, eh?

Ive always thought of it like this. Psychedelic Trance is the mother genre, then we have goatrance as one sub and also psytrance as another. Yes that becomes a bit confusing since both share the same name; but they are indeed two different things. for example goa is like astral while psy is like infected. Of course thats just how i have looked at it personally for all these years. I dont remember anyone even calling it "psytrance" until a bit later, early 2000s i think. But maybe we did call some stuff "psy" even earlier than that... Hard to remember. Anyway i think "psytrance" as a genre is mother to sub-genres like dark, forest, tech, etc. While Goa and "Psy" has always been slightly distinct flavors under the matriarch; "Psychedelic Trance". makes sense to me at least

indeed, ive only really used single-cycle wavetables with these custom waveforms. ive no real use for a massive wavetable to cycle thru when i really just want a specific Saw sound. and drawing a waveform with the pencil is some of the most fun ive had in a while. and you learn pretty much immediately what part of the waveform "do what", and how to customize it exactly to what you want from the sound. im a little late to the game though, serum's been around a while now. dune 3 like astral mentioned is really fat sounding, has tons of modulation and fx. i feel Spire gets easily outclassed these days by either synthesis - or sound. but for leads i still use spire alot cause thats really where it shines. 303, virus/nord like, 101, etc, it really makes it extremely quick to dial in a lead sound you want. i dont think spire sounds great for psy basses, it doesnt have the filter + envelope action you really want.... imo.. serum i would go for a custom sound, where i want the waveform specific (like a psy bass; ive found this type of saw sounding really fat, its from a juno i believe): i also like to draw in some distortions here and there. really game changer for me at least, when youre really specifically after a certain tone. i.e: which sounds alot like the above one but its slightly off centered and even fatter.

if you really wanna buy a good synth, then imho id probably buy serum, cause you can draw/import/customize your wavetables to emulate pretty much any synth + signal path youd like and incorporate that onto the waveform itself. theres even (for example) jd-800 waveforms avaliable online and serum lets you import these, customize them, and make them to your liking; while also sounding great in the proces. that is really amazing to me, so to answer your question i would recommend serum

and hard to do by ear! an oscilloscope is probably almost necessary. besides the synths already mentioned i use retrologue alot, since im a cubase user, and it has a great analog-like sound with snappy filters and envelopes, and kinda sylenth1 like modulation options. + an arp. so im pretty happy with it =)

That one was amazing!