So I guess pedals are the new forward guard.

[spacelordmother]

Strangely relevant to the thought I had the other day out of nowhere:

"Am I going to be posting on ilf with all these dudes when I'm 60??"
I can't wait until Chank hits 100k posts.

[Invisible Man]

Pedals are a necessity, and nothing knocks them out. Euro is just another wormhole to vacuum away a man's madmoney after he completes/overcomes/gets bored with the frivolous side of pedalworld. A fetish project for serious gearheads, that requires a commitment.

Great post, well said. This is where I'm headed. Just sold off most of the pedals I use, and "downgraded" them to BOSS, Dunlop, EHX. Cheap stuff I can pick up anywhere. I want to focus on "one knob per function; one pedal per effect." No menus.

I'll use that money (one day...I'll set aside $1500-$2000 from my pedal monies) to get started on my modular setup. Pushing the envelope...that's a lame synth joke, I think.

[Warpsmasher]

I've done the same with pedals. Mostly survival mode, but had to keep a few irreplaceables too.
I've already got more modules than I can fit in my first rack. Not sure where to go from here yet, but I am sticking to the 'one row at a time plus random desktoppers' path for now, and not doing a jumbo case. Buying them one at a time definitely makes you learn more, about modules, and about what you want, and don't want. I haven't wanted to flip any of my modules yet, but it seems to be just as common as with pedals. I can see it coming to a similar place eventually, where I know exactly what I want and need out of each one, but again just like pedals (or any other obsession), you end up wanting to try it all anyway, build the perfect system, have certain personal favorites that are special only to you, the whole collector's love thing is right there. They tell you why the Wogglebug is special and you just fall in love with it...Wogglebug...it actually sounds like a living pokemon.

[misterstomach]

The evolution of this thread is really funny to me. From "pedals are the great cutting edge tools of the most forward thinking creative people who are making music today", or something like that, to "fuck pedals. we're all selling all our pedals and going modular."

Maybe that's not what happened, but it's how I read it. For what it's worth, I don't really do any crazy shit with pedals or look for crazy sounds. I write songs on a guitar and add effects later. So y'all are in a different realm than me with that stuff.

[Invisible Man]

The evolution of this thread is really funny to me. From "pedals are the great cutting edge tools of the most forward thinking creative people who are making music today", or something like that, to "fuck pedals. we're all selling all our pedals and going modular."

Maybe that's not what happened, but it's how I read it. For what it's worth, I don't really do any crazy shit with pedals or look for crazy sounds. I write songs on a guitar and add effects later. So y'all are in a different realm than me with that stuff.

No, that's a pretty accurate read. But again, I equivocated in the title of thread ("So I guess..."), and the idea was to talk about how we use the tools, and the ideas behind them. Basically, I hoped to get away from fetishizing gear--though that it one of the points of this board, and it is super fun--and to get closer to talking about some of the philosophical underpinnings that drive a place like this.

And I'm not selling all my pedals...I kinda had to sell a bunch to pay for my daughter's medical bills, and I figured that I'd use that fire sale as an excuse to start a new obsession.

[Invisible Man]

Modulars are scaaaaaaary

[comesect2.0]

I love you.

[Invisible Man]

I don't like Modular stuff because I like working within limitations, but the capabilities are definitely way far ahead of what you can do with stompboxes.

[Invisible Man]

LIBRARY FIGHT

[fuzzisokiguess]

Olde school.

Great thread. I've always been fascinated by the resistance to decay/degradation in the art world. Intuitively we understand that everything dies, but we want to maintain some things in an arbitrary "perfect" state. We're propping up Fallingwater's terrace, restoring paintings, etc. and it's not just art, there are those that want to keep forests the same way they were found by certain persons at a certain time (though they were once an ocean floor, under glaciers and have burned countless times, and we'll avoid the climate change talk here for now)- point is, stuff changes, but we want art to be the same. And I get it. I want to hear September Gurls the same way every time.

Lately, with the help of some enlightened builders, and ya'll, Im coming around to the idea that it's good that I *can't* get the same sound from a pedal each time. That a loop isn't perfect. It's nice to get away from those strictures.

A good read on this below (if I can wrangle a photo out of this phone into this little box). The dust jacket is bubble wrap. Brill.

Edit for clarification re: climate so as to not invite/incite flames (no heat pun intended)

[codetocontra]

This thread is gold.

[Invisible Man]

Olde school.

Great thread. I've always been fascinated by the resistance to decay/degradation in the art world. Intuitively we understand that everything dies, but we want to maintain some things in an arbitrary "perfect" state. We're propping up Fallingwater's terrace, restoring paintings, etc. and it's not just art, there are those that want to keep forests the same way they were found by certain persons at a certain time (though they were once an ocean floor, under glaciers and have burned countless times, and we'll avoid the climate change talk here for now)- point is, stuff changes, but we want art to be the same. And I get it. I want to hear September Gurls the same way every time.

Lately, with the help of some enlightened builders, and ya'll, Im coming around to the idea that it's good that I *can't* get the same sound from a pedal each time. That a loop isn't perfect. It's nice to get away from those strictures.

A good read on this below (if I can wrangle a photo out of this phone into this little box). The dust jacket is bubble wrap. Brill.

Edit for clarification re: climate so as to not invite/incite flames (no heat pun intended)

I like this. 'Disposable Art' seems like an oxymoron, but maybe...it isn't.

Kinda related: 'oxymoron' is a Greek noun for 'neuter.' It means 'pointedly foolish,' or 'sharply dull.' So it's an oxymoron.

Fuck, I love words.

[DRodriguez]

Slightly off topic but this thread made me think of it.

One thing I love is waveset distortion. Which is the distortion based around three zero crossings of the waveform. There are many kinds, very few that can be done in real time.

Microsounds, sounds too short to be perceived as a musical note, in general interest me greatly. More about aural textures being created, often melodically uninteresting but noisily fascinating.

[D.o.S.]

I don't like Modular stuff because I like working within limitations, but the capabilities are definitely way far ahead of what you can do with stompboxes.

Turns out if you don't just buy all the modular at once you can work within limitations just fine.

I stand by my statement.

[D.o.S.]

#ApeLincolnwasright.