Let's talk: Gotharman's SpazeDrum (VLOG)

[@esotericmusicmachines8136]

Another great video, detailed, informative, funny, plus your workspace is exuberantly colorful. I always enjoy your work.

[@tuesdaynightmachines]

Thank you! The synth wardrobe looks a lot better now than a year ago, when it was still dark and barren. A few LED lights and (fake) plants make quite a difference :D

[@gotharman]

Thank you very much for yet another great video! I really appreciate it!

[@tuesdaynightmachines]

Thanks! I’m happy that you like the videos :) Your instruments are so incredibly inspiring!

[@Dekalboy]

Is it possible to use the spaze drum sequencer to midi control an external hardware device ?

[@tuesdaynightmachines]

Yes :)

[@Dekalboy]

@@tuesdaynightmachines I am,using a Jomox m brane . With many cc to control . Does the 64 tracks can be set to send and control a midi cc ?

[@tuesdaynightmachines]

@@Dekalboy yes, that should work, if I understand the manual correctly :)

[@otepsia1697]

Thank you for that great video ! With the update making it an 8-voice synth, would you say it is possible to make a whole track with it only ?

[@tuesdaynightmachines]

Absolutely! The SpazeDrum has very similar synth and sampler capabilities as the Little deFormer 3, so you can easily create basslines, pads or other sounds. I've made this acid live jam: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4uqf3d3hbKsadE It's just one preset and all I do is wiggle knobs and mute parts. To extend it into a proper song, you could use song mode, just like on the LD3, to chain presets after one another.

[@otepsia1697]

@@tuesdaynightmachines ​ Thank you again ! I listened to your acid jam just before asking you this question and I liked it a lot. ;)

[@NickHchaos]

Pretty compelling, and great service to do such good explanations and demo of more obscure products. I think I read you sold your DRM and other stuff after getting a Spazedrum, is that right? I have a Yocto 808 clone and a fair sized eurorack system, and was thinking of something else percussion wise to balance it out. Was eyeing the new DRM IV now that trigger inputs are velocity sensitive + other things since I have a very powerful euro sequencer with probability and stuff like that..the Spazedrum would definitely do more, but then no trigger ins or I guess external sequencing? What do you think?

[@tuesdaynightmachines]

Hey Nick, thanks for your comment! I sold my DRM III two years ago already, before getting into Serge modular ;D You're right that the SpazeDrum has no CV inputs, so in order to sequence it from your Eurorack, you'd need a CV to MIDI converter. That's definitely not a big hurdle, but the question is how you like to perform. The DRM of course doesn't save presets and for me it was mostly a set-and-forget machine. I.e. dial in the sounds and then sequence them externally, while concentrating on my Eurorack and only tweaking a DRM parameter occasionally. As the knob ranges were quite large on the DRM III, live-tweaking needed to be done carefully, but for sound design it was a good thing and I really like the decision that the made the ranges that way. Now, the SpazeDrum is a real self-contained groovebox with all the bells and whistles, including MIDI CC input for external modulation. Setting up a preset is more involved than on the DRM of course, but then it also does more. To make it work in your situation you should definitely have a bunch of CV to MIDI CC converters next to the MIDI Clock and Note conversion, as modulation is where the fun really starts on the SpazeDrum. Of course you could also just sync clock and then tweak the SpazeDrum manually using its internal sequencer. So hmmm ... I guess DRM = simple, SpazeDrum = deep. Both sound great in my opinion, so the audio side wouldn't sway we one direction or another. Let me know what you choose or if you have any more specific questions :)

[@NickHchaos]

@@tuesdaynightmachines Thanks for the lightning fast reply. I have a Five12 Vector, possibly the most advanced sequencer outside of a Cirklon, in my opinion, so it has several MIDI outs in addition to 8 pairs of cv gate velocity + multiple trigger outs--I just stay far away from MIDI 99% of the time and prefer cv for everything--not sure if sending as one MIDI drum channel the way it would do it would allow me to sequence, or more likely, I'd just sync clock to MIDI like I do with my Yocto and sequence with its own sequencer. I made some modular drum voices today on the Twitch modular + music stream I'm doing 2x a week now, it's a good exercise, but yeah not "sustainable" for more interesting sounding voices in terms of amount of HP and time used as far as doing it all the time..still love my Yocto..and half a mind to buy the Jomox ModBrane Mk 2..Spazedrum is a lot more expensive..how is it for samples, how much can you do with the samples? That's the other thing, lots of cool samplers in euro, but I don't really like any of them, I'm a musician and mostly like analog, I'd love to record my own samples and trigger and change them in a dynamic way (like you did with your unique ukulele album I just found out about?) it seems like this could be the answer to that, something else the Vermona or other stuff would not allow me to do. Owned a Rossum Assimila8or but I just can not gel with his module designs..

[@tuesdaynightmachines]

With the Vector and its MIDI outputs I think you'd have a lot of fun modulating the SpazeDrum with MIDI CC then. Most tracks on my Ukulele album were made primarily with the SpazeDrum actually. Sample playback it pretty cool. You can really destroy samples in lots of different ways (modulate start & length, pitch, chain samples together, etc. plus the many granular audio effects) XD It's almost the same as on the Little deFormer 3 I think. So you could even edit and chop samples on the SpazeDrum. Sample management is a bit cumbersome, but I found it okay, or maybe I am just used to it from other Gotharman devices (just four sample banks with a long list of samples in each, no folders, search, etc.).

[@NickHchaos]

@@tuesdaynightmachines thank you! Sounds like I should go for it. Pity a used one is not liable to turn up..maybe the British monosynth version of a Gotharbox, I have another rare and under appreciated instrument I have come to love and become a bit of a fanboy of like you with this one maybe: Motas-6: most flexible and powerful monosynth in existence, possibly, and it sounds great. To me, one of the only non modular synths worth owning, basically an internally routed modular system where the sound is all analog but modulation is all digital, so it’s practically infinite, with a lot of cool features always changing, also a dedicated 1-man company.

[@NickHchaos]

@@tuesdaynightmachines one other thing: blue vs black version-I read and watched specs, but I’m still not sure I understand how one vs the other will affect sound design and music making in a large scale way. I guess you bought the blue one purposefully?

[@devondetroit2529]

This machine looks wild, why haven’t I heard of these before ?!

[@tuesdaynightmachines]

Looks like you’re not frequenting the Danish underground granular synth communities then 😁 Just kidding. Gotharman isn’t that well known indeed, but they have been making electronic music instruments for over ten years already.

[@modularsoundbath]

Good video!

[@tuesdaynightmachines]

Thank you! :)