Month: June 2025

My favorite thing is to wake up early in the AM and make some coffee with some honey in it. I work on my MPC and SP 404 mk2 and make music. It keeps me from spending extra money and I have all the equipment I could possibly need for a while I hope. There are rumors of a new MPC being on the horizon, but I’m content with my MPC Key 61 and the MPC 3 OS. It’s a lot of fun to use and you can do pretty much anything possible musically.

I’d like to see them improve the Stems functionality of the standalone MPC, as well as knock out some of the annoying little bugs that crop up when using the device. If they could improve the stems algorithm, there would be absolutely no reason to ever use the MPC 3 desktop software, which they just recently released. The standalone stems is still a bit iffy, and all they need to do is improve the algorithm for it. Even if it took longer to process, I’m sure MPC heads would be happier if it did a better job separating the different elements on the music you feed into it.

If there is a new MPC coming out, it would have to really be amazing to pique my interest at all. If it doesn’t have a keyboard attached to it, I probably wouldn’t want to partake. The MPC Key 61, to me, is the best modern MPC ever made. I’m behind on my payments for it, but I’ll catch up soon enough. I always do. It’s funny how expensive it’s gotten to live these days. Wages are not going up, but the cost of rent, food, gas, water, etc is steadily creeping higher and higher. I spent $30 today on some hot links, eggs, butter, and bread.

It’s absurd how much it costs to go grocery shopping these days. I don’t know what the powers that be are doing, but they are making a huge mistake in terms of the happiness level of the people. We’ve all tried to cope with this for a long while now, and it continues to get worse and worse. People aren’t being paid enough and things are too expensive. It’s not right and its not fair. A nation is only as good as its lowest people and if you look at Skid Row in Los Angeles, or Kensington, PA, you’ll see that this nation is pretty low as it stands.

I’ll keep on making my music and scraping by though. When the people are ready to revolt, I’ll be right there with them to protest and fight back. Even if I do find a job making more money, I know that there are those out there that are not as skilled job wise, and they deserve to live a decent life as well. People are content with their 6 figure incomes and don’t think about the people who serve them in the grocery stores, the restaurants, and other services they receive benefit from. What good is this society if those people can’t keep a roof over there heads and feel content about what they get up to go do every day? Anyways, til next time…

So I’m kind of in a confused place as to whether or not I should sell my Roland GAIA 1. Since I got my MPC Key 61, it really doesn’t get much use. The Key 61 has so many synthesizer plugins for it that sound absolutely amazing, including ones from Native Instruments with NI’s latest collab with Akai Professional. I love my Key 61 and it’s the best MPC ever made in my humble opinion. I’ve had the MPC One vanilla, the Live 2, and the Key 61 blows them both out of the water. You get 4GB of RAM for plugin loads just like the MPC X SE but for much less than the X.

The synthesizer and keys plugins for the Key 61 sound amazing and have a lot of tweaking that you can do to the sound to make it uniquely your own. They each include a ton of “patches” that sound great but serve as a great starting point to start crafting your own sound from them. With that said, that’s the issue. What’s the point of me keeping the Roland GAIA, when the Key 61 can do pretty much everything it can and then some. The GAIA is amazing. I love the keybed on it and it sounds great.

When I bought my GAIA 1, it came with a USB with some extra patches that were crafted by Sweetwater.com’s staff. Those patches are great as well and really opened my eyes to what was capable with the GAIA. It’s a legend of a synthesizer and was my first synth. The only other one I have is the miniature Roland S-1 Tweak Synthesizer which is also cool, but nowhere near as powerful as the Roland GAIA.

I could use the cash right now too, but I would hate to look back and regret letting go of the Roland GAIA especially since it’s been replaced by the GAIA 2 and is getting harder to find. As I write this, I think I’ve made the decision to go ahead and keep it. It’s an amazing first synthesizer and sounds incredible. There’s so many features including FX, Arpeggiator, and a great I/O set. The GAIA may not get used much lately due to the Key 61 being the center of my studio right now, but maybe I should change that. I need to start making beats where I can incorporate the GAIA more like House or EDM.

I like making House music the few attempts I’ve made at it, and I think I could find a way to utilize the GAIA when making that type of genre. The GAIA 1 wasn’t cheap, and with what Guitar Center would probably be willing to give me for it, it would be a rip-off. I don’t like selling on Ebay because they rip you off with their fees and nonsense just to sell on their site. I’ll keep the GAIA, and as long as it stays functioning I’ll have it in my studio.

It’s a highly sought after synthesizer and I’m very lucky to be an owner of one. I still have the manual for it which is pretty substantial. They don’t really make manuals like that for equipment anymore, like with my MPC Key 61. I have to defer to the MPC Bible to really get into the nitty gritty of the device and the MPC OS. The GAIA manual is thick and shows you the ins and outs of the device all without having to pay extra to get the info you need to really get down with the unit.

Hopefully, in the future I’ll have the money to buy other synthesizers to add to my studio and have a bigger studio to put them in. I love collecting equipment, and the only thing keeping me from doing it more often is a lack of funds. I’m looking for a better paying job though, where I can have a higher hourly wage and earn more on each paycheck, even if I miss a day for whatever reason. I need to make at least $10 per hour more from what I’m making now to really be able to pay bills and support my wife and mines hobbies. Anyway, I’m keeping the GAIA and I definitely recommend you check one out if you get the chance to. It’s an amazing unit and well worthy of the title of legend.

So I bought the Teenage Engineering KO II when it first came out. I got lucky and I didn’t get one of the ones with a bunk fader, however, mine did conk out after about 3 weeks of use so I returned it back to Guitar Center. I did think it was a dope device, so I recently went ahead and got one from an online shop with a payment plan. I got it a couple of weeks ago and it’s definitely a tight little device. I’ve made a couple of beats on it already and it’s a lot of fun to use.

I really love the tactile feedback of the pads. They remind me of my Razer mechanical keyboard. They are click clacky and make a lot of noise, which I like. The beats I’ve made sound good and were easy to get in to play with. You can sample into it, even though it’s only a 64MB sampler. That is plenty, and a lot of the greatest hip hop of all time was made on samplers with that or even less memory. I think this one is a keeper, as I believe TE has worked out all the kinks in the quality control with this device.

As I get more proficient with using it, I’m going to post some more videos on my Youtube channel related to it. Whenever I have made a video regarding the KO II, it always gets a decent amount of views. I think a lot of people are interested and fascinated by the device. It’s definitely unique. It doesn’t look anything like a MPC or a 404. It’s slim-line and fluff free. There’s a lot of bells and whistles and TE really made it so you can get a lot done on the device with different shortcut keys and some menu diving.

Would I recommend this to someone to pick up? For sure! If you like making beats and want to get something thats a ton of fun to work on and comes in at a great price, the KO II is definitely a good pickup. You can sample, chop, lay down FX, and it has all the I/O you could need to start making some dope music. You can definitely record full songs on here, although if you want to add vocals I’d suggest bouncing to a DAW or something. If you’re into making instrumentals like me though, this thing is definitely a keeper!

We are living through an unprecedented era of societal upheaval, where the very foundations of a dignified life are eroding beneath our feet. The cost of living has not merely risen; it has skyrocketed, transforming vibrant cities like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles into exclusive enclaves. Renting a basic apartment or owning a home has become an impossible dream for the majority, a cruel joke played on those striving for stability. Even the most fundamental necessity, food, now carries a prohibitive price tag. A single trip to the grocery store can drain $80-$100 from your wallet, leaving you with barely enough to sustain daily meals and snacks. This isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s an unacceptable crisis, and we must demand to know why it is being allowed to persist.

Adding insult to injury, policies like the tariffs imposed by the current administration have relentlessly driven up the cost of goods that are integral to the lives and passions of working-class people. Computer components, gaming systems, music equipment, audio gear—these aren’t luxuries; they are tools for creativity, connection, and escape. Yet, their prices have been artificially inflated, placing them further out of reach. This systematic burden on our wallets is not fair, and it is a stark reminder that the current system prioritizes profit over people. The time has come for us to rise, en masse, and revolt against these deliberate economic injustices.

Beyond the economic stranglehold, unsettling phenomena are emerging, raising profound questions about the very air we breathe and the water that sustains us. Reports of blue and purple rain falling from the skies in Texas and other regions are not mere anomalies; they are disturbing revelations. What unknown chemicals are being introduced into our atmosphere to cause such unnatural occurrences? Is this water safe for our skin, for the crops that feed us, or for those who rely on collected rainwater for their households? We cannot afford to scroll past these alarming signs. We must collectively awaken from our digital trance and demand: “What the hell is truly going on?!”

The core of this crisis lies in a system where many American companies refuse to pay a living wage, trapping countless individuals in a perpetual cycle of financial struggle. Earning $100,000 a year as an individual or even a couple is no longer a guarantee of security; it often means living paycheck to paycheck, forced into shared living arrangements just to survive. This is not right. This is not sustainable. This is a moral failing that demands immediate and radical change. While some may thrive in this distorted reality, a vast multitude suffers at the bottom of the totem pole, desperate for relief. The engine of this broken machine is fueled by the insatiable greed of the rich and powerful. WE NEED A FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE, AND WE NEED IT NOW!