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Re: OT: GenoQs closing operations

Re: OT: GenoQs closing operations

2011-02-01 by Cikira (Amanda)

>I had a chance to play with the Octopus for an extended period and the Nemo
>as well.  I didnt take to either particularly well, but the Nemo was
>particularly frustrating as there was just no convenient place to put the
>thing.  Its design was just horribly inconvenient.

I've found use for tabletop guitar stands to hold weird-shaped gear. 
I find Nemo nice to pick up and play on my lap. It's rounded edges 
feel good. But then I have a habit of putting my feet up on my desk. 
You have to at least give them credit for doing something different, 
without pointy corners.

>The Octopus was absolutely huge.  Far bigger than I had anticipated.
>  Beautiful kit, and very well made...but horribly impractical.

Yes, it's huge. I'll confess before this company that I own the 
supremely impractical Octopus Diva. It's beyond ridiculous, because 
moving it anywhere isn't an option. It proved to be all I could 
manage to get the thing unpacked, and after much struggling I said to 
hell with un-boxing photos. I thought the frame would be sliced slate 
laminate which is enjoying vogue as a finishing material, but around 
the stainless face of this model there is solid rock. It really gives 
you a what-have-I-done-now moment. It's cool how it says Stone Age 
and Humanity's Music Language in the same slab.

My point is, it's a magnificently romantic instrument if you are a 
MIDIot. You need the same kind of insanity to buy a Memotron, a new 
digital Mellotron, or even the real thing, when you might as well buy 
a sample library. I just received photos from a friend who's having a 
guitar neck inlaid top-to-bottom with classical scenes, for an amount 
of money I don't want to think about. Clearly there is a market niche 
for the horribly impractical, among people who want to be in love 
with their music making thing, whatever it is.

I'm still looking forward to my Cirklon, make no mistake! I think 
it's going to hit the spot for people in all respects.

It's interesting to me how hardly any bad word has ever been said 
around the forums about the Octopus, yet now with the news of that 
company closing, in some others all the negative things people can 
think of to say are coming out. There must be a mentality to jump in 
and kick a closing company out the door. I expect that will pass, but 
it's disturbing to see.

Just socializing,


-- 
   Amanda
*_                                   www.cikira.com
|_) _  _||\/| _  _ ._         www.redmoon-music.com
| \(/_(_||  |(_)(_)| | ~~~ evolutionary electronica

Re: [analogue-sequencer] Re: OT: GenoQs closing operations

2011-02-01 by Ancient Eyeball Recipe

I think that people have always said pretty much the same stuff - the Octopus is a great sequencer, mitigated by the fact that if you're not using all of its features repeatedly, it's very easy to forget some of the esoteric key strokes to accomplish them, exacerbated by the poor manual. 



I think that people have also come down hard on them for the refusal to communicate for the last year. It seems to me that the only reason that they said something even now was that it got out that their corporation had closed, or something like that.
Show quoted textHide quoted text
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cikira (Amanda)" <cikira@fairpoint.net> 
To: analogue-sequencer@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 5:24:39 PM 
Subject: [analogue-sequencer] Re: OT: GenoQs closing operations 

  





>I had a chance to play with the Octopus for an extended period and the Nemo 
>as well. I didnt take to either particularly well, but the Nemo was 
>particularly frustrating as there was just no convenient place to put the 
>thing. Its design was just horribly inconvenient. 

I've found use for tabletop guitar stands to hold weird-shaped gear. 
I find Nemo nice to pick up and play on my lap. It's rounded edges 
feel good. But then I have a habit of putting my feet up on my desk. 
You have to at least give them credit for doing something different, 
without pointy corners. 

>The Octopus was absolutely huge. Far bigger than I had anticipated. 
> Beautiful kit, and very well made...but horribly impractical. 

Yes, it's huge. I'll confess before this company that I own the 
supremely impractical Octopus Diva. It's beyond ridiculous, because 
moving it anywhere isn't an option. It proved to be all I could 
manage to get the thing unpacked, and after much struggling I said to 
hell with un-boxing photos. I thought the frame would be sliced slate 
laminate which is enjoying vogue as a finishing material, but around 
the stainless face of this model there is solid rock. It really gives 
you a what-have-I-done-now moment. It's cool how it says Stone Age 
and Humanity's Music Language in the same slab. 

My point is, it's a magnificently romantic instrument if you are a 
MIDIot. You need the same kind of insanity to buy a Memotron, a new 
digital Mellotron, or even the real thing, when you might as well buy 
a sample library. I just received photos from a friend who's having a 
guitar neck inlaid top-to-bottom with classical scenes, for an amount 
of money I don't want to think about. Clearly there is a market niche 
for the horribly impractical, among people who want to be in love 
with their music making thing, whatever it is. 

I'm still looking forward to my Cirklon, make no mistake! I think 
it's going to hit the spot for people in all respects. 

It's interesting to me how hardly any bad word has ever been said 
around the forums about the Octopus, yet now with the news of that 
company closing, in some others all the negative things people can 
think of to say are coming out. There must be a mentality to jump in 
and kick a closing company out the door. I expect that will pass, but 
it's disturbing to see. 

Just socializing, 

-- 
Amanda 
*_ www.cikira.com 
|_) _ _||\/| _ _ ._ www.redmoon-music.com 
| \(/_(_|| |(_)(_)| | ~~~ evolutionary electronica 



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [analogue-sequencer] Re: OT: GenoQs closing operations

2011-02-01 by Paolo

Too bad they left.
I've a Nemo, yes its horribly impractical in many ways, I've also "upgraded" 
some mechanics in mine.
Its a madness machine.
But, with a f..ing display, and actual numbers besides blinking leds, it 
would be a great sequencer.
Show quoted textHide quoted text
On Tue, 1 Feb 2011, Ancient Eyeball Recipe wrote:

> I think that people have always said pretty much the same stuff - the Octopus 
> is a great sequencer, mitigated by the fact that if you're not using all of 
> its features repeatedly, it's very easy to forget some of the esoteric key 
> strokes to accomplish them, exacerbated by the poor manual.

RE: [analogue-sequencer] Re: OT: GenoQs closing operations

2011-02-01 by Ditton33

Yeah totally agree. Here's what I said about the Nemo on this jist in June
2009...
>I found the Nemo nothing more than a hugely frustrating, albeit very
pretty, box
>of tricks that I could trip up almost without trying.

I've always found the comments about the GenoQs gear very consistent. And
see no evidence of kicking a company when it's down.
Show quoted textHide quoted text
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: analogue-sequencer@yahoogroups.com 
> >[mailto:analogue-sequencer@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of 
> >Ancient Eyeball Recipe
> >Sent: 01 February 2011 01:33
> >To: analogue-sequencer@yahoogroups.com
> >Subject: Re: [analogue-sequencer] Re: OT: GenoQs closing operations
> >
> >
> >
> >I think that people have always said pretty much the same 
> >stuff - the Octopus is a great sequencer, mitigated by the 
> >fact that if you're not using all of its features 
> >repeatedly, it's very easy to forget some of the esoteric 
> >key strokes to accomplish them, exacerbated by the poor manual. 
> >
> >
> >
> >I think that people have also come down hard on them for the 
> >refusal to communicate for the last year. It seems to me 
> >that the only reason that they said something even now was 
> >that it got out that their corporation had closed, or 
> >something like that. 
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Cikira (Amanda)" <cikira@fairpoint.net>
> >To: analogue-sequencer@yahoogroups.com
> >Sent: Monday, January 31, 2011 5:24:39 PM
> >Subject: [analogue-sequencer] Re: OT: GenoQs closing operations 
> >
> >  
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>I had a chance to play with the Octopus for an extended 
> >period and the 
> >>Nemo as well. I didnt take to either particularly well, but 
> >the Nemo 
> >>was particularly frustrating as there was just no 
> >convenient place to 
> >>put the thing. Its design was just horribly inconvenient.
> >
> >I've found use for tabletop guitar stands to hold weird-shaped gear. 
> >I find Nemo nice to pick up and play on my lap. It's rounded 
> >edges feel good. But then I have a habit of putting my feet 
> >up on my desk. 
> >You have to at least give them credit for doing something 
> >different, without pointy corners. 
> >
> >>The Octopus was absolutely huge. Far bigger than I had anticipated. 
> >> Beautiful kit, and very well made...but horribly impractical. 
> >
> >Yes, it's huge. I'll confess before this company that I own 
> >the supremely impractical Octopus Diva. It's beyond 
> >ridiculous, because moving it anywhere isn't an option. It 
> >proved to be all I could manage to get the thing unpacked, 
> >and after much struggling I said to hell with un-boxing 
> >photos. I thought the frame would be sliced slate laminate 
> >which is enjoying vogue as a finishing material, but around 
> >the stainless face of this model there is solid rock. It 
> >really gives you a what-have-I-done-now moment. It's cool 
> >how it says Stone Age and Humanity's Music Language in the 
> >same slab. 
> >
> >My point is, it's a magnificently romantic instrument if you 
> >are a MIDIot. You need the same kind of insanity to buy a 
> >Memotron, a new digital Mellotron, or even the real thing, 
> >when you might as well buy a sample library. I just received 
> >photos from a friend who's having a guitar neck inlaid 
> >top-to-bottom with classical scenes, for an amount of money 
> >I don't want to think about. Clearly there is a market niche 
> >for the horribly impractical, among people who want to be in 
> >love with their music making thing, whatever it is. 
> >
> >I'm still looking forward to my Cirklon, make no mistake! I 
> >think it's going to hit the spot for people in all respects. 
> >
> >It's interesting to me how hardly any bad word has ever been 
> >said around the forums about the Octopus, yet now with the 
> >news of that company closing, in some others all the 
> >negative things people can think of to say are coming out. 
> >There must be a mentality to jump in and kick a closing 
> >company out the door. I expect that will pass, but it's 
> >disturbing to see. 
> >
> >Just socializing, 
> >
> >--
> >Amanda
> >*_ www.cikira.com 
> >|_) _ _||\/| _ _ ._ www.redmoon-music.com  \(/_(_|| |(_)(_)| | ~~~ 
> >|evolutionary electronica
> >
> >
> >
> >[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
> >------------------------------------
> >
> >Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >

Re: OT: GenoQs closing operations

2011-02-02 by duncan

>>You need the same kind of insanity to buy a Memotron, a new 
digital Mellotron, or even the real thing, when you might as well buy 
a sample library.<<

well, then, I'm insane too. I ordered my octopus within minutes of learning of its existence, & it stands here (upright, for ease of use) near a real mellotron, three notrons, a maq, a P3 & a cirklon.

(oh, & a zeit.)

the announcement, particularly the actual text of it, made me sadder about the demise of genoqs than perhaps is actually necessary. 

for a long time now gabriel & marcel have been absent from the discussions on the forum, & when a few months ago several of us discovered a problem with the midi clock, it was colin who suggested where the problem might be. true to the open-source spirit of the octopus, another user managed to compile a working elf file with the midi clock issue fixed.

the bigger pity is that the machine only really begins to reward the user when hours & hours can be devoted to it. it deserves much better than the way I treat it, as a simple grid-pattern-entry interface. it's quite a bit more than a giant notron- better built, for one thing.
I've never truly got to grips with the layers of hierarchy, & my attempts (early on) to string pages together were problematic. I don't know if they ever fixed the page repeat bug. 

I just hope that the community has enough momentum to keep these few instruments running & useful. I'm not sure. 

but here's a thing- if it hadn't been for colin, I wouldn't be able to do any of these things:

use my octopus in a multi-sequencer set-up
run v2.0 on two mk1 notrons
run my 303 in a midi environment

this is on top of his making the P3 & the cirklon, both of which I spend hours playing (with).

so maybe amanda's got a point..... 

d.

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