u/18randomcharacters

This isn't a gear question. This is more a question about music itself, or maybe even creativity as a whole, and how to elevate yourself beyond "beeps and boops". Sorry in advance if this isn't specific enough to synthesizers.

For context, I'm in my 40s and prior to 2026 had never played an instrument or read sheet music. I self-identified as someone who was tone-deaf and couldn't hold a rhythm. Actually I think I can hold a rhythm due to years of playing games like Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero,Beat Saber, etc. I like rhythm games.

At the start of 2026, I decided to try to learn guitar because I had a specific list of songs I wanted to be able to play. Acoustic stuff, mostly sad/calm sounding.

So I bought an annual family subscription to Simply Piano/Guitar (both were included). I made it a few months into guitar, and somehow took a huge left turn to piano and synths. The piano lessons were just so much easier to understand for me, and I realized I've always loved the various sounds of synths and instantly became obsessed with sound design and synths. Drambo, VCV Rack, Vital, strudel.cc, SunVox, and ultimately an Arturia MiniFreak. I've also kept up on the piano lessons, and watch a lot of music theory videos and modular rack videos.

I know all about chords, about envelopes and filters and LFOs and FM and wave forms and modulation and sequencers and effects.... but all of it just feels intellectual to me still. I can sit down at the Minifreak and come up with a sweet preset. I can hack out a pretty shitty jam in Strudel or Drambo. A 4 on the floor track, some high hats and claps, a bass and a lead. But it all feels algorithmic to me. Speaking of algorithmic, I can also come throw together a generative patch in VCV - a sequencer or random CV, a quantizer, some transposition and modulation and effects. Makes some ambient beeps and boops.

With guitar - I felt the desire to learn songs and reproduce them with my own hands and instrument.

With synths, it boils down to just putting the song notes into a sequencer. Doesn't feel like an achievement to re-create a song. So I focus more on noodling and creating my own "songs" (if they can be called that).

I just... don't know what my next steps are. I've heard over and over "the first step to being good at something is being bad at it" and I've definitely achieved that. But now... how do I elevate?

I haven't learned Ableton or anything. I have no desire to record/share/perform anything. I'm just doing it all for myself.

Final update: I am fully loaded and good to go!

Update: prescription is ready for pickup!

I went through my insurance’s member advocacy hotline. They were fantastic and got the job done. Aetna insurance, for the record.

This flood of support and amazing humans in the comments should bring hope to anyone in despair. Good people exist.
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It's the end of a vacation. The return trip home had a layover in NJ. The storm yesterday shut down our flight and we weren't able to book another flight until late Sunday, so I am stuck here for another 36 hours or so.

I'm working the system as hard as I can, but since it's the weekend my provider is out. I may have to go to an Urgent Care, but if they can't help ... I may have to rely on community support.

I don't have a car but in order to stay alive I'd happily Uber/Lyft just about anywhere. Just casting the net right now to see what options exist - hopefully I won't end up relying on this.

Edit to add: Novalog/humalog preferred (I use a pump)

The 2 things I primarily play with are Drambo on ipad, or Strudel (a live-coding thing).

I'm always a little shocked and feel limited when I come back to Drambo at the lack of instruments/samples/presets in Drambo. For example, there's no Piano preset.

I'm open to instruments via an AUv3, though I'd rather not drop $70 on Tweakbench or something.

For about 36 hours I had really bad diarrhea. Like every 5-30 minutes. Basically nothing but water coming out. I really thought it was Cyclospora so I got a sample tested and it came back negative for everything. Not Cyclospora, not norovirus, not salmonella, not e coli, not giardia, not astrovirus, not rotavirus.

I honestly don't get glutened that often, and I don't remember it ever being like this. Is this how it is when you get glutened?

I don't really have any other symptoms.

I'm on year 5 of my Nth play (where N is at least 4). So I've played plenty.

I still like to keep part of the farm as wild. Usually the southwest. I just like having some forest and wild grass. Feels rustic.

I feel like my photo library is overloaded. We take a lot of pics of our kids (at least 1/day). I download memes. I screen record things. I take pictures for reference, for example part numbers. I'd love a shortcut I could trigger from the action button, that would show me all the photos and videos for the day, and ask what to do with each.

I've tried a few times to figure this out, and usually get tripped up by either the preview or the menu. Sadly I am not able to run OS 27 yet to try the AI shortcuts.

Right now, I basically have an action that moves downloaded/screen recorded videos to a separate folder, outside the Photo Library.

1. Find Phots where <date is today, is video, does not contain "IMG_">

2. For each "Repeat Item":

2a. Save <repeat item> to <Other Folder>

2b. Delete <repeat item>

....

I'd like this to be more sophisticated than simply move & delete.

I'd like it to ask what to do with each one before it does anything. Show a preview of the media, and the options would be something like: Keep, Move to <Folder A>, Move to <Folder B>, Delete"

And I'd like it to keep track of the "keep" items so it doesn't prompt about them again if I re-run it.

I know the hardware version can. I've seen it in demo videos.

But I cannot figure out how to get the V to auto-step.

If I have record on, the notes I press just keep updating the current step.

I've tried with both Auto and Overdub turned on/off.

If there's another control for this, I'm not seeing it.

In VCV Rack, for example:

I set up a VCO with the default frequency - around 265Hz

I set up a VCF and connect the VCO, and connect the outputs to a scope and audio out.

I would expect the output to go to silence if the filter cutoff goes under 265Hz, but I still hear a low hum. And if I turn it up between 265 and the max, I still year changes, despite the source frequency already being below the cut.

I don't get how the static 265Hz is resulting in a spread of frequencies.

Never seen this person before but they just came up as a suggested video. I wasn't sure I'd like the vibe at first but it really picks up and is just an incredible performance.

I've experimented with some ADSR but it feels like a bandaid.

I know I can make each one last longer with like "saw/8" for example, but there will still be a blip at some point. Also feels like a bandaid.

https://preview.redd.it/mp7ytg6w7y4h1.png?width=680&format=png&auto=webp&s=a4f62414f3d5995482873f38c7f5f1768b8bf290

Does it come with a license number on a card? Is it single-use activation / tied to an email address?

I’m very new to synths and don’t own one yet, but from my understanding of chiptunes and basically mimicking NES/SNES type music, I would think the MiniFreak would be perfectly capable.

I only ask because I’ve searched a lot and not seen any presets/patches specifically geared for that purpose.

Edit to add: it doesn’t have to be perfect, I’m just a hobbyist and wondering if it can get close to the sounds of like, Zelda, Mario, Metroid, etc.

Yes, I already called the on-call physician. I left a voicemail.

I took my first round about an hour and a half ago. Felt a hot flash and flushed very shortly thereafter. At that time, my heart rate spikes to 110.

Now, I’ve thrown up the entire contents of my stomach many times over. Including the very salty medication. And I’m pooping too.

Is all this normal? Did I mess everything up by throwing it up?

The "current project" seems to be stored in browser state, local storage. So It's not like I can just bookmark different songs I'm working on.

Do you save them in a local text editor after each session?

Do you edit in VS Code with a plugin or something?

I think it would be a huge improvement if Strudel itself had support for saving/switching between files

This feels like a huge red flag for me. Every review I can find on any platform is some content creator just gushing over how much they love it. There's never any actual real-time walk through of the features of the device.

I'm trying really hard to see the value in this thing, as my wife is pretty interested in it, but I can't get over the feeling that it's just a huge ripoff, or maybe has some issues like input lag or touch screen problems, etc.

I just want to see an uncut, unedited, realtime video of someone actually using the thing.