For what it’s worth, I’ve been actively involved in psychedelics for almost 51 years, so I trust even you will be able to deduce that I’m unfortunately the opposite of a teenager.

I already admitted that I opted for a rather inappropriate way to express an opinion that was (rightfully) misinterpreted and tried to better express what I was trying to get at.

You are free to completely dismiss that attempt as well, but please don’t try to bring seniority into this.

I agree. I tried to hint at it, but I should have probably formulated it less dismissively, less absolute. That’s on me.

What I wanted to express is the unfortunately very common notion that each beneficial trip, or any trip really, has to be a pleasant experience, and that’s simply not true.

So, what did your integration look like? Did you talk to a professional about this? That’s the part most people seem to leave out, and without that, well…

As the meme says, there are no bad trips. If you’re serious about psychedelics and not simply taking drugs for entertainment, you’ll always get the trip you need, but not necessarily the trip you wanted.

A “bad” trip just means you either needed to process some difficult stuff, or you might have violated a bunch of rules regarding set and setting. In both cases, you get the expected outcome.

Honestly, difficult trips are often the most rewarding since they help break up stuck patterns of thinking and behavior or bring things to the light you’ve been trying to hide from yourself whose repression caused internal suffering etc.

This always assumes you’ve done your homework and you don’t suffer from e. g. preexisting medical conditions. If you’re schizophrenic and take psychedelics, you might have an actual bad trip, that’s a completely different story, naturally.

But then you’d have no additional incentive to throw your perfectly fine 8 Pro in the trash and buy the 10.

The stylophone is probably not a very good choice if you actually want to make a musical track, it’s quite a bit limited.

Also, please don’t assume that hardware is simpler than plugins. A lot of hardware has plenty of menu diving or arcane shortcuts due to the limited hardware controls, tiny (or absent) screens etc. You should be looking at “one knob per function” devices.

If you just want to explore a bit and make tracks, get a groovebox l. If you are looking to dive into synthesis and a bit of sound design, look at the Arturia Microfreak.

A groovebox like the Circuit Tracks is a good recommendation.

I agree, but I’d also like to mention that it’s absolutely possible to get great mileage out of a “toy” synth, provided you already know what you’re doing.

I tried to give a genuine answer, but maybe not to the question you really had in mind.

No, I don’t think ease of play and reproducibility should be the goal when designing each and every instrument.

Let’s talk about another, modern synthesizer as an example, SOMA’s Lyra 8. While you can manually tune the instrument to play a scale, it is infamous for modifying any initial tuning due to its internal feedback loops and won’t stay tuned for very long. If you tried to always keep it in tune, you’d be arguably using it wrong. It’s also rather hard to integrate with other instruments since it’s so hard to control - it has a reputation to play it’s user, not the other way around. I’ve heard people say they need a cigarette after a 20 minute session with the device. Yes, it’s hard to play, sometimes maybe even frustrating, but it also is a unique experience and one of my favorite instruments.

Let’s switch to a completely different example. Digital photography, both photo and video, is without a doubt a much more advanced and much more predictable alternative to analog, film-based photography. Still, people are actively looking to shoot film, sometimes even using expired film for its certain look and to explicitly seek the unpredictable.

About 20 years ago, I was asked to repair a Soviet film camera. The shutter timing mechanism was broken, so I replaced it with a completely predictable ATTin85 controlling the old electronics that time the shutter. The artist didn’t like this approach at all and refused to use it.

I hope this gives you a better insight into what I was trying to say.

Finally, as I said earlier, I don’t even believe a good, modern Theremin played by an expert is even be unpredictable to begin with.

There are people out there who have mastered the Theremin and can absolutely play on point.

Also, not everything even needs to be perfect. Unpredictability, glitchiness, noise and not being pitch-perfect can be an aesthetic goal in itself.

I’m currently compiling a list of open-source audio streaming solutions and I think Sonobus is not on there yet, so this is a pretty useful comment to me. Thanks.

Is this your fire pit? If so, does the crack bother you? Also, what’s the the benefit of lighting from above, and do you feel it burns equally quick / evenly?

You build a little tent with your gym shirt, spray it full of delicious Axe body spray aerosol so it’s nicely contained in said little fabric tent. Continue by poking your head into the tent and inhale deeply.

For related experiences, see:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Dutch+oven

and, of course

It’s not the TV settings of the poster that inspired these articles:

https://www.polygon.com/23661749/why-movies-look-dark-cinematography/

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/why-movies-so-dark-hard-to-see-batman-1235195535/

https://www.redsharknews.com/is-modern-cinematography-too-dark

While some movies were not graded perfectly for some home screens, shooting darker movies has definitely been a trend, sometimes up to a point where it is indeed impossible to actually see what’s happening, and a lot of people complain about that.

I could see it if it was a screen I get to control, akin to a smart mirror. Fridge door would be a pretty good surface since I’m guaranteed to look at it a couple of times each day.

Other than that, push notifications if the door is open? That’s about the max when it comes to usefulness I can imagine. Is that a problem that requires a connected device? No, probably not.

However, depending on the model range, it becomes difficult to even get a model that doesn’t have the “smart” features. No one can force you to connect the device though (yet).

I can confirm, this is a pretty old picture. Also, all connections are clearly visible, I don’t even know what the comment is referring to.

Heihachi Mishima

Just yell “Holy shit, what the hell is this?” and quickly pass while they turn around. Works at least 85% of the time.

If you must use Spotify, you could at least not link to it.

Okay, if this is going to be a whole project you probably want a commercial supplier. Based on your geo-preference, one recommendation would be Formulor:

https://www.formulor.de/material/mylar

You can upload your own SVGs for laser cutting and engraving, the whole process is rather automated. They offer templates for Inkscape or whatever the matching, closed-source Adobe product is (Illustrator maybe?)

I linked the mylar material since that would be my recommendation for stencils used for e. g. painting, spraying etc. Mylar hits an excellent balance between cost, handling and durability.

Formulor is probably not the cheapest supplier, but it’s reliable and instant with no customer support agents involved and requires no quotes and approvals being sent back and forth.