Gearslutz.com - Electronic Music Instruments & Electronic Music Production

need halp!

danpavey — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:16:27 GMT

hey there.

started a project with a sbtrkt/purity ring/flume feel to it

but my main melody is lacking something. (obviously an authentic mix & master)

i really wanna a wide stereo sound like purity ring. but after playing with synth i still cant find how to achieve this...
would it be a case of a good mix and master?

would anyone want a '.wav' of the melody to see if the can nut this one out for me.. please!!

Until get my new monitors can i use these koss - e950 headphones to produce?

YouVoodoo — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:10:32 GMT

Got these for a steal, just unsure if im able to use them to produce music as they might just make things sound "better".

ESP950 Electrostatic Headphones - full size headphones - headphones - products - koss headphones

Any feedback is appreciated

Pianist looking for hammer action keyboard

Fluid Movement — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 09:56:29 GMT

Hi guys! Ive been playing the piano for over ten years now and moved out of my parents house last year where we had an upright. I still really want to play and have the feeling of a real piano. What would you advise me to get? A midi keyboard like the studiologics acuna 88? The PK88 was praised in another thread about this a year ago, but i wanted to know if there are any new products on the market.

I would also need a piano vst. What would you recommend that i demo? I'm a studen so i dont have a lot of money at my disposal, but im willing to save a bit longer to get something im really happy with.

MFB 503 - programming patterns help

1951 — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:17:44 GMT

Some time ago I got the MFB 503 drum machine. It's fun to use, and sounds nice.
The interface is a bit complicated, but I got used to it and it seem fairly straight-forward now.

Currently the feature, that I can't seem to figure out is limiting pattern's length.
So, how do you limit the pattern to something that's not just 16 steps?
The manual says:

Quote:

A pattern does not necessarily need to have 16 steps. To limit the pattern’s length simply
define the end by programming the instruments 13/OH and 15/HH to play on the same
step.

which doesn't work for me. When I set the OH and HH on the same step in a pattern, the length doesn't change. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks very much!:)

[SPAM] dual midi interface AMT-8 Unitor-8 plus cables

Reptil — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:51:04 GMT

THE solution for a studio with a lot of synths. No need for a patchbay or using slow thru ports.
16 ports of midi, each 16 channels of course. in and out, simultaniously.
Everything's included (RS422 cable as well), so step up and grab a bargain?

On ebay for a very reasonable amount of money (buy it now price €95,-)
I prefer bank transfers if you're located in europe.

Thread is here: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/gears...ml#post9148282

Ebay auction is here: zwei midi Interfaces AMT-8 & Unitor-8 mit Verbindungskabel (Unitor 8 AMT 8) | eBay

please note my 100% rating on sales. good luck bidding! heh

Your Wavedrum experience

anigbrowl — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:39:31 GMT

I'm thinking about getting a Wavedrum, and I know it doesn't have MIDI (and why) and that the default output level is a little on the low side.

What I'm less sure about is that my drumming experience is limited to finger drumming and working with drum machines. I love X0X drum sequencing but I've just found it tough to get the dynamics and rhythmic flavor I want through programming alone - I am always dissatisfied with how stiff my snare fills sound, for example. But I don't much like using sampled drum loops or construction kits - I like writing my own beats, and the main challenge is translating my beatboxing or finger drumming into grid patterns rather than coming up with rhythmic ideas.

I have an OK sense of rhythm and don't mind practicing, but haven't been able to find a unit to try out, and part of me thinks 'you've never played drums, why don't you start with some little MIDI thing instead of a more expensive device you have no idea how to use?' Then again that's what happened when I bought my first keyboard, which worked out OK :lol:

Do I need to build up a lot of drum technique before I can hope for half-decent results? At the other end of the equation, for people who've had one a while, do you feel the sound palette of the wavedrum is broad enough for long-term sonic exploration, or is it a case of 'everything sounds the same' after the novelty has worn off, like some ROMplers? I'm looking at trading an older Virus for a WD+ cash, and although I've been interested in for a while, I feel way out of my comfort zone as I've never even held a pair of drum sticks.

Thanks for reading, look forward to hearing your digital drumming stories.

D-50 fan club

Futureman84 — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 04:43:00 GMT

I am a member.

It sounds like MacGyver in show music + nature documentary + mid 80's bad taste, but I love it.

Then all of a sudden it'll knock your socks off the 4 OSC's doing PWM and you'll swear it was an analogue

So you want a new genre?

msl — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:23:27 GMT

How about "bubblegum step" then?

Pre teen vocals, check.
Trap beats, check.
Whoop whoops, check.

http://soundcloud.com/msmsmsm/sophie-bipp

Its so saccharine I want to barf, I can see it being massive!

The production is kind of interesting though, die antwoord and uffie come to mind... but so does rebecca black!

.

good hardware filter box for a totally blind person? recommendations please.

sound warrior — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:47:47 GMT

hey all for those of you who don't know me i'm trey from the uk and i'm totally blind i'm looking for a hardware filter box with a warm full and weighty carricter with the ability to get a bit aggressive to it must be able to do clasic filtering tasks like filter sweeps but it must also have the ability to get crazy so far the sherman/rodek restyler is the only contender i have come up with does any one els have any recommendations? your recommendations must be good for a toatily blind person to use they must be tactile and not rely on vishule feed back for example from leds also they must not be menu based your help with this question would be most welcome. kind regards trey.

80s percussion?

LiamLS — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:38:49 GMT

I'm looking to identify a percussion instrument present in many 80s pop ballads. A great example is Total Eclipse of the Heart. Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart - YouTube It can be first heard at 1:33. It sounds like a castanet, or maybe a clave. I don't know. Whatever it is, it's rolled. I'm looking to identify the sound and then create it electronically.

Alternatives to korg nanokontrol 1

Itelbus — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 23:58:25 GMT

Hey guys im looking for some alternatives to the korg nano kontrol, i've used it for electronic music live acts and own the 1st version.
Either my controller is faulty or this is too low end material :(
I've had it crash ableton twice during performances and stoped using it since.
The usb cable is fine i've tested it with other equipment.

Any owners of the 1st gen with similar issues?
Any owners of the 2nd and 1st gen? Any decently solid and somewhat cheap alternatives?

Im using a macbook and apc40 if this matters.

Im having a gig in 2 days i really need your help will buy something tomorrow probably.

Many thanks in advance! :D

Sent from my tmn smart a18 using Tapatalk

Basic Theory help please: Changing Key of a song - using Off-Key notes & chords

fooddude — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:33:49 GMT

I've been wanting to learn this for a while now, to add excitement to my songs; but can't find any easy to understand fundamental/basic tips, rules or tutorials on it - Changing key signature of a song and maybe coming back to the original key; and using different notes (in a riff or solo) and/or using different chords that are not in the original key...like very many songs do.

I know the very basics and fundamentals of music theory. Enough to write a song and sound decent and not out of whack. But of course, I am no means a musician nor know deep theory. I only know enough to get me by and the basics that everyone knows. And, I would like to know only the basics/rules/fundamentals of "changing key" of a song and not get too deep into jazz theory in this thread, lol (since I know there are many here that get prety darn deep into theory, and it's hard for a non-musician, non-theorist and n00b like myself to comprehend, hehe).

Eg:

1. A quick chord, or 2-3 chord combo, you sometimes hear at the very end of a progression or inbetween that repeating progression occasionally. ie: let's say the progression is a short 2-bar prog.. Right after that 2 bar prog ends and is going to repeat itself, a quick 1 chord, or even a 2 or 3 chord combo, (whom have some notes in the chords that aren't in key, or chords are aren't in the progression) would be played very quickly at the end of this 2 bar prog, giving it much more excitement, tension, dissonance, accidental?, etc. What's the proper term for these off key chords?

2. Sometimes during a solo (or chorus too perhaps?), off-key chords (chords that aren't in key) would be repeated and played in the background or sometimes a totally new progression would be played that is of a new key, while the riffs/solo is still on-key, the original key...making the solo part sound a bit different(exciting) than the rest of the song, because of these dissonant chords while the solo notes are still on original key. What are these chords or technique called? How do you select the right chords and know what will work?

3. How does one go from changing key smoothly, like say in the middle of a song, and then returning into the original key?

4. Same questions, but now for riffs and solos, single notes. How do you change key and play diff key solos riffs somewhere in the song? ...techniques over both original key chords, and also changed/off-key chords?

Going out of the box

mickbenjamins — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:28:06 GMT

Im done with having my face in a computer screen. It lost its fun.
I want to be fiddling with knobs, playing with sliders. I want the fun back.

My goal is to slowly go for an OTB setup, with as ultimate goal being able to perform live with it.

Ofcourse I have been reading here in GS, on the german www.sequencer.de forum, and some dutch forums too. Next to that I have been looking at what items I would want to buy, read reviews, and have a starting point.

I would love to receive some more input though, hear about your experiences and ideas.

I dont have a budget. This doesnt mean I am gonna throw a bunch of money at it, au contraire. I want to start small, learning the equipment as I go, and expending my setup as I go.

My music style is a bit of a cross over between house and techno. I love acid too.
Most of all I just want to have a lot of fun, while playing, not limiting myself to a certain genre.

Mixer
Mackie 802 VLZ3 - Mackie - 802-VLZ3
I am wondering if it has enough inputs? Would I need more?

Drum machine
MFB 522 - 280 euro
MFB-522e

MFB 503 - 269 euro
MFB-503e

I would love to have this all analogue, so I can tweak the sounds as I go, rather then having to work with samples.

Synthesizer
MFB Nanozwerg - 219 euro

Doepfer Dark Energy mk1
To me this one sounds a lot better then the mk2 version, so will be looking out to see if it pop ups somewhere.

Sequencer
Doepfer Dark Time - 450 euro

MFB Urzwerg Pro Mk2 - 540 euro

Yamaha QY700
This one seems really interesting, I found a guy who sells it here in Berlin, but he hasnt responded to my email yet. Fingers crossed.

Effects
Boss RE-20 Space Echo - 255 euro

The mixer, drum machine and Nanozwerg will the first on my list, that should give me a nice starting point.

Would love to hear yout thoughts!

Ohmicide's(Invader!) low end ?

EliTheGreat — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:35:32 GMT

Sup Guys, i been around working on sound design neurobasses and what not.

I stumbled upon a song by a member on gearslutz

His name is Invader and his low end is pretty pro, can someone go over how you can have a tight low end like Invader has ?

https://soundcloud.com/invadermusic/moomvader

EMU Vintage Keys help

march18th1976 — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:28:17 GMT

i recently won a Emu vk on ebay for a hundred bucks (!) but when i went to try it out the backlight on screen doesnt work and no sounds come out of it. i can scroll through patches and parameters fine but no sound comes out. the midi light flashes like its supposed to when tappin on keys so i dont know whats wrong. also, the demo's all work fine and i get sound that way but not when trying to play patches. any ideas? is it just a matter of changing battery? and if so is it true that i should do it with the power on so as to not lose any of the original factory sounds? please help!

JX-3P midi capabilities?

funambulic — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:11:35 GMT

Hey yall there's a jx3p for a good price near me, the only thing is that I was considering this as a first hardware synth to integrate with my mpc1000 which I use as a workstation/sequencer
what issues would I run into doing that? As I understand it has weaker midi capabilities, I'm just not experienced enough to know what this means practically speaking or in laymans terms

Someone grab this OB-Xa !

was silents — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:06:00 GMT

Someone might want to buy this...

Oberheim OB XA 8 Voice 120 Programs Vintage Analog Synth Read Description | eBay

Shipping was $100

how good is access virus b?

hearteh — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:01:45 GMT

im really impressed of the samples of access virus indigo that follows with omnisphere. Im interested to hear what others think of this synth? preferably from people thats not into trance and are mostly into vintage synths like me.

How to achieve these lush synths sounds ?

Nexti — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:57:57 GMT

Hello !

I would like any advises on how to recreate the synths we can hear in these 2 songs (plug-ins, settings, FX...) please

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjVYRAUcFDI (the kind of "piano" that starts from 0:30)

Fryars - Love So Cold (Lone remix) - YouTube (the synth that makes the melody between 3:24 & 3:33)

Thank you in advance ! :)

Avoiding that DAW digital sheen

3001 — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:29:53 GMT

hi, I recently stepped more ITB, no external mixer, every synth directly into the soundcard, and using internal effects(mostly logic's and a few other plugs) ...

One thing I'm wondering is, how do you avoid that damn digital sheen. It seems like all my sound are colored. I'm recording using an echo audiofire 12, and my daw is logic 9. And basically running everything straight in and recording at once(FR 777, FR XS, Dark Energy, Poly Evolver, MFB522, Alpha Juno)

After switching to DAW I'm noticing instantly separation of sounds, and a cleaner more transparant sound, similar to what I hear in more records. But Also what's coming with this is this digital sheen. Kind of like a gross film/slime.

I try to mix a little bit in it, and do a little eqing/etc, and i'm getting just worse elements of that sheen. Is this the downfall of going internal for mixing? or are there tricks to avoid this?

Should I be using higher end effects?

I am not sure whether or not i like the work flow better, I can see things better, and fix things post record, which I couldn't before that made me sound amateur(I was recoding in garage band just L/R in....) But some things are annoying like instant changing of things, I guess I could go mackie control or something similar.

----

Also this sheen seems to be on high end stuff, I can sense the sound on pop records/pop edm now all too well. And it sounds gross.
--

Is overly using a DAW what's killing electronic music? I'm starting to enter the sound quality I really dont want. Overly polished?:-/ Juno reactor just re-released some stuff, and did some new tracks, and it's got this too, it is not pleasant.

But should I fight it? It's inevitable is it not?

This is what happens when you don't clear your samples!

msl — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:30:57 GMT

So this is what happens in answer to all those who ask "why can't i just sample a tiny bit". Julio Bashmore posted a public apology to his FB page, cause he sampled The Jimmy Castor Bunche's track Troglodyte and used it all over a free download... wonder how much it cost him...

Synth for creating electrical crackling sounds

psykx — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:24:09 GMT

Hey all,
I'm looking to create some electrical crackling sounds that I can warp and effect for some techno style stuff. I've got ableton 9 suite and I'm sure that max could be used but I'm not sure where to start synthesis for that type of sound.

Or i'd be happy to use a new synth (plugin probably).

Any recommendations?

Albino - env release control not working.

Kroy — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:07:06 GMT

I've set up a default patch in Albino, but when I turn up the release in the amp envelope nothing happens. The rest of the controls work fine - attack etc.

Control Monotribe with Korg MS-20 Mini?

nightfur — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 06:15:35 GMT

Control Monotribe with MS-20 Mini? Has anyone does this after loading the 2.1 update to the Monotribe? Apparently it adds cv control input to the "sync in" jack and works with HZ/volt and 1/v per octave. I have not been able to get it to work but there aren't any instructions....

Drift Modular - More info!

mr lee — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 04:30:17 GMT

Wondering if anyone has any information on this... technical details, specs, ordering info, price... anything?

DRIFTMODULAR

edit... after some digging.

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/20...r-synthesizer/

"Reon Corp – a Japanese synth maker – was showing their Driftbox line of analog synthesizers at the 2013 NAMM Show.

The Reon modules are available in two formats: as individual boxes or as modules for an integrated modular synthesizer.

The modules include:

The Driftbox S – a complete 2VCO/VCF/VCA synth – US $623
Driftbox R – a complete synth voice module that features cross modulation, sync and pitch EG – US $800.
Driftbox Q – a programmable step sequencer – pricing TBA
Driftbox V – an analog vocoder – pricing TBA

Complete systems are also available, priced starting at US $8,844. Distribution in the US is, unfortunately, still to be worked out."

Clarifying the MS-20 Mini's "noise issue"

nms — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 03:02:58 GMT

For anyone thinking of buying the MS-20 Mini or people who bought one and are wondering how noisy it's supposed to be, hopefully this thread can bring some clarity.

The unit this came from is IMO, a good example of what you should be able to expect. To compare this against your own here's the patch:

1 sawtooth osc at full gain, peaks (resonance) at 0, both filters fully open (0 & 10), Sustain:10

Play the same low C note and record it then do a peak normalize on the file and compare.

I've attached the clip to use for comparison at the bottom of this post.

Thanks to toine6 for taking the time to record this. To get a complete idea of the noise in wider context listen to his full recording with filter sweeps and a wide range of notes here:

https://soundcloud.com/chalk-maze/korg-ms-20-mini-noise-test-1

You can also go here to download it if you don't trust soundcloud's stream: https://soundcloud.com/chalk-maze/ko...i-noise-test-1

It hasn't yet been confirmed if some minis are noisier than others, but if they are the typical causes would be the calibration or bad components.

If you have one that you think is noisier than the one in this post by all means do the test and post the clip!

I was expecting worse due to some of the clips I heard. Obviously the noise will get in the way on some sounds, but you should still be able to get some great stuff out of it. If you're looking to get nasty with that filter you'll be even happier I'm sure. At this point I'd say the mini is noisier than the original MS-20mk1 and much noisier than the MS-20MK2. If any tech out there figures out a way to reduce this noise there will be a lot of people happy to hear about it I'm sure. Frankly I'd be quite surprised if someone didn't.

For now though there are plenty of guys loving it as is, so don't let the noise scare you off too easily. Check the clips and if you end up with one that's noticeably noiser than what's posted here return it for a good one.

Direct Noise Comparison clips:
MS-20 Mini - provided by toine6
MS-20 MK1 - provided by draven5

*Files are peak normalized for accurate level comparison

Also for anyone who was hoping to use the MS-20 mini filters to process external audio in cases where the noise would be unacceptable (or for anyone that just wants the best analog filter emulation ever made) check out what Andy@Cytomic has done with The Drop which is available now. Most people reading this probably already know, but for those that don't.. catch up here: Cytomic - YouTube

Attached Files

	Korg MS-20 mini noise C1.mp3 (319.5 KB)
	Korg MS-20 mini noise C1.wav (1.36 MB)

A monitor/treatment thread (F5/Reveal 601a/MSP5/HS50m) Fixing the weak points

Nedavine — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:51:18 GMT

Monitors seem to be a very personal thing, but they are always said to be the most integral part of any set up. I don't expect anyone to come to the this thread and be all like "BAM! buy those and all your ails are solved". I know its much less clean cut than that.

Sorry for all the detail, but its not that easy of a question to ask people. I thought I best be as specific as possible. Skip as much as you like.

I am new to semi decent monitors though and despite being quite happy to work in my ATH50 Headphones I imagine monitors would probably be a good choice for me. And buying them before buying more gear (OT, Cell48 etc etc etc) will probably be the best thing I can do for my home set up.

I am also keen to try simple and non permanent room treatments. Again this is a whole new world for me. Even speaker placement is somewhat daunting. The amount of times I've wondered why some speakers are laid on their side and others up right? But anyhow the priority are the speakers, then the treatment, then any other business end of things then more toys.

The budget is low. I am aiming mid level. 40,000 yen to be exact. Yes, more expensive monitors are better, but there will always be better options for everything I purchase and I don't want to go down that road. I think there are a fair amount of decent monitors in this price range.

Also bare in mind I have the option to trade my Blofeld for MSP5's ( I never use my blofeld, and have had no luck selling it). They may not be the best option but they would essentially be free and free up the cash for other things.

My current options seem to be these:
Adam F5
Tannoy 601a
HS50m These are going dirt cheap at the local second hand store (23,000 yen)
MSP5
KRK Rockit5 These seem to be a no go from the get go

EDIT: I should mention. I mix at a low level. I dont have my current speakers much louder than conversation level. I hear this can be a good thing to avoid the fletcher-munson effect?
My sound:
My music ranges from the hip hop-ish side of the electronic music scale (flying lotus, lapalux, bonobo, gold panda) to the electronica bleepy stuff or boards of canada etc. But I also like some of that synth pop stuff like M83, Purity Ring, Grimes etc. How much difference that makes, I am not really sure but there you have it.

The room:
It is a japanese washitsu room with tatami flooring. Wooden walls, and shrines on the left and right. There is a small nook on the right. Its a small room about 9.7 square metres. My desk and speakers are placed on the long side of the wall in front of the window, with the sliding door to my rear. Any adjustments can't be permanent as its not my house and I will only be there for two or three years.

The current setup:
iMac with FA-66 and M-Audio AV30s and Audio technica ATH50 headphones and AT2020 mic.
Synths running through a Yamaha MG12/14 mixer to the interface.
Juno106s, blofeld, shruthi, mopho, Machinedrum UW.
Maschine, APC40, Axiom 49 keyboard.
A small note: In all honesty I hardly ever use the blofeld, I dont like the filter and the thing is quiet and annoying. I also don't use the shruthi much. I like it but programming it is awkward and I often tend to use the mopho for mono synth stuff. The juno106s is only recently getting used properly. I am starting to like it a lot more than I used to and can see myself using it a bit more.
Attachment 349794
axiom has moved and is now under the main desk so I can play from the sweet spot.

My overall goal in terms of my set up:
To have a flexible set up that can translate to a live situation. I tend to sit and work ITB a lot and I am not looking for some alternative OTB set up. Having the opportunity to work OTB and then jump ITB or vice versa is a plus however. Just in the sense of playing stuff without a mouse for periods, could be APC, could be keys. I'm happy to run things with a laptop. I use my Macbook pro at work often to play about ITB (sometimes I take one piece of gear to work on quiet days and play with that).
I also want a minimal set up. I don't want too much gear. Some more elektron gear would be nice but my set up lacks the basics.

Cheers. Sorry for adding to the pile of monitor posts. BUt as my grandad always said "ask not, want not!"

Attached Thumbnails

How to Make this Sound

Skallawa — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:42:45 GMT

Hey guys I am trying to learn synthesis and I am having some trouble learning how to make a sound that is in the song Motivation by Kelly Rowland. The sound is the synth sound that starts the song. The main melody. Seems like some kind of percussive sound. I am not talking about the bass sound. Please check out the Youtube video:

Kelly Rowland-Motivation (Instrumental HD) - YouTube

Let me know if you have any ideas. I am sure that is a fairly simple sound for most of you to recreate and I will probably get flamed for asking, but I am at a road block. Any help is appreciated. I am trying to move from presets to being able to recreate the sounds that I am thinking of. Thanks.

Skall

Roland MKS-7, patch editor?

Barnez — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:37:00 GMT

Hey Ya'll,

been searching the web and can't lock an answer down. I would like to find a way to control the MKS-7 with a midi controller and perhaps some sort of vst or other software editor for mac...maybe even save patches to the software...anyone have luck finding or creating this? thanks

Million voices ARP sound? How its made?

Middollo — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:36:58 GMT

Im pretty sure at this point every1 here heard the track im talking about but in case someone didnt heres what im talking about

Otto Knows - Million Voices - YouTube

I wanna try and remake the ARP sound in that tune it comes in at around 0min 50sec. It sounds a little unique to me if i had to guess it sounds like a nexus preset to me... Anybody know how to get that sound?

This Ebay seller is INSANE

AtomicMidi — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:09:24 GMT

Totally bonkers seller:

roland, korg items in Awakewalk store on eBay!

:amaze: :amaze: :amaze: cellfone deth

Reaper vs. Studio One with hardware

jkervin — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:48:11 GMT

I'm slowly getting away from using PT and have been pretty happy with Reaper. The delay compensation for hardware inserts needs some work. How does Studio One do with this? I don't want to learn another DAW but it may be worth it....? Thoughts?

The ultimate Goa Trance technique thread!

anigbrowl — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:30:47 GMT

Inspired by the French House thread, and with interest from several other people, here's a thread for all things Goa related.
freshflowe

The who in the what?

Goa trance, for the uninitiated, is what happened when industrial and dance music collided with the hippie scene in India and they dropped acid together, giving birth to a lovely musical child with fast syncopated beats, trippy synth sounds, and a strong South Asian influence on melody and percussion. Over time the music evolved into Psychedelic trance, with a greater emphasis on weird noises and driving bass and a bit less emphasis on melody. Of course, I can't possibly sum up two complex musical genres in only 50 words, so I invite you to explore the resources listed below if you're new to the genre(s).

Meantime, there's quite a lot of people here on GS who like Goa, so let's help each other out! I don't want to get bogged down in religious arguments about whether a particular track is Goa or Psy, or whether you must use this or that synth, or whether you should be ITB or OTB. Whatever works...that said, the fastest route to the Goa 'sound' is to run a bunch of 90s hardware through a mixing desk and a bunch of effects, since that's how it was made in the first place.

I'll throw out some general know-how to get the discussion started, that's a bit biased towards the 90s style of production when the music first became a cohesive and popular genre. Also, it doesn't pretend to be complete or definitive - feel free to disagree or add more information! I'm going to just say 'Goa' a lot because it's tedious to keep writing 'Goa (or psychedelic or progressive or....).' Gear that's linked to particular artists is based on things they said to me in person at one point in time.

Finally I don't mean this to come across as any sort of proper tutorial, it's over-detailed on some topics and lacking in others...I just tried to pick out some ideas that are handy but that don't get discussed as often as 'how to write a great bassline' or 'what's the best F/X unit'...please contradict, expand, and add as you see fit!

Gear

Maybe more than any other dance music genre, Goa is all about doing crazy things with synths and sound effects, so pretty much any gear or music software can be used as long as it sounds interesting - the weirder the better! However, there are several classic pieces of gear that are used so much that you should be familiar with their sound, even if you don't want them or can't afford them. In no particular order...

TR-909: the kick is found on a ton of records, the snare and open hihat even more so, to the point of being cliche. With so many sounds going on you need something that will cut through the mix. Likewise the 606 and 707 are pretty popular in this genre; the 808 somewhat less.

TB-303: almost all Goa tracks have a 303 or something similar, and a lot of them have two. Unlike some other genres, the acid lines often sit farther back in the mix rather than always being in the lead.

SH-101: has provided any number of bass sounds, particularly with a lightly filtered square wave. Also a great source for kicks with the resonance all the way up and the filter cutoff all the way down and a fast envelope - cleaner than the TR-909 kick. Absolutely key to the X-dream sound, especially the first two albums.

Juno-106: yet another Roland box that's good for bass as well as lush chords. If you like Astral Projection, you need to get yourself a Juno.

Nord Lead 1 or 2: Versatile and fairly affordable, loved by many for leads and its harsh FM timbres, also handy for chords and pads thanks to 12 notes of polyphony. Favorite synth of GMS.

Kurzweil K2000 and successors: given the low prices these go for nowadays, maybe this should be your first synth if you want to get into making Goa. Used heavily by Simon Posford on the first Hallucinogen album, Twisted. Although it's a ROMpler it's super-programmable, and it usually comes with a bunch of disks letting you recreate sounds of classic analogs - which may not be that accurate, but still sound great.

Ensoniq DP/4: Poor man's Eventide, a really great FX unit with particularly tasty flangers, choruses and so on.

MIDI sequencer: if you work OTB then you need rock-solid MIDI, which your DAW probably does not provide. Consider a hardware sequencer like a Yamaha RM1x or an Elektron box or an MPC...it doesn't matter too much which one you use I think, but if you're trying to sequence with a computer then record your tracks one at a time, or buy a sync box, or get ready to cry a lot as your tight groove dissolves into sludge.

Composition

There's no formula to do a Goa or Psy track (this is a lie; the formula is here but don't tell anyone). However they do tend to have certain things in common, and because the idea is to a) make people dance and b) take them on a 7-8 minute psychedelic journey, there are certain conventions that will help your music play well with others.

Tempo: the sweet spot is 135-145 BPM. Much slower and it starts to feel Housey or Chill (aka 'Sloa'), much faster and it starts to feel tweakey plus the percussion and melodic space gets crowded. 'Dark' and 'Core' subgenres tend to be faster, but if the audience isn't expecting that sort of vibe it'll scare them off the dancefloor.

Tonality: you can work in any scale, in theory, but in practice a lot of Goa is Modal - sticking within a single scale and eschewing conventional harmonic modulation. Instead of the song being built around a chord progression which is supported by the bass and ornamented with a lead melody, the bassline stays pretty solidly rooted and the musical elements define the scale around it.

The most common mode is Phrygian. A mode is defined by the intervals between the notes, and for Phrygian those intervals are 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2 - these are the number of semitones between each note. If you start on C that means your scale is C C# D# F G G# A# C, or alternatively C Db Eb F G Ab Bb C. Or if you want to make life easy, start on E and just play the white keys!

Why does this mode work? Basically, count the spaces between the notes. Most popular music has a gap of two semitones between the root note and the next on, eg C and D. In the Phrygian mode the second and 6th notes are only one semitone above the root and 5th, which sounds somewhat dissonant and 'weird'. It's like you took the C major scale and turned it upside down, which makes it sound unreal and otherwordly, and also emphasizes the bass.

In order to bring this out strongly in your music, you'll use the root note most often, and emphasize the second, third and seventh notes of the scale a lot, instead of the emphasis on the fourth and fifth in rock and pop (not that you should neglect those notes, they still matter).

This is not the only scale - there are several other possible scales from Arabic, Middle Eastern and Gypsy musical traditions (which I hope others will discuss!) that sound suitable for this sort of music, but Phrygian is very very common because it is the vertical 'mirror image' of the major scale. Some people say that this makes it the 'real' minor scale, but whatever you think it definitely sounds different. As well as Goa & Psy, the other place you hear Phrygian (or its variant, Phrygian dominant) a lot is in heavy metal music - which is not my cup of tea at all, but you can learn quite a bit from metalheads if you are patient and don't tell them that you are going to use the knowledge for techno :lol:

Here's a pdf collection of musical scales that's handy to have if you can read music. If you can't, Wikipedia has a good article on modes with audio examples and showing every note in every mode.

Rhythm: 90%+ of Goa is four-on-the-floor beats with strong syncopation - boom-cha-boom-cha music. So that means a nice tight kick on the 1st, 5th, 9th and 13th steps of each bar, an open hi-hat (probably from a 909) on the 3rd, 7th, 11th and 15th steps, and a tight snare on the 5th and 13th steps, aka the 2nd and the 4th beats...like about a million other techno tunes.

This is your basic rhythm, and the more complex your sounds get the more you'll want to emphasize it so that the listeners don't lose track of the beat. On the other hand you don't want to overemphasize it or the track starts to sound boring or in your face, more suitable for hardcore techno. You want the kick going most of the time, the snare about half -2/3 of the time, the hats 1/3 - half the time. Obviously these aren't hard and fast rules; just a guideline so that your track doesn't feel too heavy-handed or repetitive. You want other percussion going, and a lot of other rhythms; if you only write around the basic beat it'll get boring fast. But you don't want too much going on in the percussion either or it gets tiring to dance to. Think of how a drummer in a rock band has 2 arms and 2 legs, and maybe someone else playing along on congas or some other hand drum. Your notes need space!

Breakdowns: unlike House or some other genres, you want a good amount of rhythmic variety in goa. You want a little skip somewhere in the music every 2 bars/8 beats, and some sort of more obvious fill about every 8 bars - usually provided by a snare. You'll probably want one long (16 or even 32 bar) breakdown in the middle of the track to give people a rest and explore some weird sounds, and kick rols and builds are common, especially in more old school Goa (but don't overdo them).

My rule of thumb is to put about the same number of kicks into rolls and builds as you take out in breakdowns. Suppose you start out with 4 beats in every bar for the whole tune; that would be exhausting, so you give it a rest in the middle for 16 bars. Instead of just deleting them, redistribute those 64 beats to other places in rolls, turnarounds and so on. I don't actually sit there and count things out, but it's a handy way to think about how to keep the track balanced.

Swing: a matter of taste. Lots of great tracks are written in straight time and it will make your track easier to mix for DJs. On the other hand you can get much groovier with 8th and 16th note swing. I hope someone else will chime in with advice on this because I am not too good at this sort of thing so I usually write in straight time hidz

Other rhythm thoughts: the #1 effect in just about every goa track is a delay, and most of the time it's a 3/16th delay, same as in Dub. Unless you are deliberately trying to Do Something Different, you always want a 3/16 delay with a bit of feedback going in your mix path, and sending percussion and melodic elements into it will give you a lot of extra rhythmic depth. Whenever you write a rhythm line (on a drum or synth sound), at least try feeding it into the delay. If it gets too messy too fast, then maybe you don't need as many notes. Apart from the kick and the bass, pretty much anything else is fair game for being fed to the delay at some point in the track so you should always test how that sounds as you're writing.

Likewise, if you feel that your track is banging but something is missing, maybe that something is space. It's very easy to fill up a track too fast, especially if you start out making a fat bass and then throwing arpeggiators on top. I find that a bias towards 6 or 10 notes in each musical phrase helps keep things balanced.

Mixing and sounds

'How I make my track sound like X', 'how do I get Y sound', and 'How should I mix Z' are such common topics on GS that I've avoided writing any production tips here. If you want to make goa you pretty much have to enjoy programming your own synth patches and exploring mixing basics like EQ, compression, stereo placement, etc. I'm not saying it shouldn't be discussed in this thread, but since Goa is often quite musically dense the techniques are basically the same as for rock, pop, classical etc - your sounds have to get on with each other and be in proportion, rather than everything being turned up to 11.

General Resources

Ishkur's Guide to electronic music is always helpful, and also always loud - watch your speakers! Psynews has an excellent introductory history article and is also has a lot production tips and tricks in the forums, but the community there seems to have dried up a bit and the quality of information is pretty shallow.

YouTube user PowerOfGoaTrance has uploaded hundreds of complete albums including many obscurities - an invaluable resource. And of course you can find (almost) any individual track on YouTube these days.

Youtube videos are inevitable, but please try not to post too many in one message or just because you think it's a great track - as I've found the hard way, it can make GS pages very slow to load on some browsers.

Ektoplazm is a great portal for free psytrance as well as being a netlabel. A lot of old-school goa/psy artists have uploaded new or remastered work there, because the music is hosted in wav and lossless codecs like FLAC as well as MP3.

The academic music world has started to take an interest in goa/psy trance, resulting in some books and theses. Unfortunately, a lot of musicology these days is about the sociology of music and is rooted in Marxist critical theory, while telling the reader little or nothing about how the music is put together. This is especially a problem in American scholarship. Global Tribe: Technology, Spirituality and Psytrance is an example of this, albeit a well-written and interesting one. The history and cultural context of music is important, but it won't help you write a good tune. The author also hosts an academic journal called Dancecult, which is good if you like that sort of thing but will seem insufferably pretentious if you don't.

This master's thesis addresses the development of Goa/Psy in Finland and while it's obviously focused on the Scandinavian 'forest' style it goes deeper into the music theory end of things than most papers.

I would love to add more academic-quality resources on composition and music theory as applied to techno, trance etc., so if you know any please mention them here.

Question about adding software effects to Waldorf Q in Logic 9

Bach42t — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:27:39 GMT

Question about routing the Waldorf Q (external racks in general) through Logic.

My setup is as follows. I have the left/right outputs on the Q plugged into my Scarlett 18i20. I have 6 tracks, each on a separate MIDI channel in Logic. I notice Logic will not let me add any of it's effects units on each MIDI track, only the main stereo which the Waldorf is physically plugged into.

I'm afraid I know the answer. So I cannot add separate effects units on each of the 6 tracks? Am I to use the sub outs as well from the Waldorf or should I look at sampling such as the drum parts or making .WAV files of each track? This seems quite tedious if that's the case.

MC-505 or MC-303?

Schwarzwald — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:19:58 GMT

After being dead set on a Yamaha RS-7000+Electribe ESX combo, I've decided that that is probably overkill.

For awhile I wanted to things that those two items covered.

1. A step sequencer capable of polyphony to drive my soft synths and samples in Ableton and Maschine.
2. A fun all in one device to cart around when I'm not at home, and to possibly drive a growing OTB setup.

However, now my plans have changed. The more I begin to forge my own sound and get more serious about creating my music, the more an OTB setup sounds incapable and nightmarish.

In anycase, I'd still like some fun boxes to replace my RS-7000+ESX combo, that will offer polyphonic step sequencing.

I originally thought an MC-909 might do the trick, but the troubleshooting nightmares I've heard about it and the 808 have scared me away.

I'm wondering since the 303 and 505 are simpler machines, do they have more rock solid and dependable parts?

I'd be pairing the 303 and the 505 with an original ES-1 (which I love, I've had one, sold it though for rent money about a year ago)

I'm also wondering how well the 303 and 505 sequencers work for polyphonically controlling other ITB and hardware synths, I'm not looking to necessarily create full songs on these things, just a 2-3 patterns to drive a synth.

why bother trying to get signed to a big record label when stuff like this happens?

Stevism — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:57:25 GMT

nvm

Where do you guys hunt for gear?

funambulic — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:26:42 GMT

I've been trying for the past couple months to track down a couple pieces of gear (Alpha juno 1 or 2, and an MFB-503) . Locally I've had no luck, I've tried turning to eBay but no one seems to want to ship to Canada. I've found a few message boards (Elektron forums) and have tried posting Wanted ads on them but no luck yet. Any websites or marketplace message boards I should be hanging around on, or any other advice?

SPAM: Elektron Analog Four

cl516 — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:31:29 GMT

delete

Korg MS-10 LFO CV/Gate synck?

aluhort — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:30:04 GMT

Is it possible to control MS-10 LFO through CV/Gate? I tried to use Cableguys Midishaper with Kenton Solo Pro but it only changed the pitch, not the filter.

A keyboard which easily accepts WAV files?

Jnv — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:11:50 GMT

Hello,

I'm looking for a 88-key keyboard that would allow me to do some things that seem rather simple, yet I don't find many information on the web. To sum up: my band is using a master keyboard along with a PC and a VSTi sampler to play some WAVs. For the sake of stability, I'd like to replace all this with a sturdy keyboard.

I want to:
- Import WAVs files in the keyboard memory, along with a mapping I would create (also according to velocity).
- Set my own ADSR curves (and rather large ones, with an attack of possibly 10 seconds for our pads).
- Set a reverb/delay parameters for each sound.
- If possible, my sounds should be loaded without too much fiddling about when powering on.

At least three keyboards seem to do that, within the reach of my wallet:
- Yamaha MOX 8
- Korg Krome 88
- Kurzweil PC3LE 8
I downloaded the editors of these keyboards, and though they seem powerful, I simply can't find any "Import WAV" option anywhere. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems the procedure involves first uploading the WAVs into the keyboard thanks to a SDCard, creating a bank, then editing it with the editor. I would have preferred creating/editing my banks on PC, then uploading them to the keyboard. It is possible?

Thanks for reading,
Julien.

Modular Video Synth by Brownshoesonly at Big Black Delta show

was silents — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:07:49 GMT

So I caught a Big Black Delta show last week and Brownshoesonly did modular video synth projection. I had no idea there was a modular video synth scene. I suppose it is more of a Muffwiggler topic but for any of you slutz who didn't know about it either, here you go.

First of all, Big Black Delta is pretty great...one of my new favs. If you haven't heard them here's a pretty good track:

Here's a clip from the Chicago show with Brownshoesonly projection. Live they use two drummers a bassist and Bates sings and "plays" Ableton.:

And here's Brownshoesonly:

The retro phenomena and how to get your own sound...

msl — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:51:21 GMT

Very interesting article in Attack mag, its basically giving out about the retro fascination at the moment with deep house etc, but it touches nicely on many issues we discuss here at GS. Especially imitation as a form of learning ones own sound.

www.attackmagazine.com/features/danger-being-retro-revivalism-dance-music

Brendan Moeller "For newcomers it becomes a rush when you ****ing finally get your bassline to sound like Rhythm & Sound and get nice cavernous reverb and the right texture. You tend not to realise that this is only the first step and you must go on to make it your own rather than leave it where it is.”

DJ Pierre “I don’t think you should set out to create your own sound,” he says. “That way it becomes too ‘heady’; there’s no heart or soul. I think great sounds and styles happen naturally, from within, not from outside in. Once you understand who you are as an artist then you can accomplish so much. We were created to create.”

.

Real Sound Tank: Armed with speaker array and MPC

plaid_emu — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:51:20 GMT

Quote:

Untitled Document

Maybe one of the most bad-ass ideas ever to realized.

Nik Nowak's Soundtank.

Click the link above to see more pics and videos of it in action.

New DAFT PUNK (Kayne West producers)

Entrainer — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:16:20 GMT

Getting a Gary Glitter, "Doctoring the Tardis" vibe on the NBSH. First listen,
digging the synths + drums, energy. Production shines thru better on the
album version, I wasn't feeling the SNL live as much.

Triggering Model D with 808

FRANZ KAFKA — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 07:49:53 GMT

Is it possible to trigger model d's control inputs directly with 808 trigger out?

thanks

Show me some crazy modular sounds

Daisuk — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 05:42:55 GMT

As any synth nerd, I'm obviously intrigued by modular synths, but I have yet to hear any particularly crazy sound demos showing exactly why a modular system would be a better option to having a bunch of synths with fixed sound signals, so to speak.

So, to the modular guys out there, can you show me the craziest sounds you've gotten out of your modulars? Maybe they'll convince me to get a Pittsburgh modular over a prophet 8, hehe.

Money burns a hole in my pocket. Serious GAS

Nedavine — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 05:03:25 GMT

I've gone a good year without buying anything big gear wise (i swapped my op-1 for a MDUW and that was about it).

I finally get some money and BOOM i spend my day online looking for stuff to buy. I got 38,000 yen to spare and I am looking at everything from monitors to modulars. Part of me wants to save for an OT but the other half is screaming "oi you are mixing on M-Audio AV30's you dumby", while the other voice in my head screams "MS20mini". Ant then theres the cheap SPace echo I saw!

I think I need to see a psychiatrist. That or somebody needs to amputate my wallet!

Identify this synth patch? 5th Element OST

inputmachines — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:25:48 GMT

seeking the origin of the resonant pad this track. i have heard this exact patch used on a handful of other recordings (none of which i presently recall)

perhaps one of you know this lovely patch!?

:synth:

thanks in advance!

Electronic Music Production Career Advice

Noddabro — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:24:03 GMT

I have a question for any and all music professionals, and and since it involves electronic music production, I figured this was the appropriate place for it. Here's the context:

I've gotten to a point where I'd like to go back to school and get some fresh education about production and music business.

My choices so far include Pyramind in San Francisco, and SAE in Chicago. While Pyramind is heavily focused on getting their students certified with many different DAWs/production tools, SAE offers an Associates Degree for their Audio Technology Program.

The way it looks now, either program will go a long way in getting me ready for a music career and all the business and hard work that goes along with it. My question, then, is this: would an Associate Degree, or a solid collection of certifications in production software, be more useful in making a successful living?

If you have the time to share your thoughts on the matter, it would also be useful to know what your profession is, so I may gain some understanding of your perspective. Thanks very much!

OMG!!! I got a synth for Father's Day.

Rooftree — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:09:03 GMT

My nephew/foster son gave me an awesome gift for Father's Day. He made a card that was decorated with black and white keys. Then he gave me a small synth. But it was REAAAAAAAAALLY small:

He even hummed the Axel F. theme as he pantomimed playing it.

Learned how to make a spring reverb work without my amplifier

Deuterostome — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 02:23:13 GMT

Well, I have a Traynor Bloc 100G amp, and it just wasn't working as a spring reverb auxiliary effect in the fashion that I would have liked it to. Crackly pots, high noise, weak reverb and just plain unwieldy in my tiny closet/studio.

After researching all over the World Wide Web for a simple way to use the spring reverb tank as a reverb effect and not finding anything along the lines of what I wanted to do, I decided to experiment by myself.

I removed the tank and plugged it in to various audio sources to see what I could get. I gathered the information that would stick from the web, basically mentioning that I would need an amp before and after the reverb tank.

Effects send from my Tascam 414mkii into the tank and from the tank back into the effects return gave me very little in the way of reverb. I had to use the line-in amplifier built into the Tascam's track channel to get it to make any sound at all, and max out the aux volume to get a weak reverb. I could make it out on sounds with a very short decay, but any type of sustain/decay/release would obliterate the signal and it was useless, as it was overpowered by the synthesizer.

Then, referring back to the idea of amplifying before AND after, I took my ProCo Rat and fed the tank's output into the ProCo Rat and THEN into the effects return.

Holy Moly! I have a HUGE washy spring reverb. Well, as washy as 2 springs will get, and for me, this is pretty washy, mooshy, smeary lo-fi beauty. Awful for those looking for a high fidelity reverb, and a thing of beauty for me and my work-flow.

Wanting for an even louder reverb signal with less noise/distortion, I swap out the ProCo Rat for a BOSS Blues Driver BD-2. The BD-2 has more gain than distortion, which is what I was looking for. Much better! I can also sweep the tone knob for subtle tonal changes. Nice!

Comparing the noise level of the Traynor amp as an auxiliary effect vs. the reverb tank and the BD-2, I now have less noise and a MUCH stronger reverb. Happy Day!

So, I would imagine the next step would to simply get a pre-amp to replace the BD-2, for an even cleaner signal. One step at a time...

small rant about synth presets

talentless — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 01:33:21 GMT

whoops, hit enter and posted without typing! sorry

Need help with sampling multiple vocals

Chopper5150 — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 23:18:27 GMT

:facepalm:
Hello,
I work with a band that has done a great job in the studio with 7 and 8 part harmonies. Obviously, a 5 piece band can not do that.

What I want to do is bring them in, record their vocal parts, then download them into a keyboard so that the keyboard player can hit that key and it will play the 8 part harmonies as sampled.

This is new to me, so I would appreciate any suggestions and tips. I don't even know if I have the right keyboards to do it, but I do have some spare computers that I can trigger via midi or whatever is needed.

As much info as you can provide, I would appreciate it.

:synth:

Achieving percussion processing like this?

infernouk — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:25:49 GMT

Hey guys

I was wondering if anyone can help me out with some tips on the production on the percussion in shadowchilds tracks, its kind of gritty and compressed but im finding it hard to get as close and retain clarity and crispness in relation to the bassline.

Would appreciate how people would achieve this sound and i was also wondering if the samples are real drums? or are they machines?

Heres a few tracks for reference:

Cheers!

Burnt out after EP - advice?

Ged — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 21:16:39 GMT

So I guess i'm a bit musically burnt out after doing the Mandroid EP, I put tons of work into it and now it's weird I still have that "urge" to fire up the PC and write something but feel I should step away from composing for a bit and just soak up some good music.
Anyone else have this issue?

confoosed

Help! Old analog synth out of tune!

TheJabler — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:56:59 GMT

So I got his old 80's Casiotone 101 from my uncle when I was a little kid and always used it as a toy. Recently I started playing it and LOVING the organ tones and the goofy "frog" tones. The only problem is that it is out of tune. I've never had this problem before. There is a knob on the back that says "Tune" which usually bends the pitch up or down. Lately it hasn't been working. I tried smacking it around (as a last ditch effort) but nothing happened. Anyone know whats up? I heard these synths are rare but if anyone can help out that would be great!

RME multiface 1 vs MOTU Audio Express

Hirsbro — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 18:09:53 GMT

Had the Multiface but lost the PCI card down the line of moving. so I bought a MOTU Audio Express when I last year started to make music again, but I soon ran out of analog inputs, now I garbed a cheap 2hand RME PCI card which with my Multiface box.
So besides of the Multiface having twice the input the Audio Express has, which one would you keep? the Multiface has more inputs as I said but is at least 10 years old and who knows for how long you will be able to get software updates etc.

confoosedconfoosedconfoosedconfoosed

Yamaha DX + Moog filter?

noi_max — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:47:40 GMT

This is sort of an obscure question, but has anyone taken a Yamaha DX style FM synthesis board and run it through a Moog filter?

Are there any soundclips of such a thing?

Moog MF-103 to fatten up bass

nectarios — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:15:30 GMT

So, anyone who knows the bass response of the x0xb0x knows its not particularly fat in the really low register.

So I thought about running it through the Moog MF-103 Stage Phaser and having no FLO modulation on the frequency, yet tuning the phaser's frequency, in a static position that phattens things up...and boy did I like the result.

http://soundcloud.com/nectarios-hooligan/nectarios-demo

No EQ boost, high passed the subs with a 24dB/8ve at around 30hz, the bass was simply too much with no high pass filter on the bassline.

Slightly overdriven to get some more harmonics in there...gonna try this out more with the Phatty and Minitaur.

Moogerfoogers are such versatile things. Love them.

Sound track for a movie that doesnt exist

Dude163 — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 16:49:42 GMT

My bandmate and i are working on a soundtrack for a fictional movie. We had so many tracks that were soundtrack-ish I came up with an idea to put a bunch of them together for a movie that was a late 70s early 80s scifi epic. Behold a track from 'the Timethief"

https://soundcloud.com/al-bedo/jupiter-storm

here is the gear we used :Shruthi-1 Polivoks, a Nord Micromodular, Korg MicroX and Monotribe , vocoder and some kaoss pads

here are 2 other tracks from the same projekt:

https://soundcloud.com/al-bedo/through-the-wormhole

>From our upcoming soundtrack for 'the Timethief" As our intrepid test pilot enters the wormhole this is the music thats played during that extended special effects sequence

Gear used: Arturia Minibrute and sofysynth CS80v , Oberheim matrix 1000 , Roland TR707, Korg kaoss pads and Monotribe

https://soundcloud.com/al-bedo/lonely-city

same gear as above

All of these were recorded as impromptu jam sessions and we did a slight amount of remastering after the fact , mostly to add Arturias excellent CS80V pads and some EQ

cheers

Robert

Akai MPC 500 Sequencer Making My Beats Choppy

DJHeskey — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 13:42:28 GMT

Basically I've been playing beats that sound smooth when I play them live but when I record them onto the MPC 500's sequencer I play them back and they sound choppy and out of time. I've tried using different timing correct settings and changing the amount of swing but the beats still don't sound right. There must be some small, simple thing I'm missing out on what is it?

TR 808 accent function

ohsnap — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 11:22:15 GMT

As I understatement it, the accent function is programmable like any of the other tracks / instruments right?
Is it just increasing velocity on certain hits or does it actually alter the sound as well?

Why is the DSI Tetra gone up in price so much?

Nedavine — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 11:05:18 GMT

THe tetra used to be 75,000 yen online but nearly every store I go to is now selling them at 114,000 yen?

Analog synth studio - which sequencer? which mixer? Etc...

DSTRM — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 10:00:02 GMT

Hello!

I have these gears:

Little Phatty II
Minitaur
Moog MF104m

I sold my NI Maschine because I decided to get rid of my computer, no fun anymore...

So, here's what I'm looking for at for the moment:

1.

Korg ESX sampler (to sequence the two moogs), but since it only have 2 tracks for external synths, I can't add one more later, which may suck as I'm planning to purchase some more (hopefully a Korg Mono/Poly)... On the other hand, I could connect the Korg Volcas which I'm also planning to get, as fast as they hit the market, and have them synced to the ESX.

But I guess I wont experience any problems when syncing these three to the korg-ESX1 and the two moogs?

2.

I could also buy an mpc1000, but I have never worked with MPC, I think they seem a little tricky?

3.

RM1x, it has only one midi? Could the setup above work well with the other gears? Someone said it has sample captivities (rm1x), sounds strange...

4.

What mixer should I choose? I want it to be analog of course... 8 channels is ok I think. Vintage is ok, new stuff too... relatively cheap and good. It also has to handle active Krk speakers... (i'm a hardware mixer noob) So, maybe a mixer with inbuilt preamp maybe isn't for med?

5.

And finally, i might need som send effects on the mixer, youknow, I need reverb an so on... any cheap multieffekts out there?

If someone has a better oppinion of what I should looking for instead... please feel free to suggest...

Would be really nice if someone wanted to help me out...

I also planning to recording the mix on an old taperecorder like akai, tandberg or similar. Mastering the track in my pc...

How's it sound to you?

Cheers.

(Im from sweden so maybe I write like a ****** in english, but I guess you're geting it...)

Is Korg Sv-1 the best multisample acoustic piano HW?

Forbidden Planet — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 08:22:04 GMT

Like the title says, is the KORG SV-1 the best available multisampled acoustic piano HW out there yet? I am stuck with a MOTIF (the first series) and there seems to be quite a bit of progression in terms of quality between the two.

Looking for grand piano for impressionist classical and jazz. I need a hq portable solution - are there software multisample options that are even better than SV-1, or other hw options?

Can anyone help me with Roland R880 card copying?

Starspawn — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 07:44:08 GMT

I have an R880 that sounds absolutely great, but I only have the settings stored in the controller as both my cards had lost their battery life and was empty.

So Im looking for help to fill the cards with those producer presets everybody is going on about.
Does anybody have them and can help?
We can offcourse agree to some compensation, I have a spare (smaller) card for instance that I could send together as payment.
Or some other arrangement.

Emu Emulator II vs OTO Biscuit

lunar151 — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 07:09:30 GMT

Been looking at the emulator for sampling soft synths and using the lush analog filtering but I just found out about the OTO Biscuit. Seems the Biscuit will get me the 8bit grit with analog filters with a more modern sound for a fraction of the cost.

Logic/Korg Kaossilator Pro MIDI mapping (Been trying to do this for 2+ years!)

TheKaossilator — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 05:53:00 GMT

Okay, so I have the Korg Kaossilator Pro, which is a fine piece of gear (if you know what you're doing with it, and don't have enough money for an Akai MPC 5000). However, many people have complained that the MIDI in and out jacks only transmit, and don't receive, MIDI data. That is, the Kaossilator Pro can only control other devices, and not the other way around.

So, if I want to play the synth sounds on the Kaossilator via a MIDI keyboard (which I do), I have to mess around a bit with some settings.

I have to connect the device via USB to my DAW (Logic Pro) and do some MIDI mapping to make the CC values correspond to spots on the touchscreen display's XY axis. There is actually a hint of what to do in this demo video (starting at 7:40):

Sonic LAB Kaossilator Pro Review - YouTube

The British fellow in the video is also using Logic, specifically its Transform function. I have tried to freeze the video and mimic his settings, but to no avail. Is there anyone here who better knows how to use Transform?

If so, PLEASE, OH PLEASE, can you post a specific tutorial or explanation on how to do this MIDI mapping? Or make a YouTube video or something? I've been trying to do it for about two years now!

Waves Morphoder Sidechaining

UltMusicSnob — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 05:44:58 GMT

Through a brutal series of workarounds, I'm limping toward the finish line of being able to do what I want with Morphoder. I bought it because I wanted the freedom to modulate anything with anything.
For first baby steps, it is dead easy. Put it into an audio track, try a preset using the Internal synth. But getting past that was ridiculous.
I'm in Cakewalk Sonar X2, and before I could get the Morphoder to expose MIDI ports for DAW routing purposes, I eventually went in and set two registry keys on each of the three Morphoder versions (Mono, Mono/Stereo, Stereo). Registry hacks can cause disaster, so I'm not going to post details now, but the point was to be able to load into the Sonar track FX bin as a soft synth instead of as an Effect.
With this done, I'm able to trigger Morphoder using a MIDI track, so far so good. But getting out of the Internal synthesizer (perfectly good as far as it goes) was another big workaround.
Eventually I created a soft synth instrument track, exported it to audio, then used SoundForge to combine that mono track with the audio track I was already using as Modulator, into a single stereo track. (There's probably a way to bounce them properly in Sonar, just couldn't find it, and besides I had some moving and nudging to get the parts to line up right).
Then I re-Imported my strange Stereo track (strange because L and R channels are completely independent). With a stereo Morphoder in the FX bin, I could choose Left for Modulator and Right for Carrier, and FINALLY, I'm modulating sounds from the vast repertoire in my own synths, instead of just the Morphoder internal.

I still can't Sidechain. There's a selection for it in both Modulator and Carrier, but I can't figure out how to rout to it. Any help much appreciated. Doesn't have to be Sonar-specific, of course. If anyone has Sidechain in Morphoder working AT ALL, I'd love to hear how. Thanks in advance!

What would you buy?

dnlntm — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 04:22:22 GMT

So I have some money coming in soon, roughly 2k$ aus and I'm totally split about what to buy out of the following options.

Boomstar 4075: unsure on this cause I have a sh101 and a minitaur already.
Love the arp sound though

Adam a7x : the monitors I have are old jbl spl 5inch, this should probably be at the top of my list.

Nord lead 2 or 2x : as far as polys go I have a p08, 106, jx3p, and novation a station.

Api lunch box: I have no outboard gear only uad plugins.

Sherman filter bank: I only want this cause it seems fun and I have nothing else like it.

Thanks for your help

Yasutaka Nakata's sound. Just compression?

reizouko — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 01:44:13 GMT

This guy is cool af. He produces for a lot of big name J-Pop acts (Perfume, Capsule, Meg to name a few). What really strikes me about his productions is how each sound seems to have its own little pocket, which i feel is partly due to clever rhythmic structure and lots of compression, but I feel like there is a little more to it than that. Thoughts or ideas on how this guy achieves his sound?

(Perfume Dance Ver.) MEG - GRAY - YouTube
capsule / Hello x iida VideoClip - YouTube

Sequencing Tempest's 16 Beats mode from Ableton

imissthewar — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 22:37:13 GMT

I just got a Tempest and am really digging into what it can do. Just to get a feel for it, my first project was to re-create a drum pattern I had already done in Live 9. I created a few Beats (intro, verse, chorus, etc) using the Tempest's built in sequencer, and now I want to simply sequence these via note messages from a midi track in Ableton.

I'm using USB for Midi i/o, OS version 1.3. I created an "external instrument" on a midi track in Live, set the channels up correctly, and put the Tempest in 16 Beats mode. Theoretically this should work. But it's not.

Maybe this isn't possible. I'd really rather not have to rely on the Tempest's playlist mode....

Thanks all!

Midi 'ghost'?

rekko — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 22:33:07 GMT

Hey all,

Was wondering which DAW sequencers allow you to open midi 'ghost/item/event' notes or clips which allow you to see background notes from midi data from other clips?

(ala Fruity Loops)

Cheers!

SPAM: Akai MPC2000XL

e6400ultra — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 22:09:20 GMT

I'm selling an absolutely mint, loaded Akai MPC2000XL in the GS classifieds.

MPC2000XL

A Few Korg NS5R Questions

Darkstar2010 — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 20:44:16 GMT

1. Can the NS5R use X5DR patches?

2. Can the NS5R use 01R/W patches?

3. How many of my own patches can I put on the NS5R?

4. What is the size of each user bank on the NS5R?

5. Is the NS5R on the same level sonically as the 01R/W?

6. Why is the 01R/W about 3 times the price of an NS5R when it appears that the specs of the NS5R are better? What is better about the 01R/W to justify the price difference?

7. Purely sonically speaking, How is the sound quality of the M1 VST compared to the NS5R? For synth sounds, organs, pads etc.

Thank you for any help I really appreciate the info!!!!

Alpha Juno/MKS-50 editor (Alpha Base)

fimpen — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 19:32:06 GMT

Hello.

I've been using the Alpha Base software editor for my MKS-50 with great success. Recently I rearranged thingd in my studio and disconnected all the cords, and now I can't get it to work again. I'm pretty much an imbecile when it comes to midi routing so I'm glad for all the help I can get. OK, so midi goes out from my keyboard, and then what, into my soundcard? And how do I get my MKS-50 to receive information from Alpha Base software? It seems like I've tried every possible combination. I'm going nuts here. Some help please!

Yamaha SY35 vs TG33/SY22

Hirsbro — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 19:22:47 GMT

I am looking for one of these not decided on which one yet, the main question is that the SY35 is 16 bit and the TG33/SY22 is 12 bit confoosed
From what I've read some say that the "lowfi" 12 is acutely an advantage shiee
So which one to pick?

Ingrosso about copying each other

Wildfunk — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 18:34:03 GMT

Quote:

There's one thing that I've become interested in, which is that not too many people in dance music stand out. We've kind of becoming like a fist, you know what I mean? We have Skrillex, he stands out. We have other people, and I hope we stand out, but not so many do. They're kind of just copying each other, to the point that even I -- and I work in this genre -- am like, "Who is this release from?" There must be a little bit of a change soon, and people need more profiles and character in what they do.

Quote:

But Ibiza has been growing and growing, so there is definitely some stuff that I miss, like when I would step into Pacha and Erick Morillo is playing and you can see Diego Maradona not being himself, if you know what I mean. It was like our Studio 54, and that's totally gone. And that is definitely sad, now it's just VIPs and bottle service and the dance floors get smaller and smaller.

Huffington Post

why use the unpaid soundcloud platform?

frier tuck — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 18:18:45 GMT

to show case your music? just wondering i'm i missing some vital info? like soundcloud actually pays a revenue?

[SPAM] FS: Macbeth Micromac-R

sashbash — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 17:57:25 GMT

Excellent condition...amazing synth...

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/gears...ml#post9035719

MININOVA IS SO AWESOME but I need a help

firsttime — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 17:07:00 GMT

Hey guys,
I am a brand new heere. You guys helped me a lot in choosing the right synth for me.

So I grabbed mininova last week. Loved playing it. But now I want to get serious and really record it on my computer and make sound come out through laptop instead of directly plugging it in the nova itself.

I have the audio interface (focusrite/scarlet 2i2) and called up some staff to guide me through how to plug what in where but I am embarrased to announce, I couldn't follow it.

hidz

If any of you who have gone through this helps me out, I will worship you for the rest of my life

here is what I have done so far

1)I installed ableton live 9 (full version)
2)I installed necessary things for mininova from novation's website
3)I installed drivers for focusrite

What I tried to get the sound out from the laptop instead of direct headphone
1) connect usb cable between latop and focusrite
2) plugged one of those fat cables between scarlett 2i2 (audio interface) to EXT IN(Mininova). Once that didn't work, I tried headphones (mininova), output left(mininova) and ...nothing seems to give me sound T.T

Of course all this time I had ableton turned on but I haven't set up anything yet in there. It was all in default mode.

I cried myself to sleep please help me

MIDI Keyboard

Rondeath — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 16:24:00 GMT

Hey guys,
I got a very old keyboard ,which has many sounds that I like. What I will do is import the sound into my DAW (ableton live) to use in my electronic productions. My audio interface is motu ultralite mk3.
First thing I did was use a MIDI cable to connect the output of my keyboard and input on my interface. I thought the ableton automatically recognize the MIDI.
But I can not make out the sound of the keyboard on the output of my interface.
Anyone know what I have done wrong?

YEEZUS produced by Daft Punk

xanax — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 16:02:10 GMT

not particularly a fan of the man but daft punk are credited on 5 tracks... gotta say i'm feeling the raw industrial vibe..
little bit of a curveball after the mega polished RAM

Why softsynths seem to use more CPU power the closer it is to sounding "analogue?"

BCMusic1 — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 14:14:06 GMT

I've wondered since many years ago, why it is that softsynths like Diva, ACE, SynthMaster etc., which seem to be very well regarded to (nearly) replicating the elusive analogue sound in the digital domain, use so much more CPU power the closer they are to being considered indistinguishable from "analogue." I'm curious because certainly modern computers are more than capable of emulating analogue hardware synths due to them not requiring much processing power, at least by today's standards.

Roland MC202 Issues

1061Sh — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 14:11:10 GMT

Hey all,

Having some issues with my MC 202. Getting extremely low output volumes both at the "Phones"/"Output" outputs. To the point where it's barely audible with the volume turned up all the way up and almost completely inaudible but still there slightly with the volume turned all the way down. Phones output is slightly louder than the "Output" output.

When applying 36db of gain, I hear that there is a note holding constantly as well (depends on what my last note held down was). I have attached some examples both the original signal and original signal + 36db of gain (watch your speakers). You will get what I mean when you hear them.

Audio Played with settings @:
lfo-0
delay- 0
mod-0
pulse width-10
pulse wave- 10
sawtooth- 10
sub- 10
freq-10
res-0
env-10
mod-0
kybd-0
A-0
D-4
S-0
R-0

Has anyone ever experienced this? Or know of a way to fix this problem?

Kind Regards,

HS

Attached Files

	8' 202_Orignal.wav (1.22 MB)
	8' 202_+36DB.wav (1.22 MB)
	2' 202_Original.wav (1.20 MB)
	2' 202_+36DB.wav (1.20 MB)

blue vs white lcd screen

viewing — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 13:43:19 GMT

which is easier on the eyes? my e-mu eiiix needed a backlight when i bought it so i have no experience with the original blue screen

i am hesitant to get the blue after a documentary showed how blue light is being used for night shift workers as it triggers the body to wake up/stay awake owing to the evolution of humans to react to blue skies in the morning as a wake up signal

Controlling Roland JD-990 CCs from DAW?

avalonsutra — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 12:49:56 GMT

Hi,

I recently bought a Roland JD-990 (incl. Vintage Synth board) and I love this synth. I'd like to control several MIDI CCs from my DAW (Reason 7 in this case) but I can't seem to get it working. There is no exact info in the JD990 manual about how the MIDI CCs are assigned. For instance, I'd like to control the Filter cutoff and resonance via Reason's EMI device. I set it to CC 74 which seems to be commonly used for Filter cutoff but there is no change when I turn the knob in the EMI.

Does anyone have more info on this? I suppose the way to get it work would be similar among other DAWs.

Just saw a roland Space Echo RE 201

Nedavine — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 11:24:20 GMT

Was very tempted to buy it. It was going for 330 at my local second hand store. It looked in good condition but I imagine they are hard and expensive to maintain?

Yamaha P105 or the Casio PX150

Noodlez — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 09:01:59 GMT

I'm currently interested in either the Yamaha P105 or the Casio PX150 for using as a simple midi controller to play soft synth sounds and samples from within my DAW using Logic Pro but really cannot decide as I have read a lot of mixed views on the 2...

It is unfotunate that I don't live anywhere near a store to demo them..!

Can anyone offer any advice on what they would choose for just keybed action out of the 2?..
They are both the same price.

Many Thanks,

Noodlez.

Step Sequencing: Push or Europa

Polarelch — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 08:22:09 GMT

Ableton Push vs. Analogue Solutions Europa

I know, these 2 can't really be compared, other than the function of step sequencing.

I have long been looking for a way to integrate haptic (i.e. not by mouse) step sequencing in my setup, and when Push was announced, I was absolutely convinced about it. However, now I learned the step sequencing only works with Ableton Drum Racks.

Of course, Push would also make it more convenient to create new projects in general, but Europa can sequence anything, on 17 tracks.
Of all available hardware step sequencers, besides Cirklon, Dark Time, Oberkorn, etc, I have decided for the Europa since long, and I want it at some point for sure, as I plan an independent OTB setup next to my hybrid/ITB setup.

I just wonder what to get now, and what to get later.
I must say I purchased Live 9 before it was out, in the prospect of running it with Push, so "Live 9 + Push" was already a decision before, but that was before I was aware, that it can only step-sequence Drum Racks.

I know you can't make a decision for me, but maybe you can give me the one or the other impulse for against the one or the other.

i.e. Which of the both is more fun and convenient to produce your beat, and which of the both comes along with a more valuable bonus (in usage, not just on specification sheets)?

TC2290 new sounds collection (audio clips)

italo de angelis — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 08:08:46 GMT

And yes... a new library and audio clips set for the stunning TC2290 has been distilled in the dark:

Italo de Angelis

some clips feature the 2290 together with one of these wonders:
H3000
Eclipse
PCM80
Korg DL8000R

Enjoy the listening!
cooge

Does this sound right but in a wrong way?

Mononym — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 03:21:33 GMT

I can't tell is this is so far off that it works in a weird way or if it just sounds horrible. like not in the right key.

I would say its a pretty funky combination of sounds but it has a pretty nifty groove. deep, techno.

Let me know if this works in a weird way or not. confoosed confoosed confoosed

https://soundcloud.com/dj-dimi-h/ohyeah-6-14-2013

:synth:

Sorry if this seems really dumb to some people. :facepalm:

and sorry for posting here...almost impossible to get feedback in the post music here, but you can move when you feel like it.

and I dont think I sound ITB. ;)

**Updated** 6/17

Calling it done, added a SubKick, atomos, FX and arranged it. good, raw sound, some minor imperfections. a stepping stone.

https://soundcloud.com/dj-dimi-h/ohyeah-6-14-2013-comp

Lyrics and Vocals in Dance Music

Schwarzwald — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 01:38:26 GMT

I'm a dance music kind of guy. While I can definitely chew down on some ambient, glitch, or breakcore, I'm usually listening to House and Techno tunes.

Recently, I've been trying to branch out, update might be a better word. I listen to mainly 90's and 80's dance music. The Robert Hoods, Jeff Mills, and i:cubes. After hearing Disclosure, I figured it was safe to peak my head back into the mainstream again. I went through Avicii, SHM, Deadmau5, Afrojack, and all that, even checked out some of this supposed "90s revival" stuff.

Barring the fact that I didn't care at all for any of it, one thing I noticed was that they ALL had lead singers. This is really disparaging for me. Maybe it's that I can't, and don't, sing, but I really think lyrics take away from the ambiance and depth of an electronic track.

Not when they're snippets, or slices, or used in a creative manner like say in Pepe Bradock's "mouth", but when your supposed "garage" or "house" tune is basically an ABAB format pop song with some B list Diva it just ruins it for me.

I just feel as though Techno and House are "instrumental" kind of genres, am I far off here? I could be just a grumpy old man, although I'm only 21. Did I just go into the wrong stuff? Where are the people making...not Katy Perry remixes?

Decent trades for an AKAI Miniak?

Schwarzwald — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 01:03:39 GMT

Hello all, I got a Miniak not too long ago, and it's been great fun. This synth is one of deepest I've got a chance to play with, and has been a real joy to program (UI withstanding.)

The only problem with it is, it's just got me GASSING for an Ion. Bigger screen, more knobs, more parameters? It just sounds like heaven. The only problem is Ions are rather rare in my neck of the woods, and I don't have the money for one anyway. (atleast not yet, mwuahaha.)

So are there any synths that would be fair trades for the miniak that give me the bigger UI of an ion and maintain the depth and quality of the miniak (and ions) engine?

juno 106 no sound

pet1 — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:49:40 GMT

Hi and thank you for any information that this forum is able to give. My juno 106 has been working just fine. Of course I've had a few chip replacements along the way. It was on earlier today working as it should. I returned to it after it was on for a little while and that's when I noticed there is no sound. I tried the headphones as well. Same. I don't get the chorus wave sound as well. Nothing. just a pop/click when I turn it on/off.

is this even music? how the hell did they make so much space?

frier tuck — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 23:36:08 GMT

Golden Butterfly (lo-fi) - YouTube

midi plugin polyphony to channels

hastoy — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 22:39:34 GMT

Hi guys ! I'm looking for a midi plugin that would do the following: up to say 32 notes polyphony it would send to channel 1, 33 to 64 polyphony it sends to channel 2, 65+ to channel 3 etc. I need that because I use a soft synth (Zebra) to program a virtual piano and the synth has 32 notes polyphony max. When the sustain pedal is used a piano can use way more than 32 notes so I need several instances of the synth. Any idea on how to solve this ? Thanks heh

Cheers,

Guillaume

Maschine---sharing/back up "custom" banks?

zebastian21 — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 19:22:19 GMT

Hey guys...Ive been getting into Maschine lately. I started to create my own Banks with my samples on my laptop.
Now I would like to share these custom banks with my main computer , but I cant locate where they are.
they are supposed to be in my documents/Native Instruments/maschine folder....but they aren't.
looking at the maschine preferences , in the "user path" page..I can see theb samples are not copied to a particular Maschine folder...just re directed to the HD where I have the samples I used for my banks....which is ok....but I dont see the "banks" names I created....so as of right now I cant share them with my manin computer, nor I can do a back up of them...which is crazy.....help anyone?

Need low grind DnB equipment advice

Demontaurus2 — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:11:26 GMT

Hi all,

I do soundtrack / score work in the low budget horror film realm, and I am a big fan of John Carpenter and low grind DnB. I really want to get my hands on a synthesizer (economical - under 500) that can produce low grinding synth, or any of that analog type stuff Carpenter worked with when making his film's soundtracks.

Can someone pls advise a total equipment newbee what might be a good piece / set of dials to work with and learn on (nothing too basic). I have a keyboard usb/midi compatible, and other composition mixing software to work with otherwise.

Thanks,

John
Zombies Unlimited
Horror Soundtrack Productions

Too many synths too little time

abhishek.advaita — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:08:11 GMT

Hey there ...

So after months of checking out reviews / vids and now trying a few synths at some stores I am no closer to having any clarity on which synths to buy .. mezed

Here's the situation.

1. I live in India and am in the US for about 8 more days - its very difficult to order / ask someone to get gear back.
2. I am only just getting into the whole hardware synth thing though I do 'produce' some electronic music on Logic, Reason etc - me and some friends want to form a synth pop band ..
3. I haven't found any place to just sit and try / compare all the possible synths I could buy.

I have approx 1500 dollars to spend (I could stretch this by a 100 - 150 dollars if I really have to).

I think in this price range I would like 1 monosynth and 1 polysynth .. but I'm going crazy with all the options.

I could do an minibrute or MS 20 mini and spend the rest on some good Polysynth (approx 900 - 1000 bucks)

OR buy a Moog Sub Phatty and buy some polysynth which is not too expensive.

OR I could just buy one kick ass synth which covers a lot of bases - I happened to try my hands at a new product by studiologic called 'Sledge' (which has been made in collaboration with Waldorf) and what I liked about it was the simple lay out and just the way it sounded .. however its 1700 bucks and I also noticed some lag when you tried to turn some knobs on the fly (so how good is this virtual analog thing?)

Also on the radar are the Waldorf Blofeld, DSI Mopho X4 for the polysynth options ..

Its just about getting some variety in the rig (I do have a Micro Korg btw)

All advice welcome, but please give reasons kfhkh

Send System Exclusive messages from an MPC 60

mogazi! — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:03:59 GMT

Hi all,
has anyone ever successfully managed to transmit a System Exclusive message from an MPC 60?

Simply put, here's what I'd like to do: Using the step edit function, I'd like to enter a SysEx message that tells my S1100 to open or close a filter. I've found a number of explanations on how to write and use sysex messages but I'm not exactly sure how to input them in the sequencer.

If in Step-Edit I "insert" a System Exclusive event here is what I get:
SysEx> Size: 001 Byte:001 Val:000

According to the Akai S900/S1000 - SysEx Documentation:
"The first 5 bytes of all S1000 messages have the form:
F0h Exclusive
47h Akai
cc Exclusive Channel (0-127)
ff Function Code
48h S1000"

So before I even try to understand how to transmit the filter change message I'm already at a loss to understand how to write the first byte confoosed
I would guess I'd have to specify a sysex message with byte 001 having value F0, byte 002 value 47 and so on. But the value parameter is not hexadecimal and even in decimal form it only goes up to 127 (F0 in decimal is 240...)

Does anyone know how I should go about doing this?
Thanks!

Sample: 70's Snare from SR-JV80-06 (Dance)

M_Teus — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:23:49 GMT

Anybody have this expansion board (for the Roland JV-series) and willing to sample this particular snare and share it...?

Will trade other drum samples, or hand clap samples, recorded by myself.

Anyone..?

How do I get this super futuristic sounD?

3001 — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:16:27 GMT

How do I get it? it begins at about 25 seconds?! WTF.

Free SFX samples and Kontakt4 kit

Boogaju — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:39:54 GMT

24 samples of doors, knifes, locks, metal hits, tennis ball, perfume spray, hand tools... all recorded on location in houses, attics, cellars...

One Kontakt patch (full Kontakt4+ required!) to be used as a 'drum set'.
All samples are 24bit, 48kHz WAV, can be imported in samplers, audio editors and sound-design software:synth:

Click 'Buy now' and type '0' as price for a free download:

Home Impacts LE

Any good vintage synth shops in Hamburg, Germany?

lovekrafty — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:40:37 GMT

Or good music shops in general? Vintage as opposed to new preferably.

Logic's Autofilter sounds dull?

Stijn Geens — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:01:24 GMT

Hi all,

I just noticed that -even when Logic's Autofilter has a 100% cutoff - it sounds dull in comparison to the original sound (when bypassing Autofilter).

Did anyone notice this too? Or does someone know how to fix this? Or maybe there are better alternatives for Autofilter?

Thanks in advance!

loud short static sounds at random on firewire saffire pro 24 w/ macbook???

DESERT_HEAD — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 10:05:18 GMT

my soundcard has been acting up in the past few nmonths. only 3 random times though. while we are using it live, at any given moment, short bursts of loud tv static-sounding noises will occur for like 1 second or so. its completely random. so i dont think its sample rate. its only ever seemed to happen when we are playing a live show too (could be a coincidence). If you've ever watched robot chicken, the sound when cutting to the next skit is pretty much EXACTLY the kinda of sound!

if ANYONE has any suggestions or solutions as to why this is happening please let me know! would be greatly appreciated :)

PUSH for live performance ?

spaceman — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 09:09:16 GMT

So, Push "may" become available again in the coming weeks, and I'm pondering whether I should get one or not.

I don't need it in the studio, as Logic is my main DAW for composing and mixing, and I only use Live sometimes for sound mangling. I'm only interested in Push for some upcoming live performances I might do at the end of the year.

So , my question for those of you who already own Push AND have been using it in the context of live performance : How do you like it ? Also do you feel it brings any real advantages over the APC40 (wich i already own ) in this context ?

The Live Videos Thread

Praxisaxis — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 08:23:52 GMT

How about a thread for posting video footage of your gigs, if you deem it reasonably good? Only vids, no other media.

If not your own, maybe that of another non hugely famous artist?

Don't have my own to post yet, maybe someone else can jump in?

Discussion can be about setup, techniques, etc.

Roland VariOS - anyone using with D-50 card?

mike vee — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 03:12:35 GMT

Been searching high and low for a mind D-550 and am realizing it will probably never happen.

I knew that the V-synth XT took the VC-1 card but I had no use for the other synth/sampling and also it wold be tucked in a rack so the interface would go to waste...plus it's pricey.

Just found out the Roland VariOS also accepts the VC-1 card and is cheap as shit. Has SPDIF out as well - so seems like a winner!! There is a VST editor made for the VC-1 card that works with VariOS so no worries there!

Thoughts?? Anything to look out for?? So we know the bit rate of the spdif output?

Thanks.

oh and ps - can i just throw in the VC-1 card and boot up the unit without any PC connection? I want to install the card, power up the unit and just connect midi/audio and control via cubase with VST editor.

Jaspers stand questions

elsquirrel — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 02:58:59 GMT

I need a three tier stand and am looking at the jaspers a-frame models.

I can't figure out if I need 120cm high: http://www.jaspers-alu.de/shop/show_product.php?cPath=84_86&products_id=234 or 140cm high: http://www.jaspers-alu.de/shop/show_product.php?cPath=84_86&products_id=230

I have a tape measure out but I just can't visualise what the practical difference would be. Anyone with experience with either one care to comment?

Also, I have a large cat who will take this to be his personal jungle jim. Is a heavy cat likely to topple a keyboard if he jumps on the ends?

Toontrack EZKeys

ronaldroy — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:14:38 GMT

I just downloaded the demo and is just me, or does the raw piano sound (forget all the MIDI files/loops etc) sound REALLY good? I've been looking/listening and playing a bunch of piano VSTi and this one sounds great even compared to the multi gigabyte libraries of competing instruments. I guess it is a little bland ... or straight or something but that could be considered a good thing. Just a bit surprised I guess.

Also tried demos for True Pianos, PianoTeq and Addictive Keys which all have their thing. Have listed to Alicia's Keys, Ivory, Sampletkk etc and they're all good - I am still leaning towards Imperfect Samples for something a bit different.

Thoughts?

Acustica Audio Nebula PSA

ClaySchmitt — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:12:14 GMT

Surely some folks around here, like me, are interested in Nebula3. It's well known that you are opening a can of worms by using this product. That can of worms is labeled "F@#King Latency".

Today I'd like to tell you a story about what you'll experience the first week with an Acustica Audio product.

---

Since 2010 there has been a glaring problem with the Nebula line regarding authorization.

Knowing full well what you're getting yourself into(workflow abortion) you drop $200 on the product. You are instantly sent your purchase!

Yay!

You go to install and its smooth sailing. You excitedly open your DAW of choice to find that your plugs are just blank, non-functioning turd.vst's.

"Oh.." you mumble, "I must have to download the libraries."

But wait! You have to become a member of the forum to access these libraries. To do that you have to register. "No big deal", you say. "Makes sense", you say. You register for "customer" status.

It takes about a day for your registration to the forums to be accepted.

A day passes. Excitement falls.

Waiting for some email or notification you realize isn't coming you find the only place any sort of explanation is offered. The FAQ section of the forums. You soon find that OHHHH they don't even send you an email. You're supposed to find out that you're now recognized as a customer on the forums by seeing that your username is Pink. Where is it pink? When you look at your account? When you post? When you message? At the bottom where it says you're logged in? No explanation is offered. I still have no idea if I am pink.

You then proceed to download all of the included libraries. Sure, it takes 4 hours and you have to download each little zip file at a time, but whatever. At least you understand.

You open your daw, try to open the libraries. Nothing. The rage builds. What the hell is going on. Back to the FAQ.

Ahhhhhh..you breathe deeply. The authorization process. You must open the plugin in your DAW of choice and it will create some file. A .ser file. (Basically just your serial number). You are to email that file to acustica. Sounds easy enough save for 2 problems:

1.) Where the hell is the file generated? The FAQ says that you're asked where the file will be generated on installation of the plugin(now two days ago). In fact, all it asks is what drive you'd like the software installed on.

2.) I surfed the forums and found where it is supposedly generated and ... nope. Nothing.

I read, however that you could email them your computers serial number instead of sending the file. Did that.

In the FAQ they mention that "oh, if we don't get back to you with your authorization files make a post in the forum and remind us."

Now. Is that serious? Is this real? :facepalm:

I sent my serial number AND posted a f@#king thread for them. Still waiting. Day 3 after paying money for this damn thing.

----

Here is a 45 page thread of everyone having a million similar problems that is hidden in the barely functioning forums.

• View topic - Do not panic / The quick HELP thread

45 pages of what in the hell is going on.

It's been 3 years Acustica. People love your product. Love them back.

"Modern Hearts" Lead Synth

dingobiatch — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 22:22:07 GMT

Can anyone take a guess as to how this synth sound (starts at 1:00) was made? Really digging it. Sounds very simple, I'm just not good at dissecting these things properly yet.

Is mixing just a matter of taste and opinions?

MattKj — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:46:45 GMT

I have been reading alot about mixing and it seems like it comes down to taste and opinion.. i am not sure about this.. its just what it seems like.
Can somebody help me out on this subject?
Is mixing just a matter of taste and opinions?

if not.. then what?

In Your Opinion how important is dance floor song structure?

bmar22 — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:32:18 GMT

When you guys and gals are writing tunes how important (in your opinion) is keeping the structure dance floor friendly, or how often do you deviate from it?

thanks!

Nord Modular alternatives

anigbrowl — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:19:41 GMT

I've had my Nord Modular G2 shelved for a few months, due to a combination of moving gear to a different room, being absent for work, and the arrival of an Elektron Analog 4 ;)

I love the machine and go way back with the NM platform (>10 years), so chances are that I'm not going to sell it. But on the other hand I hate being tethered to the computer for editing, and I don't patch nearly as much as I used to; I prefer programming a synth from the front panel and while it's great to have all that power there when I want to do something unusual in terms of signal processing, on other days it's a distraction from writing music and sometimes I've found myself treating the machine as a preset box - it's 'useful' rather than 'inspiring,' if you know what I mean. By contrast, I find making music with the Elektron OT & A4 less intellectual and more emotional, perhaps because the (relatively) limited architecture forces me to work differently.

So, I wonder what other GS users, and especially former NM owners, consider interesting alternatives. Not so much point-scoring on individual units (nothing is a direct substitute), but rather what you'd do with ~$2000 that would still be very versatile but a quite different feel from the G2. It could be several pieces of gear, or something that surprised you in terms of awesome sonics/workflow or whatever, as long as it doesn't depend heavily on being connected to a computer. In case you hadn't guessed, I don't like using software that much.

Incidentally (for people who don't have a Nord Modular but would like to), there's a lot of NM G1 racks on eBay lately at silly prices. While MicroModulars are steadily priced around $350-400, you can pick up a rack (which has 4x the power of a MM, 4 outputs, and 18 knobs and an LCD instead of 3 and a numeric display) for $6-700. I don't know who in their right mind would buy a micro when the rack is so cheap. And yes, there is still plenty to like about the G1 - it sounds fantastic, is very flexible, and built like a tank - so if you have been toying with the idea I say get one, the rack version is seriously undervalued right now.

Anyone here blogging about electronic music?

Stevism — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:01:57 GMT

I really like to find new music and such, but I feel like none of my friends really like the same kind of music so I don't post about them on my personal social networks (facebook, twitter, etc.)

I've always kind of thought about blogging, but I'm not really sure where to begin / how to run it.

Does anyone here run an electronic music blog? How did you start? How long have you been doing it for? Do you think it's rewarding?

I'm not looking to become the next pitchfork or anything, but I would really like an outlet to catalogue my favorite finds and maybe even offer fledgling artists some sort of exposure.

If anyone has a favorite platform they use, I'd love to hear about it kfhkh

Waldorf Nave iOS Synth

Neo. — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:24:49 GMT

Waldorf has announced the availability of Nave, its first synthesizer app for the iPad.

Created by a power trio of Stefan Stenzel (audio algorithms), Rolf Wöhrmann (iOS development), and Axel Hartmann (graphic design), Nave turns the iPad into an advanced wavetable synthesizer.

Sound designer Richard Devine – who created presets for the new synth – calls Nave “the most impressive iOS synthesizer I have laid my hands on to date.”

Here’s a video preview of Waldorf Nave and its synthesis capabilities:

The video features Nave sounds, with no external FX or external processing. All sound examples were directly recorded in Nave´s 4 track recorder.

The video features Nave sounds, with no external FX or external processing. All sound examples were directly recorded in Nave´s 4 track recorder.

This next video looks at programming sounds in Nave:

Waldorf Nave Specifications:

Per Voice:

Two independent advanced Wavetable Oscillators
Osc module with up to 8 oscillator Überosc, shapes sawtooth, triangle, PWM, white or pink noise
Two Ring Modulators
Multimode Filter with LP,BP and HP, each either 12 dB or 24 dB
3 Envelopes
2 LFO
10 Modulation Matrix Entries
Drive with adjustable curve, depth and position
Effects:

Modulation Effect with either Chorus, Flanger or Phaser
Delay
High Quality Reverb
Three band parametric Equalizer
Compressor
Additional Features:

Keyboard with adjustable size, scrolling and glissando modes
Blades with musical scales and optional chord mode
Polyphonic X/Y finger modulation on keyboard and blades
Modulation Wheel and Pitch Bender
Up to three X/Y Control Pads
Four Track Recorder with clip based editing
Core MIDI in/out support
MIDI device manager for external hardware and virtual connections
Sync to MIDI Clock or WIST
MIDI Learn
Audiobus compatible
Background Audio
Arpeggiator
Polyphonic Unisono
Speech Synthesizer for Wavetables
3D Wavetable Editing
Generation of Wavetables from external audio files
BeatMaker & Sonoma Audio Copy / Paste Support
Patch Management with unlimited user banks and categories
Import / Export audio and sound patches from iTunes
System Requirements:

iOS 6 or higher
iPad 2 or higher
Waldorf Nave should be available in the App Store today, with an intro price of US $11.99 (normally $19.99).

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/20...ve-sound-demo/

Reaktor $99

Beany — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:26:41 GMT

Ooh, NI Reaktor is $99 until 20th June...

VintagePlanet.nl - Temporarily closed due to illness?

silent5 — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:20:58 GMT

I went to the vintageplanet.nl site just now to try and find some parts and noticed that the shop is "temporarily closed due to illness". Does anyone know how long it's been closed for already?

I hope everything is okay. Have dealt with them a few times in the past and it was always top-notch service and advice.

roland SH101 pulse width 'faulty' any ideas

squatski — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:12:00 GMT

Gave an sh101 to a friend (so it's not with me with the moment but hopefully I can pass some info on to him) basically, the pulse width on it DID work, but only got half as narrow as it should have (so not very thin) about 50% less than what it should have been. I did open the hood up and found a potentiometer but after turning it, it didn't narrow the pulsewidth anymore, until it just sort of went full circle and went back to a full square again. any ideas? confoosed

wtb: ssl x-patch

disco judas — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 12:51:31 GMT

wtb: ssl x-patch

cheers

On which label to send the music

Oceanshiver — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:45:48 GMT

Hi, guys!
Tell me, what kind of labels can engage publication of this kind of music? In styles I'm not strong, I hope for your help. freshflowe
https://soundcloud.com/oceanshiver

Any hardware stereo filter? Or maybe link 2 MS-20 mini's?

Bouillabaisse — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 10:37:03 GMT

Hello! Im looking for recommendations of a good stereo filter, mainly for filtering my samples that are in stereo.

Maybe the best way is to build my own filter out of modules?

I also just sold my original MS-20 to buy a new MS-20 mini, and the money I got for is pretty much equal of buying 2 MS-20 mini's. But it seems pretty overkill to buy two of them just to be able to filter in dual mono. But, an extra 600 dollar and I have the stereo filter I've always been looking for.

If I buy 2 MS-20 mini's, is it possible to link filters? So that I don't have to sweep both at the same time. In that case I can choose If I want the filters to be in dual mono or linked for stereo.
I was thinking like this:
1. Patch out from the modwheel from 1 of the MS-20 and split the signal.
2. Patch the splitted signals into the LPF of both MS-20.
-->This way the modwheel of one MS-20 controls both MS-20's LPF.
3. Patch out from the modwheel from the other MS-20 and split signal.
4. Patch the splitted signals into the HPF of both MS-20.
--> This way the modwheel of the other MS-20 controls both MS-20's HPF.

Would that work?

But, question maintains... Is there any hardware stereo filter out there?

Please help me identify a sample

StephenWiley — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 09:49:37 GMT

I talked to the original producer of the track, Pablo Ceballos, and he said it's from an old Zero-G library but he's not sure which one. Does anyone by chance recognize it and know which sample CD it was on? I'm really hoping I can still get my hands on it.....

HTML Code:

"560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/D-Nndhk3WQg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

Tekknova - Last Trip To Paradise (Original Mix) - YouTube

you can hear it at 3:19

also seems to be a slight variation of it at 4:06 with a longer sustain / release, but almost surely the same sample.

GAS: What's the 'Slutz'iest Thing You've Done?

DoingBIGthings — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:39:20 GMT

OK...Admit it!

We've all done it before!...right? You were GAS'ing ...and just had to get that piece of kit.

Maybe you were desperate? Hid that purchase from your spouse? Ate Ramen noodles for months? Sold something you probably shouldn't have? Pawned stuff? Worked part time @ GC?

Or maybe you became inspired? Held a yard sale? Traded up? Worked part time elsewhere?

I want to know...What is THE 'Slutz'iest thing you've done to get your fix?

Access Virus C/XL rack factory patch .mid broken

portervance — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 07:33:49 GMT

I'm a Virus Rack XL owner and have been trying to get the original 1024 factory patches back on my unit ever since I bought the thing. I am using MidiQuest to transmit the .mid file (downloaded to Access's site) to my Virus but after about patch 40 or so the patches start to look corrupt (letters missing from patch name and patch makes no sound). I've tried 2 other versions of this same file acquired from various places but none of these work for me either (some have even more corrupt patches than others).

And these are the official files for factory restoring! I'm wondering if everyone's had problems with these seemingly broken .mid factory patch files and could point me to a working version of the Virus C/Rack XL 1024 factory presets. Also if this was in .syx format I'd be forever grateful.

How to do this technique?

W. Williams — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 07:32:57 GMT

Hey guys, I'm looking for tips on how to make a certain sound progression I hear a lot during buildups.

Instead of doing a horrible job trying to explain it, I'll post Cobra since Hardwell seems to do it alot.

https://soundcloud.com/hardwell/hardwell-cobra-official-energy

Sound I'm looking at starts at the beginning and goes thru :15 and beyond. Starts with a plucky sound and gradually adds more layers until it gets pretty trancy. Does this technique have a name?

I made a small effects rack for ableton 9 thought I'd share it.

Nedavine — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 06:27:42 GMT

Nedavines Beat Bastard

Never shared a rack before but its quite fun and I thought I would put a link up for peeps.

kfhkh

Also thanks to 4live.com as I used the repeater in this.

Ready To Take This Hobby To The Next Level

EDGEK8D — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 06:21:37 GMT

Gearslutzers:

Making Electro/Progressive House started out as a hobby but has become my passion in life. As a single father of a four year old, I have a good 4 hours per night to devote to this craft. I am really starting to get somewhere with the quality of my music and feel it is time to to invest some money and upgrade things.

I have viewed other threads where some say, room treatment + expensive monitors + better interface; while others say, there are pros who mix ITB on laptopts with headphones, so go analogue gear/plug-ins, etc. I'm not one who is unwilling to take advice from those with more experience. I have my monitors in the ideal position (golden triangles and all), but no treatment, yet.

Money is no object, but it remains so because I don't waste it, nor do I intend to on this journey. Here is what I am currently working with.

Computer: iMac 21" 2.7GHz i5
DAW: Logic Pro 9
Monitors: KRK Rokit5 Gen 2 decoupled on Isoacoustic's desktop stands
AI: Focusrite Scarlett 2i4
MIDI Key: M-Audio Oxygen 49
Headphones: V-Moda M100
Soft Synths: Sylenth1, Nexus2, Arturia Mini V
Other Plugs: Stilwell (Rocket & Major Tom), Waves R-Comp, Venegance Multiband Sidechain, PSP Vintage Warmer 2, FabFilter Saturn
Samples: Plenty

Any recommendations about where I can find the best information regarding treatment for a home studio? I have the Mixing Secrets (Senior) book which has some discussion on this matter.

What would your next move be? Where am I lacking most?

Things I've thought of other than room treatments include: upgrading monitors with more low end, analogue synths, or analogue preamp/channel strip ((to run soft & hard synths through).

I guess what I am asking, now that you know where I am, is what would your next move be. I'm going to Sweetwater's Gearfest next weekend and know I will be tempted to make an impulsive buy. Just trying to get my facts and information straight first.

Thanks for reading and replying if you have some time, which you do, because you are surfing Gearslutz right now.

noise from to many power adapters

dnlntm — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 05:23:49 GMT

recently i've noticed a louder then usual noise sound coming through my sound card. after some trouble shooting the noise seemed to go away after i unplugged a power plug from one of my power boards.

at first i thought it was a half broken adapter since when i plugged it in the noise returned. so i took it out and intended to buy a new cable for my P08.

i have just turned my system back in and the noise is there again.
any ideas how i can get around this?

Anyone with the Yamaha CS6x, Bit-depth switch ?

Luigi2000 — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 04:11:30 GMT

Ive read on vintagesynths.com that the CS6x "has a Bit-depth switch which allows you to degrade its output creating 'Vintage' lo-fi quality sounds"

Ive just put an PLG150-AN card in my Motif ES rack and thougt the sound character was a bit "cheesy" and not so grimey as I wanted. So im thinking of selling my Motif ES rack and bying a CS6x since u can put the PLG-AN board in it and use the Bit depth switch to "grimey stuff down" .

Anyone that use the Bit depth swith on the CS6x? How is it? What settings can u choose from etc?

thx bye!kfhkh

Thoroughly learn Synthesis?

Ambience — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 02:55:06 GMT

Yes i know there are tons on these forums

However, everyone keeps pointing to Synth Secrets on SOS or some other stuff.

The problem is that the majority of these sources don't explain it clearly enough which makes me second guess if I actually know what is going on.

I don't want to think I know what an LFO is i want to KNOW what an LFO is and be able to explain it to a complete idiot.

Someone here must have some sources like a synth for dummies type article or something.

Yes many people here are going to say 'just dive in and mess with knobs' and yes that helps but I really want to have a concrete knowledge of this art form!

I know there are tons of competent synth wizards here that can help me on my journey! I am not being lazy or looking for handouts, I truly want to learn this!

Is this piece of hardware good for a beginner?

lain — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 01:42:55 GMT

I'm a complete beginner at music production using a DAW, and I was wondering if this: Akai Professional MPK Mini Laptop Production Keyboard | GuitarCenter is a good first keyboard for someone who is a beginner/trying to learn the ropes. Thanks!

Prophet 600 users have an upgrade.

gruvsyco — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 01:33:48 GMT

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/20...s-of-features/

*edit* Looks like the synthtopia article isn't 100% accurate. You need a piece of hardware called the Teensy to get it to work apparently.

Quote:

Here’s what the Prophet 600 firmware update offers:

Non-destructive firmware drop-in replacement of the new firmware.
Greater resolution of many of the sound parameters with an improved refresh rate that is making the instrument much more responsive.
Faster, smoother amplifier and filter envelope generators supporting four different modes:
Fast Linear
Slow Linear
Fast Exponential
Slow Exponential
A new LFO function generator with a wider range from one cycle every to about 60Hz with four new waveforms in addition to the original triangle and square including sine, random stepped, noise (like on the original Prophet 5, but non-periodic) and sawtooth (ramp up)
Multiple keyboard modes including:
Poly first note priority
Unison (all voice) Hi-key priority
Unison (all voice) Low-key priority
Solo (one voice) Hi-key priority
Solo (one voice) Low-key priority
Mix Overdrive which now allows the output from both oscillators to drive the mix
Pitch Wheel interval selection of plus/minus one octave, a minor third and a fifth
Pitch Wheel reassignment to the VCF and Volume or off
Modulation wheel intensity setting from Maximum to Medium to Minimum
Full Midi In control including:
Amp and Filter velocity sensitivity with an external keyboard controller
Continuous Controllers (CC) of all sound parameters
Program change (PC) to choose current preset
A new and improved tuning procedure
Chromatic and free Oscillator course pitch control
Plus/Minus setting for Oscillator Fine Tune and Filter Envelope amount for Poly Mod and Filter
Assignable, Random And Up/Down Arpeggiator
Debounce feature that prevents unintended retriggering caused by the old keyboard

ProducerFactory.com

Mononym — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:31:01 GMT

all that needs to be said.

ProducerFactory.com

This really makes me want to stop trying to get anything signed or do anything with Electronic music.

Need help installing Reaktor plz

I Am Legend — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 23:09:40 GMT

Hey,

I'm trying to install ONLY Reaktor from my Native Instruments Komplete 8 discs. I have the disc images all on an external hard drive, but only have room for Reaktor on my computer.

There must be a way that I can only install Reaktor without installing all the other vsts right? Any help would be much appreciated.

How would I go about recreating this 90s Japanese sound effect?

Hallu — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:49:04 GMT

It's clearly a layered sound, so I'm not expecting to make this with one synth. The tone I'm most interested in is the "pad" type sound that fades in that is very gritty and alias-y, although all the sounds interest me in a way.

I grew up watching Iron Chef and hearing this at the end of every episode, now I want to use my adult synthesis powers to make it (or at least identify gear that it could be to add onto my GAS list.) There is something to that washed out but entirely grainy and artifact-y synth sound of the late 80s and early 90s that I love :)

So, how do we make this?

Roland System 100-101 vs Eurorack

MPRT — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:05:26 GMT

Hello guys!

When I first heard the System 100 model 101 by Roland I felt in love with the sound. So fat round. I was lucky enough to got one a year ago, fully service by Modelessfactory. I bought it also with the intent to upgrade it with some eurorack modules.

Nowadays I'm realyzing I almost never used it in a track (except for the smooth arp in this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL4AREHOzb4), I tryed but it never fitted or gave me the bass I want. It wasn't give me the satisfaction for the money I spent also if I love his tone alone.

Now I'm considering give it away to expand my litte raw of eurorack and maybe grab a xoxbox or an used octatrack. Is there in the eurorack world something fat as the system 100-101?

I'm I crazy? Would like to know your thoughts or advices.

Moog Slim Phatty Audio Through/In

CharlesJordan — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 19:54:04 GMT

OK so i have had a slim phatty for a while now and i havent been using it too frequently. I was wondering if it is possible to maybe use the SF to filter bass lines from vinyl. When I bought the SF one of the key selling points was that you could actually run audio through this thing. I read somewhere that you have to leave the gate open by putting a dummy cord into the patch. When I did this i could hear only a small amount of the signal I intended on processing layered by whatever synth patch I was on at the time. I would really like to put this thing to more use or get rid of it. Help Please

Gear: Imac, Ableton live 8, RME FF 400, Maschine, Turntable, Slim Phatty

soundcloud.com/ChuckJ

Transposing analog sequencers

Hirsbro — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 19:14:13 GMT

Is it possible to "play" via midi keyboard a analog sequencer like Doepfer dark time or MFB Urzwerg Pro II.. If I fail to make myself clear, check out link below that's what I'm asking about gooof

Analogue Solutions Oberkorn MK3 Tutorial #05 - Transposing a Live Analog Sequence via CV or MIDI - YouTube

Ideas on how to make this house beat.

Gustavmose — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 19:12:30 GMT

Hello, howdy

I'm new to Gearslutz, and my post might be a little messy, but here's my issue :P

I'm trying to make a really summer-like house loop, (uplifting, progressive, stuck in your head kind of theme) but I can't really achieve it. All I end up when I try is some boring chords, me not being sure wether it's the chords or the synth that is wrong, and not being sure where to continue after, if the chords are either right, or not.

Well, I found this loop in a Vengeance Loop. It sounds extremely nice, and something alike what I want to create. I tried to recreate it (Not to copy, but to learn), but I just couldn't really make it properly, or make it sound right.

If anyone has any idea on how to help me, how the loop is made, or how I can make something alike it please educate me :)

Some of the stuff I can't figure out, could need help with, or would find really useful could be:

What kind of notes the loop uses (chord progression for instance),
Any notes/chord progression I could try out with,
Any idea of how the loop is set up,
How the sounds is created,
What the creaters of the loop did to give it that feel,
How I can make a loop with the same feel, or something alike.

My DAW is FL Studio, and I'm fine at mastering, but making melodies and engineering sound is something I am still rather new to.

You don't have to answer every question of course, helping with just one of the points would be a great help,thank you:)

Heres the loop (It's the very first in the mix!)https://soundcloud.com/vengeancesound/www-vengeance-sound-com-96

Boomstars vs. ATC synths and competing products

HarryDelmarva — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 19:00:24 GMT

Hi All,

I am intrigued by these new Boomstars.

In my thoughts the "best" is the 4075, because:
The moog filter is matched by actual Moog products, and clones
The SEM filter is matched by the actual SEM, and clones
The 303 filter is matched by 303 clones.

I am curious if the Boomstars are noticeably fatter and snappier than the ATC X or Xi. I will probably try to purchase the 4075 unless the ATC X is basically as punchy and "real."

Similarly, how do you feel the Moog Boomstar will compare about the LP, SP and Voyager?

Drum machine splitter box

Dave Reid — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:30:51 GMT

Can anyone recommend a good splitter box for using with drum machines ?

I would like to send a mono out kick etc.. from a drum machine to different sources..

Thanks.

StudioLogic Numa Compact User Opinions

Noodlez — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:09:00 GMT

I'm looking for some user feedback on the StudioLogic Numa Compact as I'm after a USB midi controller to use with my Mac running Logic Pro that has decent keyboard action.

I currently have the Novation Launchkey 61 but the keys feel too springy like a mushy typewriter...

Many thanks,

Noodlez

Jomox JazBase03... anyone ever hear one?

MJS7 — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:52:00 GMT

Almost nothing out there on it. I'm considering one.

How are the samples in it? They are labelled as "jazzy" or "ethno" which has me a little suspicious. :lol:

Apparently Jomox dumped the classic drum machine samples and replaced them with... who knows what?

Northstar Emulator II CD?

Python Blue — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:32:40 GMT

First of all, apologies for such a long absence; unfortunately, it's hard for me to stay focused on the music communities I joined, combined with lots of other problems not worth delving into as of late.

Anyway, would anyone by any chance have the Northstar Gold/Universe of Sounds 3 CD? I happen to have the first two volumes made by OMI/Q-Up-Arts. I realize this is probably illegal in that Northstar would not get any profit, but on the other hand, I'm starting to develop a suspicion that the company is dead despite their website is still up: both me and Douglas Morton of Q-Up-Arts have had no success in reaching them. And if the company IS dead like I fear, there goes the option of legally acquiring 5.25" floppies as well, which ARE still listed on their website....

Anyone willing to help out with getting this CD somehow? Thanks in advance.

Mopho x4 "vs" LP OR "plus" Slim Phatty

Jfingaz123 — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 13:37:06 GMT

I've had my Mopho x4 for about three weeks now. It is a great synth. I'm able to conjure many great sounds out of it on the fly and the build quality is awesome. For me, the polyphony was the deal breaker over the LP...But I find myself longing for that Moog lushness and warmth. I'm able to make the mopho sound relatively warm, but its just not quite there, a little sterile to my ears. It's like the Mopho covers a lot more bases, but the Moog just sounds and feel "right".

I'm putting together my "masterpiece" rig for live playing and I bought it to do warm leads, some bass tones, and talkbox mostly on Herbie Hancock ala Headhunters type 70'2 fusion/funk/R&B stuff.

My goal is to have a Poly Evolver on my left side for pads/synths/craziness, a Hohner clav on my right, a fender rhodes in front, and the lead keyboard on top of the rhodes.

So my question is would you guys recommend getting a slim phatty to midi and layer with the x4 to get even fuller sounds, replacing the x4 with a LP since I would have the Evolver on the side anyway, or.....sitting the LP right next the x4 on the Rhodes and calling it a day?

Or would a moog pedal connected to the mopho be a good choice?

I'm pulling my hair out running through all the scenarios in my head because it's a stretch financially and I want to make sure I get it right.

Any any opinions would be much appreciated.

Thanks Guys! :synth:

Analog console mix width. Why ? how ?

kacperson — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 13:28:40 GMT

People used to say that mixes finished on analog desk tend to sound wider, more lively etc etc... How is that ? What process makes it ? What is diffrent in the way analog desk processes sound then doing it total itb besides workflow obviously. I know this is a broooooooooooooaaad topic.

But wanted to know if there are ways to emulate certain aspects of sound of those big desk mixes while doing it ITB ...at least to get close to it.

I've read here somewhere that analog mixing consoles introduce a tiny bit of phasing making it wider....