The S20 was great in its day for the price. I had my eye on one then almost got a Yamaha su10 ... then Zoom released their super cheap sametrak.  Oh those days before affordable gear!!  Really dig what you've put together in spirit here tho!!

The S20 was great in its day for the price. I had my eye on one then almost got a Yamaha su10 ... then Zoom released their super cheap sametrak. Oh those days before affordable gear!! Really dig what you've put together in spirit here tho!!

Oh, man! You touched some strings with your Yamaha/Zoom memories. Here in Spain, in my local secondhand music forum, there are a couple of SU10 really cheap, though I'm not still using my brand new Volca Sample (Xmas present) so I don't really find a proper justification beyond fetishism and GAS, but...

The Akai s20 sounds quite fat, very much like an s2000, but the sequencer is almost a joke, no wave graphic display so precise editing is not feasible and no filter. I really fantasize right now of getting another one and filter it though my Eurorack setup but... you know. Sometime I'd throw my hardware out of the window and sometimes using it is like a Zen experience

I already commented in your track, but again: kudos for squeezing new life out of the infamous MC 303. YOU ARE THE MAN!!!

[quote=cTrix]The S20 was great in its day for the price. I had my eye on one then almost got a Yamaha su10 ... then Zoom released their super cheap sametrak. Oh those days before affordable gear!! Really dig what you've put together in spirit here tho!![/quote] Oh, man! You touched some strings with your Yamaha/Zoom memories. Here in Spain, in my local secondhand music forum, there are a couple of SU10 really cheap, though I'm not still using my brand new Volca Sample (Xmas present) so I don't really find a proper justification beyond fetishism and GAS, but... The Akai s20 sounds quite fat, very much like an s2000, but the sequencer is almost a joke, no wave graphic display so precise editing is not feasible and no filter. I really fantasize right now of getting another one and filter it though my Eurorack setup but... you know. Sometime I'd throw my hardware out of the window and sometimes using it is like a Zen experience :) I already commented in your track, but again: kudos for squeezing new life out of the infamous MC 303. YOU ARE THE MAN!!!

The dancers gif you posted is very apt. The EQ cut in the center section is a little dirty, but I really like the groove and melodies. Well done.

The dancers gif you posted is very apt. The EQ cut in the center section is a little dirty, but I really like the groove and melodies. Well done.

Hands down the best track of the 8 I have listened to so far (of week 14). Nice work!

Hands down the best track of the 8 I have listened to so far (of week 14). Nice work!

Dude, this is amazing! I love the grittiness to all your songs, those vintage samplers sound great! I like the minimal melody here, and the beat is huuuuge

Dude, this is amazing! I love the grittiness to all your songs, those vintage samplers sound great! I like the minimal melody here, and the beat is huuuuge

Awesome work - love the twang / resonance of the leady bit!

Awesome work - love the twang / resonance of the leady bit! [img]https://media.giphy.com/media/wAZIweYxXbzpK/giphy.gif[/img]

Ah this is so good! Super chill, vintage vibes and incredibly sophisticated. Incredible work my friend!

Ah this is so good! Super chill, vintage vibes and incredibly sophisticated. Incredible work my friend!

The past tense of breakdancing.  Cool sounds.  Now, go get some sleep so you can be energized to make more awesome sounds.

The past tense of breakdancing. Cool sounds. Now, go get some sleep so you can be energized to make more awesome sounds.

Again such a Great Great track. U Should make An album out of these

Again such a Great Great track. U Should make An album out of these

[url="http://giphy.com/gifs/glitches-fpyQd4mACXhKg"][img]https://media1.giphy.com/media/fpyQd4mACXhKg/200.gif[/img][/url]

Outstanding ultra-slow dance beat.  I like everything about this: the tempo, the grainy synth choices, the beat itself and the melodic/sonic manipulation over it.  This could be four times as long and work just as well.  So great.

Outstanding ultra-slow dance beat. I like everything about this: the tempo, the grainy synth choices, the beat itself and the melodic/sonic manipulation over it. This could be four times as long and work just as well. So great.

Spare, yet still dancey --quite an accomplishment. Much faved.

Spare, yet still dancey --quite an accomplishment. Much faved.

What a supercool beat you've got here.
Like it soooooooo much. Nice sound from your
machines. I would take a vinyl-copy!!!

What a supercool beat you've got here. Like it soooooooo much. Nice sound from your machines. I would take a vinyl-copy!!!

Yes, indeed, I need to check those levels. Basically I upgraded Ableton filters in the song and add some slight filter overdrive, so I guess there could be some clipping.

I ended my quick mastering 11 minutes before the deadline. I hope to remaster it properly for a Soundcloud release.

Thanks both for the feedback and listening, of course!

Thank you very much Korlhofer! I really want to catch up with so many good tunes that I'm still missing

Thanks Tim! Both synths are processed through some vocoder and beat repeat used AS SENDS. I think there's also a resonator involved. It's a cool trick to obtain rhythm driver synth phrases

Thanks man! Hardware samplers could be recreated, but they are really fun to make quick ideas and maybe they're inspiring because it's difficult to make "modern" arrangements with them, so they sometimes end with weird results

Thanks for the support and listening every week

[quote=tsrono]The dancers gif you posted is very apt. The EQ cut in the center section is a little dirty, but I really like the groove and melodies. Well done.[/quote] Yes, indeed, I need to check those levels. Basically I upgraded Ableton filters in the song and add some slight filter overdrive, so I guess there could be some clipping. I ended my quick mastering 11 minutes before the deadline. I hope to remaster it properly for a Soundcloud release. Thanks both for the feedback and listening, of course! [quote=Kohlhofer]Hands down the best track of the 8 I have listened to so far (of week 14). Nice work![/quote] Thank you very much Korlhofer! I really want to catch up with so many good tunes that I'm still missing :) [quote=tim koch]Awesome work - love the twang / resonance of the leady bit! [img]https://media.giphy.com/media/wAZIweYxXbzpK/giphy.gif[/img][/quote] Thanks Tim! Both synths are processed through some vocoder and beat repeat used AS SENDS. I think there's also a resonator involved. It's a cool trick to obtain rhythm driver synth phrases [quote=donnyjankowski]Dude, this is amazing! I love the grittiness to all your songs, those vintage samplers sound great! I like the minimal melody here, and the beat is huuuuge[/quote] Thanks man! Hardware samplers could be recreated, but they are really fun to make quick ideas and maybe they're inspiring because it's difficult to make "modern" arrangements with them, so they sometimes end with weird results :) Thanks for the support and listening every week :)

great job!  this is a wicked track, just ditto on what everyone said.  REAL GRIT

great job! this is a wicked track, just ditto on what everyone said. REAL GRIT

strong work. still sounds pretty "minimal" to me, or maybe the better word would be "intimate" -- not sure, sounds like it's really focused on the beat and all the resulting glitches and rhythms. i can see some connection between "for no particular reason" and this one. thumbs up!

strong work. still sounds pretty "minimal" to me, or maybe the better word would be "intimate" -- not sure, sounds like it's really focused on the beat and all the resulting glitches and rhythms. i can see some connection between "for no particular reason" and this one. thumbs up!

Thank you, Martiln! I wish I'd reach your crystal-clear production values, your songs sound so polished Glad you liked it. It's hard for me to think that 90's are "vintage", because for a part of me they're still brand new... Guess I'm old then

Thanks again for listening

Thank you Edmund! Yes, you're right, it's past tense. Sounds a little weird doesn't it? Anyway it isn't exactly a dance track, so meybe the undefined titled suits it well.

Thanks man! I've been thinking about doing some beat compilation. I should create some artwork and link a few cohesive tracks

Thanks, OneZero. As a fellow Ableton user, you should try some tricks in here: I vocoded the synth modulated by the drums, then placed a resonator, an LFO-controlled beat repeat and then a filtered delay. It's great to add weird and unexpected variations to static material.

Glad you liked it and thanks again for listening

It would be nice to see a creative liquid breaker swinging to it. Thanks Jim!

Thanks a lot, Q ROsh! I'd love to scratch these beats directly on wax! Your feedback is much appreciated

[quote=Martiln]Ah this is so good! Super chill, vintage vibes and incredibly sophisticated. Incredible work my friend! [/quote] Thank you, Martiln! I wish I'd reach your crystal-clear production values, your songs sound so polished :) Glad you liked it. It's hard for me to think that 90's are "vintage", because for a part of me they're still brand new... Guess I'm old then :) Thanks again for listening [quote=Edmund Snyder]The past tense of breakdancing. Cool sounds. Now, go get some sleep so you can be energized to make more awesome sounds.[/quote] Thank you Edmund! Yes, you're right, it's past tense. Sounds a little weird doesn't it? Anyway it isn't exactly a dance track, so meybe the undefined titled suits it well. [quote=dj someguy]Again such a Great Great track. U Should make An album out of these[/quote] Thanks man! I've been thinking about doing some beat compilation. I should create some artwork and link a few cohesive tracks :) [quote=onezero]Outstanding ultra-slow dance beat. I like everything about this: the tempo, the grainy synth choices, the beat itself and the melodic/sonic manipulation over it. This could be four times as long and work just as well. So great. [/quote] Thanks, OneZero. As a fellow Ableton user, you should try some tricks in here: I vocoded the synth modulated by the drums, then placed a resonator, an LFO-controlled beat repeat and then a filtered delay. It's great to add weird and unexpected variations to static material. Glad you liked it and thanks again for listening :) [quote=Jim Wood]Spare, yet still dancey --quite an accomplishment. Much faved.[/quote] It would be nice to see a creative liquid breaker swinging to it. Thanks Jim! :) [quote=Q-Rosh]What a supercool beat you've got here. Like it soooooooo much. Nice sound from your machines. I would take a vinyl-copy!!![/quote] Thanks a lot, Q ROsh! I'd love to scratch these beats directly on wax! Your feedback is much appreciated :)

Thanks Orangedrink I'm in a personal quest to get that 90s crunchy atmosphere from my gear. Not really a hardware fetishist, I think it is possible to add some grittiness to any material be it in the box or out of it. Sofware is fantastic too!

Really glad to receive your feedback and hear your tracks

Glad to hear you feel some intimacy in such a gritty digital beat, Christian. These ones are built around certain small number of samples carefully chosen and a relatively complicated chain of FX, so there are some resemblance to the way I approach guitars (mainly because I am so lame playing).

Lately I'm loading melodic elements in the pads, so they are played as drums. It was mainly to build whole atmostpheres with just a beat box/sampler, but I think it maybe give certain approach to the resulting music.

Thanks a lot for your feedback and for being there

[quote=orangedrink]great job! this is a wicked track, just ditto on what everyone said. REAL GRIT[/quote] Thanks Orangedrink :) I'm in a personal quest to get that 90s crunchy atmosphere from my gear. Not really a hardware fetishist, I think it is possible to add some grittiness to any material be it in the box or out of it. Sofware is fantastic too! Really glad to receive your feedback and hear your tracks :) [quote=Christian Grey]strong work. still sounds pretty "minimal" to me, or maybe the better word would be "intimate" -- not sure, sounds like it's really focused on the beat and all the resulting glitches and rhythms. i can see some connection between "for no particular reason" and this one. thumbs up! [/quote] Glad to hear you feel some intimacy in such a gritty digital beat, Christian. These ones are built around certain small number of samples carefully chosen and a relatively complicated chain of FX, so there are some resemblance to the way I approach guitars (mainly because I am so lame playing). Lately I'm loading melodic elements in the pads, so they are played as drums. It was mainly to build whole atmostpheres with just a beat box/sampler, but I think it maybe give certain approach to the resulting music. Thanks a lot for your feedback and for being there :)

Oh, man--I just tried this on a real kit, audio output turned off, just to modulate a channel of Analog through the vocoder...and the possibilities are really good.  This might end up being the basis of this week's piece. Thank you for the suggestion, Laguna!

[quote=laguna] [quote=onezero]Outstanding ultra-slow dance beat. I like everything about this: the tempo, the grainy synth choices, the beat itself and the melodic/sonic manipulation over it. This could be four times as long and work just as well. So great. [/quote] Thanks, OneZero. As a fellow Ableton user, you should try some tricks in here: I vocoded the synth modulated by the drums, then placed a resonator, an LFO-controlled beat repeat and then a filtered delay. It's great to add weird and unexpected variations to static material. Glad you liked it and thanks again for listening :)[/quote] Oh, man--I just tried this on a real kit, audio output turned off, just to modulate a channel of Analog through the vocoder...and the possibilities are really good. This might end up being the basis of this week's piece. Thank you for the suggestion, Laguna!

It's a break duel

[quote=Ipaghost][url="http://giphy.com/gifs/glitches-fpyQd4mACXhKg"][img]https://media1.giphy.com/media/fpyQd4mACXhKg/200.gif[/img][/url][/quote] It's a break duel [img]https://media4.giphy.com/media/1M2SPVruuneFO/200.gif[/img]

Nice Track!
Vocoder´s are universally usable, a secret weapon

Nice Track! Vocoder´s are universally usable, a secret weapon :)

Alright, after hearing all your amazing stuff I'm looking to pick up a 90s era sampler with a good or decent onboard sequencer. Any recommendations?

Alright, after hearing all your amazing stuff I'm looking to pick up a 90s era sampler with a good or decent onboard sequencer. Any recommendations?

Hummmm, I'll recomend an Akai MPC 500 for a cheap solution, ultra portable, but there's no waveform display though you could load any 44100 mono/stereo wav file. The sequencer in the MPC series are different from a DAW and more close to something like Maschine. If you wanna spent more, go for the Akai MPC 1000.

Other people go the Roland SP way: SP-404/404EX is really fun and fast to use. SP-202/SP-303 are limited to Smart Media card which is now rare and unreliable. SP-505 is underrated and has a secondary "tracker style" event sequencer. Anyway, compared to a DAW, they're more less sketch pads.

HOWEVER:

Maybe if you shop for any old rack mount / scsi driven / really cheap rackmount unit you'll be confined to maybe 8 or 16 megs of RAM and limited storage. I insist, it's not really the gear that makes the sound but the workflow. Things tend to be quite much slower, and often there's no UNDO, so you find yourself "planning and fantasizing" about "what you're going to sample today". I could work a hundred times faster on Ableton, and I actually mix the two techniques.

Pick one cheap Akai s3000xl / E-MU 6400 / E-MU Esi 4000 / Ensoniq EPS16+ / Yamaha A4000-A5000 (they support IDE drives!). Don't expect to fill a huge library of sounds (less is more). You've got to change your state of mind beforehand. I hear a lot of young producers expecting "Kontakt in a box with phat crispy low end" and they're quite less powerful than any simple VST these days.

DON'T PAY MUCH, AND HAVE FUN. I'll eventually sell most of my "vintage" gear, I mean it. I'm glad I did the trip and struggle with floppy disks: that made me approach my process in a more minimalistic, "let's see what's the important part" way. I'm really glad I made that: now I really enjoy a 1998 PC Tracker and feel I've got awesome resources within any PSP running Piggytracker. It's the approach, not the machine. They're often cumbersome, unreliable and hard to back up and repair.

You've listened to my music and I'm really honoured that I inspire you to explore, though believe me they don't SOUND that special but they make you MAKE DIFFERENT CHOICES. It's like going back to the basics: no WAves Plugins, no "SAusage Fattener"... If it doesn't sound dope coming out of the box, or it's muddy and boring, will be to late to fix it with production. When you learn to make them sound OK, suddenly you rediscover the pleasures of Reason REX, Maschine or Ableton Sampler, because now everything seems incredibly powerful

Hope this long boring rant helps you, Donny. I'll drop some email to you anyway

[quote=donnyjankowski]Alright, after hearing all your amazing stuff I'm looking to pick up a 90s era sampler with a good or decent onboard sequencer. Any recommendations?[/quote] Hummmm, I'll recomend an Akai MPC 500 for a cheap solution, ultra portable, but there's no waveform display though you could load any 44100 mono/stereo wav file. The sequencer in the MPC series are different from a DAW and more close to something like Maschine. If you wanna spent more, go for the Akai MPC 1000. Other people go the Roland SP way: SP-404/404EX is really fun and fast to use. SP-202/SP-303 are limited to Smart Media card which is now rare and unreliable. SP-505 is underrated and has a secondary "tracker style" event sequencer. Anyway, compared to a DAW, they're more less sketch pads. HOWEVER: Maybe if you shop for any old rack mount / scsi driven / really cheap rackmount unit you'll be confined to maybe 8 or 16 megs of RAM and limited storage. I insist, it's not really the gear that makes the sound but the workflow. Things tend to be quite much slower, and often there's no UNDO, so you find yourself "planning and fantasizing" about "what you're going to sample today". I could work a hundred times faster on Ableton, and I actually mix the two techniques. Pick one cheap Akai s3000xl / E-MU 6400 / E-MU Esi 4000 / Ensoniq EPS16+ / Yamaha A4000-A5000 (they support IDE drives!). Don't expect to fill a huge library of sounds (less is more). You've got to change your state of mind beforehand. I hear a lot of young producers expecting "Kontakt in a box with phat crispy low end" and they're quite less powerful than any simple VST these days. DON'T PAY MUCH, AND HAVE FUN. I'll eventually sell most of my "vintage" gear, I mean it. I'm glad I did the trip and struggle with floppy disks: that made me approach my process in a more minimalistic, "let's see what's the important part" way. I'm really glad I made that: now I really enjoy a 1998 PC Tracker and feel I've got awesome resources within any PSP running Piggytracker. It's the approach, not the machine. They're often cumbersome, unreliable and hard to back up and repair. You've listened to my music and I'm really honoured that I inspire you to explore, though believe me they don't SOUND that special but they make you MAKE DIFFERENT CHOICES. It's like going back to the basics: no WAves Plugins, no "SAusage Fattener"... If it doesn't sound dope coming out of the box, or it's muddy and boring, will be to late to fix it with production. When you learn to make them sound OK, suddenly you rediscover the pleasures of Reason REX, Maschine or Ableton Sampler, because now everything seems incredibly powerful :) Hope this long boring rant helps you, Donny. I'll drop some email to you anyway :)

Love the groove in this, and the lead in the last part is perfect for this track.
Well done!

Love the groove in this, and the lead in the last part is perfect for this track. Well done!

Dude thanks so much for the advice! I love my SP202 for gritty stuff but you're right in that nothing will replace Ableton, it's just so powerful and I've got the workflow down. I'm just going to focus on using the gear I've got (with their wonderful limitations) and put off buying another sampler now. Thanks! Be in touch

Dude thanks so much for the advice! I love my SP202 for gritty stuff but you're right in that nothing will replace Ableton, it's just so powerful and I've got the workflow down. I'm just going to focus on using the gear I've got (with their wonderful limitations) and put off buying another sampler now. Thanks! Be in touch :)

Oh dear, this sounds so sweet! Awesome groove and atmosphere, too.

Oh dear, this sounds so sweet! Awesome groove and atmosphere, too.

Tank, Paintrain, and sorry for the late reply. Life's been hectic and I'm still catching up with both answering and listening.

Thanks Max! Glad you liked this strangely off-beat swing

[quote=Plantrain]Love the groove in this, and the lead in the last part is perfect for this track. Well done![/quote] Tank, Paintrain, and sorry for the late reply. Life's been hectic and I'm still catching up with both answering and listening. [quote=Max Normal]Oh dear, this sounds so sweet! Awesome groove and atmosphere, too.[/quote] Thanks Max! Glad you liked this strangely off-beat swing

Yeah, man. Indeed. I'm glad for all the positive feedback I've received about my "classic hardware" pieces, though they've helped me realise the sound is more on the actual limitations of the machine than in any "fairy dust" or that classic "those converters" myth. You could get that sound with proper EQ and compression in Ableton. Anyway, I didn't pay more than 70 US bucks for any of my samplers, so if you find something really cheap, it is worth the money in order to mess with them for a while.

I've seen several SP-404's here and there. Wonderful "crappy" FX, it has. My best advice is: try to combine them, maybe start the jam on the four oh four and continue it on Ableton. Us it as another instrument, instead of the "software VS/against hardware" thing.

Looking forward to hear what you get out of that silver box

[quote=donnyjankowski]Dude thanks so much for the advice! I love my SP202 for gritty stuff but you're right in that nothing will replace Ableton, it's just so powerful and I've got the workflow down. I'm just going to focus on using the gear I've got (with their wonderful limitations) and put off buying another sampler now. Thanks! Be in touch :)[/quote] Yeah, man. Indeed. I'm glad for all the positive feedback I've received about my "classic hardware" pieces, though they've helped me realise the sound is more on the actual limitations of the machine than in any "fairy dust" or that classic "those converters" myth. You could get that sound with proper EQ and compression in Ableton. Anyway, I didn't pay more than 70 US bucks for any of my samplers, so if you find something really cheap, it is worth the money in order to mess with them for a while. I've seen several SP-404's here and there. Wonderful "crappy" FX, it has. My best advice is: try to combine them, maybe start the jam on the four oh four and continue it on Ableton. Us it as another instrument, instead of the "software VS/against hardware" thing. Looking forward to hear what you get out of that silver box :)