Your process and the result sounds intriguing enough for me to engage in a little "imagination theft" myself. I know what you mean about physical equipment: I went GAS in the 80s, and am now stuck with a bunch of outdated gear (floppy disks & SCSI hard drives, anyone?) taking up space in the studio.

Your process and the result sounds intriguing enough for me to engage in a little "imagination theft" myself. I know what you mean about physical equipment: I went GAS in the 80s, and am now stuck with a bunch of outdated gear (floppy disks & SCSI hard drives, anyone?) taking up space in the studio.

I sometimes have felt like more effort went into one of my titles than into the song itself. And I think that as my bag of ticks grows hat it gets easier to throw together something which sounds good but I don’t really take pride in. With your massive sack of tricks and mastery of different elements of production, I can only imagine you have the same issue.

I sometimes have felt like more effort went into one of my titles than into the song itself. And I think that as my bag of ticks grows hat it gets easier to throw together something which sounds good but I don’t really take pride in. With your massive sack of tricks and mastery of different elements of production, I can only imagine you have the same issue.

The sound of this track is immaculate. I don`t how you do the strech- and warping tricks, but they work very well. one of my favorite songs this week.

The sound of this track is immaculate. I don`t how you do the strech- and warping tricks, but they work very well. one of my favorite songs this week.

Thanks a lot, Jim. It's really quite easy: I tend to work a lot into the sound of (heavy) drums with the utilisation of few samples, and then run out of time for proper melodies, so I basically create a semidecent 2 bars of very bassy synths so I don't need an obvious bassline (thought I always MISS having a real bassline, instead). Since I feel my tracks are really really monotone, I insert small variations in a DJ style (no kick here, repeat snare, invert melody). For instance, this track is actually just three tracks

I feel you about the "outdated" stuff (yeah, I do my own dealing with SCSI and floppies... though I kinda love floppy disks, in a way). I tried the modular route but I don't see anybody on the interwebs frankly saying "it sounds nice but I can't find a way of justifying to myself spending several hundred dollars/euros, more close to the thousand mark, to have a 2 voice monosynth with neat routing.

I'm agree: the freedom of interconnection blah blah blah, but man I run out of cables and they cost money... It's not about being "cheap", but PERSONALLY I don't find myself hearing something "incredible" and "unachievable"... So I stop and say "Do I really need to get more modules or would I be more confortable messing with Reaktor and PureData even if now that's not so cool to show up?".

All respect to the modular heads and their rigs. I'm just saying that personally I'm struggling to see the point of it FOR ME and my music. Will put some more effort and exploration on it, though maybe I could be patching PureData and not looking back

I see your point, Edmund. If you read above, at my answer to Jim, you'll see which are my tricks. I don't feel your work less polished basically because it's way more easier to finish a whole song in the box than record vocals and acoustic guitar and give them "the finished feel", at least IMO.

Thanks for the compliments, though. I've titled some tracks completely out of the blue 2 minutes prior to deadline, lately

Vielen Danke, Q-Rosh. Means a lot to me!

If you read my previous answer to Jim's post, you'll see some of the tricks. As we, me and you, both use Ableton, I usually tend to mess a lot with the warping methods. The stutter effect in some tracks is achieved using Beat mode, forward only cycling and a slice width of 25 per cent. When I cut some melodic pads in the last beat of the bar, I usually switch to Complex Pro algorithm, or Complex only, in order to have some variation.

Since I feel I don't do much melodic work, I try to overcompensate making it sound "surprising" from group of 4 bars to the next. Not always succeding, of course

Thanks a lot, everybody!

[quote=Jim Wood]Your process and the result sounds intriguing enough for me to engage in a little "imagination theft" myself. I know what you mean about physical equipment: I went GAS in the 80s, and am now stuck with a bunch of outdated gear (floppy disks & SCSI hard drives, anyone?) taking up space in the studio.[/quote] Thanks a lot, Jim. It's really quite easy: I tend to work a lot into the sound of (heavy) drums with the utilisation of few samples, and then run out of time for proper melodies, so I basically create a semidecent 2 bars of very bassy synths so I don't need an obvious bassline (thought I always MISS having a real bassline, instead). Since I feel my tracks are really really monotone, I insert small variations in a DJ style (no kick here, repeat snare, invert melody). For instance, this track is actually just three tracks :) I feel you about the "outdated" stuff (yeah, I do my own dealing with SCSI and floppies... though I kinda love floppy disks, in a way). I tried the modular route but I don't see anybody on the interwebs frankly saying "it sounds nice but I can't find a way of justifying to myself spending several hundred dollars/euros, more close to the thousand mark, to have a 2 voice monosynth with neat routing. I'm agree: the freedom of interconnection blah blah blah, but man I run out of cables and they cost money... It's not about being "cheap", but PERSONALLY I don't find myself hearing something "incredible" and "unachievable"... So I stop and say "Do I really need to get more modules or would I be more confortable messing with Reaktor and PureData even if now that's not so cool to show up?". All respect to the modular heads and their rigs. I'm just saying that personally I'm struggling to see the point of it FOR ME and my music. Will put some more effort and exploration on it, though maybe I could be patching PureData and not looking back :) [quote=E-dub]I sometimes have felt like more effort went into one of my titles than into the song itself. And I think that as my bag of ticks grows hat it gets easier to throw together something which sounds good but I don’t really take pride in. With your massive sack of tricks and mastery of different elements of production, I can only imagine you have the same issue.[/quote] I see your point, Edmund. If you read above, at my answer to Jim, you'll see which are my tricks. I don't feel your work less polished basically because it's way more easier to finish a whole song in the box than record vocals and acoustic guitar and give them "the finished feel", at least IMO. Thanks for the compliments, though. I've titled some tracks completely out of the blue 2 minutes prior to deadline, lately :) [quote=Q-Rosh]The sound of this track is immaculate. I don`t how you do the strech- and warping tricks, but they work very well. one of my favorite songs this week.[/quote] Vielen Danke, Q-Rosh. Means a lot to me! If you read my previous answer to Jim's post, you'll see some of the tricks. As we, me and you, both use Ableton, I usually tend to mess a lot with the warping methods. The stutter effect in some tracks is achieved using Beat mode, forward only cycling and a slice width of 25 per cent. When I cut some melodic pads in the last beat of the bar, I usually switch to Complex Pro algorithm, or Complex only, in order to have some variation. Since I feel I don't do much melodic work, I try to overcompensate making it sound "surprising" from group of 4 bars to the next. Not always succeding, of course :) [img]https://media.giphy.com/media/Kc6yTencCBDVu/giphy.gif[/img] Thanks a lot, everybody!

Hot beat!!  I like all the secret grit that is underneath the surface.  Totally killer when the boom bap comes in.

On the topic of modular, the sheer expense is the main thing that makes me avoid it.  It's cool do to things "from scratch" but I'm the guy that just gets a loaf of bread from the grocery stores and pours a bunch of sauce on it and calls that a meal! :-)

Hot beat!! I like all the secret grit that is underneath the surface. Totally killer when the boom bap comes in. On the topic of modular, the sheer expense is the main thing that makes me avoid it. It's cool do to things "from scratch" but I'm the guy that just gets a loaf of bread from the grocery stores and pours a bunch of sauce on it and calls that a meal! :-)

Thanks, Orangedrink. I'm diggin' your "return to hip hop" and all the beats Yung Grandpa is jammin' on

I enjoy diggin' into old cheap equipment like forgotten rackmount synth units and get some cool sounds out of it, though with (my current) modular setup I don't get that feeling of "acomplishing a lot with less", but on the contrary, I feel like "not acomplishing much with a lot of gear", specially considering that I still have some pieces of second hand gear almost untouched "since I have to improve my modular"... I know, I know: first world problems, but anyway

Less complaning, I should be catching up with your stuff...

[quote=orangedrink]Hot beat!! I like all the secret grit that is underneath the surface. Totally killer when the boom bap comes in. On the topic of modular, the sheer expense is the main thing that makes me avoid it. It's cool do to things "from scratch" but I'm the guy that just gets a loaf of bread from the grocery stores and pours a bunch of sauce on it and calls that a meal! :-)[/quote] Thanks, Orangedrink. I'm diggin' your "return to hip hop" and all the beats Yung Grandpa is jammin' on ;) I enjoy diggin' into old cheap equipment like forgotten rackmount synth units and get some cool sounds out of it, though with (my current) modular setup I don't get that feeling of "acomplishing a lot with less", but on the contrary, I feel like "not acomplishing much with a lot of gear", specially considering that I still have some pieces of second hand gear almost untouched "since I have to improve my modular"... I know, I know: first world problems, but anyway :) Less complaning, I should be catching up with your stuff... [img]https://media.giphy.com/media/Xa7XlgmblMnMk/giphy.gif[/img]

Very intrigued by your use of the vocoder with beats modulating the synths. Rhythms are really cool. Great work!

Very intrigued by your use of the vocoder with beats modulating the synths. Rhythms are really cool. Great work!

Thank you man! Feel free to try it: it's an easy way to give live to an otherwise stale synth line. I usually resample the result so I could pitch up/down or timestrech the resulting phrase. In Ableton, one send with a vocoder, usually in 12 band mode and with some bandwidth between 110 and 12000 hz, Then all the beats sends audio to it.

Really glad you liked it!

[quote=NWSPR]Very intrigued by your use of the vocoder with beats modulating the synths. Rhythms are really cool. Great work![/quote] Thank you man! Feel free to try it: it's an easy way to give live to an otherwise stale synth line. I usually resample the result so I could pitch up/down or timestrech the resulting phrase. In Ableton, one send with a vocoder, usually in 12 band mode and with some bandwidth between 110 and 12000 hz, Then all the beats sends audio to it. Really glad you liked it! [img]https://media.giphy.com/media/fvJSqcYBGMfu0/giphy.gif[/img]

there are some really neat sound textures here - what is that sandy sounding bit that's really forward in the middle & end section? - this is mixed really cool

there are some really neat sound textures here - what is that sandy sounding bit that's really forward in the middle & end section? - this is mixed really cool

Synth are awesome and that beat is really catchy...great!
For me the banging moments around that stutter and a bit later the filtered part...

Synth are awesome and that beat is really catchy...great! For me the banging moments around that stutter and a bit later the filtered part...

dope track

dope track

Excellent groove and phat beat.  Digging those gritty sandy snares panned out.

Excellent groove and phat beat. Digging those gritty sandy snares panned out.

very nice!

very nice!