This is a heavy jam. Super groove, surprisingly catchy stuff!

This is a heavy jam. Super groove, surprisingly catchy stuff!

The beat is very precise and bouncy. Very well done. You kept it simple and the tension stayed strong.

The beat is very precise and bouncy. Very well done. You kept it simple and the tension stayed strong.

That edge metallic bass is really excellent. This has a great groove. It's challenging playing along with modular, software or hardware, there's always a lot of distractions and things left to chance to trip you up, but this sounds fantastic, so definitely a good experiment!

Have you tried pushing your buffer/sample size up while recording? It'll introduce latency but can make a huge difference for the cpu. VCV also loves to use all the threads it can - which was a real problem for my old cpu.

One other question - how are you mastering this? I noticed this track and your other VCV track recently are quite loud. I wasn't sure at first cuz my ears have been erratic a few weeks but I sorta compared today and it's definitely on the loud end. Sounds great just loud lol.

That edge metallic bass is really excellent. This has a great groove. It's challenging playing along with modular, software or hardware, there's always a lot of distractions and things left to chance to trip you up, but this sounds fantastic, so definitely a good experiment! Have you tried pushing your buffer/sample size up while recording? It'll introduce latency but can make a huge difference for the cpu. VCV also loves to use all the threads it can - which was a real problem for my old cpu. One other question - how are you mastering this? I noticed this track and your other VCV track recently are quite loud. I wasn't sure at first cuz my ears have been erratic a few weeks but I sorta compared today and it's definitely on the loud end. Sounds great just loud lol.

Such a lovely thick n squelchy bass sound.  The groove gets going right away and those upper floaty pads make it feel like you're flying in a jetsons-esque futuristic city.  Well done!

Such a lovely thick n squelchy bass sound. The groove gets going right away and those upper floaty pads make it feel like you're flying in a jetsons-esque futuristic city. Well done!

great bass groove and patch design! Well done

great bass groove and patch design! Well done

Thanks so much, it's much more stripped down than I was originally aiming for, I'm glad it still got a catch vibe. 

Thank you for the kind words.  I must say that I love programming drums with the Keystep pro, just so fast to get like exactly the rhythms I hear in my head, like out into the world. 

Thanks, and yeah I was aiming to sequence a lead in, or like get a nice arp pattern that that could play through, but I just couldn't find a tone that sounded right with over the bass, and that didn't sound cheesy as an arp... at the time it felt like a sound design issue, but that might have been that I had just spent too long listening to the drums and bass on loop. 

I don't think VCV Rack has any way to control buffer size, just sample rate (which I did have to turn down).  You can also tell it how many CPU Threads to use, but that feature just straight doesn't work (at least for me) on Linux (which is where this particular track was recorded), and it barely works on Mac.  In all honesty I could have patched it a little differently and recorded it all on my Mac (which very likely wouldn't have choked at all), but Instruo hasn't made version of their modules for Apple Silcon yet, and those are go to modules for me.  So often with VCV rack I will do sound design and recording samples on my Linux box, then finish in in Logic, rather than doing the whole thing on the Mac... again... just stubborn, there's no good reason for it. 

And yeah seems like in my panic when I realized that everything was in mono, I added a bunch of stereo widening (so delays) to most of the tracks, but never went back to adjust the maximizer down after functionally adding 50% volume to most of the tracks.  So yeah, it looks like it's metering a fair bit louder than I was aiming for.  Generally though, when I have stems my mastering chain is pretty simple.  One of my professors is prone to saying "If you have the stems, then you only need a maximizer for mastering... everything else can be done in the mix."  I pretty much never make it to that extreme, but in this case my mastering chain is just a dynamic EQ, an imager, and a maximizer.

Awesome visual, maybe I can use that to inspire a melody for this... hmmm...

Thanks, I have been finding it hard to spend time doing anything OTHER than patch things in VCV for the past few weeks.  So easy to get lost in the sound design of it all.

[quote=onezero]This is a heavy jam. Super groove, surprisingly catchy stuff![/quote] Thanks so much, it's much more stripped down than I was originally aiming for, I'm glad it still got a catch vibe. [quote=Q-Rosh]The beat is very precise and bouncy. Very well done. You kept it simple and the tension stayed strong.[/quote] Thank you for the kind words. I must say that I love programming drums with the Keystep pro, just so fast to get like exactly the rhythms I hear in my head, like out into the world. [quote=neon liminal]That edge metallic bass is really excellent. This has a great groove. It's challenging playing along with modular, software or hardware, there's always a lot of distractions and things left to chance to trip you up, but this sounds fantastic, so definitely a good experiment! Have you tried pushing your buffer/sample size up while recording? It'll introduce latency but can make a huge difference for the cpu. VCV also loves to use all the threads it can - which was a real problem for my old cpu. One other question - how are you mastering this? I noticed this track and your other VCV track recently are quite loud. I wasn't sure at first cuz my ears have been erratic a few weeks but I sorta compared today and it's definitely on the loud end. Sounds great just loud lol.[/quote] Thanks, and yeah I was aiming to sequence a lead in, or like get a nice arp pattern that that could play through, but I just couldn't find a tone that sounded right with over the bass, and that didn't sound cheesy as an arp... at the time it felt like a sound design issue, but that might have been that I had just spent too long listening to the drums and bass on loop. I don't think VCV Rack has any way to control buffer size, just sample rate (which I did have to turn down). You can also tell it how many CPU Threads to use, but that feature just straight doesn't work (at least for me) on Linux (which is where this particular track was recorded), and it barely works on Mac. In all honesty I could have patched it a little differently and recorded it all on my Mac (which very likely wouldn't have choked at all), but Instruo hasn't made version of their modules for Apple Silcon yet, and those are go to modules for me. So often with VCV rack I will do sound design and recording samples on my Linux box, then finish in in Logic, rather than doing the whole thing on the Mac... again... just stubborn, there's no good reason for it. And yeah seems like in my panic when I realized that everything was in mono, I added a bunch of stereo widening (so delays) to most of the tracks, but never went back to adjust the maximizer down after functionally adding 50% volume to most of the tracks. So yeah, it looks like it's metering a fair bit louder than I was aiming for. Generally though, when I have stems my mastering chain is pretty simple. One of my professors is prone to saying "If you have the stems, then you only need a maximizer for mastering... everything else can be done in the mix." I pretty much never make it to that extreme, but in this case my mastering chain is just a dynamic EQ, an imager, and a maximizer. [quote=Tone Matrix]Such a lovely thick n squelchy bass sound. The groove gets going right away and those upper floaty pads make it feel like you're flying in a jetsons-esque futuristic city. Well done![/quote] Awesome visual, maybe I can use that to inspire a melody for this... hmmm... [quote=SQF]great bass groove and patch design! Well done[/quote] Thanks, I have been finding it hard to spend time doing anything OTHER than patch things in VCV for the past few weeks. So easy to get lost in the sound design of it all.

love it, Napear! not that you don't jump around normally, but this one feels like a different turn for you. i'm almost picking up some Depeche Mode and New Order vibes, both good things in my book! into it 

love it, Napear! not that you don't jump around normally, but this one feels like a different turn for you. i'm almost picking up some Depeche Mode and New Order vibes, both good things in my book! into it :D

Man you have a good ear for harmony... yeah, this one is a subtle, but noteworthy departure from my go to harmonic progressions. I decided I wanted to tool around in Dorian (ironically because I wanted to improvise some leads with that scale), and like basically every pop song for the last 40 years that's in Dorian uses the same chords as I do in this track, and basically all in the same progression... Blue Monday as an example is VERY similar, but I think that is III-VII-i-VI and this track is (mostly) i-III-VII-VI I think.  But like Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Mad World, Man in a Box, How You Remind Me, Run To You... etc, etc... all use some variation of this progression. And, I kind of had Tears for Fears in my mind while I was sequencing it, but yeah good ear I was trying something new here.  Thanks for the kind words, and I very much appreciate that you picked up on the departure from the norms for me. 

[quote=jwh]love it, Napear! not that you don't jump around normally, but this one feels like a different turn for you. i'm almost picking up some Depeche Mode and New Order vibes, both good things in my book! into it :D[/quote] Man you have a good ear for harmony... yeah, this one is a subtle, but noteworthy departure from my go to harmonic progressions. I decided I wanted to tool around in Dorian (ironically because I wanted to improvise some leads with that scale), and like basically every pop song for the last 40 years that's in Dorian uses the same chords as I do in this track, and basically all in the same progression... Blue Monday as an example is VERY similar, but I think that is III-VII-i-VI and this track is (mostly) i-III-VII-VI I think. But like Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Mad World, Man in a Box, How You Remind Me, Run To You... etc, etc... all use some variation of this progression. And, I kind of had Tears for Fears in my mind while I was sequencing it, but yeah good ear I was trying something new here. Thanks for the kind words, and I very much appreciate that you picked up on the departure from the norms for me.

Such a great background for some soloing and vocals. All the ingredients are there. All it needs is Lauren Mayberry.

Such a great background for some soloing and vocals. All the ingredients are there. All it needs is Lauren Mayberry.

Lol, thanks, I'll have to shoot a copy over to her agent... I'm sure it would only be one of several thousand unsolicited tracks that gets sent to CHVRCHΞS like every month. ｡：ﾟﾟ(´∀｀)･｡ Seriously though, I think you're right it does just beg for a lead, I'm sure there's one out there for it somewhere in the ether for it... maybe one day I will find it. 

[quote=rplktr]Such a great background for some soloing and vocals. All the ingredients are there. All it needs is Lauren Mayberry.[/quote] Lol, thanks, I'll have to shoot a copy over to her agent... I'm sure it would only be one of several thousand unsolicited tracks that gets sent to CHVRCHΞS like every month. ｡：ﾟﾟ(´∀｀)･｡ Seriously though, I think you're right it does just beg for a lead, I'm sure there's one out there for it somewhere in the ether for it... maybe one day I will find it.

[img]https://i.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExbTg0em5sbml5MDQzY21vZWo2YzNydmo2NjBsOWkyYTA1dm52N3U3bCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/Jmlv4CUO1qWlGWJf3J/giphy.gif[/img]

Such a nice beat and beautiful pads underneath, the main synth has a nice lofi feel to it, really enjoyed this one.

Such a nice beat and beautiful pads underneath, the main synth has a nice lofi feel to it, really enjoyed this one.

That's one tight beat, plenty of room for creativity (but it's copyrighted, so you're going to have to do it on your own). These drums go hard.
- Spider

That's one tight beat, plenty of room for creativity (but it's copyrighted, so you're going to have to do it on your own). These drums go hard. - Spider

Thanks, I did a fair amount of sound design on the bass sound and most of that saturation and lofi type sound is coming from the Vult Debriatus wave destruction module.  Great tool for getting some grit on a bass sound. Some of it is also probably a happy accident from trying to recover the stereo imaging... the original version had the left and right channels syncopated with slightly different envelops on the volume for each, but somehow a long the way I ended up with it summed to mono, and lost some definition when I tried to do stereo widening... but it kinda added some nice grit so I'm not super mad about it. 

Thanks, I was really please with how the drums came out.  Pretty much all Hora drum synth mondules, with a little tube saturation, but really the programming for them was just leaning into some of the handy sequencing features from the Keystep... which is really just a joy to sequence with.  It's just so fast to get really great patterns laid down.  Super inspiring. 

[quote=emily]<3[/quote] [img]https://i.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExZmdiZmFlcGdlYmljc2xpOHhieHhzdW0yNWtkNDZrMHZjaHplbndoOSZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/NyMSZsWepPCQo/giphy.gif[/img] [quote=Jason Nijjer]Such a nice beat and beautiful pads underneath, the main synth has a nice lofi feel to it, really enjoyed this one.[/quote] Thanks, I did a fair amount of sound design on the bass sound and most of that saturation and lofi type sound is coming from the Vult Debriatus wave destruction module. Great tool for getting some grit on a bass sound. Some of it is also probably a happy accident from trying to recover the stereo imaging... the original version had the left and right channels syncopated with slightly different envelops on the volume for each, but somehow a long the way I ended up with it summed to mono, and lost some definition when I tried to do stereo widening... but it kinda added some nice grit so I'm not super mad about it. [quote=Devieus]That's one tight beat, plenty of room for creativity (but it's copyrighted, so you're going to have to do it on your own). These drums go hard. - Spider[/quote] Thanks, I was really please with how the drums came out. Pretty much all Hora drum synth mondules, with a little tube saturation, but really the programming for them was just leaning into some of the handy sequencing features from the Keystep... which is really just a joy to sequence with. It's just so fast to get really great patterns laid down. Super inspiring.