Henry I’ll buy a copy!
The reality is if I put a track on bandcamp I get maybe ten listeners and I think 3 people have paid £1 for a copy of a track (across all of them).
I’d love to press some vinyl, but the copies would be for me. It’s absolutely bang in the midlife crisis box though - so expect it in the next few years 
apyssjw 3 people have paid £1 for a copy of a track (across all of them).
Can you sign mine?
Might make it worth more as a Ltd edition when we re-sell it to Wally, Hursty or Funky.
@bosstrabs is always in the market for NonFungibleTunes as well I hear?
Think I’ll spend some quality time this week with pigments working on sound design. The update looks interesting. I’ve been starting everything on hardware the last few months, maybe time to change it up.
Unbroken1 It’s really deep. I’ve used it, almost more as a sample processor than anything else, but haven’t used it enough to really get to know it. I get the feeling like pigments could be all you need along with a daw for arrangement.
Haven’t tried the v collection, if I can’t make whatever I want with the gear I have, there’s a problem that isn’t going to be resolved by buying more synths. That said, I use the fx collection all the time. The space echo emulation is on everything I do. I’m impressed with the value arturia provides, most companies don’t offer this many (really good) free updates.
@303abuser user"#p277946 …have referenced this here before, but always tried to avoid collecting too many VST’s to avoid the risk of spending more time tinkering than actually making anything, but desperately wanted a 303 plug-in and was sold on Acid V.
Basically the upgrade deal to V Collection was as much as Acid V at full price- effectively 38 synths free!
Yeah that makes sense. I’ve got the abl3 vet and a tb3, plus the syntakt, analog four, and dfam are all pretty capable of reproducing a decent 303 sound. I’ve been wanting to do an acid project for a while, maybe after the current album I’m working on is done.
I’ve found over time that if I take a week every once in a while and just do in the box sound design, that scratches the itch to just make noise. The patches and samples that come out of those session often end up being foundational for future tracks, so it’s a win-win.
Unbroken1 Had the V Collection for some years now. Currently got V9 but didn’t go for the upgrade on account that I am rarely using VSTs these days for my main compositions. There are some lovely sounds through and I have probably used Arturia stuff more than NI or any other vendor over the years. They are pretty deep, but I found that in the end I only scratched the surface of the V Collection without really fully understanding how to properly manipulate the synths.
As for reliability. The only issue I have had is on my M1 Mac where the display would sometimes have screwed dials etc. I had a couple of tickets open on it with their support. Not used it for a while do I don’t know if it’s fixed or not.
Pigments is a beast though. The new version had a new engine ‘Modal’ which is pretty sweet….
303abuser …I’ve yet to get my hardware properly integrated into my workflow, but really enjoy tinkering with it ‘offline’, i’ll get it happening sooner or later!
Henry …actually think I’ve learned quite a bit in a short time with them, but obviously the parameters and quirks of nearly 40 VST’s take some getting your head around. Not encountered any issues with the MBP, actually don’t think an Arturia VST has glitched/frozen/crashed on me yet, unlike Diva, which sounds incredible, but is, ironically, a bit of a Diva…
Unbroken1 Matt Thomas has done some highly entertaining videos on some of the main Arturia synths that are worth checking out.
I had been holding out to buy Diva in the Black Friday deals, but they didn’t drop the price. Which was probably a good thing as I really do not need another virtual synth in my life.
Good intro here to the DX7:
Unbroken1 The best thing I did for my hardware set up was picking up the model 12 mixer. I’ve got all my synths wired in, a sub output on each channel that runs to the digitakt so I can sample any combination of inputs, 2 aux channels for the space echo pedal and the internal fx. I come up with a looped sequence that I like, track it out individually into ableton and arrange/process from there. I can do live takes for different sections, builds/breaks/etc.
It’s really made the workflow more fun. If I feel like just jamming out on hardware, I can. If I want to work hybrid or int he box, I’ve got those options too. It’s a lot to manage at the beginning, but it’s so worth it once the workflow clicks.
303abuser I have been semi-curious about this. I have the “Golden Trinity” of DN-ST-DT in that order with the DT II as the final box in the chain. I have just started going through the very laborious process of recording my tracks into Ableton. And as you know that isn’t great as I am limited by not being able to route the ST and DN individually directly into Ableton. Nor can I have FX on each individual track. So I am currently recording individual tracks one at a time, and the novelty of that has worn thin very quickly.
The Model 12 looks good. But, I may be wrong here, is limited by having mostly mono channels. And it’s a bit big, and would threaten to ruin the feng shui in the boudoir/post midlife-crisis retreat I have created.
I can’t seem to find a smaller mixer that would offer more stereo outs and be smaller. So I guess I am left with an option to use a sound card with multiple in/outs?
If you managed to read all that you have probably come to the conclusion that I haven’t got a clue. Which wouldn’t be entirely wrong.
Henry So I also kind of don’t have a clue, but I’ll try to stumble through this for you. And I’ll apologize in advance for the length.
The model 12 is just barely enough for what I need. I have it completely maxed out and don’t have my drumbrute or tb3 connected at the moment (forget that the drumbrute can output each track individually). I actually have the dt outputs running into the a4, then into one of the stereo inputs to save a channel. I have two other mono channels eaten up by the returns from the space echo pedal. If I had the budget and was looking for another mixer, I’d probably look at a much larger analog desk with more aux sends and all stereo inputs.
As for workflow, tracking to ableton is my least favorite part of the process. I’ve come to terms with it, but it’s so bloody tedious. I usually record dry individual tracks one at a time and will record a wet version if the fx are integral to the sound design. If I have a reverb across several DT tracks for instance, I really just use that reverb as a reference for the sound I’m looking for and use a vest reverb in ableton to make it cohesive. I just find that easier. Another thing I really like to do with chords is to get the kick/bass/hat pattern going in ableton, then just record a long jam of the dub chords (wet with the space echo). Sometimes I’ll take long sections of that for an arrangement and other times I’ll chop it up and resample hits to create different textures, repitch for ear candy, add variation, etc.
The whole this is a bit of a pain in the ass, but that’s the charm of hardware. I really don’t worry much about timing or imperfections anymore. I’ve learned to embrace the messiness of it and I think it helps me to come up with grooves and textures I wouldn’t otherwise. It’s also really great for layering sounds and gluing them together. Whether that’s several tracks from one box or layering multiple synths for sound design.
Sorry, that was a lot. Did that even come close to helping?
303abuser No that is really helpful. Good to know that running the tracks dry into Ableton is a normal thing to do. That’s essentially what I have been doing. Unless I like what I have done with the delay/reverb send in one of the boxes, and then I’ll just import that through the master channel.
I just didn’t want to go down another rabbit hole looking for a solution to something that there isn’t really a solution for without investing a lot of time, effort and money buying more gear.
Last night I was playing around, for the first time in probably a year, just with the DT and ST running through Overbridge into Ableton, and using Push on Pigments and really enjoying that workflow. So could well see that working for me.
You are right about getting the timings exactly right. Unless it’s really obvious on the reference beats then it’s good to be a bit messy and adds to the feel of it.
