• Music

  • the production thread

apyssjw i feel like this one would sound really good on a big system. nice track, i think we need a mix where that acid line dominates the track. 😉

    You know what, i thought the same about your last one. Could imagine that sound at Fabric certainly.

    Would love to rinse the sounds on a big system. You could pre- covid / now tier 3 pay to practice at The Cause in Tottenham. That’s on the list for next year.

    And yeah - love that acid line and the bouncy dry line that accompanies it. Can defo hear another mix - maybe in few years time when I’ve worked through the thousands of other ideas!

      apyssjw that would be cool, make sure your record it if you get the chance. and yeah i hear you, too many ideas, not enough time. but that’s a good problem to have.

        Henry Sensing your rage Loopy. Ableton has been really solid for me though. When I have had issues it has been related to 3rd party instruments and plug ins. Support I find really slow. However nowhere near as bad as N.I. who basically tell you to post it on the user forum.

        I think a turtle operates quicker than Abelton’s ‘Support’. I’ve had multiple tickets with other companies like iZotope, Eventide, Modal, etc. that are all in the same realm and they get back to me in 1-2 days. Ableton Support took a month from my initial inquiry and usually takes a week to reply. Just flat out unprofessional and abysmal for the price that they charge for their product.

          Amps I think you should get straight on it and do a video just on laser sounds… I can guarantee you at least one view!

          I may just fire up OBS just for you Ia, err Amps.

            303abuser in reference to the how evil is spotify discussion … in 2020 i spent hundreds of hours making music, 208 total hours of my tracks streamed on spotify, and earnings coming out to $6.

            Are you a member of SOCAN yet? If not, register. It’s free money.

                Unbroken1 Don’t want to go crazy high-end… feel something like the Novation Peak would be perfect, but it seems a little much to spend when there are so many great options at the lower price point these days. Based on sounds/flexibility, current front-runner is the Minilogue XD- considering the module version as I have a decent 49-key midi keyboard and value my studio space. Seems crazy-good value at £450.

                Any thoughts about/experience with these?

                The Minilogue XD is great Damo. Definitely worth grabbing for the fact that you can upload all kinds of cool open source things into it that allow you to create new ways of modulating sounds and the like.

                Honestly all of the Behringer kit is great. I can’t recommend it enough for the price. But if you want a cheap polysynth, it’s hard to go wrong with the Minilogue XD. I don’t own one myself, but I’ve played around with them pretty extensively.

                This is coming from someone who has a Jupiter-8 in my studio right now, so that’s some high praise.

                  hugopal just my opinion, but whenever I’ve heard the Minilogue I’ve thought it sounded very thin, despite being analogue.

                  The original Minilogue isn’t fat whatsoever. The XD changes all of that however. Somehow the digital component in it really makes it thump and it sounds infinitely better.

                  I hated the sound of the original Minilogue. Let alone for the fact that filter audibly steps and aliases - which is a big no-no at the best of times, let alone in an analogue synth.

                    303abuser hadn’t even considered it. happen to have a link for the process?

                    First, allow me to call you a numpty. You fucking numpty!

                    All producers reading this thread, register with your local performing rights society!

                    Now that we’ve got that out of the way, in Canada that’s SOCAN: www.socan.ca

                        303abuser menu diving can be an issue, there’s a bit of it with the a4. the elektron learning curve is as much hype as anything else, it’s really not that bad, but that’s your call. if you want one function per knob, it probably isn’t for you.

                        You’re recommending Elektron gear to a guy who hasn’t touched a hardware synth since the JP-8000?! Bwahahaha. You’re barking mad. Elektron kit is all about key combinations and memorizing them. You either love it or hate it. There’s no in between. Plus it’s bloody expensive.

                        I wouldn’t say it’s really at the level to which Damo should be looking to get back into things. Not that I think Damo is stupid, but it’s got a huge learning curve associated with it and is largely meant for DAWless application - even if you use one.

                        If you want poly Damo, the XD is a good look for the price. Otherwise the only real competitor is probably the Deepmind. Beyond that for a poly and you’re looking at spending north of $1,500 CAD (not sure of the conversion these days to the UKP) - at which point the competition heats up a great deal and comes down to the ‘sound’ of the synth you want versus what it does on the panel.

                            Amps Re production in general: absolute kick in the nuts when you don’t really know what you are doing and you know the only remedy is to spend more time poking yourself in the eye.

                            Hire me. Seriously. I’m happy to show you the ropes via Zoom/Skype/etc. I won’t charge you a tonne of cash and you’ll be able to make the latest Drum Code banger before you can speak Swedish.

                              Amps On that same point, once something is the Arrangement, I can double click it and edit it, but those edits and changes are not then applied to that track in the Session view, it just becomes its own instance within the Arrangement view? Any way to change that?

                              You may find it easiest to just choose the traditional DAW way of working and start and finish in Arrangement view. Sod Session view. I frankly don’t use it to do anything in it beyond DJ or if I were to play live.

                              Now that said, I’ve seen people jam out ideas in Session view and then plop them over to arrangement thereafter, but it seems like adding an unnecessary step. That aspect of the program really is where Abelton Live gets the live portion of its name. It was designed so that people could play over top of themselves or fire off clips of MIDI and audio in a live situation with an easier way of controlling the way they happen sequentially.

                              You want to keep things simple when learning, so I suggest doing that from the outset instead of creating an extra layer of complexity.

                              Ping me on Facebook Messenger if you’d like to organize some lessons. 🙂 I’ve got a tonne of free time at the moment because my contract expired a couple of weeks back.

                              • Amps replied to this.

                                  hugopal you should prob get yourself one of these Amps, best not to try and run before you can walk:

                                  We could get him a BlipBox. It’s a fully fledged synth but also meant for kids. It’s not exactly cheap mind you!!

                                    loopdokter i’ll argue against all of that all day. my second synth was an a4 and it’s easier to use than the ms20 mini i bought first. yeah you have to figure out the key combinations and the file structure, but it’s really not that hard; i think the whole elektron learning curve is overblown. and you can get a used a4 for $8-900 CAD, which is very reasonable for how powerful it is. you could buy no other gear and make great music for years with just the one synth. plus with overbridge, it’s certainly not aimed only at dawless set ups.

                                        303abuser Make sure you register all of your tracks released (and not released) so far. Typically upon completion of a track, I go ahead and register it on the site.

                                        Make sure you set up auto-debit with your bank. Then you wait. Typically SOCAN deposits into your account every quarter, but that’s all subject to whether or not any of your tracks have generated income yet or not.

                                        Don’t expect to break the bank, but every year I get a bit of cash from something of mine that’s been played by someone somewhere. Lately it’s been decreasing because I haven’t had my stuff out there as much.

                                        Back ‘in the day’ I used make about a grand a year through SOCAN.

                                          303abuser i’ll argue against all of that all day. my second synth was an a4 and it’s easier to use than the ms20 mini i bought first. yeah you have to figure out the key combinations and the file structure, but it’s really not that hard; i think the whole elektron learning curve is overblown. and you can get a used a4 for $8-900 CAD, which is very reasonable for how powerful it is. you could buy no other gear and make great music for years with just the one synth. plus with overbridge, it’s certainly not aimed only at dawless set ups.

                                          As someone who’s been in the game for nearly thirty years whose first synth was a JX-8P, I have to disagree. It’s one thing starting out with that - which is what you essentially did. It’s another coming from the more traditional ‘one knob per function’ of the JP-8000.

                                          The whole Elektron deal was for people to play live a la ‘groovebox’ style. Overbridge came after. Yes, you can use it via Overbridge with a DAW, but Elektron stuff isn’t simple. It takes a lot of mastering those key combos and such to pull the power out of the boxes. So while I get that you love your Elektron gear, the users of that gear are very dedicated and drink the Kool-Aid. My point to you is that you either are or are not an Elektron workflow lover. It’s very polarizing gear. You either jive with their workflow or you don’t

                                          Is it powerful? Absolutely. Is it generally expensive? Absolutely. Is it easy to use? Debatable. They’re sort of like Apple of the synth world. They have a rabid fan base with an equally as loathing group who despise them. Hehe.

                                          As for your MS-20, I can see why that might be a bit intimidating but that’s a great synth to learn traditional subtractive synthesis on (and if I recall correctly, I recommended purchasing). I love mine and strangely, don’t find myself doing a lot of patching on it!