the production thread
Evening all, I did a little remix of Bonny by Prefab Sprout recently, it’s a private link on SC, but I’ve enabled the D/L
link for those that are into it 
Gav.
Snag the Focusrite FAST Reveal/Bundle instead. It’s more expensive than TrackSpacer, but it’s easier to use and does a better job. You can rent to own them over a year.
Focusrite Balancer has taken up all of my sidechain processing duties for me and allows things to breathe properly in the mix because it only ducks the offending frequencies of what you’re sidechaining it from.
loopdokter I’ve had trackspacer since the turn of the year. Does exactly what it says on the tin, only criticism is that it’s a bit resource heavy. Can believe other bits do just as good if not better job.
What, if anything, have people got their eye on for black Friday etc?
I’ll watch for the ableton sale, may upgrade to 11 finally. Looking at morph 2 maybe, but I can’t say there’s too much I need for plugins. Synplant 2 looks really interesting, I just can’t justify spending that much for something I don’t really need.
Nothing. I’m officially plugin-in’ed out. Unless something absolutely ground breaking and earth shattering comes along, realistically speaking I don’t need another plugin until the day I die. I’ve bought certain plugins that I thought I’d use and haven’t used them once.
It kind of helps that I beta test for Universal Audio and get all of the Spark plugins gratis. Check them out if you haven’t already. They’re rapidly porting everything over to be AAX, VST3, AU ready.
I would love for FabFilter’s multiband compressor to go on a steep discount, but that’s a pipe dream. Considering what they charge for their stuff, I’m starting to find equally if not better tools for a much better price.
…fancy the Synplant 2 upgrade, the original synth is so cool, but this looks mental
If I needed another sound design tool, I’d be all over it.
Unbroken1 that’s the spirit
I’ve bought a number of things, not used them for years and then come back to them. Spectrasonics stylus is in that bucket. It feels probably like old technology imho, but am using it loads.
That said there’s other bits which are still on the shelf. I bought a copy of melodyne when it came out and haven’t found a use for it.
apyssjw That said there’s other bits which are still on the shelf. I bought a copy of melodyne when it came out and haven’t found a use for it.
I used to use Melodyne loads but I probably haven’t touched it in two years. That said, about a year ago I snagged it on on a deep discount. It’s a good thing to have in your arsenal. I tend to use it more for pitch correction on vocals - which clearly I don’t work a lot with - than its time stretching capabilities.
loopdokter yeah, I used it a little to make time stretched noises - but not much more.
Three remix competions going if anyone fancies a pop - I just want the stems
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ArchimedesQ Three remix competions going
Just waiting for @Amps to put a Donk on it and blow everyone else out the water 
Mad_Cyril the dance floor would be a deltoid power zone.
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Amps surveying the remains of the dancefloor
ArchimedesQ not sure I’d be able to turn it around in a month. I feel like these comps would do much better if they put a longer time frame on things.
But will be messing around with them.
So, I’ve gone and bought a Syntakt. 303abuser was right all along, it is absolutely fantastic. Never really got on with creating drum patterns in either Ableton/Push or with Maschine. And this little box of tricks is really what I needed to kick start the old creative process again. We’ll see….
I understand that I am talking to myself and no-one will read this. But for anyone thinking of getting a drum machine, then this thing is very easy to learn. Overbridge linking to Ableton was almost a doddle, as I needed to install a previous version due to some issues with the M1 chips. Other than that a massive thumbs up.
Henry …love my TR8s, excellent fun for jamming with, but I’m not using it in production work at all.
Really loving just firing up a drum rack loaded with samples triggered by a MaxforLive sequencer, then editing the shit out of whatever audio comes out.
Really need to circle back to the hardware at some point tho.
Henry Good man, isn’t it fantastic? The only problem is that when I pair it with the digitakt, my other hardware goes pretty much unused. So easy to get ideas down and it all sounds so good. You can maybe argue with the hats, but a little layering goes a long way.
Just starting the ground work for another album and spent this morning sampling from the ST into ableton, adding fx, and resampling. We may have a line on a dub vocalist too, which would be amazing if it pans out.
Also, nice work on this one 
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Henry to kick start the old creative process again
Excellent.
I bought d16’s Lush 02 as I had a heavy crossgrade discount really, SH101 based synth. Of course I didn’t need another synth - but it sounds great and has pushed me in another direction, which is just what you want from a new bit of kit.
Henry I understand that I am talking to myself and no-one will read this.
Has everyone seen the new feature on soundcloud which pushes your music to 100 accounts which should have a similar interest. Is an interesting concept - though I’ve only read the holding page on it and not seen it in action.
It usually autoplays some trap / rap when I’ve been demo-ig my own private tracks on there so am not overly optimistic of the accuracy of their data.
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Mad_Cyril It’s for tracks of up to 10 mins and doesn’t guarantee plays. But is recognition that most of the content posted to it gets no or very little engagement.
If I’m looking at AI from a what can it do for me perspective tools with the aim of creating engagement are something that’s more interesting than something that will mix a kick and bass for me.
303abuser
Still in the very early days of learning my way around it. But really impressed so far. So easy to generate polyrhythms and adding variation. I just want to focus on learning this in the short term and then start putting stuff together in Ableton. My only gripe is that the sound quality sounds slightly muffled vs my Arturia and NI VSTs. Maybe there’s something I need to change in Overbridge to optimise it.
Looking forward to hearing your new stuff. Vocals will be a nice touch. :
apyssjw
That’s an interesting synth. I can’t justify another VST, although I do have a demo of Plasmonic which is basically Absynth from the same developer. If they drop a chunk off the price off for Black Friday I could be tempted. I really miss Absynth since I moved to Apple Silicon.
Henry Polyrhythms, conditional trigs, trigless trigs, it’s all just endless possibilities. I love it for kick and bass especially, I find layering is really helpful with sound design.
Not sure about the muffled sound, mine comes out clean through overbridge. Is there a difference in the sound between the headphone output and overbridge?
303abuser
Thanks for the layering tip. Will have to have another listen for any sound quality issues. Only run it through Ableton very briefly to make sure that there were no issues with Overbridge.
I have to come clean and say that I even like the Syntakt so much that I have bought a wooden stand for it. So even if I get bored with it, it will look great on my mantelpiece and compliment the nest of tables from IKEA in the corner.
apyssjw
Absynth is the most creative synth I’ve ever used. Think it was one of the first synths I used when I started out with Cubase way back. Was gutted when I heard that NI no longer supported it. Plasmonic is great. But from the demo it’s not going to fill the void.
Henry So, I’ve gone and bought a Syntakt. 303abuser was right all along, it is absolutely fantastic. Never really got on with creating drum patterns in either Ableton/Push or with Maschine. And this little box of tricks is really what I needed to kick start the old creative process again. We’ll see….
I’m intrested. Also had Maschine but never got along with it. How would you say Syntakt is easier/more user friendly in comparison?
Does it work more like a step sequncer? I like that type of work flow.
Henry You’ll find the levels that come out of overbridge a little low, they did that on purpose to keep headroom. I put utility on each overbridge channel coming in with a 5 db boost as the default.
I bought a two tier stand for the DT and ST, looks good and is super functional. Now I start a project on both boxes, match up the patterns, and spend 15-30 minutes putting a jam together on A01, then move on to A02, A03, etc. and do the same. Write everything at 120 bpm in Gm so I can mix and match any of the sounds. It’s so quick to get ideas down and has really sped up my workflow.
mono-stereo Does it work more like a step sequncer? I like that type of work flow.
It does exactly that, I almost write exclusively with step sequencing.
mono-stereo
Syntakt is much more immediate for getting ideas down. With Maschine and Ableton Push, you are faffing about with plugins, getting patterns, variations etc down. Whereas as soon as you switch Syntakt on everything is more direct. A few taps here and there and you’ve got something going in no time at all.
303abuser Nice one.
Henry Good stuff, I thought Maschine was pointless with all the faffing about, will give one of these a go i reckon.
So with Black Friday deals starting to show up, are there any tools (software or hardware) you guys are keeping an eye on?
…just bought Arturia’s EFXMotion, had been limiting myself to Live’s effects while I got my head around them, but fancied trying something a little different that gave movement without the need for mammoth FX chains. Quite fun so far but haven’t really deep-dived with it yet.
Am also quite tempted by DS Audio Tantra 2, as it sounds wicked for reshaping rhythmical stuff, but wondering if its a little too similar to the above?
I may upgrade to ableton 11 soon, so I’ll watch for that sale, otherwise Morph 2 is the only other sale I’m really watching for. I’m sure I’ll impulse buy something, although I’ve been pretty restrained recently.