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The great plugin catastrophe


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I'm facing a new computer and accompanying system overhaul. This includes booting several synths to the curb. I've chosen effects & various utilities carefully, but the synths have gone from being a tool box to being a Pile. Can you say "diminishing returns?" I'll spare you the filibuster of what and why (you're welcome), but I look forward to the cleaner slate. I have one new serious buy in mind and one 'maybe'.

 

Pianoteq is a lock. The maybe is that Cherry Audio seems poised to release a Memorymoog. If its even halfway to Moog-true, I'm interested. Memorymoon makes one, but its Windows-only. I don't expect it to rival a Moog One, let's be real, but my last hardware Moog was a Multimoog that's some years in the rear-view now. I'm not Roland-crazy and I'm satisfied with the accuracy of Memorymoon's ME80 (CS-80), so the one missing vintage flagship is a Moog. All I'll need then is someone to smack me in the back of the head 3x a year and say NO! NO NEW SYNTH YET! :cop:

 

I'm learning from Kuru's wisdom. His travails remind me of an old sitcom exchange....

 

"I think you may have a gambling problem."

"I prefer to think of it as a hobby that has me by the balls." :eek::keys:

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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I'm facing a new computer and accompanying system overhaul. This includes booting several synths to the curb. I've chosen effects & various utilities carefully, but the synths have gone from being a tool box to being a Pile. Can you say "diminishing returns?" I'll spare you the filibuster of what and why (you're welcome), but I look forward to the cleaner slate. I have one new serious buy in mind and one 'maybe'.

 

Pianoteq is a lock. The maybe is that Cherry Audio seems poised to release a Memorymoog. If its even halfway to Moog-true, I'm interested. Memorymoon makes one, but its Windows-only. I don't expect it to rival a Moog One, let's be real, but my last hardware Moog was a Multimoog that's some years in the rear-view now. I'm not Roland-crazy and I'm satisfied with the accuracy of Memorymoon's ME80 (CS-80), so the one missing vintage flagship is a Moog. All I'll need then is someone to smack me in the back of the head 3x a year and say NO! NO NEW SYNTH YET! :cop:

 

I'm learning from Kuru's wisdom. His travails remind me of an old sitcom exchange....

 

"I think you may have a gambling problem."

"I prefer to think of it as a hobby that has me by the balls." :eek::keys:

 

Truth and humor, great post!!!

 

Here I am, a poor keyboardist at best and I have 20+ synths in my plugins. Bearing in mind that SampleTank, Kontakt Player, Arturia Analog Lab (free and I have both versions) and some others have a buttload of different synths contained within.

To be honest, I dislike many of the interfaces, they are crammed full of stuff and often cluttered with knobs (pet peeve, mouse has no thumb or finger, why no slider?). But, they often have a ton of presets that are fun.

 

I have an Akai MPK 25 that's pretty OK and an X-Key 25 that I like because it's tiny but really, I suck on keyboards. I also have a Fishman Triple Play on a guitar, that plays the synths in it's own way and the interface allows running 3 or 4 synths at once which forgives the presets since you can't tell anymore.

 

How often do I use it? Well, this one time... and then... etc, bla bla bla. Not enough to justify having them but it is fun and I would miss them if they were gone.

 

This is the long version, I tracked this in 2014 for fun. There is a bass, acoustic 6 and 12 strings, Korg Wavedrum playing drums (I made loops too) some electric guitar and the rest is all Fishman TriplePlay.

https://metapop.com/opossum-apocalypse/tracks/opossum-apocalypse-long-mix/180793

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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That was great fun! The long mix is the prize, screw the shorter one. Its yoga music for people whose dogs keep interrupting by trying to join in. I can relate. Some of my music resides between "Not At All Healthy" and Jean-Jacques Perrey, so 'eclectic' is my favorite style. Its even less of a label than the usual ones.

 

I was developing good hand independence when nerve damage sent that direction packing, but I turned out to be a much better composer than live player. I use an XKey 37 as my #1 musical typewriter, which has worked out nicely. Studio craft sometimes turns out to be an interesting, honest alternative to vainly striving to be Stevie Ray II. If you'd told me in 1984 that I'd wind up with God's own pipe organ in a desktop, I would have crapped a boat motor. :o

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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That was great fun! The long mix is the prize, screw the shorter one. Its yoga music for people whose dogs keep interrupting by trying to join in. I can relate. Some of my music resides between "Not At All Healthy" and Jean-Jacques Perrey, so 'eclectic' is my favorite style. Its even less of a label than the usual ones.

 

I was developing good hand independence when nerve damage sent that direction packing, but I turned out to be a much better composer than live player. I use an XKey 37 as my #1 musical typewriter, which has worked out nicely. Studio craft sometimes turns out to be an interesting, honest alternative to vainly striving to be Stevie Ray II. If you'd told me in 1984 that I'd wind up with God's own pipe organ in a desktop, I would have crapped a boat motor. :o

 

That's funny!!! And, thanks for the compliment!!!!

 

Good to know the X-Key is well regarded elsewhere, I've considered a 37 key but I only paid $10 for mine. Every year college students leave Bellingham and more or less give their stuff away so they don't have to carry it. Craigslist? Gotta be fast!!! I couldn't do anything useful with 2 hands anyway, at least not on keys.

 

I LOVE the studio, I can try anything I want, it's my stuff and my time. I have fun playing bar band gigs and make a few bucks rocking out with my friends (a rare situation, I will admit) but recordings can go worldwide. Bar gigs keep my chops up though, that's good for something.

 

I'll probably keep most of my synths, they are all 64 bit, some of the ones you heard bit the dust when I moved to Catalina. So it goes.

I have a TON of stuff that probably isn't "special" enough to bother with and my tedious little goal now is to find and destroy the intruders. I'll review a pile of them this weekend.

If I end up liking all of them then maybe I should throw them all away?

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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  • 3 weeks later...
If you'd told me in 1984 that I'd wind up with God's own pipe organ in a desktop, I would have crapped a boat motor. :o

 

That's funny!!! And, thanks for the compliment!!!!

 

Good to know the X-Key is well regarded elsewhere, I've considered a 37 key but I only paid $10 for mine.

I've owned three or four of them. I keep giving them away to friends who need something small, reliable, and fun, and buying more for myself. The non-Bluetooth 37 is an exceptional value because it has a breakout pigtail for a MIDI out and sustain and expression pedal inputs, so you can power it on USB and use it as a standalone controller. I should get another one at some point, now that my K-Board Pro 4 is gone.

 

Protip: If you get the Xkey 37, always keep a little bit of gaff tape in the carrybag (I have some wrapped around a ballpoint pen). Use a tiny piece to tape the pigtail to the keyboard when in use. The connector was chosen for small size rather than sturdiness, and even connecting ordinary cables to it makes it heavy enough to unplug itself. I also recommend strain relief on all cables anyway.

 

I'll probably keep most of my synths, they are all 64 bit, some of the ones you heard bit the dust when I moved to Catalina. So it goes.

I have a TON of stuff that probably isn't "special" enough to bother with and my tedious little goal now is to find and destroy the intruders. I'll review a pile of them this weekend.

If I end up liking all of them then maybe I should throw them all away?

Well, a proverb concerning babies and bathwater comes to mind...

 

I am currently doing a little more work with Ableton Live for the first time in forever, as the rev 11 upgrade has finally added a bunch of stuff that is handy for me. So I have slowly been rediscovering plug-ins that I reviewed for the magazine. I have a huge pile of NFRs, and am putting them back in place very very slowly. My main focus is on stuff that I either (a) have been using forever and know backwards and forwards or (b) find incredibly intriguing and useful and want to know more about.

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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... Cherry Audio seems poised to release a Memorymoog. If its even halfway to Moog-true, I'm interested. Memorymoon makes one, but its Windows-only.

 

Memorymoon-Messiah and ME-80 are C++, 64Bit and MAC / PC already.

Memorymon-Memorymoon is the last which has to be finished as a from ground up new coded C++ 64Bit Mac / PC plugin, and it WILL come and will be as good as the ME80 is.

 

I know Gunnar, the developer,- primary a musician (jazz keyboardplayer/ pianist) who made the plugins for his own usage and satisfaction.

I helped when the Synthedit Memorymoog clone was in it´s child shoes and can´t wait testing the upgrade when ready.

It needs more time than big software companies need to come up w/ upgrades.

Gunnar pays coders per hr,- you know,- and Memorymoon is a quasi boutique 1-man "company" where income from plugin sales flows back into development and sound design.

I think Gunnar creates wonderful patches for his plugins and real players !

 

As much as I find the Cherry Audio Memorymode tempting too, I´ll wait for the Memorymoon !

 

I'm satisfied with the accuracy of Memorymoon's ME80 (CS-80), so the one missing vintage flagship is a Moog.

 

I agree !

 

A.C.

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  • 4 weeks later...

As a total sideswipe, a week ago or so I spotted a Lexicon MPX 550 rack mount multi effects unit that was listed incorrectly as an M 550. I was watching it and the seller shot me an offer, with shipping it was almost $195.

They usually sell for quite a bit more than that and the photo looked like excellent condition (also said MPX 550 on it) so I bit. Will be here probably Friday or Saturday.

 

It's still plugins and older ones to boot but latency is not a problem if you commit to a sound and go with it. The reviews indicate it's a good sounding box.

Worst case I can at least break even on it if I don't get what I want from it.

I can save lots of presets on it that I make myself. That could save time compared to fiddling about on the computer. It was designed as a 3d interface for humans who have fingers and thumbs, I know I will like that aspect.

 

Some plugins will get to hang out, I really like the interface on the Eventide Physion and Micro-pitch plugs, all sliders and some great sounding presets that are easy to adjust.

 

I guess we'll see what happens, I wanted to bounce this back up to the top anyway.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I once possessed a Roland RSP550, from 1991. That one awed me above even the Yamaha SPX90, because it seemed born to amplify a synth's powers. It was a tidal wave of pure cream. I was loosely learning to play effect knobs as much as synth, so ambient tabletop rigs feel a bit familiar.

 

Aside from Logic's generous stock effects, I don't feel drawn to a pile of 3rd party plugs. I've got a few outside bits and pieces, but I often play them by hand as I polish things. Its not as if I've built a modular side-rack out of processors only.

 

While I've learned some especially useful things about compression, I'm still stacking two reverbs like I did in 1982. Its just that this time around, everything I have came from the effing Enterprise. Its a major leap up from the World O' Hiss you get with 4 (old-style) guitar pedals in series. :eek:

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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I once possessed a Roland RSP550, from 1991. That one awed me above even the Yamaha SPX90, because it seemed born to amplify a synth's powers. It was a tidal wave of pure cream. I was loosely learning to play effect knobs as much as synth, so ambient tabletop rigs feel a bit familiar.

 

Aside from Logic's generous stock effects, I don't feel drawn to a pile of 3rd party plugs. I've got a few outside bits and pieces, but I often play them by hand as I polish things. Its not as if I've built a modular side-rack out of processors only.

 

While I've learned some especially useful things about compression, I'm still stacking two reverbs like I did in 1982. Its just that this time around, everything I have came from the effing Enterprise. Its a major leap up from the World O' Hiss you get with 4 (old-style) guitar pedals in series. :eek:

 

 

Nice, I've had the Hiss, Hum and Blit-Blat World of Cheap Guitar stuffs before!!! It was both immersive and horrendous. Much later, we devised a trio devoted to not sounding like anything people could comprehend or like.

The basis of our unprecedented ability to clear the room was using acoustic guitar bridge pickup systems as replacements for the nuts on a bass (mine) and a guitar (the guitarist's). This allowed us to play The Notes That Are Wrong.

Coupled with glitch-pitch shifted chunks of delay with the time knob turned to the worst possible place, we were as soothing as an ocean of thumbtacks, dive right in.

 

Our audiences may have deserved it but I didn't. Still, in the eye of the hurricane it is calm and peaceful. There are much better pedals now but I just want one thing that does all sorts of goofy shit. The MPX is now sitting on top of my rack, waiting to be hooked up. Tomorrow I'll take it for a spin and see what all is in there. Since the have held value even now I'll assume that it has some useful tricks.

 

At last count, I had 100+ plugins and I don't feel enthusiastic about trying them all and cleaning up my mess. If the Lexicon seems to have all the tricks down I may just delete all the plugins from the DAW and leave them on the computer for now. Maybe the best way is to slowly re-introduce them one by one and see which ones are allowed to live.

 

Waveform allows me to build "racks", I should probably build about 5 or 6 of those with different plugins inside and call it good.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Hey Beavis, you said "ocean of thumbtacks!" That reminds me of two analogs: the old standby about sliding down a 1000-foot razor blade into a pool of alcohol or being given Lou Reed's 2 LP "Metal Machine Music" as a gift. Remember that pretentious, glorious thing of horror? I enjoy a lot of his music, but that moment in the annals of Music is one big cube of lemon Jell-O with 3 dead flies in it, which was part of the point. Eek! This is far better.

 

[video:youtube]

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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Uhhh.... he like, called me Beavis or something... *dillhole* heheh. :)

 

^Nice, thanks for sharing.

 

I'm not familiar with most of Lou Reed's creations. I have listened to lots of music, I think a great deal of that is random happenstance.

I rarely listen to music now, I play it instead. I mostly need "not music" these days.

 

I've decided to focus on creating sounds going in, hardware configured for desired results. I went through a process with using a DAW and doing everything in the box, mixing with plugins, etc. I'm glad I did it and I am not abandoning it.

I see it as one piece of the puzzle, I even remixed about 20 tunes on Metapop even if I didn't particularly like them. That is actually freeing in terms of remix, indifference is it's own reward. It means you can be brutal or absurd (hopefully both) and just learn new things.

 

I'm going to work on recording and playing real drums and percussion, with maybe some Korg Wavedrum tossed in since you have to play that - it has no loops or MIDI.

I have ideas for hooking up multiple devices for a variety of tones on a variety of instruments. The E-Bow beckons again and the fretless bass.

 

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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  • 3 weeks later...
Waveform Pro (11.5.18) has "sandboxing" for plugins that suck down too much processing power. I've got that fired up now, will go through my plugins and see what gets sandboxed. Maybe it those just need to go away.
It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I'm still having to leave a few things fallow because they have yet to reach Big Sur. No complaint, as especially the smaller houses have to allocate coding time against customer base size, best sellers first. I lost a few old KVR weirdies and decided that the almighty Wavestation was just gathering dust. The GUI is too convoluted for the jaded Me of 2021. I need a software Wavestate, sure, that will fix everything.

 

I'm holding out for USB 12.2, on a CME WIDI plugged into a jack on my neck. MPE 4.0 will include brain wave CCs.

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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I'm still having to leave a few things fallow because they have yet to reach Big Sur. No complaint, as especially the smaller houses have to allocate coding time against customer base size, best sellers first. I lost a few old KVR weirdies and decided that the almighty Wavestation was just gathering dust. The GUI is too convoluted for the jaded Me of 2021. I need a software Wavestate, sure, that will fix everything.

 

I'm holding out for USB 12.2, on a CME WIDI plugged into a jack on my neck. MPE 4.0 will include brain wave CCs.

 

 

Still on Catalina here but pondering an M1 Mac Mini for dedicated studio use. May be a bit in the future.

I'm considering ditching all the plugins that have too many knobs and no presets, just for one category. I could do to trim down the number of EQ, Compressor and Delay plugins too. But, you can't have too many reverbs, well except for this new Echoplate that I downloaded as a beta test but have only used once. Now I can't find it's location to delete it, sneaky bastards.

 

It will be simpler to remove the brain and put a computer chip up there. All internal. Maybe hook it up to an explosive charge so when you die you are scattered to the cosmos.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Today I tried going back to Waveform 10 and not using any plugins except the ones it comes with.

That's nice and fast for tracking, back to how I was used to having things.

 

I've got Waveform Pro - version 11.5.18 on my MacBook Pro hard drive and also on an external drive that I made a boot drive.

I think I'll delete all the extra plugins on the one on the computer drive and use an external drive to put the recordings. Then I can open those files on the external drive with all the plugins to mix down. I'll find out what gets sandboxed and work my way back from there. That way I can at least do something again while I trouble shoot the problem. Sandboxing does not crash the session, it just deactivates any offending code.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I engineered a 4 hour session yesterday running Waveform 10 (previous version) with only the plugins that are included. I ended up with 15-16 tracks. The laptop fan came on but otherwise it held up nicely at a low latency setting. No sputtering at all.

 

I plan on testing Waveform 11 sans plugins this week or next and seeing what happens. Final step will be to return to a plug-in laden environment and see what gets sandboxed.

 

I'll keep them and when I get a faster computer someday maybe I can use them.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Cherry Audio is releasing another synth on the 16th, with hints of it being a Chupiter-8. If so, my recent housecleaning will seem hypocritical. I'll have to wrestle with that one.

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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Cherry Audio is releasing another synth on the 16th, with hints of it being a Chupiter-8. If so, my recent housecleaning will seem hypocritical. I'll have to wrestle with that one.

 

Until I figure out my current mess, all new plugins are on hold.

 

Once I do figure it out, I'll use the sandboxing feature to test the demos and then decide.

 

I still plan on getting as much of my sound as possible going in, I've brought a guitar amp into the studio and plan on putting a mic on it. I have a Tech 21 Sansamp Bass Driver DI (V2) and Para Driver DI (V2) and those are great studio boxes for all sorts of things. It's super easy to hook them up in parallel too, the inputs have parallel outputs so you can strap one to the other. Get that fat, clean bass tone with an edgy distortion on the high frequencies, just for one.

 

You can also run one in parallel into the send / return of a mic pre and plug a mic cable (both will run on phantom power) into the output and record a second channel with some harmonic distortion and compression on vocals, drums or anything you can mic (which is mostly, everything). The mic pre will remain unmolested since the parallel connection puts the Sansamp in bypass mode for that device. There are a lot of ways to use them in the studio, I love those boxes. Really good for live work too, I've done 2 ampless gigs recently that sounded so good the other guitarist wants the same gear.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Last night I tossed out all the plugins for Waveform 11.5 except the small bundle that comes with it.

Latency problems and system overload problems are gone. I tested by recording 2 tracks at once and will up that to 4 to see what happens.

 

The new audio engine sounds fantastic, I immediately heard an improvement in the fidelity compared to Waveform 10 (which I used recently as well).

 

New plan is use the stripped version of 11 to track and record everything to an external drive. I have another bootable external with Waveform 11 on it and I can open the files there for mixing. That has ALL the plugins still.

 

It will take time but I plan on tossing anything that gets sandboxed or has too many knobs (unless it also has good presets I can tweak). Eventually I'll have the plugins sorted out and can go back to using my tools. I'm excited about the improvement in fidelity from the new audio engine, I didn't realize how good it was. My acoustic guitar sparkled and the bass was clean, solid and huge sounding.

 

Progress...

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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  • 1 month later...

I'm setting up a Mac mini as a dedicated recording computer. For now I plan on going offline and using my laptop in another location for internet. I have the option to reconnect any time I need to update.

 

I managed to find the Library folder and put the VST, VST 3 and Components (AU plugins) folders on my desktop. After comparing the plugins in each folder I hosed everything in VST and VST3, there were only a very few plugins that were not also AU. Then I went through my TRackS, using my list on the IK site and my orders from them and deleted a buttload of AU plugins that I do not own and am not going to buy.

Last but not least - after the recent "Update to RX8 and get RX9 for free when it comes out" promotion, I had complete copies of Izotope RX7, RX8 and RX9. I tossed 7 and 8, I'm sure 9 will run better on Big Sur anyway. I'm down to 104 total plugins. There are still a few that must die and a couple that I want to download and install again.

 

Over time I'll find what I use and toss what I don't. Unless somebody creates a miracle plugin that makes me play better, I am probably almost done dealing with this great plugin catastrophe. Me so very happy now!!!!

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Of course, nothing is that simple. I forgot an important detail.

 

I have a Fishman Triple Play system, there is a pickup mounted on one of my guitars and a transmitter. The receiver is a USB thumb that connects to the software.

You can install an AU version of the software and use it as a plugin in your DAW. But, the Triple Play software can only use .vst sound engines.

 

I googled for free .vst plugins and loaded an additional 12 plugins and reinstalled Synthmaster One, which comes with Triple Play.

 

Triple Play can load up to 4 instances of soft synths (plus one guitar sim) at once and play them all simultaneously. Being lazy, this means I can simply combine presets and get some new and different sounds.

With 13 total soft synths, I'll never get around to trying every possible combination of presets and some of these synths have sliders too so it is truly limitless.

 

Now it's up and running. I haven't opened Triple Play as a plugin yet, that is coming. It works fine on it's own. I don't think I need to install any of the .vst synths in my DAW, they'll just tag along with Triple Play.

OK, hopefully it will be a while before I have much to say about plugins. I'll probably delete some of the busy, knob oriented interfaces in the 105 plugins on the DAW, I hate those anyway. There are plenty of functional interfaces to do the things I want done.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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  • 4 weeks later...

For all I've posted about plugins, I just bought the Cherry Audio ARP Quadra plugin for $39.

Why? Switches and sliders for one thing. Lots of simple, fun options and a ton of presets to tweak. NO KNOBS!!!!!!

 

The original keyboard didn't have knobs either. I like this interface, haven't used it much at all but the sounds I'm hearing online are really nice.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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For all I've posted about plugins, I just bought the Cherry Audio ARP Quadra plugin for $39.

Why? Switches and sliders for one thing. Lots of simple, fun options and a ton of presets to tweak. NO KNOBS!!!!!!

 

The original keyboard didn't have knobs either. I like this interface, haven't used it much at all but the sounds I'm hearing online are really nice.

 

I'm considering it, but to me, its biggest selling point sound is the ginormous pads. You have to love the ARP sound more than I do, I think. I've always liked the layout for being so direct. However, I have Memorymode and the ME80. Being more covered in 70s polys would make me feel too calcified.

 

I feel more drawn to orchestral things lately. In my arrogance, I'm leaning towards Jerry Goldsmith's "Explorers" soundtrack as a loose template. Its heavy on Yamaha FM synths of the time, but I'm hard-pressed to think of a better starting point. It was a light, semi-kid sci-fi movie, so he got to do a few funny things as accents, but the powerful moments, wow. He was wide open.

 

Garritan is on my list, but like most, they haven't caught up to the new M1 chip. *SIGH* The gain in speed & power is costing me in the form of manufacturers adapting slowly, especially houses that don't have 50 coders. First one to the finish line gets my money!

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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For all I've posted about plugins, I just bought the Cherry Audio ARP Quadra plugin for $39.

Why? Switches and sliders for one thing. Lots of simple, fun options and a ton of presets to tweak. NO KNOBS!!!!!!

 

The original keyboard didn't have knobs either. I like this interface, haven't used it much at all but the sounds I'm hearing online are really nice.

 

I'm considering it, but to me, its biggest selling point sound is the ginormous pads. You have to love the ARP sound more than I do, I think. I've always liked the layout for being so direct. However, I have Memorymode and the ME80. Being more covered in 70s polys would make me feel too calcified.

 

I feel more drawn to orchestral things lately. In my arrogance, I'm leaning towards Jerry Goldsmith's "Explorers" soundtrack as a loose template. Its heavy on Yamaha FM synths of the time, but I'm hard-pressed to think of a better starting point. It was a light, semi-kid sci-fi movie, so he got to do a few funny things as accents, but the powerful moments, wow. He was wide open.

 

Garritan is on my list, but like most, they haven't caught up to the new M1 chip. *SIGH* The gain in speed & power is costing me in the form of manufacturers adapting slowly, especially houses that don't have 50 coders. First one to the finish line gets my money!

 

I have a pretty good variety of synths but the Fishman TriplePlay MIDI guitar interface is quite different than a keyboard. Using a heavy pick causes a brief instant where the pick is a "fret" and a random high note based on the position of the pick lasts just long enough to cause a glitch - that doesn't happen with keys. I've found using my right hand fingers and thumb provides a cleaner sound but it changes the style of my playing and I've sort of defaulted to pads based on multiple synths with modulation pads at different speeds. It's sort of a creepy, semi-audible background thing for me.

 

The other big difference is that keyboard MIDI controllers have assignable knobs on the interface so you can tweak easily in real time while playing. The Fishman doesn't have that and playing guitar takes 2 hands anyway. So I gravitate towards plugin interfaces that do not have knobs since I can't use them as intended and adjusting them with a mouse sucks.

 

You will have very different reasons for choosing synths than I do. Lately I've been jamming a bit with a friend who is very good on keys. If I can get her over for a few tracks then I can get something different done with my soft synths.

Most of the time, it's just me goofing off. :)

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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For all I've posted about plugins, I just bought the Cherry Audio ARP Quadra plugin for $39.

Why? Switches and sliders for one thing. Lots of simple, fun options and a ton of presets to tweak. NO KNOBS!!!!!!

 

The original keyboard didn't have knobs either. I like this interface, haven't used it much at all but the sounds I'm hearing online are really nice.

I am loving it to pieces.

 

Also, hi everyone, and thank you for supporting Kuru as he has done an amazing job keeping this forum alive and healthy in my absence.

 

mike

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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  • 2 weeks later...

After resisting all sorts of Black Friday runs well into January plug-in sales, Eventide offered their Precision Time Align plugin for $29.95 - usually 99.95.

 

I took a look at what it does and the interface and bought it. It is more of a "janitorial" plugin, but it performs an extremely useful function accurately and easily.

Just what the title says, you can choose the track you want to align to, and the track you want to align and it makes it simple and extremely accurate to get your phase alignment correct.

 

Lately, I've been blending vocal mics. Often there will be desirable tones from different mics that sound good together - in my guitarist mind it is sort of like using the middle position on a 2 pickup guitar - you can get interesting and appropriate tones by shifting your picking hand on a guitar or by automating the mix/blend of the 2 vocal mics in the DAW.

 

This will be handy for that. I can see it being handy for aligning bits and dabs that you want to be tight - bass and kick drum come to mind. Just chop the one note that isn't quite right and slide it over a tad, done.

 

I'm certain there will be other useful things it can do. I've got 2 other Eventide plugins - Physion and Micro-Pitch and there's been no question that I would keep them. Great sounds, easy to use and very versatile.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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  • 2 weeks later...
I have about 100 synths.

 

Problem, what problem?

 

Only someone with a problem would ask.

I cut back from 75 to about 40, but as with any other neurosis, I won't feel comfortable again until I'm up to at least 50. :crazy::rawk:

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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For all I've posted about plugins, I just bought the Cherry Audio ARP Quadra plugin for $39.

Why? Switches and sliders for one thing. Lots of simple, fun options and a ton of presets to tweak. NO KNOBS!!!!!!

 

The original keyboard didn't have knobs either. I like this interface, haven't used it much at all but the sounds I'm hearing online are really nice.

 

I'm considering it, but to me, its biggest selling point sound is the ginormous pads. You have to love the ARP sound more than I do, I think. I've always liked the layout for being so direct. However, I have Memorymode and the ME80. Being more covered in 70s polys would make me feel too calcified.

 

I feel more drawn to orchestral things lately. In my arrogance, I'm leaning towards Jerry Goldsmith's "Explorers" soundtrack as a loose template. Its heavy on Yamaha FM synths of the time, but I'm hard-pressed to think of a better starting point. It was a light, semi-kid sci-fi movie, so he got to do a few funny things as accents, but the powerful moments, wow. He was wide open.

 

Garritan is on my list, but like most, they haven't caught up to the new M1 chip. *SIGH* The gain in speed & power is costing me in the form of manufacturers adapting slowly, especially houses that don't have 50 coders. First one to the finish line gets my money!

 

I have Sample Tank and can play Miroslav Philharmonik 2 on my guitar rig. That is orchestral as all get-out right there. Things seem to run on Big Sur, not sure about Monterey. I got a refurb Mac Mini and it came with Big Sur so I'm staying there for now.

 

I don't know how many synths I have since Sample Tank and Kontakt Player both came with buttloads of them.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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