What's new out there that you really like using?
 

Just curious, is there anything new (hardware/software) that you have used that you find really has sparked your creativity? I am in the process of updating my studio and haven't been keeping up on what is out there.

Released years ago and discontinued but I just got hold of one new, boxed and unused from Ebay.. the EMU Planet Earth sound module. Its absolutely amazing for percussion!! 8) 8) 8)

Havent gotten anything new for a while now.... But am really GASsing for a UAD-1 card.

Actually, a friend lent me his "Mackie Fixer". It is a small box with 2 x -20dB pads, and 2 x phase invert switches. I use it to quickly turn down the volume by -20dB when needed, beats having to reach over to the mixer...

God Im such a nerd

Right with you there Jase - a couple of UAD cards wouldnt go astray ;)

Ive researched it and the poco extensively, and it seems the UAD is much better bang for your bucks (so to speak).

The best purchase I have made lately is my MOTU Ultralite soundcard - but I think you were probably asking about gear that produces sound, rather than just capturing it...

All I can say about the MOTU is that after all the issues Ive experienced with the TI, its nice to have a bit of gear I can rely upon :wink:

cheers

Blay

I accualy ordered an EMU 1820M soundcard to replaced my trusty maudio 2496.
cant wait to get it :P

the reviews about the Clock and convertors are great.

I have to admit... my virus b bought second handed a few month ago :P ,
anyway my EVENT alp-5 monitors make me smile everytime I mix and master a piece...
regards, Lorenzo

It's the V-Synth for me. I'm nearing 160-ish patches (not counting the recent kick drum and beats I have been creating with it) and I feel I'm just warming up on the thing.

I just can't stop!!

so when I buy one are you going to share some of those patches HC? :wink:

cheers

Blay

I never upgraded my Poco to one of the new ones - its just sat in its box. I ended up buying a 2nd UAD to use in its place. I sometimes miss the classicverb but thats about all.

As for new kit I am keen to get into my new mono Evolver, just need time goddamit!

I bought a UAD-1 card recently along wioth the missing precision mastering suite bits.

I cant say that it has made a huge difference to creativity, but where it has made a huge difference is in terms of subtle sound shapig to get me to the kind of sounds I am after.

Also at least I no longer have to waste time trying to polish a track (and usually giving up) with the junk that ships with cubase SX - I am startingto quite like the result I can get out the the UAD mastering suite and thats makes a huge difference as now its really worth trying to finish stuff rather than add to the gigabytes of partials :)

Am also very tempted by a poco at sometime as there some specific tc plugins I am after. Actually I think the two seem to be very good compliments to each other - modern+vintage.

I'm intrigued by Native Instruments Kore but can't make my mind up whether to buy one.

I am going to buy the new Korg Pad Kontrol, which will be useful for me.

I would also like a Focusrite Liquid Mix when they come out for the PC.

Dave.

My real on going problem that has plagued me for ages is that when I am using fx as part of a sound (for eg reverb+squash) - I want it in hardware for zero latency, convenice of tweaking, and just there with needing a computer when jamming. For post production I want it in software, though I can integrate hardware into post production without alot of hassle.

The end result is I can never make my mind up whether to go hardware or software for certain kind of fx (it took me months to give in an decide to get a UAD-1, but I find still want an MPX-1 or similar) - I would like to find a good digital controlled (via midi) brutal analog compressor - I dont think there is such a thing at an affordable price.

Nothing new, but recently stumbled upon an old, now-discontinued plugin called Sonic Destructor from TCElectronics [previously TCWorks] - from back when they still made native plugins - which works particularly well on drum parts. It has functions for band-pass filtering, 'bitter' (bit-reduction + aliasing, which I particularly like for 'tuning' on the drum channels/buss), clipping, crackle (vinyl), 'fuzzer' (distortion), noise, rumble, and 'squeezer' (compression). Great for lo-fi mayhem. Also makes a lot of stuff 'sit' better within a mix (mainly drums, i've found, if you've got too-clean/dry samples to start with).


(... looks kinda like that old retro 80's game called "Simon", where you had to memorise notes/lights in sequence and press the buttons in the correct order. :) ) Incidently you can play it here: http://www.80smusiclyrics.com/games.shtml#null)

Gotta watch your ears (and monitors!) when you use the Sonic D presets, though, lol! I normally use my own.

That thing looks more like it should be dispensing beer and cocktails

OT... sorry... Timo you made my day... I've found Frogger on the site you mentioned... THANX MATE!!!!
regards, Lorenzo

I got that one!!! I bought SparkXL (TC Works 2 trak editor) and got that plug as a free download I think.

Cant say that I've ever found a use for it, maybe I should give it a go on some drums

I'll probably be sharing a few, but I can't say the whole lot will be up for offer. I've made some nice vintage patches (thanks to Jase's Juno, plus an expensive sample colection) - these I may share I reckon. :D

It will prob take me another six months to save for it after I come back from overseas, so you will have plenty of time to add to those banks HC ;)

But seriously - thanks for your generous offer :D

cheers

Blay

Where are u off to mate?

I fly to Portugal at the start of next month - Im travelling around Europe/Eastern block with a few mates that are playing at a few festivals like BOOM in Portugal and VOOV in germany. Few other random gigs in Israel, Croatia, Italy, Egypt - but I will have to pick and choose cause I cant physically (nor mentally) make it to all of them ;)

After my mates head back to AUS im going to visit friends in Finland that I havent seen since I spent a year there in 1994, then to London to spend some time with my sister and her hubby (they own a restaurant over there that just received an award for the best service in all of UK).

My plan is to check things out and decide where I want to move to next european summer (if I even come home this time - Ive only paid one way). But I really only expect to be there for six-eight weeks...

To everyone else planning to remain in Melbourne for the entirity of the winter - GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!

Taking my laptop with me so I will be checking in with tales of excessive Jagermeister consumption and long-legged european women :twisted:

cheers

Blay

Sound like it will be a great trip....such a necessity these days, to get out of your home town for a few weeks and explore different cultures.

Good luck with it man, when do you leave?

Yeah, that would be an amazing trip Blay! I'm jealous. The travelling bug is starting to hit me hard once again.
"I gotta get outa this place, if it's the last thing I ever do"
:D

Re: What's new out there that you really like using?
 

I've just got myself the Korg Legacy Collection with a miniature MS-20 controller... Great stuff, although not very new.

Sorry about the off-topicism....

Im leaving start of next month - thanks for the well-wishing lads. :D

I have nothing booked 'cept for a one way ticket, so hopefully I can manage to make the most of my time over there...

Who knows, might even get far enough north to catch up with Joho for a beer ;)

cheers

Blay

Definately Stylus RMX. That's the most revolutionary drum vsti out there. You can get similar results on Reaktor with randomizing drums but nothing beats the ease which you can come up with tripped out beats quickly like on stylus rmx... even my girlfriend can write beats on it... seriously killer sounding and easy to use piece of software.

Couldn't agree with you more. Every single one of my projects uses rmx in one way or another. I look forward to seeing what eric p an his crew come up with next.

All the Spectrasonics gear is gold.

Trilogy and Atmosphere are great as well...

cheers

Blay

Recently(-ish) added a TC Electronic Fireworx that is a truly wicked performance multi-fx box. What really makes it is the way you can map loads of MIDI CCs into it for controlling it parameters and the free-form internal routing of the different effect modules.

Very tempted by a SansAmp PSA-1.1 or something similar - digital distortion/overdrive just aint doing it for me. Love running high reso sounds though nice soft distortion. (other suggestion most welcome here, but I dont really want loads of pedal clutter and I do like the midi control this thing has).

BTW - anyone else primarily using multi-mode on a virus as a means of inserting external fx/synths into virus patches, before/between/after filters etc?

I played around with really complex routing on the Virus using multi-mode. Some nice sounds can be crafted for sure - just takes a lot of time and the results vary. I use the Virus mainly as a filter box these days and I always have stuff routed through it from the desk.

Heh - have you tried sticking some of those lovely COSM guitar amp modelling fx or the guitar multi-fx on the v-synth in the loop?

Bollox I really must get around to recording some of this wierd shit as you keep telling me to post stuff :) Trouble is very rarely have the computer involved when I'm just fekking around with general wierdness - too distracting...

The COSM based amps and speakers on my VF1 sound better to my ears than the V-Synth's, so recently I tend to use the V-Synths COSM modules for filters and compression - I even put the Isolater/Filter combo in the FX section as well (I wish they had two of these in the regular COSM sections!!!). The amp stuff doesn't get a look in usually.

Hey if you're after an interesting multi FX Khazul, it may be worth your while to check out a Boss SE-70 as these have analogue distortions mixed with digital FX. I like them for sure and they can be picked up for very cheap these days. I do like the older analogue pedals too though - could be just getting old I guess.

For sure Khazul! Hit record occasionally and let us hear some of it.

Oh one contraption thats starting to look very interesting - at least from a guitarist perpective:




Someone posted a link to a video about this in another thread - looks alot of fun.

Currently Ive been trying to use my MD-UW for doing this kind of thing driving it from a MIDI foot controller board.

I really like the new UAD1 plugins: Roland Dimension D and Neve 1073 eq. I'm gonna purchase both of them. I don't know about new but my Dyn BM15's amaze me every day I listen to them. :D

yeah, I like the uad plugs so much that I bought 3 cards (would have bought a 4th, but ran out of pci slots). The biggest issue right now is that all new mobos are shipping with less pci slots and more pcie, so now i have to sell my uad1 pci cards and pick up the pcie versions.

Ugh - Im thinking of switching to a pci-e versions as well. Whihc that they sold a complete bare bones cheapr on tho puely for use an a second/third etc card!

I know that UA has some really good deals on making the switch to PCIe. If you take a look at their recent posting regarding the cross grade to pcie, it almost works out to be a push.

Wish UA made stuff for laptops (connected via Cardbuss/PCI-ExpressCard). I'd love one of their DSP cards hanging off my puter.

The only way I have seen laptop users use the uad cards is with the magma expansion chasis and a pcmcia connector (quite expensive)

Its really just a nice distortion I am after. For interesting multi-fx I have a TC fireworx which I got recently - was running my guitar though it for the first time this eve - think I just found a new genre of ultra trippy guitar based trance (!?!?) - my fingers are sore as hell and Im wondering where several hours went :)

I'm seriously thinking about selling my Virus since having the mpc2500. I'll probably replace the Virus with a midi keyboard and a computer audio interface. I've been taking sounds from a Paia Fatman and a Sound Lab Mini Synth.

The MPC has a great direct input feature that lets me immediately record sounds. It also has a autochromatic formula to tune samples. I'm moving towards more sampling. I think I can do more with samples. I started way back with an MPC anyway.