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Why don't companies just put samples on CDs or harddrives without a weird engine or a whole separate security key? Just got Sample Lab's Luscious collection. The 3D art on this set is super 90s.
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Jan 9, 2018 07:01
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So people don't use them in vidya games  Real answers: Probably because  I'd assume. Not that DRM really prevents these things but I suppose making it that bit harder probably has a minor preventative effect.
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Jan 9, 2018 12:39
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NonzeroCircle posted:So people don't use them in vidya games It's pretty simple to extract SFX from video games. To the knowledgeable person, they're basically sample packs.
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Jan 9, 2018 12:54
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Propellerheads are giving away Positive Grid's BIAS FX LE for free: https://shop.propellerheads.se/vst/bias-fx-le/ quote:BIAS FX LE includes 3 amps and 6 effects: the insanely great sounding ‘77 Silvertone (Clean), ‘69 Plexiglas (Crunch), and ‘92 Treadplate (High Gain) amplifiers. You also get the best pedals to expand your arsenal: a Treble Boost, 6 band EQ, a 808 OD stomp box, a Chorus, plus digital delay and reverb pedals.
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Jan 9, 2018 13:23
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Thanks for that! ^^^ Ok, so I don't have Logic X, and I can't get it unless I upgrade my OS, which I also can't do if I want my Firestudio to work. Therefore, I can't get Alchemy, at least not yet. That being said, are there any other plugins out there that compare to it, in terms of sample manipulation and basically having the ability to 'make anything out of anything'? Of course, I realize that's generally possible with a very large number of plugins, but I'm referring to plugins that are specifically designed to really work with imported audio in conjunction with its own oscillators. Alchemy is known as a "sample-manipulation synthesizer". Are there any others out there?
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Jan 9, 2018 19:48
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Have you heard of a little thing called Omnisphere? Let me tell you about its license agreement
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Jan 9, 2018 19:56
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Vengeance Sound Avenger. UVI Falcon. Avenger has some hilarious Amiga cracktro presets 
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Jan 9, 2018 20:38
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Omnisphere owns.Uncle Kitchener posted:But what are some other ambient and industrial-sounding VST or sound libraries out there. http://folktek.com/vst
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Jan 9, 2018 22:47
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If you have Ableton Suite and have never taken a deep dive into Sampler, it has some surprisingly powerful sound design capabilities. Slynk gets into it in the 2nd half of this video.
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Jan 10, 2018 01:35
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Splinter posted:If you have Ableton Suite and have never taken a deep dive into Sampler, it has some surprisingly powerful sound design capabilities. Slynk gets into it in the 2nd half of this video. I'm spending my time learning sampling on an MPC2500 and really appreciate the Sampler interface because of that. Thanks for sharing! Does anyone have any good videos of old school sequencing with trackers, MPCs, and just rack-mount units? I feel like a lot of the software stuff makes more sense when you see where it came from.
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Jan 10, 2018 16:52
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I think I asked this in another thread years ago, but are there any recommended podcasts for synths and/or synth sound design?
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Jan 10, 2018 17:24
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Not specifically about sound design, but Groovebox Society had a great 3-part interview with Sunshine Jones where he talked about synths and live performance
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Jan 10, 2018 18:21
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What's this thread's recommendation for a drum VST that I can use in place of the default Logic Drummer? The most prominent I've found in searching look to be EZDrummer, Superior Drummer, and Addictive Drums. I don't think I'll go with Superior because of the gigantic price tag, so I'm mostly between EZDrummer and AD, which is on sale for $100 right now. Do either of these have a thing like Logic where it kind of makes a simple beat on its own that I can edit over in MIDI? Which one sounds better?
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Jan 12, 2018 03:02
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EZDrummer is very focused on putting together drum tracks quickly without having to write any MIDI if you don't want to. For any given beat you can easily change how 'busy' any piece of the kit is (e.g. more or less snare ghost hits) or which drum is the focus of the beat. Tap2Find is also pretty cool. SuperiorDrummer didn't used to have any of these features, making it more of a different product rather than an upgrade, but it looks like they added all of this stuff in version 3. Superior gives you much more control over how you want each drum to sound. I believe it also uses higher quality samples, but EZ still sounds good. One thing about EZDrummer is you're probably gonna want to buy an EZX or 3 to give you access to more than just the 2 kits it comes with (kinda depends what styles you produce), and potentially some additional MIDI packs on top of that. I believe they have deals on getting EZdrummer + 2 EZXs at a discount, and you can get a 6 pack of MIDI at a decent discount as well, but the point is you might have to spend a bit more than the base price if you want more versatility. I've never used addictive, but I've heard good things about it. I don't think it's beat finding, tweaking and song building workflow are quite on EZDrummers level, but it does have some similar stuff. Honestly just download the demos and see which you like better.
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Jan 12, 2018 04:06
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I have Addictive Drums 2, upgraded from AD1, and while I love it, I know that I don't use it as much as I could be. I mean that I don't tend to play around with a lot of the options. It also comes with about 3 different sets, with about 30-40 presets, all mixed differently and that gives you a vastly different sound. Despite only coming with 3 kits, you can buy new ones and add them in, sort of a la carte style. I'm definitely thinking of picking up some extra kits someday. The one thing that I wish it offered was the ability to load in your own samples, because it's quite the capable setup, tons of mixing options, and I'd love to run whatever I wanted through that, but I suppose I already have the EXS24 and/or Ultrabeat. The one shining, wonderful feature that I feel AD has over other drum vsts is that it sounds drat near perfect right off the bat. You can futz, but you likely won't need to.
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Jan 12, 2018 04:52
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Speaking of drums, what are the good Drum & Bass and Jungle VSTs?
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Jan 12, 2018 05:11
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Uncle Kitchener posted:Speaking of drums, what are the good Drum & Bass and Jungle VSTs? Get that one that has the Akai sampler time stretch algorithm.
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Jan 12, 2018 05:50
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Danyull posted:The most prominent I've found in searching look to be EZDrummer, Superior Drummer, and Addictive Drums. I don't think I'll go with Superior because of the gigantic price tag, so I'm mostly between EZDrummer and AD, which is on sale for $100 right now. Do either of these have a thing like Logic where it kind of makes a simple beat on its own that I can edit over in MIDI? Which one sounds better? I find a pattern I like and drag it into my DAW as MIDI, and make manual tweaks to the MIDI notes as neeeded. Weird thing though: While what I just described works fine for most "normal" purposes (kick, snare, toms, etc), there are some EZD kit features that cannot be triggered from external MIDI. Certain articulations and even some instruments (various percussion sounds) will only work with the grooves running inside the plugin, so in those cases you work with the built-in song builder rather than dragging the patterns out to your DAW timeline.
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Jan 12, 2018 21:53
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Oldstench posted:Get that one that has the Akai sampler time stretch algorithm. People mention Ableton already has that feature with time stretch sampling and couple other people suggest sampletank2. I dunno, maybe the answer is right infront of me, but help me out a bit, people.
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Jan 13, 2018 21:25
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Uncle Kitchener posted:People mention Ableton already has that feature with time stretch sampling and couple other people suggest sampletank2. Do you want a sampler or a synth? Kontakt has akai style stretching. Any 2 or 3 oscillator synth can cover your reesy basses. Try Tyrell, that's free and beasty.
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Jan 13, 2018 22:05
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Uncle Kitchener posted:People mention Ableton already has that feature with time stretch sampling and couple other people suggest sampletank2. What era are you trying to ape?
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Jan 13, 2018 22:42
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Uncle Kitchener posted:Speaking of drums, what are the good Drum & Bass and Jungle VSTs? So take a second right here and deconstruct the meaning of this sentence you posted. A very important thing is to realize that "VST" is not a catch-all term. There are no EDM VSTs, there are EDM sample libraries for percussion, EDM-styled presets for virtual analog* (VA) synthesizers (and if those are almost exclusively used to make EDM, then they sometimes are called "EDM VSTs" but they're really not). There are no orchestral VSTs**, there is Kontakt - the 800 pound gorilla in the room again - and there are orchestral sample libraries. There are drum 'n bass and jungle sample libraries. Rhythms come in loops, or in individual instruments. There are even construction kits - just sample libraries with stuff in different keys and a more limited scope. The sounds can be had by purchasing presets for VAs that are designed referring to the drum 'n bass cliches and tropes - the Reese, the Z-plane stuff, etc. There are MIDI files where someone already figured out the entire groove of a rhythm and it's up to you to pick the instruments, etc. It makes no sense to bundle this into a VST because the material requires a diversity of software (samplers, VAs, your DAW) to get it working. It's much easier to split this up into its separate components, so you can go to Loopmasters and buy a little from column A, a little from column B, and they'd like you to come back because sample packs age badly, usually, so for the new year you'll have to buy new stuff again. All of this is essentially trading time for money, because it means you can spend more attention on the music (or your social media) and you won't have to nerd out for years to learn this stuff or get lost in the details while you just want to make a track. That is fine - no judgement here. I hope this makes your searches a bit more effective. You just need a sampler, and what makes it make drum 'n bass is what you fill it with - but you need that sampler anyway. * or wavetable, but I didn't want to write out all variations on subtractive synthesis ** I probably missed someone doing a Pianoteq equivalent for orchestra but you get my point also, http://the-akaizer-project.blogspot.com - a reverse-engineered (offline) version of the timestretching algorithm. I generally trust the obsessive people without marketing department over the not-so-obsessive ones when it comes to authenticity. Laserjet 4P fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Jan 14, 2018 |
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Jan 14, 2018 00:16
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Oldstench posted:What era are you trying to ape? 90s. NonzeroCircle posted:Do you want a sampler or a synth? Kontakt has akai style stretching. Any 2 or 3 oscillator synth can cover your reesy basses. Try Tyrell, that's free and beasty. Gonna go for Tyrell. Thanks for the recommend. Laserjet 4P posted:So take a second right here and deconstruct the meaning of this sentence you posted. I didn't realize that. I thought VSTs could be either sample libraries, libraries with samplers, synths or both or just virtual synths. Can I use my DAW as the intended sampler (Ableton, Cubase) or do I need Kontakt/Reason?
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Jan 18, 2018 12:36
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Uncle Kitchener posted:Can I use my DAW as the intended sampler (Ableton, Cubase) or do I need Kontakt/Reason? For the most part, you'll need a sampler plugin. There may be DAWs out there that have a sampling function built-in, but usually it's via a plugin. HOWEVER, Reaper, which is free to try *cough*indefinitely*cough* comes with a free basic sampler plugin.
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Jan 18, 2018 15:02
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:For the most part, you'll need a sampler plugin. There may be DAWs out there that have a sampling function built-in, but usually it's via a plugin. HOWEVER, Reaper, which is free to try *cough*indefinitely*cough* comes with a free basic sampler plugin. I think nowadays pretty much every DAW comes with some variety of sampler, though they have pretty different utilities and levels of complexity. Ableton for sure has Simpler/Sampler, and I think Cubase added some sort of Sampler Track thing in version 9. No idea how much hassle it would be compared to something like Kontakt. The advantage of Kontakt or other big third-party samplers is usually that the sample libraries you can find for them are pretty much plug-and-play, and (for Kontakt at least) there's already a huge ecosystem of sample libraries for them.
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Jan 18, 2018 17:35
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Cubase's sampler track is super simple, no multisampling, it reminds me of (no pun) Simpler from Ableton Live. Its handy for something like sampling an 808 bass hit to play chromatically, and can do some rudimentary timeshifting but it's no replacement for Kontakt. I guess if you want 90s 'this is a ballache' authenticity then Sampler Tracks may work for you- IMHO they're there to make a couple of tasks quicker and have their place but I wouldn't want to rely on them as my main sampler. NonzeroCircle fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Jan 18, 2018 |
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Jan 18, 2018 17:47
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This is a crosspost to the 'post your SoundCloud' thread, but I just needed to gush over the Joshua Bell violin. That thing sounds pretty drat good with minimal tweaking right out of the box. It's hard not to throw it on everything. Here is a demo that uses it a lot. Most of it is really no tweaking outside of using keyswitches to control articulation. I messed with the vibrato slider at the beginning there, but it sounds a little heavy handed so Im likely going to redo it. It still sounds good, which is says a lot considering I'm just some rear end in a top hat who doesn't know what he's doing messing with automating sliders. Otherwise, I just copy/pasted midi into the track and called it a day: Song currently under revision thanks to some excellent feedback. To give more VST discussion: The song is pretty much 100% vsts/sample libraries. Here are the other VST instruments from the top of my head: superior drummer, ample guitar, shreddage, massive, SuperAudioCart, Sonokinetic Maximo, NI brass essentials, and Overloud TH3 for amps. Used xfer cthulu and sample packs for getting midi information. Toontrack EZkeys works well for helping me figure out chord progressions, and I'll use its midi as a starting point as well for stuff. I recorded some guitar so I wouldn't feel too guilty about 'cheating' with all the sampled guitar, but use Jam Origin's MIDI guitar to turn it into other stuff. I also use the information from MIDI guitar to inform how to insert 'human' mistakes into the sampled guitars. Most of the time I write guitar parts at half tempo or slower, record that, use midi guitar to transcribe it, clean up the midi, then insert it into shreddage, ample guitar or Joshua bell at full tempo. Then I edit it from there. Fun trick for all you guitarists who suck at guitar. I'll also use the midi from this process for other things and maybe use it in conjunction with EZkeys to sketch out a general flow. Then I'll add and alter midi from sample packs, xfer cthlulu, or ez keys. For the drums, I'll start with something from Superior Drummers library, then alter the rhythm based on all the midi from above. For this song, there are parts where I didn't alter the drum beat at all and left it as a task for my future self. It honestly does feel like cheating using sample libraries and stuff. Bands and violinists practice for years to do what an rear end in a top hat with a bunch of licenses can do in his spare time but short of outright plagiarism all's fair in art I guess. The trade-off is that I'll never perform any of this live, unless I spend hours trying to learn how to play my own songs. Hell, for all I know, a lot of it is unplayable live. It doesn't feel genuine somehow, even though I am somewhat happy with the end result. Though soundtrack composers have been doing this for years so maybe I'm just feeling this because of the genre... In any case, I started with gushing about a plug-in and ended with an ethical dilemma I'm trying to figure out. Any thoughts? Rusty Kettle fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Jan 23, 2018 |
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Jan 22, 2018 12:32
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Do the thing that makes the noise you want, imo.
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Jan 22, 2018 12:37
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the listener isn't going to care so why should you? it's the same crap people argue over about presets. rhianna's umbrella brought joy to millions and equal amount of millions to its creator, and it's just a garage band default drum sample slowed down. who gives a gently caress, if the song sounds good, it's good. only musicbeard nerds give a crap about that stuff; listeners just hear good song or bad song. Plavski fucked around with this message at 12:45 on Jan 22, 2018 |
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Jan 22, 2018 12:40
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I think of my best friend who digs my music overall, without being a professional music critic; when I'm creating something, does it sound good? Will people like him hear it and want to hear it again? Does he care that it's using synths or drum samples, or loops? Will I even like to hear it again (this one's important)? Don't get caught up in the technical. Just like Plavski mentioned, super mega hits are made from other people's royalty-free works. Hell, Kanye West makes millions, is adored by many, and doesn't even pay for all of his plugins  Another example is literally anyone who has ever used a mellotron. The Beatles, the Moody Blues, Smashing Pumpkins... Three examples of very popular groups who have mellotron'd. Those weren't samples created by them. Rupert Buttermilk fucked around with this message at 12:59 on Jan 22, 2018 |
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Jan 22, 2018 12:50
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Trig Discipline posted:Do the thing that makes the noise you want, imo. Agreed. Like I said, all is fair in art, except outright stealing people's poo poo. Plavski posted:the listener isn't going to care so why should you? Opinionated metalheads will most likely care, though I give zero shits what they think really. That fanbase can be very toxic, and especially nowadays it is a good idea to give the middle finger to lovely people. Rupert Buttermilk posted:I think of my best friend who digs my music overall, without being a professional music critic; when I'm creating something, does it sound good? Will people like him hear it and want to hear it again? Will I even like to hear it again (this one's important)? Don't get caught up in the technical. Just like Plavski mentioned, super mega hits are made from other people's royalty-free works. Didn't think about all these examples. Thanks friends, this is all very therapeutic. Rusty Kettle fucked around with this message at 12:56 on Jan 22, 2018 |
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Jan 22, 2018 12:54
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Rupert Buttermilk posted:Will I even like to hear it again (this one's important)? It's also the hardest one for me to gauge, personally. There's stuff I thought was brilliant when I first made it that I can't stand now, and things where I was initially like "eh that's okay" that I now think are among my best work. Half the time I don't even know whether my own stuff is "good" by whatever my own future standards are for, like, five years.
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Jan 22, 2018 13:27
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Ignore anyone who suggests that you could possibly be doing creative self-expression wrong.
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Jan 22, 2018 13:30
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Trig Discipline posted:It's also the hardest one for me to gauge, personally. There's stuff I thought was brilliant when I first made it that I can't stand now, and things where I was initially like "eh that's okay" that I now think are among my best work. Half the time I don't even know whether my own stuff is "good" by whatever my own future standards are for, like, five years. I hear ya. How I feel about my own stuff differs from day to day. Some days I have a bug up my rear end and think everything sucks, and other days I am real proud of it all. It's probably best not to be a fortune teller and try to guess what your future self will like. If it is regrettable later, gently caress it. Being embarrassed is an essential part of growing as an artist, imo.
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Jan 22, 2018 13:41
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Rusty Kettle posted:I hear ya. How I feel about my own stuff differs from day to day. Some days I have a bug up my rear end and think everything sucks, and other days I am real proud of it all. your favourite artists in any discipline hate the stuff of theirs you love. you see the perfection, they see the flaws. it's the natural order of things; embrace it.
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Jan 22, 2018 13:44
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Yeah, and it's doubly so given that almost everything I've ever done that was really popular was something that I thought other people wouldn't like. When I was working on Son of Strelka I was seriously reluctant to even talk to people about it because people would just look at me like I'd confessed to having saved all of my toenail clippings from childhood to the present day or something. I thought people were going to ignore it other than to question my sanity, but once people heard it they just got it immediately. Also probably the most famous thing I've ever done was knocked out in about five minutes in order to poo poo up a thread right here in ML. I was literally laughing at what dumb garbage it was while I was doing it and it's been heard half a million times between the various venues where it's been posted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kLiMPP9W6I You just never fuckin' know.
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Jan 22, 2018 13:58
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Rusty Kettle posted:I hear ya. How I feel about my own stuff differs from day to day. Some days I have a bug up my rear end and think everything sucks, and other days I am real proud of it all. Go the Buckethead / John Frusciante route and just make waaaaaay more stuff than anyone else, some of it will be great, some not so great, but your prolific works will be admired at least for their volume! Seriously, though, just keep writing.
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Jan 22, 2018 14:07
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Yeah I didn't mean to turn this thread into therapy hour. I just wanted to gush over embertone Joshua Bell violin, and recommend some other instruments I've been using lately. Sorry about the existential crisis leaking out. It's unlikely that I'll get over the feeling that I am somehow lying to people by using these VSTs and sample libraries anytime soon, and that I am some how disrespectful of the folks who can actually use the real thing. But you all made the very good point that we all essentially have audiences consisting entirely of ourselves so gently caress it make what sounds good.
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Jan 22, 2018 14:14
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I live by a piece of advice Ed Wood once gave: "just keep on writing. Even if your story gets worse, you'll get better".
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Jan 22, 2018 14:14
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To go along with the latest posts, this weekend I decided to look through my archive of "demos" that I had long-since forgotten. Some of this stuff is 4-5 years old and wow some of it is so bad. Its actually a bit rewarding to look back on some stuff I created to see how far I have come along in my production. Hell, I remember having the hardest loving time just balancing Kick/Bass, something that comes pretty naturally now. Best advice is to just keep practicing and refining your sound, there really isn't a limit to what you can learn about writing and producing music and every piece of knowledge you gain can be used to make yourself better. I have found that the average person won't know or care if you are using samples vs. live instruments. Plus, just having the ability to make string noises with a VST won't make your song good, it is still how you use and arrange them into a bigger piece that matters.
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Jan 22, 2018 18:28
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