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EBB posted:The interest for me lies mostly in the build and design. I've gotten back to breadboarding lately and that's where I lose hours of time. Figuring out stuff is good and cool and nothing feels better than finally getting a piece of circutry to behave the way you want it to.
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May 14, 2020 19:08
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Clavavisage posted:did they fix anything with the OS or did they really just add a big speaker on the bottom? They did add CV/Gate and some new hardware buttons, I'm now intrigued but am still scared off by the OS. Still can't stream from disk which is uh lol.
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May 14, 2020 19:41
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Pillow Face posted:new mpc live ii, i was just considering live bc i def lean towards synths a sample makers rather than instruments and finding that i prefer rougher cut drums like oizo or rza. i wonder what the price drops will be for the old model, since i don't think i need most of what's in the new model I don't know if there are any still in stock, but Sweetwater was selling B-stock MPC Lives recently for $850, which was enough to make me pull the trigger since the things added to the Live 2 didn't do much for me. It arrived looking like a brand new item, except for not coming in an Akai box, and it has SW's two year warranty. I dunno if used prices will drop lower -- it's not clear to me that all that many people with the current live are waiting to upgrade for speakers, CVs, and an Ethernet jack (and in fairness, I guess 5 more buttons (.
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May 14, 2020 23:44
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Clavavisage posted:did they fix anything with the OS or did they really just add a big speaker on the bottom? it says they include the midi firmware updates and cv control which i'm not really too concerned with but it's neat i guess. McCoy Pauley posted:I don't know if there are any still in stock, but Sweetwater was selling B-stock MPC Lives recently for $850, which was enough to make me pull the trigger since the things added to the Live 2 didn't do much for me. It arrived looking like a brand new item, except for not coming in an Akai box, and it has SW's two year warranty. I dunno if used prices will drop lower -- it's not clear to me that all that many people with the current live are waiting to upgrade for speakers, CVs, and an Ethernet jack (and in fairness, I guess 5 more buttons (. speaker bothers me, i imagine it kills battery life and adds weight and i think it just looks wrong
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May 15, 2020 00:56
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If the speaker sounds ok and can get loud, I think there’s something awesome about a battery operated MPC that can just fuckin bump on its own with no other hardware required. I could annoy the poo poo out of some people with that.
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May 15, 2020 01:19
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Shart Carbuncle posted:If the speaker sounds ok and can get loud, I think there’s something awesome about a battery operated MPC that can just fuckin bump on its own with no other hardware required. think of the electro busking opportunities
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May 15, 2020 03:50
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Mistayke posted:Does anyone have a Novation Summit? I am seriously considering adding to my stable of Synths. Ha, Stable. I have 3. From what I've read, heard, it really looks like something I would love for pads. I have a Peak, if that counts. I think the Summit is basically two Peaks attached to a keyboard. I've used it in most of the songs I've made, but also I'm a rank amateur, so probably better to hear samples from people who know what they're doing: Red Means Recording, Ricky Tinez, Loopop. There don't seem to be as many in-depth demos of the Summit, but I think the hardware is basically identical. I like my Peak a lot. It's got three oscillators, and each can be detuned and also has drift parameters to very slightly cause the tune to drift. Great for pads, like you said. I also like using it for bass, the sawtooth at 16' sounds great. The Summit with six such oscillators would be enormous. There's also a whole world of stuff you can do with wavetables on it, and they just added a wavetable editor so you can import your own. Most of the controls you want are on the front panel, and if you do have to menu-dive, there's a lot of instant-access buttons to quickly get you where you want to go. If you have any specific questions, I can try to answer.
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May 15, 2020 13:40
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Weird question. I haven't been able to make music lately because I somehow messed up my ancient keyboard by plugging into its midi input with a 5pin and sending it a signal from Pro Tools. The keyboard immediately went haywire. Now the screen is showing bizarre characters,it's only able to be played for about 30 seconds before it freezes, and it has to be powered off by unplugging it. The soundbanks are still in there, it's still got velocity capabilities, but something is jacked. Pretty sure the firmware is messed up. Even the factory reset doesn't work. It's an old as hell Casio, and has no usb hookup, so I'd rather just buy a new controller, but covid has everybody else buying new equipment too, so my controller of choice is on backorder til at least July. Any idea how to fix this keyboard in the meantime?
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May 16, 2020 05:35
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Whats the model of it?
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May 16, 2020 05:55
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CTK-601
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May 16, 2020 06:03
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ColdPie posted:I have a Peak, if that counts. I think the Summit is basically two Peaks attached to a keyboard. I've used it in most of the songs I've made, but also I'm a rank amateur, so probably better to hear samples from people who know what they're doing: Red Means Recording, Ricky Tinez, Loopop. There don't seem to be as many in-depth demos of the Summit, but I think the hardware is basically identical. I don't believe you have six oscillators as such, you just get 16 rather than 8 voices, and you can have two patches running with the keyboard split or whatever. I would love one. They look so good, especially now that you can edit the wavetables. I have a Novation Bass Station II and had a Circuit and are utterly sold on Novation as a company making worthwhile synths
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May 16, 2020 06:06
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Origami Dali posted:CTK-601 shot in the dark, but you could try opening the case, seeing if there is an internal hard reset switch (probably not, but genuinely ancient casios usually had belly buttons you could prod with a paper clip), more likely, see if there's a coin cell or similar 3 volt battery. if there is, pop it out or desolder it for a few seconds to clear the ram. again, not huge hopes for that being the cure as I've never known casios to have amenities for having their firmware flashed.
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May 16, 2020 06:47
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coping with the realization that the stuff i make in the box sounds better than outboard (which my son says sounds basic), that presets are better starting points than anything i can come up with from scratch, that digital (fm, wavetable, granular, additive) actually owns, and that everything moves faster in a daw also realizing i lean on acid to fill the role of vocals
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May 16, 2020 07:20
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The Voice of Labor posted:shot in the dark, but you could try opening the case, seeing if there is an internal hard reset switch (probably not, but genuinely ancient casios usually had belly buttons you could prod with a paper clip), more likely, see if there's a coin cell or similar 3 volt battery. if there is, pop it out or desolder it for a few seconds to clear the ram. No switch and no battery. I think she's a goner.
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May 16, 2020 07:38
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Pillow Face posted:coping with the realization that the stuff i make in the box sounds better than outboard (which my son says sounds basic), that presets are better starting points than anything i can come up with from scratch, that digital (fm, wavetable, granular, additive) actually owns, and that everything moves faster in a daw Nnooooo you can’t just make music without hardware synths and making every patch from scratch and you certainly can’t use a pc!!!  Haha laptop go bleeeeep
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May 16, 2020 09:01
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Pillow Face posted:coping with the realization that the stuff i make in the box sounds better than outboard (which my son says sounds basic), that presets are better starting points than anything i can come up with from scratch, that digital (fm, wavetable, granular, additive) actually owns, and that everything moves faster in a daw Presets rule, the obsession and snobbery about not using them is dumb. If you wanted to buy a saxophone or a piano or a guitar or whatever, sure you could think about developing your own signature sound/tone and looking for instruments with unique voices, but you wouldn’t be like “poo poo this saxophone sounds too saxophony, somebody else developed this tone so I mustn’t use it”
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May 16, 2020 13:43
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echinopsis posted:I don't believe you have six oscillators as such, you just get 16 rather than 8 voices, and you can have two patches running with the keyboard split or whatever. Oh yeah, you're totally right. I knew about the two-patch thing, so I jumped from there to 6 oscillators somehow. Yeah Novation's been really great about support after shipping the product. Major new features in a device that's more than 3 years old. In a certain way, I'd almost like to pay them a subscription or something. It seems silly to release new hardware to keep money flowing when the hardware they're already shipping is plenty capable.
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May 16, 2020 13:49
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NonzeroCircle posted:I binge read this whole thread recently and it's cool that after so long (and a lotta posts about drum machines!) you've found a setup that lets you do your thing creatively, real pleased for you. Thanks! It has been a while journey getting here but I think I’ve finally arrived in the right place. fwiw, since the topic is still active, I’m very much one of those ew presets etc (sorta) people. But hear me out. Guitar is my home, it’s where I came from with all of this. Synths to me are instruments in the same way. I like to sit down, dial in my sound, and feel it out. I like as much 1:1 knobby stuff as possible. As much analog weirdness in the signal and all that. I plan on playing everything but my drum synth 100% live on recordings. It works for me. As soon as I start using virtual instruments, quantizing, a bunch of plugins past delay/reverb, I lose complete interest. I treat my one man studio band approach like I’ve got an old school rock and roll band in my brain making decisions, keeping everything raw and stripped down. I totally get the opposite approach though and I’m really glad that people can go in that direction and create cool poo poo.
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May 16, 2020 14:20
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Origami Dali posted:No switch and no battery. I think she's a goner. Service manual here. https://elektrotanya.com/casio_ctk-601.pdf/download.html#dl Not sure if it'll help or not.
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May 16, 2020 20:37
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Philthy posted:Service manual here. https://elektrotanya.com/casio_ctk-601.pdf/download.html#dl Reset circuit description on page 6 and the power supply reference voltages one page previous.
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May 16, 2020 22:05
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Guess i'll hop on preset chat. I don't understand the snobbery. I play music to have fun and presets make getting into a jam instantaneous. I'm all down for doing your own thing, whatever works for you, but don't dump on people who like other thing. Musicians should be more supportive of each other. Why must every endeavor be a fight to the death? Can't we just give peace a chance. Support your fellow synthesists. I've been smoking too much marijuana.
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May 16, 2020 23:33
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Presets are great, and one of the things I like most about moving into the Kontrol MkII system is that it allows me to access my presets across instruments in a useful way.
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May 16, 2020 23:43
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If it sounds good, it gets used. If I'm not boppin' my head I keep going till I do. The only thing I really try and avoid are vocal samples that are recognizable.
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May 16, 2020 23:51
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Any recommendations for a synthesis tutorial? I just got logic, I'm interested in ambient and deep techno stuff. I'm totally bewildered by alchemy though. I am going to go through the logic pro and also the alchemy tutorial on youtube from MusicTechHelpGuy. I have a mpk mini and that's it. But I do have a focusrite and some KRK monitors :p I'm just so overwhelmed by the infinite number of choices that I never make any progress actionjackson fucked around with this message at 01:30 on May 17, 2020 |
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May 17, 2020 01:21
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I'm a fan of Synth Secrets: https://www.soundonsound.com/series/synth-secrets. It's written for synths a bit more limited than what you're working with, but that can be a good thing as you go through the Alchemy's features.
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May 17, 2020 01:59
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Yeah sound design and composition are pretty different skill sets and it’s totally fine to only enjoy it feel proficient at one and not the other. For my case I don’t use hardware synths to make music I use them to explore sound and to have fun times away from computers. It is radically easier and cheaper to use a DAW. Right now I’m trying to get together a hardware setup where I can do some kind of from scratch performance improvisation, because that’s the stuff I really enjoy. It’s been surprisingly tough - it’s basically looking like I’m just going to have to bite the bullet and use Logic, or at least use it as a framework.
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May 17, 2020 02:21
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actionjackson posted:Any recommendations for a synthesis tutorial? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=atvtBE6t48M Parts 2 and 3 are just as good, but once you have the first one they're easy to find 
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May 17, 2020 02:22
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cool thx!
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May 17, 2020 02:42
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Ok Comboomer posted:Presets rule, the obsession and snobbery about not using them is dumb. If you wanted to buy a saxophone or a piano or a guitar or whatever, sure you could think about developing your own signature sound/tone and looking for instruments with unique voices, but you wouldn’t be like “poo poo this saxophone sounds too saxophony, somebody else developed this tone so I mustn’t use it” BIG TIT LIL NIP posted:Guess i'll hop on preset chat. I don't understand the snobbery. I play music to have fun and presets make getting into a jam instantaneous. I'm all down for doing your own thing, whatever works for you, but don't dump on people who like other thing. Musicians should be more supportive of each other. Why must every endeavor be a fight to the death? Trig Discipline posted:Presets are great, and one of the things I like most about moving into the Kontrol MkII system is that it allows me to access my presets across instruments in a useful way. yeah idk about snobbery, i actually can't recall any time that i've seen anyone mention usage of presets except in the cases to say that using presets is cool, which i think says something in itself. maybe there's an (unwarranted) underlying, unspoken guilt that a lot of people feel about it? but once i got my synth, i really did have ambition to use only self-designed sounds. like you have a chance to create your own aesthetic world from scratch, doesn't that get you closer to a "signature sound" or whatever? although now i think "signature sound" is just whatever sort of general theme you end up using a lot and/or get associated with. like this one track i'm working on now, it was a nice future house-y sound that i was digging and then i added a funk guitar sample distorted and filtered, and now i can't get it out of daft punk territory. and that's fine, ripping off other artists is a luxury for amateurs and even pros i guess actionjackson posted:I'm just so overwhelmed by the infinite number of choices that I never make any progress and this is actually kind of the reason for the limitations i set on myself like "no presets" that idc about anymore. i think it's something relatively recent in music to have the resources of sounds that we do and the level of control, and decisions begin to feel arbitrary.
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May 17, 2020 05:36
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i remember when internet nerds went ape poo poo over Jean Michel Jarre using mc808 presets, but i think what happened was Roland never put out any info that Jarre worked with the team that designed it
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May 17, 2020 06:37
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actionjackson posted:Any recommendations for a synthesis tutorial? Syntorial is legit, but isn't free. In addition to videos, it has built in ear training quizzes and interactive challenges ("reproduce this sound" using its built in synth that enables more and more controls as you progress through the lessons), which I believe is still something unique to Syntorial. The video content isn't anything you can't find elsewhere, but the structured and hands on approach can make it worth while for some people. Its structure (plus committing to using it since you're paying for it) can help with that feeling of being overwhelmed by choices, and the hands on approach can help you internalize what each lesson teaches. I believe the first 20 or so lessons are free, so maybe give it a try and see how you like it if it sounds like something you might like. It starts out extremely basic, but the difficulty increases as you unlock more and more of the synth.
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May 17, 2020 08:02
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I think the only time I've heard anyone even mention presets was an interview with Trent Reznor, and all he said was something like "I'm not really a presets guy, so..." and then talked about designing sounds, IIRC.
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May 17, 2020 08:02
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Honestly, I feel like 99% percent of usable synth sounds are simple enough that if you know what you're doing you can dial in a ballpark sound in 30 seconds. Getting it perfect obviously requires contextual tweaking but I get legit annoyed when I'm trialing a new vst if it defaults to anything other than a naked square or saw. Especially if there isn't an in it or reset button and you have to spend ages turning off effects and stupid modulation routing.
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May 17, 2020 08:17
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Pillow Face posted:yeah idk about snobbery, i actually can't recall any time that i've seen anyone mention usage of presets except in the cases to say that using presets is cool, which i think says something in itself. maybe there's an (unwarranted) underlying, unspoken guilt that a lot of people feel about it? There’s a lot of cats out there, on the Internet and in meatspace, who will talk a big game about wiping all of the preset menus as a way of establishing ownership over a new piece of gear and will call out any preset use as “scrub tier” (but samples of gear you don’t have are ok).
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May 17, 2020 10:01
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field balm posted:Honestly, I feel like 99% percent of usable synth sounds are simple enough that if you know what you're doing you can dial in a ballpark sound in 30 seconds. Getting it perfect obviously requires contextual tweaking but I get legit annoyed when I'm trialing a new vst if it defaults to anything other than a naked square or saw. Especially if there isn't an in it or reset button and you have to spend ages turning off effects and stupid modulation routing. See for me being new to all this, alchemy has like a bazillion buttons so I'm like wtf is all this I'm going to go through the vids mentioned, but is there a better soft synth to use in logic? by better I mean less intimidating!
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May 17, 2020 18:48
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Most softsynths come with an .aut version or whatever the weird file extension logic takes. Pick what ever one you like. What kind of sounds do you want to make?
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May 17, 2020 19:39
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here's the latest, not sure how it sounds on speakers that aren't mine so if there's any feedback, other ears are nice https://soundcloud.com/yjk-art/dirty it's analog on bass, operator for pads, wavetable for the divey sound effect, td-3 for acid line, and a tele recorded DI w/some distortion and filter. there's basic ableton fx throughout as well. originally i was gonna take the final .wav and chop it up or tweak it a bit for beat repeat effects or freezes, but idk that it really adds much without being kinda gimmicky
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May 17, 2020 20:23
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Pillow Face posted:here's the latest, not sure how it sounds on speakers that aren't mine so if there's any feedback, other ears are nice I dig it
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May 17, 2020 20:29
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field balm posted:Honestly, I feel like 99% percent of usable synth sounds are simple enough that if you know what you're doing you can dial in a ballpark sound in 30 seconds. Getting it perfect obviously requires contextual tweaking but I get legit annoyed when I'm trialing a new vst if it defaults to anything other than a naked square or saw. Especially if there isn't an in it or reset button and you have to spend ages turning off effects and stupid modulation routing. That's kind of what I've noticed since I started learning synthesis,too. I like to try to replicate sounds as an exercise, and generally they're not too hard to get close to. I LOVE the compare feature of the hydrasynth, on a semi-related note - many times I tweak a preset and the comparison is far different than I expected, so I feel good about kind of owning the sound. Except the Pandemic preset. I will never change it.
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May 17, 2020 20:33
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The Voice of Labor posted:Most softsynths come with an .aut version or whatever the weird file extension logic takes. here's some ambient tracks I really like if it helps https://soundcloud.com/luckofaccess/loa-triptych-podcast-ambient - track at 4 minutes, love that sort of church-y organ sound going on in the background too https://soundcloud.com/private-business-1/pbp-025 - track at 6 minutes https://soundcloud.com/mysteriesofthedeep/joachim-spieth - first track https://soundcloud.com/monument-podcast/mnmt - the entire first 20 minutes. I love that blade runner poo poo at 13 minutes. Also the last track in the minutes I dunno I guess in summary, nothing that's going to put anyone in tears or some poo poo, but not something too dark or drony either. Maybe just give your thoughts on the first track listed for now? that's my favorite.
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May 17, 2020 20:41
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