Studio Updates

Having quite some money but no life whatsoever, I made some upgrades to my studio setup over last few months.

Neutron 3 Advanced from my favourite company iZotope has been a tough choice, but everything that speeds up workflow at least by a little margin is always welcome. This one features multiband Transient Shaper with nice display to replace proven, but simple NI Transient Master with something more streamlined. The same is true with multiband Gate plugin. A completely new tool in my arsenal would be Sculptor, which seems to be multiband dynamics + EQ hybrid requested myself in one of user polls some years ago. Simple controls, but does wonders.

Finally purchased a D16 plugin (with money – got all others free). This is Godfazer, multi-purpose phaser tool with a plenty of algorithms and controls for every scenario. Subtle or extreme, classic or avant-garde, periodic or dynamic – you name it. In particular, stepped phaser is something I always needed for uplifting trance basslines. So far only Hybrid 3 got it.

Transient shaper – a breakthrough

Thanks to recent NI Komplete Ultimate purchase I had a chance to try praised Transient Master. It is nothing new is the world of music production, neither in my studio setup. However, I figured out something clever and got great results with it.

First of all, unlike compressor or expander, it allows to recreate dynamics in completely flat audio material – that’s because it is level-independent. This also means it can work equally good for quiet and loud input, especially in already processed track with automated volume level and so on. Last but not least, NI Transient Master precisely targets transient or sustained portion of a signal, which is relevant to human listener – unlike simple compressors, which are only a mathematical volume processors.

That seems to be a lot to say about a plugin, which has only 3 knobs, one of them being a volume control – no automate volume compensation here, unfortunatelly.

So let’s give some examples, real word examples:

• Add dynamics to heavily distorted acid lead
• Add attack to drums
• Tame starting click in gated synths
• Add sustain to short claps
• Completely redesign the impact of various one-shot FX

As a conclusion, it lead me to ultimate mix discovery: Which tracks should have powerful transient impact, and which should not. Apparently, not everything in the mix can or even should be very dynamic – and I overdid this in the past, as it turns out.

All in all, Transient Master is now my go-to tool for pretty much everything. I already used in on a latest uplifting remix, coming out in January. Can’t share any details yet, but it’s just right, as all my tracks should have been. Expect a real bomb!

The secret plan is Komplete

That’s right! Finally I got the most popular plugin package in the world, which is Komplete Ultimate 12. It was heavily discounted during Native Instruments‘ Summer of Sound – still, not a cheap stuff. Been looking forward to Komplete for years.

So what’s inside?

Favourite Free Effects

Some months ago I listed my purchased plugins, now it’s the time for the list of free ones you can download and use with no charge. I used all of them and plan to continue so, they are just awesome and get the job done.

Mid-Side Effect Rack for Ableton

I’ve been using this rack for two years now or more. Also requested it as a standard feature in Ableton library, but to no avail. So here it is, as simple as it gets: mid/side Audio Effect Rack. It consists of two channels, mid channel  (width 0%) and side channel (width 200%). That’s all that was needed to make it work… once you know it. The reality is, not many people do.

Now it’s here for everyone to download and use.

Just use simple gain boost/reduction or put different effects in mid and side channel. Solo/mute channels to check mono compatibility. Or do some weird shit, it’s all up to you.

Enjoy!

Comb filter for Max4Live + modular dreams

Yesterday I started to learn Max4Live plugin development. For the first trial comes the remake of my simple Comb Filter with feedforward topology. You can see the old VST version here. The M4L version is on maxforlive.com.

I may make some more, depending on time and ideas coming (some ambitious ideas might take a long time to finish). I’m also looking forward to Oscillot modular synthesizer – it’s easier to add own little plugin to already existing library of over 100 devices, than to build fully-blown synth from scratch. Even Oscillot Lite version can sound great. Unfortunatelly, so far it got little attention from customers – much less than it deserves, IMO.

Recently I was also inspired by Eurorack and it’s unusual modules which create random, seemless patterns and envelopes. This is certainly something that classic substractive synthesis is missing. Instead of having complete synth with all features you want, take random oscillator and let it make the music on it’s own, something you wouldn’t imagine. Check these movies, they are very inspiring.

The Push has landed

I am happy to welcome my new studio gear, Ableton Push.

It is probably the most desired midi controller out there. Finally got my own and tried it out. It is amazing tool!

The midi controllers, in general, are there to help with layering down arrangements difficult to manipulate with mouse – for example acid bassline with multiple automations. However, Push is also able to replace more conventional midi keyboard thanks to it’s clip recording and manipulation functions.

It’s also drum machine and sample player, which will help me target the areas I find particularly difficult: drum loops and improvised FX. Also, ability to play live and improvise may help when I get stuck at certain piece and don’t move forward.

Of course, controller itself doesn’t allow user to do anything otheriwse he couldn’t. But it cuts the time needed to lay down melody and structure of a track dramatically. Also allow to check different ideas and see if they work together just on a press of button. That’s what I needed and that’s what I’ve got 🙂

Not to mention Push in particular appears very sturdy and solid piece of gear, hopefully resistant to my destructive powers. It is the most expensive single thing I ever bought, so it better last for years!

I wonder where it leads me once I have more time to finish another production.

Stay tuned!

New live mix

Still striving to perform live.

They say practice makes perfect. The mix is far from perfect yet, but there’s no big fail either. People enjoyed it and that’s all that matters.

Tracklist was improvised, just trying to pick random tunes in the key and mix them together. Playing with some FX and mixing at fast pace. It’s not the easiest way to play live, but when I improve the skills, it will be amazing. Always have ambitious plans and just try to realize them.

Hoping to post some more live mixes in upcoming months.

Warmy

Comb Filter VST updated to 2.0

It doesn’t seem like such simple plugin would need any upgrade, but it had some issues, for which I apologize.

Now all the bugs with mono/stereo channels are gone.

Additionally, Comb Filter will not change it’s frequency with sampling rate. Sampling rates up to 192 KHz are supported in full range, at frequency 1 Hz. However, if you set higher frequency, sampling rate can be rised proportionally – there is no limit that could be reached in practical situation that I know of.

Download link is updated. Get it here.

Two new plugins: Comb Filter and Volume Halver

I made two tiny plugins in the meantime and want to share them with everybody.

Comb Filter

Among hundreds of effect racks, mastering suites and filter banks sometimes it’s hard to find exactly what you are looking for. That thing was comb filter, as simple as possible. What it does is to filter out even or odd harmonics and boost the others – perfect for shaping the noise of percussion, in particular.

Take a look at frequency response from Wikipedia:

Alpha on the graph is represented by “Mix” knob, while “2pi” is your frequency.

Comb filters are also elements of phasers and flangers, so you may want to use them that way.

Features

• Positive or negative ratio
• Minimal CPU usage
• High precision control

Download

Volume Halver

Plugin designed to reduce track volume before mastering without loss of precision.

Halving the volume may sound like trivial operation, but there’s more in it. If you try to lower the volume directly from your DAW, multiplying by real number may result in rounding error. Volume halver fixes that, as it multiplies the signal exactly by half, so no rounding is present. This way the only precision you may ever loose is the least sgnificant bit – but that’s inherent disadvantage of any computer system and not the tools you use.

It doesn’t even have GUI – just drop one on two on your track before mastering, so it does not clip.

Download