Some new Soft Synths

Apologies for the lack of tips lately - I have been completely snowed under with various projects so have been short on time.

I will soon be putting up some more parts for remix so keep watching for those...

In my studio news I have recently bought a few new bits and pieces and tried out some nice demos. I got D-Cam Synth Squad (http://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?page=62) a couple of weeks ago and have been putting it through its paces. Some of the the patches make my ancient (1.5 year old!) Core2 Duo processor struggle a bit - this is the first synth I have tried which has made my computer crap itself so there must be some decent processing happening under the hood of this synth. I am dying to get one of those new i7 processors, however will wait to see what happens with Windows 7... ("GET A MAC" I hear you cry).

My initial impressions have been very positive - I won't do a full review on here as there are people far more qualified than myself to give a detailed rundown. However, just simply it is three synth in one which can be combo'd in a similar fashion to Korg's Legacy Synth. I won't attempt to say whether it sounds genuinely "analogue" as claimed by the maker, however it just have a nice gritty sound with a kind of 'analogue' flavour - don't ask me to try to qualify what I mean by this as I have no idea. The best I can do is say that some of the patches (especially pad & string) sound similar to what you could hear on a Prophet 08.

Also tried a demo of the new Largo soft synth by Waldorf (http://www.waldorfmusic.de/en/products/largo). The demo is fully functional for 30 days which is plenty of time to work out whether it is for you or not.

This is also a really cool synth - very different to Synth Squad. Largo has a shiny FM-style sound - a little like NI FM8 but also with its own character. Very tweakable and great for big fat synth basses and shiny pads.

I also downloaded a demo of Camel Audio's Alchemy (http://www.camelaudio.com/Alchemy.php). This sounded really promising however it kept crashing Cubase for me so I had to uninstall it. Not sure if this is a problem unique to me or not. Will maybe look at a future release/update or when I update to the new version of Cubase (I am still on 4).

One other cool piece of news is that you can buy selected Arturia Synths for half price at the moment and then you get a free upgrade to the new versions coming out soon. I bought CS80-V and Prophet V which arrived today so looking forward to having a play...I got mine from Audio Midi (www.audiomidi.com) but I am sure you can get them elsewhere too...

Stay tuned for the next tip - some more guest tips are coming too - so you may actually get some information from someone who actually knows what they are talking about....

Mannequin - Anjay Remix

Here is another cool one -

http://soundcloud.com/anjay

keep 'em coming ;)

cheers
Kriece

Another Cool Mannequin Remix

Howdy all,

Here is a another wicked remix - this time from Argentinian producer Martin Caruso

Check it out on his Soundcloud page -

http://soundcloud.com/martincaruso

Re-edits for Download

Here is one of my unreleased re-edits from a couple of years back which people have been hassling me for on myspace since James Zabiela was playing it out, so have put up for limited number of downloads - first in first served ;)

I will start putting up some of my unreleased edits up over the next few months...

https://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&send_id=732529529&email=ff6fbcdb3ee8933a5bbc30ab9289808d

Mannequin Remixes

Here is the first remix of Mannequin, its by US artist Bassheavy - check it out - its a cracker!

http://soundcloud.com/b_bonura

Quick Reverb Tip #1

Quick Reverb Tip # 1

Don't be afraid to apply automation to your Reverb to keep the sound constantly evolving.

If you have a sound which ends abruptly in your track, try automating the decay so that it gradually increases over the last 8 bars or so (when you start to open up the decay is up to you - if you start too early the long reverb decay can smear over all the other sounds). That way, when the sound ends, it has a slowly decaying tail which blends into the track.

This trick also works in breakdowns to build tension - open up the decay of the reverb in the breakdown to create a building sound - then when the beat kicks back in you can either cut the decay back to zero to give a clear distinction of where the beat starts, or keep the long decay so it functions almost like a crash noise to add drama to the breakdown.

Kriece - "Mannequin" Remix Parts

Here are the parts from my track Mannequin for those who want to have a go at a remix. Will post up links later of any good remixes people do. If I get a REALLY spectacular one I will put it out on one of the labels.

https://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&send_id=736222211&email=0e6eb421e862a714b518e317ea287968

Only limited number of downloads unfortunately.