Not so long ago computers for producing music were all seriously underpowered. I remember on my old Mac clone, a Power Computer PowerCenter Pro210 I could only open 2-3 plug-ins before the computer would click and glitch to a halt. However, today we live in an amazing time as far as music technology. I can load up my Macbook Pro all day long with plug-ins and it seems my CPU never jumps past 50%. It actually took me a few months to get used to piling on plug-ins without freezing or bouncing tracks. I realized I was wasting time 
bouncing everything by watching younger kids demo their Ableton and Cubase tracks on YouTube. My keen eye caught mountains of plug-ins placed frivolously over twenty plus channels. I realized I better “un-old fogey” myself and start painting with thick strokes of live effects or be left behind.
So today’s quick tip is to start a song with plenty of effects placed on assorted channels before you ever even place a sound producing synth, sample or voice anywhere. What do I mean? Well how about putting Altiverb with a Neuman Mic IR (Impulse Response) on the Master Channel? Why not also put a nice compressor there too? Now as your build your song and mix as you go building into those plug-ins. In effect it’s almost like you bought a new sounding mixer.
There’s no reason to be subtle either. Try creating a sub-mixer of 6+ channels and on the Group’s master fader and have a flanger set to 100% wet. Next place all your synths in your new flanger group and adjust the oscillators and filters toward the flanger not the other way around. The key is to start off fully loaded with effects on so everything you hear isn’t the same ole, same ole…
Related post: Making Groups in Ableton Live is really easy.
photo credit: Pulpolux !!!
This entry was written by , posted on December 20, 2008 at 11:32 am, filed under Ableton Live, plug-ins, song writing and tagged Ableton Live, Altiverb, effects, flanger, groups, Impulse Response, Neumann, plug-ins, Power Computing, PowerCenter Pro210, song writing. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
How many of you own the Korg Legacy Collection? How often do you grab the little MDE-X effect processor it comes with? Not often? Well you should! I consistency find the MDE-X useful and it sounds great. It has 19 effects including compressors, limiters, overdrives, equalizers, a talking modulator, flangers, phasers, chorus, delays, reverbs and more. Even though the interface is small compared to other modern plug-ins if you spend a minute looking closely at most presets you will see they are quiet adjustable.
There is a new free bank of MDE-X presets available at Le Lotus Bleu.
You’ll find here 87 new patches for the Korg MDE-X Multi effect.
In this bank you’ll find:
Reverbs and delays patches designed to be used in an aux bus. Factory patches had none. Groovy delays to enhance your tracks. Dynamic patches templates where you can control Fx parameters in real time using Midi CC or velocity. Some standard Fx commonly used in studios (like Kraftwerk style drums). A comprehensive manual/helpware with the list of patches, a short description for each patc, as well as some tips and tricks about using and programming the Mde-x in various situations, including in a Daw like Cubase can also be found in the zip file.
To grab the free set and check out some of their other Korg Legacy presets for sale: click here By the way don’t forget to grab my free Korg Legacy MS20 set over at my record label’s studio page: www.thingstocome.com/studio.html
via Sonic State
This entry was written by , posted on July 13, 2008 at 11:12 am, filed under plug-ins and tagged effects, Korg Legacy, MDE-X, plug-in. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Smartelectronix is a group of programmers making audio plug-ins. Most of the effects are completely free and available for Mac or PC. My favorite bundle are the Destroy FX plug-ins by Sophia and Tom 7. These plug-ins are experimental, glitch crazy wild. Today’s focus is Transverb. There’s no reason for me to describe the parameters or sound to you. Above is a screen shot and below is an audio sample. Now go to the website and get for free copy then hit the random button! The mp3 below is simply D16’s great TR-808 emulator Nepheton and Transverb as an insert.
Transverb is like a delay plugin, but it can play back the delay buffer at different speeds. Think of it like a tape loop with two independently-moving read heads. There are lots of parameters to control and a parameter randomizer for the impatient. Tom’s first “released” plugin. Fun! – destroyfx.smartelectronix.com
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This entry was written by , posted on October 23, 2007 at 9:03 am, filed under plug-ins and tagged effects, plug-ins. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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