parts

[Evil G]

do you assign synths to parts, like you would in a band?

eg. synth A always plays lead, synth B always plays bass, synth C always plays pads.

or do you freely takes sounds from any source for any purpose?

i've been doing the latter, but i'm thinking that too much freedom is slowing me down, and maybe i need to tighten things up.

on a related note, do you compose all the parts together, and keep everything tweakable, or do you nail down one layer at a time?

[Basil Rush]

Nail it these days track at a time unless there's a lot of music in there that'll need to work together.

We only use two or three synths though so it's not like there's a lot of choice to make it hard. It's usually the Virus for everything, unless it doesn't sound liquid or rich enough in which case it's the Pro-53 or ATC-1.

[Evil G]

cool. how do you like the ATC-1? i have been thinking about trying to land an SE1-X next year.

[mux]

I do exactly that (assign synths to parts), and find it definitely streamlines the process - also has the side effect of helping me to create my own "sound".

Currently, my basslines are always made by the Waldorf Pulse Plus, kick/snare/toms are always the Simmons SDS-800, highhat and high-frequency percussion duty is shared by two outs of the MPC1000 and the ER-1, screaming 303 lead synth is always the SH-101, and the Nord is the swiss army knife for filling out the mix - sometimes a rhythmic noise, sometimes a counterpoint lead, sometimes a whirling LFO'd bleeping tone.

In the studio, this makes all of my tracks sound different, but I like to think they sound similar - that way, each new track I make still sounds like "me". Ideally, I'd like to eventually do collaborative projects with other folks, but have critics be able to say "you can definitely hear the mux work in this track" or something.

Live sets, otoh, is where this technique really shines. Since the Pulse is always bass, I always have my Pulse mixer channel eq'd and effected for bass. The SH-101 signal path goes through a series of effects that'd be pretty useless for basslines, but that make the lead scream jump right out through the mix. The MPC has six outputs; two are always vocal snippets, two are always percussion, and two go out into the Nord Modular's audio ins - obviously the same. Of course, with any live dance music you should always, always, always dedicate at least a full mixer channel to your kick drum, and eq/compress it accordingly.

I dunno. Works for me. I don't feel limited - I've been doing live-pa for about six years now, and used to use whatever on whatever track... since I switched over to assigning the parts, I've written and performed about 30 tracks, and the current set of 10 almost-finished tracks in the MPC is by FAR my best work to date. :)

[Evil G]

that makes a lot of sense drew.

[RichieV]

i think it is just a matter of knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each of your synths . IF you know a synth is good for bass , then use is for bass . If a synth is good for weird sounds , use it for that .
I think a good idea is to split up your " producing time " into segments .

FOr example , spend every second day programming synth sounds .....

that way you will really get to know your stuff.

SO to answer your question , no .
I just hear a sound in my head and know which synth will be able to recreate it best. I don't have a set synth for a set part

[DJZeMig_L]

Don't just use a synth "4 what it was designed 4"!!!!! The TB303 was a bass sh*te 2 go along yer guitar playing and singing at bars!!

Z

[FILTERZ]

well i allways use whatever for whatever it all ends up mangled to **** in my sampler anyway, im trying very hard not to develop a certain sound allthough i use my electron machine drum for 90 percent of my drums.
nothing wrong with doing it the other way though

[slavestudios]

i run anything from anything...

example: in my live show, i'm using a dr550MKII (just one machine from a total of 9) run thru 2 Zoom fx units & heavy compression & harsh eq with 100% wet on both. its just a hit, but with combined fx, it comes thru as a big wash or tight stab...

whatever sounds good.

[Basil Rush]

cool. how do you like the ATC-1? i have been thinking about trying to land an SE1-X next year.

Actually prefer the ATC-1 to the SE-1 I've got an SE-1 as well though it's on loan to someone at the moment. There's more wild things in the ATC-1 for some reason. ATC-X might be worth looking at ... different filters all come with it

[Evil G]

Actually prefer the ATC-1 to the SE-1 I've got an SE-1 as well though it's on loan to someone at the moment. There's more wild things in the ATC-1 for some reason. ATC-X might be worth looking at ... different filters all come with it

interesting. the lack of nobs on the ATC's freaks me out, but i'll try to stay open minded. ;)

[Basil Rush]

Yeah, the SE-1 has more knobs but you still find yourself having to dive into stupid menus to change some parameters .... maybe the ATC-X has complete midi control of everything in which case you could get yourself a programmer or something but the ATC-1 and SE-1 only have midi control of certain parameters :/

None the less the sound is wicked, though I wish there was a way of getting analogue synth audio oscillators to retrigger at the beginning of each note if you wanted them to. DCOs all the way ...