Iacchus

Hi all, thrilled to announce my new album 'Betwixt' released yesterday. Hit me up if you want but cant afford right now and want a dropbox link. https://iacchus.bandcamp.com/album/betwixt 1. Phillax - Hyperspace (Iacchus Remix) 2. Legion 3. Titan and his Minions 4. Spore to the More 5. Together as One VIP 6. Between Apologies for Disfunktion

I don't actually use the knobs on it, the VST UI is better - tabs, modulation matrix with dropdowns, waveforms you can drag with the mouse, etc. Some prefer to twiddle knobs but I prefer the UI. You are basically buying a ton of DSP boards and an exceptionally good analogue modelling algorithm, fine tuned and coded for the circuit boards it runs on.

That's just my experience of gear progression and acquisition others will have a different story and a fondness for other synths that may be cheaper. I just feel you have to bring out the big guns to outdo soft synths these days.

I wouldn't recommend spending <500usd on a synth, I think its a waste of money. Save up and get a good one, and for 1000usd I would get a Virus TI desktop. Fully integrates with your DAW, you dont even need to save the patch on the synth, saving your DAW file does it for you, and it will run 16 instances at once, thats 16 synth patches running live at the same time in your track. You can even leave the dust cover on, as long at is it powered up, it will work and you can control it through the VST user interface. There are other synths that sound great too but, becauese of the total integration and the effect it has on your workflow, the Virus TI is and will always be my recommendation.. until something better comes out, been waiting 10 years for that to happen though...

I wouldn't bother with starter synths, I got an electribe, then a novation supernova, I outgrew them both quickly and it was just a bit of a waste of time and money, only the best hardware synths outperform VST's now anyway. Consider a Virus TI Snow as a cheaper option, it has the same sound engine as the full model, it just runs less instances, so you are not compromising on sound.

I use the Virus TI as my main workhorse, use FM VST plugins a bit for growl and stuff but for warm squelchy psychedelic noises, can't beat the Virus.

Generally always try do things with the DAW. Including modulation of parameters (I'd rather use the Bitwig LFO than any built in LFO) It's more consistent, you dont have to learn so many different tools and know exactly how you expect them to behave in every circumstance. You can also switch out the synth or whatever for something else with minimal effort

Tell a lie I have actually been using FM8 loads now come to think of it

I can hear two synths around that time The first is a more moody atmopheric pad, this is actually a omnisphere preset. I rarely use presets or soft synths but it has some great sounds for moody atmospheric stuff It is quickly followed by a more standard psy squelchy noise This is made on my Virus TI. It is a saw wave patch with 2 x unison and a bit of spread, ring modulator, and formant filtering, ie two band pass filters giving it that 'talky' element. Could give more deets or upload a preset if you like

Hi all, I gone done released a new album! CDs and digital. If you are skint drop me a message and I'll give you a download code. Available on my bandcamp (above) and also at the Mystic Sound bandcamp https://mysticsound.bandcamp.com/ Enjoy! Iacchus x

I usually start with an element that has inspired me in music I've heard recently.. maybe a bass, a percussive thing, a stylistic influence such as a new genre that has interested me I start with that and then it usually morphs into something totally different as new sounds you make in the process start to fit together and inspire more ideas.. usually the bit I was originally trying to imitate gets left in a graveyard at the end and long forgotten I think it's starting that's the important bit, any way for any reason. The songs kinda write themselves after that.

I dont really use vocal samples anymore.. especially the whole terrance mckenna style hippy gubbins samples started to sound really cliche and tiresome to me

The problem with vocals is that consonants are effectively white noise. If you de-noise it using de-essers etc, you remove the definitoin of the talking and left with something more 'vowelly' There are expensive forensic cleanup suites that do a reasonable job of reducing noise and leaving the vocals as unaffected as possible but to be honest, why not leave the noise in? nothing wrong with a bit of noise in a track If you don't like how the noise starts and stops suddenly with the vocal track, take a bit of the noise when the voice isn't there, loop it, and fade it in and out before/after the sample.

Depends what you are trying to mix it with, and what the sound of the voice is like! But generally I would probably compress it if there is dynamic range i dont want, and roll off the bottom to keep it away from the bass and kick. I certainly wouldnt try to tune it, it is spoken word, not singing, by its very nature it is not supposed to be in a tune.

Ta And if you are trying to get something like that Kayla Scintilla sound i'd say you've nailed it, I'd have a hard time telling them apart in a double blind trial.. good sounds, good drums (especially like the triplet fill-in type things), and nice squelchy noises. In terms of structure, the song starts a good groove, then carries on for 3 minutes in that same groove.. I'd say at least a song should have a breakdown in the middle and some kind of build up to a second drop, ideally with some major differences to the first bit. eg different drum groove, new synths or instruments perhaps that start to come in over the breakdown My favourite songs are real journeys. Consider a song like 'Around the world in a tea daze' by shpongle, skip through the track and listen to how many different grooves it does, how different the end is from the start. That makes for epic songwriting in my opinion. I know psybass is going to be a bit different as it's more 'dancey' but I think having any track evolving is a good principle. I tend to listen to my stuff repeatedly on headphone when its work in progress, in bed our out and about - do I start to lose interest towards the second half? Would i be tempted to skip that if i was listening to it on a train and it was someone elses music? Is the end bit less good than the first bit? If so, it needs to change. Sometimes making that decision, sitting down for a few hours and starting 'a new bit' in the track can take it in a new direction that improves it as an overall piece no end