Mornats

I upgraded my PC a while ago and got an ASUS Maximus Ranger VII motherboard (pretty decent gaming one). MY old Soundsblaster X-fi soundcard was PCI and I only have PCI-E slots so it wouldn't fit. Shame as it sounded really good. The onboard sound on my new motherboard was marketed as being way better than the usual onboard soundchips but in reality it was just as pants. So I bought myself an ASUS Xonar Essence STX and to be honest I've been blown away by it. Sounds amazing, had a good headphone amp and does Dolby Surround really well (I watch Game of Thrones at PC just for that reason). They're not cheap - around £140 or so but worth it in my opinion. I take an RCA out to my hi-fi amp and everything sounds crystal clear and "right" to my ears.

Head on over here for some grand advice: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/248509-beginners-guide-to-home-recording/ including links to a load of free VSTs (including soft synths). Here's a whole thread dedicated to free VSTs too: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/77603-free-vsts/ I use Reaper too and find that it does pretty much anything you can ask of it. It's also updated very regularly and you can run the fully-functioning demo version for as long as you like to see if you like it. A licence is quite cheap too if you decide it's the one for you. Grab yourself a copy of Computer Music magazine too. They have a fair amount of free software on their cover disc. I believe the current issue has a synth for free (http://www.musicradar.com/computermusic)

That was such a fun bunch to listen to! It was amazing to hear an audio interpretation of a photo that I've taken too. Nice work everyone

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1466636109' post='3077545'] [size=2]Not that we'll all be truly sick of voting by then, of course.[/size] [/quote] One thing's guaranteed, we'll all probably really like the result Good to see your list of plugins, I've always wondered whether I use too many, too few or just the right amount. When I'm picking sounds I can fall into the habit of constantly saying "ooh that's nice" over and over until I run out of RAM

Righto, I've done mine now [url="https://soundcloud.com/mornats/apocalypse-forest"]https://soundcloud.c...ocalypse-forest[/url] Here's the spiel: I tried to go for an eerie steampunk affair although I'm not sure what it's turned out as but I like it. This is the first time I've used Sonic Forest (a beautifully inspirational VI), Storm Choir (hard to work with but good results if you get it right) and Kirk Hunter Solo Strings - an absolute beauty that cost me around £13! NI's Kontour makes an appearance. It's a very underrated synth that sounds great and I'll be revisiting it more and more. I auditioned over 200 different drum samples and presets to find the one that I used. Originally I had a midi drum beat going into one of the Sonic Forest presets. It sounded very quirky, with a plastic percussion feel to it but it lacked impact and most importantly, lacked a good solid kick drum (as it wasn't a drum sample to be fair). I'd encourage anyone to put a drum beat into any instrument to see what happens. Kinetic Metal still gives me a lot of great usable sounds although the relative instability of it in Reaper is a bit of a chore (NI are working on a fix). I initially tried to compose this entirely from Sonic Forest. I'm convinced that you can create an entire track out of that one instrument, the options are seemingly endless. That's why it's called Apocalypse Forest. However the sounds of the instruments I ended up using were calling to me and I couldn't resist. Here's the full list: Impact Soundworks Sonic Forest NI Kinetic Metal NI Supercharger GT NI Battery 4 Heavyocity Damage NI Passive EQ NI Reflektor Kirk Hunter Solo Strings ReaEQ NI Kontour Strezov Sampling Storm Choir NI Replika Focusrite Red 3 Compressor Put together using: Focusrite Forte interface Komplete Kontrol S61 keyboard Cockos Reaper

Markbass are quite clean sounding and I use my 121p as a DI into my audio interface. I'm getting a much better quality signal into the interface as a result.

There's nothing stopping you from going back to your track after you've entered it into the comp Rikki. I've gone back and tidied up a few after the competition's ended. I've rendered mine down into a mix ready for testing on different systems. My new technique for checking levels is to listen to it in the office. I use a pair of Sony open-back earbuds (similar in shape to the Apple ones you get with the latest iPhones) so I can't have them too loud. So the level I need to listen to them at when at work is ideal for checking that high notes don't scream out too much and that at the same volume I can still hear the lower frequencies and any subtleties.

[quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1465887326' post='3071765'] I've made a start... And where it goes depends entirely on whether I add piano or synth. If it's synth, it's likely to be a large funky thing like Madre with chugging guitars. If it's piano, it'll be a jazzy little number with drum solo and (eek!) some scat. Daddy or chips? [/quote] Funk jazz.

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1465908237' post='3071979'] But I dont want future proof I want the technological innovation to make my life easier, to make it possible to achieve more. [/quote] I think we may mean "continued driver support" rather than future proof. Focusrite's new Scarlett 2 interfaces are claiming lower latency than the first generation. Tech advances like this are most welcomed but good support for older products will secure more brand fans IMO. I mentioned the lack of support for the then premium Forte earlier in this thread and I also recall a thread on here where I was recommending it and you mentioned your preference for RME's style of support for their drivers even if the Forte was regarded as having a better preamp (not saying it was better, but hypothetically speaking I believe that was your preference). Driver support for my Forte would give it the future-proofing that I would need. That is, it would be more likely to still work on a PC 4-5 years down the line.

I've got the outline of mine done. I need to re-record some of the melody lines as my first stab at them was a bit messy with a couple of untuneful spots. In terms of inspiration, the picture has an industrial type feel about it but I took the shot in the context of a zombie walk so horror/sci-fi/industrial would work. I think a couple of people are going for a funk theme which would fit too and if you did a cover of the Banana Splits theme that would match the picture too!

Sonic Forest and Solo Strings have made an appearance in my entry for June's comp challenge

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1465325338' post='3067223'] You get what you pay for.... [/quote] The stinger for me with the Focusrite Forte was that it was closer in price to the RME Babyface than it was to a Focusrite Scarlet so sometimes you get less than you pay for!

I find that a new sound library can give me loads of inspiration. And I'm a VST whore Speaking of which... the latest VSTBuzz deal is this: http://vstbuzz.com/deals/65-off-reforged-impact-soundworks/ I'm listening to the video walkthrough now and it reminds me a lot of Evolve. For 30 euros you can't go wrong if you want a bunch of cinematic underscore type things. Where it seems to differ is that it looks like it has less content than Evolve (although that may not prove to be true) and is more of a construction kit with more effects and a step sequencer whereas Evolve has a lot of out-of-the-box sounds and rhythms. The downside of Evolve though is that you can watch any TV show or play any computer game and you'll recognise most of the samples I'm quite tempted but I have a lot of similar sounds in Evolve, the two Mutations packs for that, Kinetic Metals and a few others. For the price though...hmmm

Focusrite's core range (Scarlett and Sapphire) should be fine in terms of driver support but their premium Forte was barely supported before they discontinued it. To get that to work on Windows 10 you have to search Google for their beta drivers and even then it's pot luck as to which one will work. As far as I know they're not planning on updating those any more. I should have (really) stretched my budget and gone RME.

Wow, you did one already? I'm still deciding whether I want to set myself another challenge or not by trying to do this month's using just one VST (this one: http://impactsoundworks.com/products/electronic/sonic-forest/). It was mentioned that I tend to use a few more than just one or two on my tracks

If there's anything worse than zombies it's hipster zombies.

Haha, I took that photo at the Bristol Zombie Walk a couple of years ago. Banabraaiiinns Splits? To me is says funky, sci-fi, weird, horror, metal. Go have fun everyone!

Thanks again everyone, it was an absolute blast this month with enough top quality entries to score an entire movie! I've picked a photo that should hopefully fit a funky sci-fi feel Should be up later on this evening.

I'll do my best to get a pic to you. My broadband just went down so I may have to see what I can come up with from my phone!

Ooh I think I have the perfect photo! Hopefully I can find it

Wow thanks everyone, I'm chuffed to bits with my first ever win especially with the current bunch of entries. As I said earlier I had to change my method for picking one as I could have easily voted for them all. The Sound Dust Ghost Piano was a brilliant vst to work with and set the scene for my track. The image was spot-on inspirational too. I'll go hunting for a picture when I get back from work. I may use one of my own photos... Thanks again guys!

I'm going through them all now and I've had to change my system for picking my top three. Usually I write them all down and put a no/maybe/definitely next to each one. I'll vote for all definitely's then will re-play all of the maybe's to get to three. This time I've had to mark them all out of 10 otherwise there'd be too many definitely's and the rest would be maybe's

I just bought Sonic Forest and I have to say it would be worth the money at $100. Using the built in arpeggiator you can create some really nice underscores. I've only played with just under half of the presets so far with a little tinkering with the arpeggiator and it sounds great.

Ta! I put a full stop at the end of mine which broke it. Damn my grammar!

I think this thread is just you and me encouraging each other to buy more VSTs! I can't wait to team up Solo Strings with Storm Choir and Session Strings Pro.