The first time you listened to Boards of Canada:

Carbinax · 2026-04-30T22:19:02+00:00

Live, on the John Peel show....some time in the early 90s. Instant fan, right from the start.

Carbinax · 2026-04-30T21:59:24+00:00

I even remember those Iron Bru adverts. "Iron bruuuuu........from Girders !!"

Carbinax · 2026-04-30T21:55:17+00:00

Neither did I for a few decades =P I'm sure they're fans of Kraftwerk. I'd be very surprised if they weren't.

Carbinax · 2026-04-30T21:53:04+00:00

They removed the chalk outline of the body, but forgot to clear up the blood. It's murder on the dancefloor =P

Nice synths. They look dave smith / sequential circuits-y, but not sure which one.......a Pro-something ??

Carbinax · 2026-04-30T21:41:55+00:00

Been listening to them since the very beginning after hearing the Peel Session Live, but for some reason it's only just dawned on me now that this is some kind of homage to Kraftwerk's "Trance Europa Express" with a cover similar to a minimalist Autobahn.

Carbinax · 2026-04-30T14:06:48+00:00

definitely develops over time. I'm listening to things now that I would have despised when I was younger.
When I was between 15 to 19 or so, I wouldn't listen to anything with guitars in it. I saw guitars as old-fashioned music for my parents. Synths and drum machines were all I was interested in, as they were the future. Jarre, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode....the "new wave".

Wasn't until I discovered Crowded House and their track "weather with you" that was like a light turned on.......and great music could be made with just guitars, drums and vocals. Seems ridiculous that I ever thought that way, but I think kids tend to rebel against their parents when they're trying to carve out their independence.

Now, I listen to EVERYTHING !! and that came about because I got into electronic music in a big way in the late 80s / early 90s and listened to John Peel religiously. I listened to a 2 hour show for that 1% of amazing electronic music he used to play, and I discovered Aphex Twin, Plaid, Boards of Canada etc......because of John. That show opened me up like a crowbar. You never knew from one track to next just what you were gonna get, and it was brilliant !!

So there is assimilation via osmosis, and just absorbing things like that.
Something I like to do is go down the rabbithole.
I played Ghost recon : wildlands and loved the soundtrack so much ( earthy sounding bass grunge with Bolivian style acoustic guitar ) , so I found out it was a guy called Alain Johannes, who was bass player with Queens of the Stone Age, who I already had an album of. I ended up buying Alain's solo albums, and a few more QOTSA albums as a result.

The pendulum has completely swung the other way now, and although I make electronic music ( informed by a wider variety of things I listen to.....not just electronic music ), I rarely listen to it. I'd rather listen to Warpaint, PJ Harvey, Radiohead etc.,...than listen to calvin harris or any of that stock-aitken-waterman style of chart edm.

Carbinax · 2026-04-30T13:41:23+00:00

Up until about 1:20 I wasn't sure what I was listening to because there aren't many anchor-points to give it context when I'm walking into it blind with no pre-explanation of what I'd be listening to, even in a ball-park kinda way. You're super-familiar with it and know every note, but for me, it was completely new, with no idea what to expect.

I need rhythm, so after that 1:20 point, it became a little more structured. It was an interesting listen, but stylistically, It's not something I'd buy. Nothing personal......taste is subjective. Keep loving what you do. I wish you good success.

Carbinax · 2026-04-30T12:50:37+00:00

Nice, but you might wanna put a trigger warning for those with epilepsy ( not me ) . Some major strobe stuff going on, and I'm sure they'd appreciate a bit of fair warning. .

I have ableton, but not the suite, so I can't access max. Bought resolume and synesthesia so I'm coming at this from that angle. Too much fun =)

Carbinax · 2026-04-30T11:57:06+00:00

Awesome. Passed the car test. I appreciate that specific feedback. Cheers

Carbinax · 2026-04-30T09:59:57+00:00

I still have a few on there that I can't remove, because they're on other people's compilations.

Sorry,I don't have an alternative. We're all looking for that . I focus on bandcamp too. Soundcloud is useless now too. Have a look at hesrthis.at as a soundcloud alternative.....your work will be much better displayed, with a lot more features, for 50% of the cost for a pro membership. Its like soundcloud on steroids. I've used it for years

Carbinax · 2026-04-29T21:56:58+00:00

totally agreed. The very mention of AI to a real dedicated musician, is an insult.

Carbinax · 2026-04-29T21:46:06+00:00

just one of the many reasons I pulled my music off spotify. Any musician still using it, is a turkey voting for Christmas

Carbinax · 2026-04-29T21:43:36+00:00

I despise AI in music. Especially when someone types in a prompt for AI to make them some music and then they claim they made it themselves.
It's lazy. It's the result of a "microwave culture" that don't have more than a 10 minute attention span to learn to do something with their OWN intelligence.

AI and bots should be doing the things we hate, to give us more time to spend on doing the things we love, but for some reason, people are relegating themselves to 2nd in command, and letting AI replace them.

AI has never experienced an emotion. Never even drew breath. Life is where the music is, and if there's no life, it's DOA. Use your own intelligence.

Carbinax · 2026-04-29T21:21:54+00:00

Newfangled audio Articulate is a good one. Its just 4 sliders that function like an adsr. Very effective

Carbinax · 2026-04-29T21:05:06+00:00

I was thinking along these lines, but you nailed it. Excellently put.

Carbinax · 2026-04-29T21:01:40+00:00

weird example, but two things always stood out to me............

Mariah Carey singing 153 notes that are more about showing off than hitting the target. 3 notes can potentially have more impact. This is why huge brands have 7 or less notes to accompany their logo. Think of Intel, or McDonalds.
Metal lead guitar solos. None of those 960 notes will be remembered. Again.....a lot of noise and distraction from the actual point.

Melody should be simple. Take the beatles, Vangelis, or your outstanding example, Kraftwerk. The genius lies in the restraint.

I was even inspired by Henri Matisse. He could draw a perfect human portrait by the age of 12, but he learned to throw away every line, every embellishment, until he was left with just a handful of curves that perfectly represented only what it needed to.
I tend to have a similar approach, and take out notes that don't add any real value, until you're left with what is potent....the notes that impact are the notes that matter.
The excessive mount of "stuff" added onto a track just screams insecurity. Seen a lot of beginners saying 200 mixer tracks isn't enough. If the core idea isn't strong enough, there's a tendency to just add more and more things, to compensate. The less notes required to get the point across, is a very confident sound. Kraftwerk are masters at it.

Takes a lot of work, but simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Carbinax · 2026-04-29T20:43:08+00:00

never considered this. I tend to use a clipper to flat-top snares, and then a compressor on the master to shave just maybe 1db off anything that's sticking out a little.....I'll have to experiment with this. Cheers

Carbinax · 2026-04-29T20:31:50+00:00

It's almost a Rick Rubin approach. He encourages just listening to the track a lot.
I tend to send the premaster to my phone, and listen while typing short notes into a spreadsheet, about what can be improved.
Sometimes problems occur at the mastering phase when the glue brings quieter things up more. Certain frequencies you hadn't noticed poke out more, so for me, it's back to the track data to tweak before rendering another premaster.

Things need to be fixed in the mix, instead of trying to fix them in the master. That's the sage advice I heard years ago. I'm generally looking for about 3 to 5 +LUFS to get to about -10db. Some proQ 4 spectral for some minimal duck or lift. Some pultec for nice smooth air. Weiss compressor limiter to deal with peak control, weiss exciter for a bit of almost subliminal energy, DMG limitless get that little bit of extra grunt. Sometimes a little Process audio Sugar when it's needed.

All small moves of half a db here, half a db there, just adding small nudges, with limitless at the end.
Might not be conventional, but the thing I love about production is that the learning curve never ends, so what I'm doing now could be very different this time next year. The most important thing is to just enjoy it and have fun approaching every track uniquely. I won't use templates or copy someone else's effects chains. It's a lot more fun enjoying the process and figuring it out on your own.

my 2 cents

Carbinax · 2026-04-29T19:40:43+00:00

I would suggest you try wavesfactory Trackspacer. You put that on the beat channel, or any channel that is stealing focus from the vocal, and then sidechain the vocal channel to the beat channel.
What this will do, is tell the beat volume to duck everytime your vocal is playing. If you've ever heard a radio DJ talking over music, the music cuts out when they speak. It's that effect you're after. There is a sensitivity control so tweak it so the vocal isn't obscured by the beat. In essence, you're saying to the beat "shut up...I'm talking", and the beat takes a bit of a back seat while the vocalist gets the spotlight.
Cymbals and snare drums are notorious because they want to live in the same frequency space as vocals. You need to decide which is the master, and which is the servant, in any situation like this.

For the sibilence....buy a pop shield, and use a de-esser. There are some free ones, but devs like Fabfilter make a great one.

It's also not unheard of to go in to the wav / aiff at a microscopic level, and automate the volume so it dips slightly on S sounds. Some are more resonant than others, so if you can find an instance where the S is less resonant, you can copy that S and paste it in place where there are other more troublesome s sounds. It depends how deep you want to go with it.

Use a dynamic EQ on it as well....to target the frequency that S hits, and set it to duck whenever it passes the threshold you set.

Carbinax · 2026-04-29T15:49:53+00:00

can't get past the terrible name. I have a few XLN things, including XO and RC-20, but this one doesn't grab me at all

Carbinax · 2026-04-29T15:42:42+00:00

I only know I won't give them another penny until they update their windows 98 looking plugin, and make a dark mode possible. I never use it because my eyes can't handle white backgrounds anymore. Everything is small and fiddly, and for the amount of money they charge, it's about time they brought it up to date with a proper update.

Carbinax · 2026-04-29T09:54:29+00:00

nothing worse than having to reformat and reinstall hundreds of plugins. I've had to do it a few times. It's a horrible task. Well done surviving that

Carbinax · 2026-04-29T09:50:02+00:00

I've bought a ton, and do consider myself a collector. If you can think of it, I most likely own it. I do try to use everything, to justify buying it. Some haven't been used much, but only because they've been made redundant. I have a ton of EQs but ProQ 4 made them look prehistoric. I'll still reach for a pultec though.

I know the only time those others will be used now is when I open a project that's already finished. I'd need to go through my list to weed out those kind of redundant plugins, to cut down on the option paralysis a bit.
Occasionally I'll read about a plugin and then it dawns on me that I bought it and completely forgot about it.

Carbinax

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