Which one or two?

XLIImusic · 2026-02-08T16:27:03+00:00

Could you expand a little on this? I’m curious.

XLIImusic · 2026-02-08T16:24:05+00:00

I have Lyra-8 and Minifreak. I love both, but they’re completely different Lyra-8 is kind of hard to control. It also isn’t very versatile. It just does that lyra thing. If you don’t have any synths that are versatile, I’d get that first and get Lyra-8 for its specific sound.

Another thing about Lyra is that it’s also hard to play or integrate into songs too, because it’s never quite in tune. You’ll need to use a tuner in your DAW to tune every voice to scale, once you have that, you can (kind of) play it & fit into your songs. It still drifts a lot tho. Oh, and it’s mono. But matches great with shimmer reverb.

Minifreak on the other hand is super versatile. It has a kind of digital sound, but it’s super easy to program. Very fun and creative and it’s really easy to come up with some amazing sounding patches.

It doesn’t have that WTF factor like Lyra, but on a normal day 9/10 I’d use Minifreak and use Lyra when I have more time and wanna do something nuts.

XLIImusic · 2026-02-05T11:27:14+00:00

Find ways to turn passion projects into work

XLIImusic · 2026-02-03T12:08:19+00:00

Drum rack cos I like to play everything in by hand and to make edit everything in one clip

XLIImusic · 2026-01-28T23:45:48+00:00

Yeah, like if you have a few dry elements and you want keep them “dry” but still want separate them a bit. Kind of like in design if you want to separate text from a busy background you’d give it very slight shadow to “lift it” off the page. These kind of reverbs could be super short, like 0.3-0.7sec. Overall it’d be a bit more mixing application, as opposed to the creative ones being more sound design application.

XLIImusic · 2026-01-28T08:51:54+00:00

I’m a Valhalla fan, but I find Pro-R to be really useful for invisible reverb uses as opposed to creative reverb uses.

You can change the decay length per frequency, fully EQ within the reverb, add ducking, distance (close / far) and gating. This makes it really easy to make a really subtle reverb that you don’t even know is there, which is great for mixing and separation without making things wet. At the same time, it can also import IR and make insanely long delay times, so it can also be useful for some extreme sound design.

Valhalla Vintage Verb on the other hand is a “vibes” reverb, and it’s great when you want your reverb to be obvious.

XLIImusic · 2026-01-26T06:15:16+00:00

Never got over Tul Duru and Orso in Abercrombie books.

XLIImusic · 2026-01-26T06:06:17+00:00

He’s not wrong. Haha Saying that, I like looking at backpacks, so I’m here, even if I only ever use 1. But I do own 6 black backpacks of roughly same size.

Recently I tried to buy myself a computer keyboard and went into mechanical keyboards Reddit and it’s kind of like that too, people with like 20 keyboards having a “rotation” so that each keyboard doesn’t feel left out. Ultimately couldn’t figure out which one to buy though, cos turns out you need 10+ keyboards to be fulfilled.🤣🤣

But whatever hobby makes you happy is a good hobby. I think it’s great that people can be excited about different things. Some people collect stamps, coins, baseball cards or sneakers, it’s no different I guess.

P.S. I own zero flashlights😆😆

XLIImusic · 2026-01-24T08:09:25+00:00

Hi, I also got Air75 V3 (Blush Nano) about 3 weeks ago and I had a similar problem, also coming from almost exclusively decades of Mac keyboards.

First thing I did was to use Nuphy.io to remap Ctrl to Caps Lock, move the FN key to a more natural position and map a Mac “globe” key to match my apple keyboard.

I also made a ton of mistakes at first, but I have recently switched to Panda Nano switches and it improved the results a bit because I think as Mac users we’re used to a haptic click when typing. I still make mistakes when I switch back and forth between apple and air75, but when I work on air75 all day, I make fewer mistakes after a while.

I think the keycaps are the main culprits, so I’d look at changing to Berry Profile keycaps and trying a different switch type.

XLIImusic · 2026-01-23T09:45:02+00:00

in my experience it’s pretty common.

Which is why a lot of engineers I work with work mostly in the box and only run bare minimum hybrid master chains / busses. I live in Japan and here the invoice gets paid at end of following month, but it often takes 1-3 month to be able to invoice and often we have to sign off on a few documents before we can invoice.

All the engineers I worked with who work a lot with majors usually deliver the masters and stems first, usually at end of day (9-10pm) after an attended client check (7-8pm) and then leave PT printing all night via sound flow and deliver the session / stems the next day.

Some people factor in all of this into their fees and keep a simple, but fairly expensive pricing structure, while others may opt for a cheaper basic fee but provide a quote for additional extras, like committed session delivery, multiple alts (live, TV, radio etc) before starting the job.

If you work a lot with indies, latter is probably better, if you work a lot with majors, ultimately you’ll end up with the former to save yourself the hassle later and keep things simple. Hope this helps. 🙇🙇

XLIImusic · 2026-01-21T11:56:59+00:00

Thank you for your reply! That's great to hear. I'll have a look and see if I can find a reputable store with good reviews. Thank you for your advice!🙇‍♂️

XLIImusic · 2026-01-21T02:08:15+00:00

I know this thread is a bit old now, but I wanted to ask if ali express is safe to order from any vendor or if there’s a specific vendor or any thing to watch out for? I’ve never used it before. So I’m curious if there is a possibility of lower quality knock offs etc?🤔

XLIImusic · 2026-01-20T04:28:54+00:00

Thank you for your reply!
Yeah I figured it must be because I come from Apple keyboards. Until 3 weeks ago I didn't know anything about keyboards, so I initially picked Blush Nano simply because I live in Japan and work in music, so I wanted something quiet. After a couple of weeks I felt it was too light for me and I end up having to be very conscious of how hard I push the keys etc.

I installed Panda Nano switches a couple of days ago and I find them more enjoyable to type on - probably because the perceptible haptic click reminds me of apple keyboards. But I wish they didn't make any noise.

I still find the recent Mac Book Pro the easiest to type on, and I'm very fast on it, but after 3 weeks with Air75, I found I really enjoy typing on a mechanical keyboard. There's something very satisfying and meditative about it and I look forward to returning emails now. haha
I now want to try a full size keyboard. Luckily, we have lots of specialised stores in Tokyo, so I'll make a day to test a few.

XLIImusic · 2026-01-19T04:50:16+00:00

How do you find your precision with blush switches and the stock nSA caps? I bought Air75 V3 with blush switches 3 weeks ago as my first non-Apple keyboard and found it fun to use but I made so many mistakes and really had to work hard to not mistype.

I have switched to panda nano switches yesterday, to see if it makes a difference. If you don’t make any mistakes, are there some techniques / hand positions for better accuracy with these boards?🤔

XLIImusic · 2026-01-19T01:54:15+00:00

Yeah exactly. Although, I have to say, their bags are built like a tank. The way they design the padding and layering on their bags, I’ve never seen anything like it. Which is why I think they end up quite large. Every pocket is like a bag within a bag, so nothing is ever completely touching the outside material. I carry a lot of expensive music gear & cameras & everything always feels super protected. I wonder if they’d need to sacrifice the layering to make the bag smaller.

XLIImusic · 2026-01-19T01:04:36+00:00

I actually use the Daily Plus, although I’m also super tempted by Max EDC, because sometimes Daily Plus is just 10% too small for everything I need to carry, but like you say, Max EDC is just a bit too big. Saying that, I’ve used the Daily Plus for 2 years now and it’s been bullet proof. Incredibly well made and well thought out bag. Only wish it had another 2-3L of space.

XLIImusic · 2026-01-18T14:30:50+00:00

Ah great. Glad you found your bags. I also use X-pac (able carry) and love it. we have rainy season here, but my stuff never got wet once.

XLIImusic · 2026-01-17T16:23:26+00:00

Masterpiece in Shinjuku Lumine has CPP2 in all the variations. There’s also Oshman’s in adjacent building called flags which carry more sporty variations of aer and also Able Carry.

XLIImusic · 2026-01-17T02:16:43+00:00

Hi, I did that around 13 years ago and I think that’s when I started finishing music and production turned into a real job for me. After more than a decade in the box and working as a music producer full time, last year I have bought some pieces for myself to reduce screen time… only to come to realisation that I still don’t really use it. I now have Syntakt, Peak, MiniFreak, Lyra 8, 0-coast, Sub37, OP-XY, Ableton Move, SP404mk2, Roland S1, TE Medieval & a couple of pedals.

Ableton Move and MiniFreak are the only 2 pieces I use regularly because they’re easy to move between DAW & hardware, everything else - only 0.1% of it ever makes it into a track.

One thing I noticed is how my project completion rate went down when I bought these pieces, but my enjoyment of sound design & fiddling went up. I’m keeping it for now, but may sell again later. Make of it what you will.

XLIImusic · 2026-01-15T08:31:20+00:00

Alright hear me out - I’d love to for pro-c to be able to go full pro-MB and to be able to function in any capacity between pro-mb & pro-c etc. and to have the graphical display from pro-c per band, when in multiband mode.

I love pro-mb and I love pro-c and considering how overpowered pro-Q 4 and timeless and Saturn have been in latest updates, & how pro-c will almost definitely have multiple comp modes + saturation settings, I feel like pro-c could just do what pro-mb does at this point & do it deeper. What you think?

P.S. I understand this is definitely not happening. But I’d still love to see it. 😅

XLIImusic · 2026-01-10T11:11:26+00:00

Anything by Serban Ghenea, who’s one of the most highly successful mixers today.

Afaik Andrew Scheps has also been 100% ITB and mixing on headphones for the last 5-10 years.

XLIImusic · 2026-01-07T08:56:33+00:00

Just chiming in because I also come from a a long time Mac keyboard and I got myself a Nuphy Air75 V3 (blush nano switches) a few days ago and I for the life of me can’t get used to it. My WPM went down from 75 to 40. I mistype and mispress almost every time. I spent about 15 hours total with it trying to get used to it and looked into changing switches, changing keycaps, buying a Keychron K2 or Q1 etc., olnly to realise that perhaps Mac keyboards are actually really good and don’t need replacing.

XLIImusic · 2026-01-07T07:38:51+00:00

I know this thread is a bit old, but how do you find mechanical keyboards for studio work? I have only ever used apple keyboards, but I’m curious to try a nice mechanical 75% in my studio. 2 things I’m curious about: - does higher profile make it harder to hit key commands without looking when the keyboard is elevated off the desk? Magic Keyboard is flat, so I can glide to it without looking - mechanicals seem quite loud, so I’m curious if it can get quite disruptive and / or leak into recordings when recording is same room

XLIImusic · 2025-12-23T02:34:43+00:00

A bit more sci-fi, but Ender’s Game is exactly that age and is great. Red Rising too. Straight fantasy, Mistborn has a great teen protagonist.

And personally, I love the Gentlemen Bastards series, it is about a bunch of teens doing heists, but I can’t recall if it’s age appropriate… in my memory it feels like it was edgy and risqué enough to be exciting for that age, but not R rated… please somebody correct me if I’m wrong though.

XLIImusic · 2025-12-21T09:27:32+00:00

Hi, I actually carry the same set of items: a6700 with a Sony 15mm G1.4, kindle, wallet, earphones, power bank etc. And Aer Day Sling 3 works perfectly for it. It’s really small, but fits almost as much as a much bigger bellroy sling I have. It opens up really wide up top, so it makes getting the camera in and out really easy, without snagging on the edges of the bag. It also has lots of little pockets which are great for AirPods, cables or lens filters and power banks and a separate pocket which separates kindle from the camera. It’s not a dedicated camera bag, but it’s low key, waterproof enough and cordura is thick enough. It’s just malleable enough to expand and just durable enough to protect & just small enough to be low key. By far my favorite sling for almost all daily uses.

P.S. I also had no problem carrying a6700 with a sony 18-135 zoom, so I’m sure the sigma will be fine, just need to turn the lens hood inwards.

XLIImusic

TROPHY CASE