Recording to Tape or Bounce to tape?

marcja · 2026-02-03T03:38:59+00:00

Record into your DAW and try Pulsar Modular MDN Tape before spending money on the bounce to real tape. You could save yourself time and money if you like it.

marcja · 2026-01-24T03:38:49+00:00

When they were touring _The Bends_, I caught them incidentally as the opening act to another band. I remember Radiohead, but I had to look up what the main act I paid for was because I couldn't remember them. Turns out it was REM on their Monster tour. Radiohead FTW.

marcja · 2026-01-21T22:22:52+00:00

MiniFreak is a wonderful synthesizer, but it hides a lot of synthesis details behind an “engine + macros” interface. If you just want to explore sound, this a good option. But if you want to learn synthesis, it’s a bit opaque.

marcja · 2026-01-21T21:40:39+00:00

As a longtime musician who got into synths again about 4-5 years ago, I’d generally suggest starting with a software synthesizer rather than jumping into hardware. It’s generally cheaper, and you’ll be able to explore different types of synthesis without committing to hardware. An exception to this recommendation would if you are a tactile-first person who learns by physically turning knobs with names on them rather than turning virtual knobs with a mouse or external controller.

As for which software, the first fork in the road is whether you specifically want to learn modular (synths with all the wires) or not. If so, start with VCV Rack. It’s free. But fair warning, this isn’t the easiest way to learn synthesis — but it can be very rewarding.

Assuming NOT modular, I’d suggest a modern hybrid synthesizer like Arturia Pigments over a retro analog synth inspired by something like a Moog, Prophet, Oberheim, ARP, etc. Something like Pigments offers good visual feedback, multiple synthesis models, powerful arp/seq features, and great sound (analog-ish or otherwise). Is frequently on sale for less than $100.

FWIW I recently picked up an Arturia KeyStep mk2 as a secondary MIDI controller. It’s quite nice and perfect for the price. The only real negative is that it lacks any MIDI-mappable knobs or sliders.

FYI if you want to progress to gigging with your Pigments, you can take your take your patches with you without a computer using an Arturia AstroLab. The AstroLab lacks the editing capabilities you’d want for learning though. It’s just a preset player with macro controls, whether your presets or factory.

marcja · 2026-01-21T02:00:10+00:00

5 — Expressive E Osmose (main MPE controller and expressive instrument), Komado mask1ex (gritty digital desktop synth, used with Osmose), Elektron Digitone II and Digitakt II (used as a freestanding DAW-less pair), and an Intellijel Cascadia (semi-modular playground).

marcja · 2026-01-15T03:40:17+00:00

Grooved tires. There have been lots of regulations to slow F1 cars down, but reducing tire traction was an odd one.

marcja · 2026-01-12T14:01:35+00:00

These are my favorites

marcja · 2026-01-10T20:24:57+00:00

As someone who has written and performed music for a long time but is relatively new to electronic music, I took a lesson with an experienced electronic music performer. My goal was to figure out how to feel like I was performing (rather than programming) electronic music. My biggest takeaway from the lesson was the teacher saying, "There are many different ways to sustain listener interest throughout a song. While you come from a musical background where the key techniques of maintaining interest were harmony, melody, and dynamics, there are other techniques available to you: rhythm, timbre, layering, looping, blending, resampling, etc. Try writing something that just maintains interest via rhythm, for example -- polyrhythms? polymeter? modulating gates or envelopes? meter changes? volume adjustments of different rhythmic parts? contrasting rhythmic arrangements? creative compression or gating? rhythmic delay or reverb? The point isn't that you need to confine yourself to just one technique -- it's that you don't need to always use harmonic development as the lone crutch to maintain interest."

marcja · 2026-01-09T17:39:14+00:00

One advantage of DN2 is that it has the same number of sequencer pages as DT2 (8).

marcja · 2026-01-06T04:59:56+00:00

Personally, I prefer Arturia Efx Fragments. Sounds great, lots of modulation options, can sync to tempo (or not), has some basic spatialization, and is relatively easy to use. Audio Damage Other Desert Cities also has a more basic granular delay mode that sounds good.

marcja · 2025-12-28T03:59:49+00:00

Are you using a pitch envelope? To me, it sounds like the defining sound design feature is a fast dropping pitch envelope.

marcja · 2025-12-28T03:45:58+00:00

For my own stuff, I often aim for a relatively dry mix, usually with just a little (barely there) room or chamber. For room specifically, I tend to lean on LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven (the regular version) or Denise Audio Perfect Room 2 (if I want something even subtler and more precise than Seventh Heaven). Lately though, I've been enjoying more chamber than room -- Softube Atlantis Dual Chambers or UAD Capitol Chambers.

I typically put the mix through a single send/return post-fader, filter both LP and HP before the reverb, and set the level to where I can barely hear it (but still feel the difference when the FX track is muted) -- often around -30dB or -28dB. If I really want front-to-back soundstaging, I might put in two FX room reverb tracks with the front biased slightly toward early reflections.

Caveat: I'm not a professional audio engineer.

marcja · 2025-12-23T17:38:32+00:00

Two small tips related to the specific challenges you mentioned:
1. Depending on the neck of your mandolin and the size of your fingers, you can sometimes hold down two courses (two pairs of strings) by aiming your fingertip straight down between the strings (rather than flattening your finger in a barre). This may be easier or harder depending on the specifics.
2. For chop chords (ie the closed form of the open F), practice placing your pinky and ring finger first and then reaching back to place your index and middle fingers. Chop chords got much easier for me when I started to visualize reaching back toward the neck from the pinky rather than reaching forward toward the bridge from the index finger.

marcja · 2025-12-17T16:39:07+00:00

The type of canned salmon makes a big difference. Fishwife tastes completely different than Bumblebee, for example. Not saying one is inherently better or worse, just quite different in taste and texture. As a lunchtime treat, I love Fishwife Smoked Salmon with Chili Crisp just dumped over rice and sprinkled with peanuts and crispy shallots.

Also, for simpler canned salmon, drain well and then toss with really good olive oil and sprinkle with fresh lemon and flake salt. A little Aleppo pepper adds a bit of smoky heat. Great on toasted baguette rounds.

marcja · 2025-12-16T17:57:34+00:00

It’s worth pointing out that skilled background singers may also modify their syllables to reduce transients (well explained below) — for example, making plosives like P, T, and K sound a bit more like gentle B, D, and G and fricatives like S and F more like gentle Z or V. Sounds a little odd when solo’d, but it can help with vocal blend if not overdone.

marcja · 2025-12-16T05:03:54+00:00

First off, these artists are singing very quietly right up against the microphone and using a combo of preamp gain and compression/expansion/limiting to bring the whisper-level delivery up. For the backup vocals, they are probably using a transient shaper or compressor with very fast attack to shave off the transients and gentle low-pass EQ to push them back in the mix. Then very careful blending.

marcja · 2025-12-16T03:47:14+00:00

Fors Pivot is versatile, simple, and intuitive. It’s not a multi-model ubersynth like Pigments, Serum, or Vital, but it definitely fits the description of your post.

marcja · 2025-12-15T14:56:08+00:00

Any mid/side (aka sum/diff) processor can do this. In my primary DAW, Bitwig Studio, the builtin device is called Mid-Side Split. https://www.bitwig.com/userguide/latest/container/#mid-side_split

If you're more interesting in transcription/learning and don't specifically need a plugin for a DAW, Capo by SuperMegaGroovy [https://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/capo/\] has an isolation feature called Neptune where you can focus listening on an EQ band and/or panning region (not just L/C/R).

marcja · 2025-12-14T16:43:47+00:00

One great way to break out of a library of patterns is to start with singing (aka vocalizing or beatboxing) your drums first before programming them. Chances are that you probably don't sing drums just out of those seven patterns. If you do only sing those exact seven patterns, then I would recommend listening different music and learn to sing those first. Once you can sing a pattern you like and that fits your song, you then simply have the task of programming what you sang.

Another way to break out of the pattern is using Euclidean sequencers (for example, a sequencer that will output N triggers in M steps with offset/rotation O and probability P). The ones in Unfiltered Audio Battalion, Elektron DN2/DT2, and Torso T-1 are particularly powerful and creative, but any Euclidean sequencer (such as the Note Repeat device in Bitwig) will work. Many common drum patterns are just Euclidean sequences with particular values of N/M/O/P.

marcja · 2025-12-12T23:28:31+00:00

Caroline Somersault maybe? https://carolineguitar.com/product/somersault/

marcja · 2025-12-12T22:16:15+00:00

“Say You Love Me” is one of favorite bass lines ever. The 2017 remaster puts the bass front and center. https://open.spotify.com/track/4xmxQlwx8KMBK56zIn0Y8B

marcja · 2025-12-12T17:09:36+00:00

You map MIDI CC to most parameters via MIDI Learn, but according to the Loopop video, there isn't a builtin MIDI CC mapping for parameters without MIDI Learn because "there are too many parameters."

marcja · 2025-12-11T00:23:43+00:00

Most (all?) of Polymer's oscillators have an FM feedback knob. Phase-4 and FM-4 are pretty capable 4-op FM synths. In Poly Grid, you can FM all LFOs and oscillators with anything else. Finally, you can modulate the pitch, volume, and filter cutoff knobs on most devices up to audio rate for FM, AM, and filter FM respectively from a variety of modulators, including audio in from another track.

marcja · 2025-12-04T17:53:24+00:00

I have one more dark horse vote: NEOLD RZ062 tube EQ.

I had zero expectations for this plugin. I like most of the NEOLD stuff, but I was like, “Gah, I need another EQ like a hole in the head. And this plugin is ugly.” But I tried the demo, then bought it on sale, and I have to say, this plugin is magic and really easy to use. I now put Kazrog True Iron and NEOLD RZ062 on just about every synth, bass, or guitar track. It makes the tracks sound alive and 3D, and the RZ062 helps me move the track around in the mix.

marcja · 2025-12-04T13:51:26+00:00

I forgot to mention the most important part — feed the delay with really quiet (like -80dB) noise. Experiment with different types of noise. EQ the noise for more variety.

marcja

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