Today I finally managed to retire TAU PRO. It joins CronoX, QuadraSID and a host of freebies, sitting by the pool and takin' it easy.

My lean, mean, fightin' machines are stripped back to just JX Synth, JunoX2, Junglist, Scorpion and MDA JX-10, along with ORION's native Generators.

So whilst the vast majority of you out there await the next round of new releases with barely restrained glee, it's time for me to see what else I can get by without.

Interesting idea, lets get minimise our options and get to know each individual bit. Is this the new Bones music philosophy?

Is Bones the first of us to actually express a musical philosophy? Does that make him Yoda? Does this mean that the rest of the Star Wars stars will soon be joining Wookie here at KVR?

(Sorry just found out Star Wars episode 2 opens here next month (jumps around in glee))

Michael

[ 24 April 2002, 08:04: Message edited by: MArmstrong ]

How can you dispose of CRONOX? And Bones I must say that I totally disagree with your review of the Triangle 2.

Ah Bones - a return! Was wondering where you had got to. I'm sure you wanted to make an entrance here and start a ranting competition - you evil boy.

Now if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times - Scorpion does not begin with a 'J'. Ditch it!

And another thing - why didn't you put an entry in the April comp? I was looking forward to a 'J' song from you.

Caleb

You've got to hand it to Bones, in that he generally knows what he wants, and how to achieve it. I admire him that he's slimmed down his arsenal to fit his vision.
After I make a choice between Absynth and Terra, THEN - I'm getting rid of my credit cards. (That is, till the next big thing)
bluedad

i totally agree with ya bones, to many vsti's spoil the broth i just wish there wasn't that many available. just a few really excellent sounding and very versatile, or even ones really dedicated to one specific thing, but they do it so brilliantly. and instead of the member reviews there were somehow a review section that most people actually agreed with. cos i think its just plain stupid to give any instrument nearly all 10's, cos thats basicly saying its perfect. and i dont think theres any vsti thats near perfect yet. its all far down the line. i know that there are many good instruments out there already, but perfect? i think not. people really have to be brutal when reviewing stuff. and dusted william, i think you could do a lot worse than getting one of the new spectrasonics instruments, trilogy for bass or atmosphere for..... atmosphere! as bones pointed out a lot of us are waiting for the new toys to come out, well theyre the two im waiting for with baited breath. ciao!

I could get rid of some of the free VSTi's Ive got (mda DX10 and epiano, ZR-3, FMHeaven etc) and stick to 'just' my modular toys (SynC, Reaktor and Tassman) but that just means (a) I'd have to consider stripping down the number of ensembles for them and (b) a certain amount of CPU overhead compared to a dedicated plugin

but I'd still want to keep the hundred-twenty odd effects plugins Ive got (thats the pared-down set), just so I can screw up those sounds completely after all...

If you ask my opinion you shouldn't complain with the amount of free vsti's. OK some are poor but then you get the odd one like traingle 2 and GalactiX. I mean you cannot complain for free can you. Not everyone has the money you know.

totally agree with bones about dumping useless vsti`s.
no good having a lovely list of instruments if half of em are shite.

but QUADRASID ...........

are you fecking mad?
that synth is a king amongst vsti, imho

Yeah, like emef I question the elimination list. I personally would never eliminate TauPro--too easy to get the edgy, filtery monophonic leads I like on this toy. I do concur with Bones, however, that one can spend entirely too much time investigating and acquiring VSTi's, rather than getting familiar with them and getting the most out of them. That's why I haven't yet acquired Pentagon I, despite its obvious versatility, value, etc. The truth is I feel I've just scratched the surface of my existing VSTi's like Delta, Pro52, Junglist, etc., and I also love some of the freebies and cheap little synths with specialized (but easy to explore) functions like Cheeze Machine, Borderliner, Crazy Diamonds, etc. I've been feeling like things are too cluttered as well, and I've been eliminating VSTi's and FX liberally. Besides, I think it's entirely too easy to look for new acquisitions in order to somehow "buy" the music you want to make, rather than looking inside yourself and breaking your own creative limitations. A poor carpenter blames his tools, they say.

Bones - I am impressed.

Even though I have a completely other "philosophie" in this, I like your handling.....

I for one am happy to have such a big pool to make use of VSTi´s and VSTplugs.
Of course I have my favorites, but sometimes when I am not that inspired I try out these Instruments and/or FX I dont use that often.
(This way this strange little free-plug "microcomputer" did it into my Selts-Song.)

I also found out that "bad" plugs can be though very interesting when using other fxplugins on them.

Perhaps I am the opposite of "minimalism", hehe, but I love to see and hear people doing minimal stuff with rather minimal equipment.
We simply need that all, right?

putte

Along the same lines, I recently created a copy of my plugins folder, stripped out everything but my favorites, and then pointed cubase to the new folder. If I want to go back to having all those plugins again it's easy!

I'm keeping all my gear! Cost me good money!

One day they might even be vintage valuable

Who cares if Brother Bones wants to cast off his worldly belongings and throw himself naked into the Ganges

It's like a painter who says"I have too many colors to choose from.I shall limit myself to only the color red that way I can spend more time concentrating on painting beautiful pictures".Bones don't you ever get tired of starting the same old argument over and over?"I only use these synths and the rest are crap".Just because you don't like XYZ synth doesn't mean a thing.Try and find a different wind up please.Choice = freedom.

ways to creativity are endless!
we can't judge any

can't stand shitty vst-i's...flush 'em now!

Get the real stuff...(Logic 5, Absynth,Fm7...)



[ 24 April 2002, 12:07: Message edited by: audiomiditweaker ]

Actually, the philosophy is a good one I think Bones.

As much as I like making fun of the 'J' factor in a lot of your choices, I actually think what you are doing is spot on.

It's just so important for your musical tools to become an extension of yourself and the more tools you use, the harder it is to reach that ideal.

If I were to limit myself with VSTi synths (not samplers) I'd probably keep:

Pentagon I, Tau Pro, FMHeaven, ePiano, OrganOne, TickyClav, CheezeMachine, Crazy Diamonds, Mysteron and probably JXSynth - list subject to change without notice.

But then again, I should probably ditch all my VSTi in favour of my Pulsar synths if it really comes down to economising....maybe one day.

I liked your method of eliminating them though Bones - trying to reproduce the same types of sounds in your songs with different synths. I like that.

Of course if you only ever used presets you'd think limiting your synths means limiting your sound palette, but I never pegged you as a 'preset' man Bones, so I'm sure this wouldn't phase you.

Looking forward to hearing your next creation.

Well, what can you do? I've tried to convince Rich that "Jorpion" is a really cool name but he just won't listen

Hi, me again. I missed out on the effects thing earlier. I used to have all the MDA plug-ins and the Blue ones and dozens of others but, as with synths, I found myself spending hours chasing my tail; trying effect after effect only to realise that the instrument worked better by itself. So about a year ago I looked hard at the effects I actually used and retired everything else - all the MDA and Blue plugz and heaps of others. Now I only use ORION's native effects, Freeverb Too [for gated reverb], PSP MixSaturator and Endorphin.

In fact, since I moved from Fruityloops to ORION I have discovered a brave new world where effects are not really necessary most of the time. In my hardware days I used all the on-board effects I could get my hands on as well as a DP/4 and SE-50. I couldn't have got by without them. With Fruity I used a lot of MDA plugz but now I just use a delay and reverb in a Send Channel and maybe one or two other effects in a song. Even with VSTi like Junglist that have on-board effects I find that I often prefer the sound with the effects off. Of course, I use Endorphin and/or PSP MixSaturator on my mixes.

Still and all, I have a much greater sonic arsenal than I ever had in hardware, in terms of both instruments and effects, so it is all just a matter of degree really.

I'm relatively new to all this and Bones you've verbalised (or written) what I was thinking. I come from a guitar playing backround and with my rig obviously I couldn't go and buy the latest and greatest toy. I know exactly how to get the sound I want from what I have.

A friend of mine once said "never forget what something was built for" meaning the item may not be the most upto date software whatever but essentially it still does what you bought it for.

I feel heaps better now.... I'll keep what I have and just learn exactly how to use it all properly.

One last thing it is good to see a few other Aussies on these boards..

Toomany

Ah! We Aussies - the scourge of internet forums everywhere.

Caleb

Dont see it as condescending at all, meself. Its not as if he's demanding that everyone else follow suit.

As for tracks having the same synth sounds; listen to summat like Cabaret Voltaire; you hear the same synth sounds over and over again on their albums. Actually gives it a sense of cohesion...

Whyte,What you call cohesion,I call monotony.Again,just my opinion.The Rock band Kiss made millions and almost every one of their songs sounds exactly the same to me so like I said more power to them.

[ 26 April 2002, 16:23: Message edited by: Marc555 ]

I absolutely do NOT agree with Bones.

Why?

Cause I'm addicted to VSTi's. I love to collect them.

But what VSTi's do I really use? Honestly? P1, TERA, DR-008 and some Dynamo ensembles... That's all. And I don't want to list here all VSTi's I own... that'd be too embarrassing

So I HAVE TO agree with Bones. Oops.

BTW, Bones' music is impressing! Maybe listening to it helps to understand his philosophy.

Bones: When will the Novakill CD be released? Can't wait!

Ciao,
Pepe

We are recording vox at the moment and hope to get everything finished by the end of May. Hopefully it will only take 6-8 weeks to get it out after that, depending on our record company's finances.

No wonder we never see you around here anymore.


Good luck with the CD.