How can I sound warm in the direction of Daft Punk?

[Divinital]

I have a few “analog” effects like Sound Toys 5 Decapitator, Saturation, Hornet Tape Saturation... maybe I am not using them well and they do work decently, but I can’t seem to get my sound where I want it. Daft Punk has this magical retro-future warmth that remains no matter the decade they’re producing in.

If you could recommend one thing, software or hardware, what would it be?

Note : I’m reworking my entire setup. I want to be able to perform live and the only thing that provides the flexibility I want (seeing as no standalone groovebox does) is Ableton Push 2 with Live.

[Passing Bye]

I could recommend this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tblZ3EqRE0

[Divinital]

Maybe it’s high time I gave up. I’ll never be a 1/4 as good nor own 1/4 the magnitude of gear.

[telecode]

spend lots of $$$ on really good analogue gear and instruments. You can't make a bottle of Dalmore 62 from potatoes.

[zerocrossing]

Here are a few tips that I find work from me...

I love plugins, but there’s usually a bit of a hard edge on even the good ones. I was just listening to the OB-Xa vs OB-Xa V demo and there’s a bit of a blur in the hardware that the software misses. Don’t get me wrong, in some ways I actually like the sound of the software a bit better. So, my first recommendation would be to buy an analog synth or two. The good news is, Behringer is making some cheap ones that sound great. I don’t know Daft Punk enough to know what gear they’re using, but I’d be really surprised if they’re not using a Moog Minimoog Model D. Luckily Uli makes a great clone of it for $300. The Poly D (a paraphonic version) for $600. Buy one of those. For $700, add a Behringer VC340, and there’s your stringer and vocoder.

Then think about your preamps and compressors. Again, I have no idea what they use, but I bet it’s some hardware compressor that’s colors the sound quite a bit. I feel the same way about software compressors as I do hardware. I like to run a software compressor on my 2 bus (TrackComp) but I wanted something with a tad more vibe on individual instruments. I looked around and there seems to be some good stuff but it starts around $600 and I’ve got 12 hardware synths, bass guitar, two six strings and an acoustic. I started to look into what it all would cost and while I was researching I kept coming across UAD vs. demos and I was surprised at how good the UAD stuff sounded. It’s not cheap, but when you consider you can run multiple instances, it ends up being a good deal. I love a lot of the preamps, like the Avalon emulation, and I’m especially in love with the Culture Vulture and OTO Biscuit emulation.

If you can’t sink money into a UAD interface/processor, I find the Arturia preamps sound good. I tried a demo of NI’s Crush pack and I thought they sounded really good and interesting too. For tape I like Satin, VTAPE and for Tape Delay that’s distressed I like Valhalla Delay and IK’s Tape Delay.

[anomandaris1]

Running live gear that is decently good as analogue emulation along saturation etc will be too much for your laptop, if you want reliable setup without CPU overload or even crashes, so you need to forget about "analogue magic" or buy real analogue hardware (which can be pain in the ass, if you travel to perform often).

[discoDSP]

Start saving a million dollar

https://www.soundonsound.com/people/rec ... -daft-punk

Now seriously. Daft Punk used relatively cheap equipment such as the Alesis 3630 compressor and AKAI samplers on its first albums, so if you want to get that sound it would not be so complicated at first. There are plenty of video tutorials on YouTube for that.

[Divinital]

Not a big fan of Behringer. I’ve tried out almost every modern synth and I find the three most magical to have been the OB-6, Moog One and the Moog Matriarch. Now, I sold my entire setup which included a few synths and my favorite, the Novation Summit, to get that Moog One and needed to return it due to a minor issue that was annoying enough to me.

With the current circumstances I am not equipped for high end nor vintage gear which comes with risk. I managed to get a price match for the Summit at the price I got it almost a year ago ($1,683) so I’m going to get another one. It’s not extremely warm but for making music, it’s versatile.

After further research it seems as though “Waves” makes quite a few good compressors and mix bus plugins. My next move once I get some keys in my hands again is to ... learn. Going to learn what I have inside out and to see if there’s anything I’ve been missing that I can do better.

After that it looks like I’ll need a bit of outboard gear, a channel strip and compressor namely.

I guess all in all I just have to be patient and be slow and careful in selecting what I spend money on.

[zerocrossing]

Not a big fan of Behringer. I’ve tried out almost every modern synth and I find the three most magical to have been the OB-6, Moog One and the Moog Matriarch. Now, I sold my entire setup which included a few synths and my favorite, the Novation Summit, to get that Moog One and needed to return it due to a minor issue that was annoying enough to me.

With the current circumstances I am not equipped for high end nor vintage gear which comes with risk. I managed to get a price match for the Summit at the price I got it almost a year ago ($1,683) so I’m going to get another one. It’s not extremely warm but for making music, it’s versatile.

After further research it seems as though “Waves” makes quite a few good compressors and mix bus plugins. My next move once I get some keys in my hands again is to ... learn. Going to learn what I have inside out and to see if there’s anything I’ve been missing that I can do better.

After that it looks like I’ll need a bit of outboard gear, a channel strip and compressor namely.

I guess all in all I just have to be patient and be slow and careful in selecting what I spend money on.

I’ve got a Peak, and while I do like it, it doesn’t come off as “warm.” I mean, you can push it in that direction, but it’s definitely not its wheelhouse. I don’t know how to explain it, other than to say, it sounds a bit on the clinical side.

I’m not a fan of Behringer either, but I must admit that their new synths sound fantastic to me. I don’t own one though. They’re too simple for how I make music, but since we know a bit more about your budget, I’d definitely recommend getting Matriarch or Grandmother back in your studio, if you can. In all honesty, the demos of the Moog one sounded really good to me, but not $8000 good. Here are a few alternatives to the Summit that I’d recommend that have a bit more of what I think you’re looking for.

If you can wait, look for the Super 6. The demos sound really exciting to me. Sadly I don’t have the room for one.

Prophet X. Since you can load any multi sample set into it, you could literally imitate anything, and it’s on board filters are stereo and sound great to me... I think I remember someone saying it’s the same one that’s in the Super 6... I’m not sure, but it sounds fantastic and has a ton of features, including good DSP oscillators.

002. This one I have. It’s definitely a bit quirky, but the sound is fantastic. Warm, sparkling, rich. My only real issue with it is that the stereo outputs are hard panned. So, if you don’t want voices coming out of alternate outputs, you need to manually pan your inputs. (I use a small mixer to correct that)

The OB-6 and Prophet 6 are still some of the best modern analogs, IMO. If you loved the OB-6 before, I’d definitely get one back. I bought the Prophet 6 before it came out and I thought about switching, but I never have. I really like having the two filters.

Anyway, I could go on, but you probably know the usual suspects. Anything from Vermona and Dreadbox sounds great to me too. Pick up a few hardware synths, some compressors and/or saturation devices, and you should be good. Learn, learn, learn. Waves stuff sounds good to me, but not as good as UAD, IMO, and not as good as the real deal. I avoided a UAD interface because I’ve been burned before by a closed hardware box like that (XITE-1) but I caved and now I’m a convert. Those Unison preamps do have something going on that I really love, and the best part is, you can run them without thinking about their hit on your CPU. My only issue with it is that you can’t put an emulation on the 2 bus without doing a round trip out of your DAW. That’s not an issue during mix-down, but I do my music as a live performance, so I don’t want to add the latency of that trip. I’ll probably add a Warm Audio Bus-Comp to my setup at some point so I can have it between my Apollo and my speakers. Until then, definitely check out TrackComp. It’s cheap and sounds really good to me.

https://www.dmgaudio.com/trackcomp

[Divinital]

My entire goal is to get my live performance setup in a place I like it. I owned a Deluge but for sampling, it's not that great without a decent screen. The Deluge has a sort of bottleneck that leads it to making somewhat cheesy synth-pop music which I don't like. The only synthwave music I like is Com Truise. I like the organic feels of MPC yet Akai seems to ignore their user base, which I can't support... -___-

I completely understand what you mean about the Peak. I wouldn't say it's clinical. I'd say it's... modern. And yet, it has a sound I love and I had a lot of regret after letting it go. My love for it is also hard to describe. It's like the Moog One, it's simply different in person and 99% of people not liking the Peak/Summit or Moog One stem from recording processes and gear used to record, followed by mixing/mastering skills.

I find this to be one of the best sounding synth demos of all time, of any synth : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhHlf_-y2gM
Yet there are plenty of Moog One demos that didn't leave me floored.

The UDO Super 6 to me is too luxurious, as is the OB-6. Limited in timbre and almost a "one-trick pony", which is something I can't justify, no matter if I think that the OB-6 and potentially UDO Super 6 are the best modern sounding synths out there. I've always had an immense lust for the Dominion 1 but it's not my style, it's hard to acquire in the U.S. and should it need repairs it's a burden.

I'm looking for a middle ground that I can enhance with outboard gear or plugins. After further research I think I'm continuing on with my Ableton Live / Push 2 + Novation Summit route and grabbing $300 worth of Slate Digital plugins. From there I will learn and develop tricks of my own to get the mix/master to where I need it.

I don't make money from music and have other hobbies so I can't afford to drop bundles of cash all the time. I look for excellent deals and snipe them, which is how I managed to get two Summit's for $1,683 each lol, even after the price hike to $2,200.

Essentially, I need to just get to work and continue learning and practicing, though I feel the Slate Digital plugins will help my mix shine in the direction I want. Other than that I'll simply buy the synths I want. I will be saving for an S2400 when Isla Instruments gets them out of the preorder phase. No other modern gear interests me although I have a perpetually changing "gear list". As of right now, I sold everything and am starting from scratch. I'm not going to lie, but as a longtime Studio One user, I think the clip launching of Ableton Live is nearly half of what my setup was missing after trying Elektron gear, Deluge, Roland MC-707 with that tiny screen... Daft Punk has used Ableton since its release and I might as well follow suit. After the demo, I can say it has sparked my creativity in ways SO never has. I'll stick with Studio One for mastering though because it's awesome.

Here is my current list of desires:

Critter and Guitari Eyesy
Ableton Live 10 Suite + Push 2
Novation Summit
S2400
Slate Digital Plugins
Moog Matriarch
Moog DFAMx2 / Subharmonicon

(Dream List)
Erica Synths SYNTRX
Moog One (again)