User Conference: Tools of the trade

[zOap]

I think it is about time that we share our
dirty little secrets with eachother, this time in form of tools we believe is essential to get the job done. Offcourse, Tracktion is on top of the list but what else? What do you use to make your music boom?

I'll start the ball rolling:

I program most Trance and Hardcore music so this will be influenced by that. But I am also a educated? sounddesigner so I'll list some that I feel is good in that area.

Bass:
After downloading all the bass plugins out there and not feeling satisfied I landed on one tool, Vanguard, and especially the 1.5 with the vco. This Vsti is capable of making some really punching bass sounds. And if I feel it is lacking lower end I route it through Waves MaxxBass. The only problem with Vanguard and basses is that it has a tendency to walk all over my stereo image. If I have a bass sounds that do I'll use Gregs(BetaBugs) excellent Widebug to narrow it down. Thanks for this wonderful tool LM, allthough it has a tendency to lift the volume level in the signal start. Is that something you want to correct in future releases LM?

Drums:
I have always been a big fan of Battery, and Battery2 delivers perfectly. It has some very nice crossfade/loop tools that I love. BUT, after I tried the Tracktion Sampler I was sold. This tool is just perfect for layering drum samples. And so easy on the cpu. This is my favorite sampler now, both for drums and others.

If I want a new sound which I don't have
The Attack is great for 909 sounds. But I rarely use it.

Compressing drums and bass is essential, at least in my genre. Making it really pump is everything. For this I use 3 tools, TC Works Compressor with the sidechain and Waves L2 or L3, depending. I always duck the bass when the bass drum hits, making it pump nicely. the sidechain in TC is great, much better than the Mackie, IMO.

Pads:
Making good pads is very hard, IMO. And the presets in most stock Vsti's isn't any good, IMO. So I use a huge amount of time programming the right sound. It differs which tool I use, but both Vanguard, z3ta+ and Trance Pro is a good starting point. I always dip the signal in a big amount of reverb with my favorite Reverb TC Master Reverb. Delays is essential too, I think the Tracktion Delay is nice.

Leads:
Well, if I could afforded a Virus I would have one. But as for now there is only one tool in the VSTi world that does the job, and that is z3ta+. It is capable of some wonderful sounds with lots and lots of filters and sculptuing opportunities. I have played with almost all synths on the planet and this is the only one I come back too, Lead wise.

Chords:
Chords tend to differ for me, but Vanguard and z3ta+ is capable of some really nice arps and gates, making them essential to me.

Master:
2 tools, The Waves L3 and Izotope Ozone. The L3 can really maximise the mix and the Ozone has some really nice handson features, from stereimaging to exciters. This is always my final tool in the chain. Sometimes I use the TC Master REverb or the builtin in Ozone for the final touch.
The Ozone also has a good master eq.

Loops:
Recycle and ACID. Nothing more to say about these.

I have a pretty big loop/sample library. About 400 Gigs of it, lying on a Debian server. For access I use JRiver MediaCenter 11. I have indexed all files there and it has drag and drop to both Tracktion and ACID, and Recycle.

Equalizers:
Well, I do use Waves Q series, but I only when I need more than 4 bands. The Tracktion EQ is great, I love the ui, and for most jobs I use that one.

Other tools:

From time to time I need a sound that is hard to make with the tools above. The tools I use for these sounds are The Absynth, The Beast, Albino, Cameleon 5000 and ImpOSCar. For Piano sounds I use Native Piano. NI Pro Five is also part of my arsenal.

I may have forgotten some here, but if I remember I post later.

As you can see it is hugely influenced by my genre, and that may be to some help for newbies in Trance world.

[zOap]

I suppose noone wants to tell their dirty little secrets?