One Synth Challenge #96: Nabla by Full Bucket (Voting Over)

[Auplant]

Aimed for a beatless, chill and lo-fi sort of track this time.

nice atmosphere and interesting melodies, like the pads also

[doctorbob]

doctorbob nice calming track may I just say that the cymbol crashes are WAY TOO LOUD, even though the sound design is perfect, otherwise; good track

Thanks for this ... yes, still a way to go with some of the perc - tricky balance with getting the cymbols to sound good, and having a boring mild kitchen pan crash in the background. This is a first draft, so some sounds will change (hopefully for the better!) and the mix might change a little.

Just wanted to get it out there as the compositional part has been done and I am happy with that part. At least people can see where I am coming from - always something slightly different from me, even when in a particular genre (although, I usually end up doing a different genre each time!)

dB

[TrojakEW]

Forgive me if I'm offensive with my feedback...not intended.

Haha dont worry it is not offensive in any way. Actually you are right in some way.

That low rumble stereo frequency is comming from other sound not bass (like you can hear right at start). Bass is pure mono. But you are right also that there is too much low in that too . Ill try to fix that. Thank you.

It might be my studio room setup

I envy you. I dont have any studio just a computer with cheap 2+1 sound system.

Thats lead in interesting discovery. Because my sound system is crap Im using headphones for mixing and mastering. Recently I have bought (after year and more of reading reviews and testing by myself) Beyerdynamic DT880 (for me most expensive headphones I have in my life ) . On these it is still sound "good" but after switching to kind of consumer/common user headphones I detected this overbass quickly. On old AKG k240 monitors it sounds quite good too except second half were that bass was really louder.

So if they stop manufacture overbassed headphone and audio systems everything will be alot of easier. But people kind love the bassy things. As you can read in many small user reviews everywhere is as plus - good bass which mean in they language that they are overbassed .

I have tested many headphones before I have bought DT880 but most of them even more expensive like commercial hit - Beats sounds too bassy - good for EDM but otherwise sucks.

And discovery is? I need to switch between different headphones to test the result because and dont like numbers.

Ohh an dI already edited my previous with my track. Thanks Peter:H.

[rghvdberg]

@rghvdberg nice sounds and mixdown, I wouldn't layer much (just my opinion) because it kind of has a classic feel as it is right now. Maybe try messing the phaser to create a classic morphing supersaw, I think that might work.

PHASER !! Totally forgot about that ..

Setting my phaser to stun (or kill, dunno)
Gonna experiment, seems like a good idea.

[doctorbob]

OK - track updated - crashes reduced somewhat - added a little perc to the second quiet break ...

Hope this sounds a little better - balanced the perc a little more - snare and hh less in your face ...

DR:12 by the way! Added a picture too by me.

Enjoy

[] Peter:H []

Forgive me if I'm offensive with my feedback...not intended.

Haha dont worry it is not offensive in any way. Actually you are right in some way.

That low rumble stereo frequency is comming from other sound not bass (like you can hear right at start). Bass is pure mono. But you are right also that there is too much low in that too . Ill try to fix that. Thank you.

It might be my studio room setup

I envy you. I dont have any studio just a computer with cheap 2+1 sound system.

Thats lead in interesting discovery. Because my sound system is crap Im using headphones for mixing and mastering. Recently I have bought (after year and more of reading reviews and testing by myself) Beyerdynamic DT880 (for me most expensive headphones I have in my life ) . On these it is still sound "good" but after switching to kind of consumer/common user headphones I detected this overbass quickly. On old AKG k240 monitors it sounds quite good too except second half were that bass was really louder.

So if they stop manufacture overbassed headphone and audio systems everything will be alot of easier. But people kind love the bassy things. As you can read in many small user reviews everywhere is as plus - good bass which mean in they language that they are overbassed .

I have tested many headphones before I have bought DT880 but most of them even more expensive like commercial hit - Beats sounds too bassy - good for EDM but otherwise sucks.

And discovery is? I need to switch between different headphones to test the result because and dont like numbers.

Ohh an dI already edited my previous with my track. Thanks Peter:H.

Same here. The most importand invest I did last years was good Monitors (Dynaudio BM5 MK3 with Sub) and the DT880 as well. Before I used consumer speakers which weren't even close to "good".
To check the sound I constantly switch between those two options. Then I also try it on mobile phone headphone speakers and even the sound system in my little car...
But then I'm looking forward to listening to your new version soon!

[Darksynth FX]

Aimed for a beatless, chill and lo-fi sort of track this time.

nice atmosphere and interesting melodies, like the pads also

Thanks a lot! Just uploaded a better version where I removed some annoying high end noise. As I already struggle with hearing sound above 14kHz (oh my god, I am old!), it gets quite difficult for me mixing wise in the upper part of the frequency spectrum.

[rghvdberg]

@rghdvberg phace is right, the chord sound is classic already. mau5chords even. You could embiggen it in the mix: for a couple of my sounds, I route them to to Stereo Touch on a Send, so that the stereo delay effect is mixed in with the potentially already-stereo chord patch. If you do layer it, two layers, one panned left, one panned right, with tweaks to modulation/ADSR/phaser rates should prove plenty. That frees up the centre for bass & lead. It sounds like you might be doing that panning already? in which case phace's phaser suggestion, with subtly different setting left to right, might be all you need. The ensemble effect is roughly 3x pseudo-unison, so you should only need 2-3 layers to approach the 7-saw JP8k Supersaw or the 8(?)-saw Virus Hypersaw. One other embiggening suggestion is saturation.

He he, I feel busted. Was indeed trying to get either DeadMau5 like chords or a bit Daft Punk.

Chord patch is a saw-ish synth sound and the string synth. The synth and strings are hard panned left/right
I double that with the same patch but the panning reversed.
Both patches are detuned from each other.
A dublicate this on octave higher and reverse the panning and detuning. In this higher octave I added a bit of the 16' register

I'm gonna look in using only the string synth with tweaked ensemble effect. That sounds very interesting to experiment with.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Auplant]

completed my track, will get it up soon.. had to toggle this eq on and off quite a lot

[doctorbob]

... a sciatic nerve thing (or mostly from the brain-deadening pain medication that went with it) but I'm enthused to get something completed for this one ...

Hey H-man, hope the pain is under control. Sciatica is one of the worst, so little that can dull it except very powerful drugs - bah! Best wishes go to you for a speedy recovery.

Hope to hear your entry, or drafts soon. Always a delight.

dB

[doctorbob]

completed my track, will get it up soon.. had to toggle this eq on and off quite a lot

Most, if not all my ReaEQ's had the bottom point set to high pass, although all with different freq points. Just had to roll off the bass freqs which interfered with most of my sounds. Mind you, without it, my bass had that nice low grunge in it which I liked!

Revised the crashes, and regrouped them and gave them a common reverb to bring them more "into the mix" - they seemed rather detached to me on critical listening.

Also added 4 harmony tracks for the melody - not entirely obvious, but they are there and "bulk out" the sound stage a bit more.

All sounds from INIT - thanks for the perc patches Rob, in the end you did much the same as I did (before I realised I was on 1.0.1 not 1.1.0 (duh ), so I used my own.

DAW: Reaper 5.33

Track details:
24 * Nabla
23 * ReaEQ
12 * TAL Reverb II
1 * TAL Reverb 4
1 * TAL Dub Delay
2 * Twin Delay
4 * Pecheneg Tremolo
1 * Classic Delay
2 * Classic Compressor
2 * Classic Limiter
11 * JS Midi Note Filter
1 * JS Bass Manager/Booster

Master:
TDR VOS SlickEQ
Ferric TDS
Limiter No. 6

DR: 11

Enjoy

https://soundcloud.com/doctorbob/doctor ... sc96-nabla
dB

[rghvdberg]

https://soundcloud.com/rghvdberg/osc96/s-Vm8EK

getting closer to what I want

played with the (hidden) ensemble settings
thanks @psmacmur for the tip

gonna experiment with the phaser on another part of the track

[Auplant]

as it's my first time participating in this contest, I have a little confusion - the rules state that voting happens up until the 15th of the month. Does that mean the month following the month for track submissions? Because I noticed people are still voting for OSC95 HY-Mono tracks (and I assumed this contest already ended).
Another question - If one is to participate in this OSC; does that mean they must vote in the previous OSC?

[rghvdberg]

Yes, voting on this months tracks will be from 1 to 15 March.

[doctorbob]

@Phace ... no prerequisites to enter! But, if you don't vote, ie rate ALL the submitted tracks, your track will be disqualified and won't make the top 5 for a prize. People also appreciate comments and help via Souncloud on their tracks, as well as in this thread. This is how we all have learnt over time - so good, bad and even ugly comments are OK.

Looking forward to your first entry ... one of many I hope.

Cheers,

dB