Going back to simple tools

Anything about MUSIC but doesn't fit into the forums above.
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For the past few months, I've been thinking that most hosts are plugins get more and more complex to use. Sure, you can do a lot in them but at the cost of using tabs, tons of sliders and knobs and most of the time, the simple tasks just take longer. And too many options can also paralyse your creativity.
To be more precise, I dumped Geist 2 for Studio One Impact and everything just feels a lot more immediate. Obviously, Impact can only do a fraction of what Geist 2 can but it's got pretty much everything I need.
Have you had a similar experience with your main host or a synth? Care to share?
Free banks for soft synths | ghostwave.fr | soundcloud.com/ghostwaveaudio

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I think it depends on how much time you have to memorize the manual, which also depends on how important the plugin is to your workflow.
I use MuLab for most sampling and sequencing, with the same old plugins (e.g. Alchemy, Rhino, Iris) because I know those tools so they are are more rewarding!
Miller Puckette (PureData developer) gave a talk about overcomplex audio software:
http://msp.ucsd.edu/Publications/pdf_EMS14_puckette.pdf
d o n 't
w a n t
m o r e

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^ Thanks for the link. A very interesting read.
Free banks for soft synths | ghostwave.fr | soundcloud.com/ghostwaveaudio

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Ghostwave wrote:For the past few months, I've been thinking that most hosts are plugins get more and more complex to use. Sure, you can do a lot in them but at the cost of using tabs, tons of sliders and knobs and most of the time, the simple tasks just take longer. And too many options can also paralyse your creativity.
To be more precise, I dumped Geist 2 for Studio One Impact and everything just feels a lot more immediate. Obviously, Impact can only do a fraction of what Geist 2 can but it's got pretty much everything I need.
Have you had a similar experience with your main host or a synth? Care to share?
nothing is complex its the gui that f**ks with the work flow
if you are searching for some ideas and playing around with plugins these type will only wast your
1.time
2.willing-ness to sitdown(aka patience)

on the other hand if you have a certain idea or something particular in your mind and know how to do that
you will feel these plugins(impact for example) as your limitation
so it depends from conditions to conditions

and for me for creativity purpose i will use some old synths like TAL or AIR xpand or any other emulation or rompler vst (Thorn is an exception as i am into dubstep type of sounds and know what type of sounds i need at the moment)

and for surgical stuff Melda is the only one i go with
Win 10 x64 with specs enough to run DAW without bouncing any track
KZ IEM,32-bit 384Khz dac running at 32bit 48Khz
mainly use REAPER, MTotalbundle, Unfiltered Audio TRIAD and LION, NI classic collection,......... ETC

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Ghostwave wrote:Care to share?
No doubt, I've been much more 'productive' when using just three hardware devices and thus being very restricted in what I could do (incl. the aspect that one only has two hands which is another restriction).

The 'jamming' was fun, intense, rewarding. I used to stand while 'operating' which also added something to the process. Body2machine, so to speak. All in all the result was much more organic, and felt much more like 'music making' than it is today. The downside was, that I had to record the whole, often hour long session and edit/cut/glue a couple of few magic moments into a song - but never be able to reproduce it again.

Today, I sit at my well equipped desk, having all tools at hand, 'total recall' is given, but I'm feeling more like a bookkeeper than anything else. Hoped, that Ableton Push would help me there, but it honestly never did.

:(

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Currently scribing my farts to a wax cylinder. Good times! :tu:

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Waiting for someone to mention "One Fart Only". :D

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elassi wrote:
Ghostwave wrote:Care to share?
No doubt, I've been much more 'productive' when using just three hardware devices and thus being very restricted in what I could do (incl. the aspect that one only has two hands which is another restriction).

The 'jamming' was fun, intense, rewarding. I used to stand while 'operating' which also added something to the process. Body2machine, so to speak. All in all the result was much more organic, and felt much more like 'music making' than it is today. The downside was, that I had to record the whole, often hour long session and edit/cut/glue a couple of few magic moments into a song - but never be able to reproduce it again.

Today, I sit at my well equipped desk, having all tools at hand, 'total recall' is given, but I'm feeling more like a bookkeeper than anything else. Hoped, that Ableton Push would help me there, but it honestly never did.

:(
Do you think that if someone handed you the same gear you had back then, and took away the new stuff, that you would be as productive again?

I also came from a minimal setup, nearly 30 years ago. 4-track, Boss drum machine, and a Yamaha fx rack. And I was also very productive. However, I think that was much more about the simplicity of the era, than the setup

At that time, there was no social media, email, Youtube, KVR, or...internet. There were 5 channels on television, and phone calls only happened when you were at home, and if the phone was not being used by someone else.

We are constantly bombarded with so much noise, these days. It has to be affecting our impetus to create.

Where I will agree that the simple approach might be better, is if we ditch the DAW's.

Back when I used 4-track cassette, there was no illusion of perfection. There was no quantise, no spectral editing, and no auto-tune. As such, I accepted my imperfections, and just moved on. Added to that, if I wanted anything more than 4 tracks, I needed to commit to the destructive bounce-down process.

With a DAW, this illusion of perfection keeps us from finishing projects, because we are always waiting till our skills are better, or our plugin folders are better. And unlimited tracks means no need to commit...Ever!!!

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edit:

ok, el-bo, valid thoughts. Nothing wrong with them. Not at all. :)

(editing the post because of being sure the earlier message went through)

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el-bo (formerly ebow) wrote:With a DAW, this illusion of perfection keeps us from finishing projects, because we are always waiting till our skills are better, or our plugin folders are better. And unlimited tracks means no need to commit...Ever!!!
:tu:

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elassi wrote:Waiting for someone to mention "One Fart Only". :D

no such thing, especially the older you get :shrug:
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.

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Yes, yes, I found I'm too dumb to use a 3 band eq, so switched to 2 band. Many other stories, but too hard to remember and writing is boring as F.

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Hink wrote:
elassi wrote:Waiting for someone to mention "One Fart Only". :D

no such thing, especially the older you get :shrug:
one shart only :o

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