Returning to music after 16 years out, help for updating

[Stuckedin1995]

Hello,

I was a pro dj and producer in the 90´s tons of analogues. Hardtechno

I was pretty bad with computers.

I retired in 2005 and getting back as hobbist.

I am very lost with so many new information. I got a Logic for El Capitan.

I realized Bias Peak is out of business.

What programs should I get to start tweaking again?

Editor, sampler virtual ( got hardware) and interesting plug ins.

Also of the thousands of sample cds, what brands or packs do you recommend, is any subforum to review them, are so many that I turn mad
I would like to get the ones of the 90´s of all the rhythm machines sampled and some classic ones. I hate loops.

Thank you very much, I am stucked in the 90´s and would like to go back

[DJ Warmonger]

Also of the thousands of sample cds

Any sort of sample CDs are already boutique objects. Kids these days don't know what a CD even is

If you like sampling and samplers, you should check Ableton Live (DAW) and Kontakt (sampler / sample host).

[Stuckedin1995]

Hi DJ,

Yes I would like to get those , Live and Kontakt, but the issue is that I find these sounding too "plastic" compared to all the gear I used and yet have of the golden age.

I retired precisely because in 2005 all music already was plastic and cheap made with Fruity Loops: Ben Sims, Marco Carola, Adam Beyer, they were idols in the mid 90s, then are awful, specially nowadays.

Those premade loops of today sound as bas as those.

More recomendations? I need a sound editor, Was Bias Peak for El Capitan Mac OS?



Any other?

thanks!

[Spring Goose]

Also of the thousands of sample cds, what brands or packs do you recommend, is any subforum to review them, are so many that I turn mad
I would like to get the ones of the 90´s of all the rhythm machines sampled and some classic ones. I hate loops.

Samples From Mars

and

Wave Alchemy

[thecontrolcentre]

Sound editor = Sound Forge Pro

If you think modern DAWs sound "plastic" then stick with whatever "golden age" gear you still own. If it worked then it will work now. I still own & use hardware from way back (80s & 90s).

[JerGoertz]

As far as sounding "plastic" is concerned, there are many plugins whose purpose is to warm things up. You might give those a try on plastic-sounding sources.

[GRUMP]

Welcome back.

I had a break of 13 yrs - chilled most of the time in Motown - and returned 2018.

The drums (all of them): https://samples.kb6.de/downloads.php (donate!)

The Sampler: Halion (can import AKAI, MPC, exs, ...). Kontakt ist a hyped player imho. Halion is tzhe workhorse for people who can. GrooveAgent complementary. MPC Software maybe if you feel so.

DAW? That is a matter of your targets and workflow.

Plugins: Acustica Audio. Try the free ones (Cerise (Neve) before march!), they´ll convince you quickly. Nebula! Eventide when they are on sale. Melda free ones (MRecorder, MAnalyzer, ...). So much for now - buit my list is a little bit too longer.

DUNE3, Rob Papen eXplorer Bundle (many old fellows, great sound. cheap with upgrade path.) DCO106 is sweet, too. But Ok - I´d say just have fun and try the demos before before I suffer a fanboy bashing again. Dirty 90s analogue roughness? Hardware!

Most important rule for time travellers: people have changed. Don´t believe the hypes and NEVER pay the full price!

And don´t forget to explore the new sound dimensions first. As I have just learned here SY77 generation is Lofi today

[ralfrobert]

Take a look at the TAL plugins, especially the Sampler. Prices are reasonable, and you may like them.

For the DAW, I would look at Cakewalk. Free, good basic plugin set, a bit old fashioned perhaps. But full featured and free.

[Spring Goose]

Kontakt ist a hyped player imho. Halion is tzhe workhorse for people who can. GrooveAgent complementary.

Hmmmm. Halion and GrooveAgent are for people who use Cubase. Kontakt is for people who have Komplete, for film/soundtrack producers, for people who want to use the many sampled instruments available for Kontakt. ?

What i mean is I don't think it's as simple as you say about all users of the product.

However i will look at Halion. I understand it's available to buy separately of Cubase.

Most important rule for time travellers: people have changed. Don´t believe the hypes and NEVER pay the full price!

And don´t forget to explore the new sound dimensions first. As I have just learned here SY77 generation is Lofi today

Actually, i too am a "time traveller" as you call it. I had about 10 years off from 2009 to 2018.

You said "most important rule". What other advice do you have for "time travellers"?

[Stuckedin1995]

Hi, thanks to all of you.

Too much info to digest in a single day.

I am getting old hardware samplers as well.

Is Peak available for Mac Os El Capitan and Sound Forge?

Grm Tools that I loved seems.

Be right back tomorrow after doing a research in what you all recommend me.

thanks!

[DJ Warmonger]

Well, old samplers are known for their low audio quality and artifacts. These are often emulated via "vintage" sampler VSTs.

You can always just pick whatever sample libraries are available in digital, then process it with your old gear to get desired sound qualities.

[Tj Shredder]

Is Peak available for Mac Os El Capitan and Sound Forge?

I replaced Sounddesigner with Peak, and lately Peak with Acon Digitals Acoustica. Best decision as I got a complete and very good restauration suite with it. Getting rid of clicks in Peak was a pain...
I agree to your observation of too much of the same in all those years. I skipped all those DAWs and synths for decades for Max/MSP - until I got a LinnStrument. That was the game changer. Suddenly I could play synths expressively. In combination with Bitwig I have a lot of fun now.
If you want to get into new sound territory, definitely test out Plasmonic. The thread here has some very nice examples for listening... And definitely get a MPE controller, I can’t recommend the LinnStrument enough...

[GRUMP]

Kontakt ist a hyped player imho. Halion is tzhe workhorse for people who can. GrooveAgent complementary.

Hmmmm. Halion and GrooveAgent are for people who use Cubase. Kontakt is for people who have Komplete, for film/soundtrack producers, for people who want to use the many sampled instruments available for Kontakt. ?

What i mean is I don't think it's as simple as you say about all users of the product.

However i will look at Halion. I understand it's available to buy separately of Cubase.

Most important rule for time travellers: people have changed. Don´t believe the hypes and NEVER pay the full price!

And don´t forget to explore the new sound dimensions first. As I have just learned here SY77 generation is Lofi today

Actually, i too am a "time traveller" as you call it. I had about 10 years off from 2009 to 2018.

You said "most important rule". What other advice do you have for "time travellers"?

I have both. Kontakt is definitely advantageous for the mentioned groups and has pro´s, too - but imho extremely disadvantageous if you DIY. If you want to manage sampples, layers, splits - copy, paste, move and more. And coming from the 90´s you´ll definitely feel more comfortable with Steinberg way of thinking I guess.

Concerning the "time lag" I´m not really clear yet. I´d mainly suggest to compare. You´ll soon realize that stereo was more popular back then for example. Check the panorama law settings (-6bB). And in general: get as much materials as you can for comparisons as you can get. And vist the synthmania frequently.

As we live today now I´d say that you´ll have to learn to adapt somehow. And don´t forget that memorys are often treacherous. I was really shocked when I listened to PE´s "Yo bum rush" some time ago again, as well as when I lately skipped through some E-mu Samples (Proteus, Orbit, Planet Phatt - DL > ).

I mean you´ll have develop a new musical identity and fingerprint anyway. But please protect your neck and watch the black holes of endless options lurking everywhere. Life was simple back then. I mean somehow and compared to the circumstances today

You should also learn to keep your fingers off other peoples properties, even if you may feel a little bit crippled then. Our expressiveness has declined in scandalous dimensions But there are many - more or often less - trustworthy suppliers that will gladly seel you elegant crap for cheap cheap. Shopping has become an ability and training is costly.

So much for now ...

uhm ... before I forget it - there are some remainers out there who still give lots of worthy materials away for free. On freesound for example. Or the rhythmlab. I have blown up my HD with GB of stuff from the Emax Library to billions opf impulse responses.

And in case of homesickness just use the wayback machine and you´re back

[Spring Goose]

Kontakt ist a hyped player imho. Halion is tzhe workhorse for people who can. GrooveAgent complementary.

Hmmmm. Halion and GrooveAgent are for people who use Cubase. Kontakt is for people who have Komplete, for film/soundtrack producers, for people who want to use the many sampled instruments available for Kontakt. ?

What i mean is I don't think it's as simple as you say about all users of the product.

However i will look at Halion. I understand it's available to buy separately of Cubase.

Most important rule for time travellers: people have changed. Don´t believe the hypes and NEVER pay the full price!

And don´t forget to explore the new sound dimensions first. As I have just learned here SY77 generation is Lofi today

Actually, i too am a "time traveller" as you call it. I had about 10 years off from 2009 to 2018.

You said "most important rule". What other advice do you have for "time travellers"?

I have both. Kontakt is definitely advantageous for the mentioned groups and has pro´s, too - but imho extremely disadvantageous if you DIY. If you want to manage sampples, layers, splits - copy, paste, move and more. And coming from the 90´s you´ll definitely feel more comfortable with Steinberg way of thinking I guess.

Concerning the "time lag" I´m not really clear yet. I´d mainly suggest to compare. You´ll soon realize that stereo was more popular back then for example. Check the panorama law settings (-6bB). And in general: get as much materials as you can for comparisons as you can get. And vist the synthmania frequently.

As we live today now I´d say that you´ll have to learn to adapt somehow. And don´t forget that memorys are often treacherous. I was really shocked when I listened to PE´s "Yo bum rush" some time ago again, as well as when I lately skipped through some E-mu Samples (Proteus, Orbit, Planet Phatt - DL > ).

I mean you´ll have develop a new musical identity and fingerprint anyway. But please protect your neck and watch the black holes of endless options lurking everywhere. Life was simple back then. I mean somehow and compared to the circumstances today

You should also learn to keep your fingers off other peoples properties, even if you may feel a little bit crippled then. Our expressiveness has declined in scandalous dimensions But there are many - more or often less - trustworthy suppliers that will gladly seel you elegant crap for cheap cheap. Shopping has become an ability and training is costly.

So much for now ...

uhm ... before I forget it - there are some remainers out there who still give lots of worthy materials away for free. On freesound for example. Or the rhythmlab. I have blown up my HD with GB of stuff from the Emax Library to billions opf impulse responses.

And in case of homesickness just use the wayback machine and you´re back

Thanks for the advice. I'm not the topic starter btw, weren't certain you knew that! I never had hardware synths back in the day. I had Synth1 and Greenoak Crystal and Granulab.

[David]

Cakewalk!? Sound Forge!? The OP is using Logic fercrisake.

As you can see, posters here are often NOT careful readers, and the default here is, as everywhere, PC usage and advice.

Peak is deadDeadDEAD, very sad, and nothing has clearly stepped forward as the Mac Audio Editor to Own. I use a mix of apps for different purposes, from free (ocen for fast, easy waveform edits) to purchased (DSP Quattro for Peak-like playlists—ver 4 was MUCH better for basic cut/paste waveform editing ), to subb'ed (Audition as part of my Adobe visual app sub, for advanced spectrum-y stuff). There's also Izotope's various offerings, often deeply discounted… Also note that online vendors are WAY bigger now than back then. Logic itself has quite useful audio editing tools, as well as a lot of very good included plugins for all sorts of audio tasks.

An online "academy" like AskAudio linked to above is IMO a very good way to get up to speed quickly with what's hot and what's new with DAWs and plugins. A month or two of subscription that lets you watch any and everything they have can be a really good deal if you’ve got the time and can sit still for long video sessions. YT is great too, but not anywhere near as well organized and easy to get at as full courses.
I like Groove3, too.

Samples? I wasted WAY too much on sample CDs myself back in the day, and have never since used them much. But the most interesting new thing in that realm, IMO, is sites like Splice, Loopmasters, Sounds, etc. that offer subs, and let you audition vast numbers of individual sounds and/or loops before downloading, to access your sub material. Also, Output Arcade is an almost truly "new" way to sell/offer samples; it didn't gel with me but seems to be working for many. Of course YMWV.
BTW, the new Logic is a very powerful sampling Sampler all by itself.

Good luck, welcome back, and get good with computers ASAP!

PS: GRM Tools!