New song: Kraku - Friends

New song is ready. It's a shame I didn't find a singer for this track. The vocal part was replaced with a synth melody.

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Download the original MP3 file from here.

Empirical Labs Distressor EL8-X on electronic drums

A while ago I bought an Empirical Labs Distressor EL8-X. It's a wonderfully diverse compressor capable of delivering really usable results on almost any sound source you feed into it. The transients Distressor is able to create on electronic drums fit perfectly into dance floor tracks.

Here's a quick and simple demonstration of Distressor's characteristic slappy/snappy transients on a kick drum. 16 beats first without and then with Distressor:

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Those transient can really cut through the mix and make your drums sound powerful and aggressive.

The only problem with a Distressor is that you want two of them :-P

New song: Aflecht - Feed You To Sue

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MP3 download.

New song: Aflecht ft. Delia St. Claire I - Gotham by Night (compo version)

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Aflecht ft. Delia St. Claire I - Gotham by Night

Voted fourth in the dance music competition at Stream Party 8 in Tampere.

New song: Kraku - Good Morning

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Here's the download link to the song:

Kraku - Good Morning

Gear used:

Eurorack modular synthesizer

LennarDigital Sylenth1

Native Instruments Battery 3

Ohmforce M-Tron Pro

Logic Pro 9

SoundToys EchoBoy

Voxengo Elephant

API 2500 compressing electronic drums

I just bought my first hardware compressor - API 2500 - and I gotta say it sounds pretty damn sweet. It doesn't break the transients the same way as software compressors do. It always seems to keep the sound clean, natural, snappy and punchy, regardless of the parameters you dial into it.

Here's the API 2500 in action, compressing a dull sounding kick drum with different setting. After 8 beats new settings kick in, which are listed below.

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Here's the uncompressed WAV file for those who want the tiny bit of extra fidelity in the signal.

Be sure to listen to this in loud volume, since a lot of the action is with the bass dynamics.

Also try to compare each of the settings with the original and you'll realize how drastic effect the unit has on the sound without "breaking it to pieces".

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Threshold has been slammed all the way down to -20 (maximum).
Attack = 10ms
Release = 0.5 sec
Ratio = 4:1

Only "Tone" settings of the compressor have been tweaked in these examples.

1 = dry mix
2 = Type = Old, Thurst = Loud, Knee = Hard
3 = Type = Old, Thurst = Norm, Knee = Hard
4 = Type = New, Thurst = Norm, Knee = Hard
5 = Type = New, Thurst = Norm, Knee = Soft
6 = Type = New, Thurst = Norm, Knee = Hard

...here comes a pause...

Threshold is still all the way down to -20 (maximum).
Attack = 1ms
Release = 0.5 sec
Ratio = 4:1

7 = Type = Old, Thurst = Loud, Knee = Hard
8 = Type = Old, Thurst = Norm, Knee = Hard
9 = Type = New, Thurst = Norm, Knee = Hard

New song: Aflecht - Irresponsible part 1

A new track is ready once again. It's the first half of a two part song. The second part will be a song in it's own right with actual vocals, which I hope to finish soon.

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Here's the download link of this song:
Aflecht - Irresponsible part 1

Gear used:

Logic Pro 9
Native Instruments Battery 3
LennarDigital Sylenth1
GForce M-Tron Pro
Eurorack modular synthesizer
Future Retro XS

Cytomic Glue
IK Multimedia CSR
SoundToys EchoBoy