"Pointless GAS Purchases" - Music Challenge

[TritoneAddiction]

Drawing inspiration from MrFiggs thread about our most pointless gear purchases I decided to create this thread.
Why not include those wasteful purchases in our next piece of music? It could be anything from a RE/VST that you bought because of a sweet deal. Or a real instrument that's only been collecting dust.
Personally I have a huge list of REs that I can pick from, everything from synths, EQs, compressors, reverbs, distortions. (and I'm sure you do too ) And I plan to incorporate several of them in some way.

So please join. Pick any or several of your "pointless GAS purchases" and make music with it.
Post your track(s) in this thread. Everyone is welcome to comment on other peoples music, whether you've joined the challenge or not.

[TheDragonborg]

Hah for me it would have to be to use the Magnus chord organ I bought at a thrift store but I have to idea how to mic it as it's an acoustic instrument event though it's electric. The blower/air pump that is used to make the sound make a lot of noise (sounds like a fan) that seems almost impossible to get out of any recordings and then add on top of that the fact that it's out of tune compared to anything else. Maybe I could do something with noise reduction.

[TritoneAddiction]

Hah for me it would have to be to use the Magnus chord organ I bought at a thrift store but I have to idea how to mic it as it's an acoustic instrument event though it's electric. The blower/air pump that is used to make the sound make a lot of noise (sounds like a fan) that seems almost impossible to get out of any recordings and then add on top of that the fact that it's out of tune compared to anything else. Maybe I could do something with noise reduction.

Just experiment away. Have fun. Even if an instrument isn't used or recorded as intended it can still result in something cool. Who knows, perhaps you'll stumble upon something unique. If the result is crap, at least you've tried something new. And you can always throw it away and never share it with anyone if you don't like it.

[strangers]

Great idea and an even greater reminder of how many things I've purchased that have been buried under a few inches of dust. I'll surely be joining in on this.

[TritoneAddiction]

Great idea and an even greater reminder of how many things I've purchased that have been buried under a few inches of dust. I'll surely be joining in on this.

Great. Welcome aboard. Looking forward to hear what you'll come up with.

[TheDragonborg]

Not really a full track but here's some Magnus chord organ nonsense... as you can hear it's super noisy.

[TritoneAddiction]

Not really a full track but here's some Magnus chord organ nonsense... as you can hear it's super noisy.

Cool. Great that you went ahead and made something with it.
For myself I'm gonna need some more time before I post anything. I've started incorporating some old unused REs but I have no idea when I'll have something ready.

Feel free to continue the challenge and make more music with your "Pointless GAS Purchases". I'm sure you've got more of those. We all do.

[Re8et]

I bought the Casio SK-1 15 years ago, with a midi kit, and it's still there waiting for the midi hack.
I just have to finish the mod and then I would likely make a song with it!
Motivating thread!

[strangers]

Managed to finish my track and really happy with the outcome. There are two RE's I bought and never ended up using. Those same RE's get a lot of flack around here. I figured why not put them to use for once and shine a little light on a dark area? Here's my contribution to this thread...

The truth is out there.

Enjoy.



RE's used:
1. DNA Labs Aquios X4
2. DNA Labs Hydronexius

All sounds you hear are strictly from the above RE's.

[TritoneAddiction]

Managed to finish my track and really happy with the outcome. There are two RE's I bought and never ended up using. Those same RE's get a lot of flack around here. I figured why not put them to use for once and shine a little light on a dark area? Here's my contribution to this thread...

The truth is out there.

Enjoy.



RE's used:
1. DNA Labs Aquios X4
2. DNA Labs Hydronexius

All sounds you hear are strictly from the above RE's.

Sounds good man.
So now that you've used these two REs, what's your opinion on them?

[strangers]

Not really a full track but here's some Magnus chord organ nonsense... as you can hear it's super noisy.

That organ is extremely noisy. Reminds me of Waves plugins that have the optional noise parameters. Cool little song. Keep them coming.

Sounds good man.
So now that you've used these two REs, what's your opinion on them?

They're great for layering sounds and have such a vast array of patches. There's a hint of same-y-ness in some of them. Still makes for a good starting ground and plenty of inspiration with how many patches these things are packed with.

One thing that I flip flop between is whether I like the GUIs or not. One minute it looks cool, the next it's annoying when trying to read/figure out which tiny knob is assigned to what. I can see myself putting these to more use in the future.

I've got plenty of other plugins and REs that have collected dust. I'll be sure to whip up some more music. Again, great idea for a thread. Can't wait to hear what others use and come up with. That's including yourself.

[TritoneAddiction]

I bought the Casio SK-1 15 years ago, with a midi kit, and it's still there waiting for the midi hack.
I just have to finish the mod and then I would likely make a song with it!
Motivating thread!

Looking forward to hearing it

[TritoneAddiction]

Ok. So I think my track is done. I've been going back and forth with the mix many times. I might get back to it again, but it will do for now.
I used plenty of my very rarely used REs in this track. Here's a list of them all.


Efektor WF3607 Wah Filter
Umpf Retro Beats
Pulveriser
Stimulant Subharmonic Generator
EVE-MP5 Program Equalizer
Reason Electric Bass
Softube FET Compressor
Vibro
Efektor WF3607 Wah Filter
Processed Pianos
RE3Q Six-band Equalizer
Synapse RE-160
RV-7 Digital Reverb
Animus Shimmer Reverb Ensemble

I learned that some of these REs I need to explore more. But for others I can see why I've used my go-to REs before. It's not that any of these REs are bad. It's just that with some REs things just work. Either way, sometimes it's nice to just try something different. I did use many of my go-to REs in this track also, so they were still not left out.

[strangers]

Really great track, TritoneAddiction. I have some of the REs you used which I also rarely, if ever, use. I've got another track nearly finished that was inspired by your song. Stay tuned for that.

What are your thoughts on Reason's electric bass? I picked that up when there was a promo deal and did my best to use that in place of an actual bass guitar. Quickly learned I was spending way more time putting that to use than it would take me to record the same thing on bass. That's nice and dusty. Not sure I'd brush that off anytime soon.

Did you find you'll end up using any of these REs in the future or back to the shadows they go?

[TritoneAddiction]

Really great track, TritoneAddiction. I have some of the REs you used which I also rarely, if ever, use. I've got another track nearly finished that was inspired by your song. Stay tuned for that.

What are your thoughts on Reason's electric bass? I picked that up when there was a promo deal and did my best to use that in place of an actual bass guitar. Quickly learned I was spending way more time putting that to use than it would take me to record the same thing on bass. That's nice and dusty. Not sure I'd brush that off anytime soon.

Did you find you'll end up using any of these REs in the future or back to the shadows they go?

Thanks.
Yes some of them I want to explore further, Vibro and Pulveriser especially. Umpf retro I've used before, but not that as often as Kong. I like it.
I'll probably visit most of these again at some point. Subharmonic I really like, but it's only useful in rare occasions.
The Efektor WF3607 Wah Filter made a debut with this track. Same here. Nothing wrong with it, it just hasn't really fit any track I've been working on.
Reason electric bass is alright i think, especially if it's buried in a mix with other instruments. These samples based instruments are more of a problem when they are soloed and you play the same note over and over again. But in a song like this with loud "guitars" (distorted synths) taking up huge space then Reason electric bass works fine imo.

The way I prepared for this challenge was to make a couple of new favorite lists with stuff I don't normally use. One for instruments, one for normal creative effects like EQs, compressors, reverbs etc. And then the last category with more creative types of effects like Animus Shimmer Reverb Ensemble. A bunch of stuff from these lists still didn't didn't get used in this track. So there's still plenty of REs I could explore further.

One thing I learned though was that while it's fun to just use some new stuff that you don't use often, some things like EQ it's just easier to use the old Go-to's. In the beginning I put the RE3Q or EVE-MP5 in there just because. But later on I just went with GQ-7. Why complicate things too much? It's not even a very fun part of music making. Sometimes the go-to stuff becomes the go-to's for a reason. To some degree I feel similar about compressors. I tried some "new" ones, but the further down I got into the project I relied more and more on my old trusted FRG-4RE comp. It just works on a lot of things, not on everything, but a lot.

Really glad my track and this whole theme for the challenge inspired you. Looking forward to hearing your track.

[TheDragonborg]

I was also thinking... I should use my Pocket Operator Factory in a track since I only used it like twice after I got it when I realized it can only do wholetone notes (no sharps or flats). It sounds so bleepy and great for electro stuff but eh... you have to use the pitch effect just to get sharps or flats.

[TritoneAddiction]

I was also thinking... I should use my Pocket Operator Factory in a track since I only used it like twice after I got it when I realized it can only do wholetone notes (no sharps or flats). It sounds so bleepy and great for electro stuff but eh... you have to use the pitch effect just to get sharps or flats.

Go ahead. Sometimes these limitations are a good thing. Makes you go to new creative places that you normally wouldn't go to.

[Aosta]

So who is going to be the first person to use CrapRE?

[TritoneAddiction]

So who is going to be the first person to use CrapRE?

Man I fricking LOVE CrapRE. Best distortion device ever. And the slight pitch wobbles makes other wise stale stuff come alive perfectly. I use Crapre2 all the time, not kidding. It's such an underrated RE.
A year a go I even made a 4 track project where every single sound was processed with Crapre 2. Here's one of the tracks from the project.

[strangers]

Here's another song I whipped up for this thread. I went a whole different direction on this one for a crusty, heavy track. My original intentions were to use a few more REs that I never use. I ended up wasting a lot of time in the process only to realize why I stick with some tried and true REs and VSTs. I'll keep those fallen REs aside for another project... maybe.

Synths Used:
There's one synth I bought a while ago that I never really even messed with until now. This track is comprised of Blamsoft's VK-2 for all sounds except drums and a very simple piano (NNXT) that's tucked away in the background.

Effects Used:
This is where I wanted to dust off purchases that are never used. It ended up backfiring and took way longer than I wanted before I abandoned ship for my usual tools. For this track I dusted off McDSP's C670,
Softube FET, Softube's TSAR-1R and Toontrack's EzMix (VST) for amp sims to crust things up.

Effects Abandoned:
I really tried to make use of the following.
- Kuassa amp sims - Maybe this is where my guitar nerd background was too picky. I wasn't meshing well with the amp sims.
- Kuassa EQs - I bought the bundle a year or so ago and have only used AT4 on occasion. Thought it would have been the right time to give these a shot. It turned out to be the same scenario as above with the addition of way more time invested. I think my problem is that it's too easy to get lost in the visual aspect instead of trusting your ears.

That's enough of my jibber jabber. Here's the song.

Enjoy.

[Auryn]

Effects Abandoned:
I really tried to make use of the following.
- Kuassa amp sims - Maybe this is where my guitar nerd background was too picky. I wasn't meshing well with the amp sims.
- Kuassa EQs - I bought the bundle a year or so ago and have only used AT4 on occasion. Thought it would have been the right time to give these a shot. It turned out to be the same scenario as above with the addition of way more time invested. I think my problem is that it's too easy to get lost in the visual aspect instead of trusting your ears.

That's enough of my jibber jabber. Here's the song.

I'll comment on the track in the reason music section but I thought I'd volunteer some thoughts: of the kuassa amp sims I only own the creme amp. I regard it as a kind of "metalizer" as just about anything you feed into it comes out sounding like a metal guitar. I only really like the lead mode but don't use that much either.
The EQ's: I use the MP-5 sometimes on the master bus or on a mix bus, for single channels it's less useful IMHO

[strangers]

I'll comment on the track in the reason music section but I thought I'd volunteer some thoughts: of the kuassa amp sims I only own the creme amp. I regard it as a kind of "metalizer" as just about anything you feed into it comes out sounding like a metal guitar. I only really like the lead mode but don't use that much either.
The EQ's: I use the MP-5 sometimes on the master bus or on a mix bus, for single channels it's less useful IMHO

I agree with you on both points. I'm not sure I'll really get any future mileage out of those REs. I'll probably try again at some point although VST support makes it less likely. The EQs are nice. It's still much easier and efficient for me to use the SSL style EQ section within Reason's mixer. My main weapon of choice when it comes to EQ is Softube's Console 1. I use that all the time.

[TritoneAddiction]

Here's another song I whipped up for this thread. I went a whole different direction on this one for a crusty, heavy track. My original intentions were to use a few more REs that I never use. I ended up wasting a lot of time in the process only to realize why I stick with some tried and true REs and VSTs. I'll keep those fallen REs aside for another project... maybe.

Synths Used:
There's one synth I bought a while ago that I never really even messed with until now. This track is comprised of Blamsoft's VK-2 for all sounds except drums and a very simple piano (NNXT) that's tucked away in the background.

Effects Used:
This is where I wanted to dust off purchases that are never used. It ended up backfiring and took way longer than I wanted before I abandoned ship for my usual tools. For this track I dusted off McDSP's C670,
Softube FET, Softube's TSAR-1R and Toontrack's EzMix (VST) for amp sims to crust things up.

Effects Abandoned:
I really tried to make use of the following.
- Kuassa amp sims - Maybe this is where my guitar nerd background was too picky. I wasn't meshing well with the amp sims.
- Kuassa EQs - I bought the bundle a year or so ago and have only used AT4 on occasion. Thought it would have been the right time to give these a shot. It turned out to be the same scenario as above with the addition of way more time invested. I think my problem is that it's too easy to get lost in the visual aspect instead of trusting your ears.

That's enough of my jibber jabber. Here's the song.

Enjoy.

Cool. Yes I can definitely hear the influence from the track I posted. But even though there are similarities it's still totally different. Just a completely different vibe and feel to the music.
I like it. Melodic and heavy at the same time.

It seems we came to the same conclusion about certain things, mainly that some REs are go-to devices for a reason. In the future i might use the "unused" REs for the broader strokes when shaping or creating a sound, but the more nuanced/detailed processing will be with the go-to tools that I know well. Otherwise it's just frustrating and time consuming.