Upcoming eXpanse Refill- questions + demo

Need some fresh sounds? Want to show off your sound design skills? Here's the place!
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Boombastix
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14 Apr 2020

I'm making a Refill for eXpanse . Why? I love the synth, but it's patches gives me a big CPU hit so I haven't used it much. I decided to try to make my own patches (been designing/producing for 20+ yrs so nothing new or odd per se), but I wanted to explore how to make it very CPU efficient. I think I hit a home run with that (see below)!

But I have a few questions:

1. Below is a demo track, take a listen. It is only using my new eXpanse patches. What else would you like to hear (musical styles)?

2. The demo track is not using any external FX on the eXpanse patches, but should I master the demo track (now it is just level matched)?

3. If anyone want to try out a few patches and make a demo, I'll be happy to send a few over. No pressure, but thought I'd ask.

[track]


[description]
Demo track of the Reason Refill for Blamsoft's eXpanse Hyperwave Synthesizer. This demo runs 17(!) instances of eXpanse, by the time CPU is maxed out. Each patch has been designed to be expressive with Mod Wheel or Velocity assignments.

The patches are also designed to be very CPU efficient without compromising on quality. The focus has been to create patches that you don't typically already have, to be production ready, be musically useful and expressive for the modern production.

The sounds designed to fit all kinds of "electronic music", Techno, House, Pop, IDM, Trap, R&B, and HipHop.

Each patch is level match, great sounding with minimal CPU hit, mix-tested in a track, and labelled with type and assignment, e.g. "LD - Big Arena [MW] - RS.repatch".
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moneykube
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14 Apr 2020

a cpu friendly expanse refill would be great... um ambient pads and rhythmic patches an asset for me
Got a few expanse refills that bring my older system to it's knees... still need to test them on my new mac mini
https://soundcloud.com/moneykube-qube/s ... d-playlist
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eusti
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14 Apr 2020

Demo sounds good! :)

D.

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Boombastix
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20 Apr 2020

I did a simple example of a few of the pads. They all respond to MW so you can add interest, but many also have movement that is built in. 5 snippets in the attached audio file. The first one shows the power of combining 3 together. The next 4 are playing one patch at a time.
I did move the MW a few times in each example just to capture that.

The more subtle pads can be played as big chords, and you can take another more busy pad and just add a leading note on top. That is sort of what I did in the first example.

Not sure if that is what you're looking for, but I made them to be usable in a full mix, though as you can imagine by some layering I guess you can also do more chill/ambient stuff as well.

I have a new demo track in progress and I actually use a pad sound as a mellow lead sound. Often many use leads as basses or vice versa.

Here are pads:
10% off at Waves with link: https://www.waves.com/r/6gh2b0
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moneykube
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21 Apr 2020

sounds great... very interested... could test if you like but been busy... perhaps I can come up with a demo song given time.
Dad just got out of hospital after losing memory of last year including the death of my mother who he looked after for 13 years while she battled cancer... :
Last edited by moneykube on 21 Apr 2020, edited 1 time in total.
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VariableX
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21 Apr 2020

great track 😀👍🏼👍🏼

strangers
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21 Apr 2020

Both demos sound great. I may be interested in test driving a few patches along with putting together a demo track for you. With everything going on, work has been more hectic than usual. Once things slow down a bit, I'll for sure shoot you a message.

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Boombastix
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22 Apr 2020

Hey, thanks for interest. Yeah, shoot me a DM if any of you wanna try some stuff and make a demo.

To make pads that moves is a challenge, not just to get the idea, but time wise. I'm at 137 patches, and will try to make a few more, but not past 150 :o
I actually look for moving pads, small sequences, and stuff when I buy patches. I usually don't find that many, I know why now, IT TAKES TIME to make them. :lol:

Anyhow here is a new demo using a new pad. A total of 6 eXpanse running when the track is in full swing (and some drums). Vocals first then repeat w just instruments. Gotta say, things just move fast making a track like this when the sounds just fit well in the mix, and they inspire too.

Here is a new demo track with the new pad in the intro that has this sweet shimmer on top, I'm using a way to get moving "partials", somewhat like Parsec.

10% off at Waves with link: https://www.waves.com/r/6gh2b0
Disclaimer - I get 10% as well.

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Boombastix
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03 May 2020

OK, so the ReFill has been finished for about week and I'm still waiting for Reason Studios to put into the shop. Not sure if they meant it will take four weeks or something, not that impressed with the handling times. So maybe I'll put it on Gumroad as well so anyone who wants to grab it can.

Below is another demo, went a little more clubbing on this one. Guess I should maybe make something a little slower as well. These sounds are just crazy inspiring, and move the mod wheel and things just get much more dynamic and interesting. Nuff self promo :o let me know what you think about this track.

10% off at Waves with link: https://www.waves.com/r/6gh2b0
Disclaimer - I get 10% as well.

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