Looks like it's time for the annual look back at the year, and look forward to our plans for the upcoming year.

My year had its ups and downs in terms of musical output, but I started working with two new singers, Mia Valo and Heather Kelle, and together with Aliciya Angel we've begun working on an album.....finally. Doing a lot less EDM these days, though, and I'm getting back more to my roots - more of a downtempo to triphop style blending electronica with organic sounds.

On the studio side, I made a New Year's resolution last year to downsize overall, by replacing a lot of my gear with fewer, but better, synths and front-end recording gear. In retrospect, I made a good choice and I've pretty much kept the same gear throughout the year.

For 2011, my plan is to finish off my first album before summer, and that's about as far ahead as I'm looking right now.

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cryophonik.com | facebook | soundcloud

Sonar Platinum | Ableton Live 9 | Logic Pro X | Access Virus TI2 Keyboard | Kurzweil PC3X | Nord Lead 4R | NI Maschine

Great idea! I find it really motivating just to answer threads like this.

I have been wanting to do something for a long time now but its going to be an extremely tedious procedure due to the amount of sounds I have. I've been avoiding it ever since I started and it will help me immensely with production/saving time.

All the sounds I have were downloaded OCD style like you might expect any newbie to do. But I did it A LOT, and have probably downloaded every bank/preset known to exist. For z3ta alone I have thousands of sounds, albino, rapture.. really any established synth. Now I also have 8 years of my own programmed patches, saved right beside every nonprogrammed patch. Sometimes if I'm bored and not feeling creative I'll sit down for a few hours just pressing "randomnize" and saving patches that have potential. And the problem is I have SO MANY sounds I never use, but hate deleting them too.
The fact is I waste sooo much time now scanning through the same sounds that I never wind up using. Over and over I do it. Its the same thing really with samples too. I think at least 60% of the sounds I have in total (likely 75%) can be trashed, but in a stupid way I consider them all valuable.
Its not about ability to recreate the same sounds its specific characters I feel I might need in the future that I can't program myself... so I guess it is about ability to program lol. Practically speaking I really think its neccessary and will force a higher level of cohesion in my tracks. The problem gets a bit complicate though because I have things like a sample pack all dedicated to natural sounds (cars, backgrounds, animals, weather, sports, mechnical, etc) and although I NEVER use them, they sound too god to trash. The problem is though my attention is still distracted while trying to not be closed minded and it wastes time. Like "hmm maybe a flushing toliet would sound cool in this track?" WTF, I need to lose this sound seperation anxiety and just seriously clean up my collection.

I've seen your threads about GAS cryo but I think SSA is also a legitimate disorder. Just that you won't lose your house over it or stop eating because you bought a synth instead of food. Still am trying to get rid of it this year though. We'll see how it goes.

i am going to get my tracks played monthly on ASOT/GDJB/TATW then become the new dj tiesto by 2012.

Starting a new label that in a few months will shock and exceed any expectation.

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Storyteller Website | Storyteller @ Facebook | Storyteller @ Beatport | Storyteller @ Soundcloud | Stephen J. Kroos - Europa (Storyteller Remix)
Anthony Mea - Get It On (Storyteller Remix)

quote:

If less is more think about how much more more would be. -Frasier

Fuck overcoming GAS, I plan on suffering from it for most of 2011

Until I get out of school which should be around Nov of next year, most of my focus is going to be on touching up old projects to get them to sound better (Which I have been doing). And once in awhile DJ mixing it up.

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B u s h i d o HEAT
Ben Acosta on soundcloud!
tranceaddict.com Colors 2 mixed by Ben Acosta
Colors 2 Mix on mixcloud!

Make more than three minutes of music this time around.

Lessons learned: Must get better gear.

Plan: Obey the GAS.

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Now with extra singles!
my old stuff, not quite up to snuff - but I still dig it - UPDATED 9/23/2012

I've just redid my template and I think it's going to allow me to work more efficiently.

-Set Axiom 49 Classic to Preset 19
-Create all purpose "Channel Strip" with 24db Low Pass High Pass and Attack and Release for SPL Transient Designer
-Every channel Gets Strip and Utility
-Set up four groups: Drums(except for kick), Bass, Synths, FX
-Dedicated fader for each group
-Color Code all tracks
-Dedicated SC channel
-groups routed to pre master channel
-analyzer with custom settings on master
- tilde jumps to analyzer
- 32,8,4,2 phrase markers defined by midi clips
-Sampler 128s for kicks, claps, op cl hats, rimshots
-The Clap sampler is grouped for easier layering

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quote:

Originally posted by dj_alfi change your avatar for fucks sake.

In 2010 I was amazing, and in 2011 I plan to make an improvement.



The real plan is to finish one complete track each month, ready for release. Whether I bother to release it or not is another matter.

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Soundcloud

2010 was a good year business wise, but musically absolutley terrible,

I finished one track (gulp) but thats all I could even muster as my NDA's only expire in 2011. This means I can finally make some music without having to ask for permission as they own it (yes anything I make, even at home, while working for them).

It will be nice to have some freedom in that respect but in fairness I'll miss the work so I gain one thing and lose another.

As for kit. No plans, apart from some much needed mopads and and passive volume control.

My main drive is to really learn my plugs inside out, especially waves fx, and my preferred softsynths. The ultimate goal is to have a very small number of plugs I use devoutly and know seamlessly.

quote:

Originally posted by cryophonik more of a downtempo to triphop style blending electronica with organic sounds.

I look forward to the outcomes!

I'm really pleased with my 2010. My music was heavily associated with visuals, concepts and (vague) stories, all different ways in which I love to work.

2011 should be good. My first album will be finished unless something disastrous occurs, which incidentally reminds me that I really need to perform a long overdue backup. I'm also planning on becoming more earthly, incorporating organic elements quite often