adding dimension to esx1

[britzman]

After a couple of months I've gotten the hang of building some decent house tracks on my korgesx1 and I'm very happy with it. Unfortunately, i can't to get away from that flat, muddy videogamey sound (especially common with the emx) even though my tracks are well built. My kaosspad helps but doesn't quite have what I need.

Its hard to pinpoint what sound I'm looking for bc im not that technical but I'm obsessed with kinks sound.

http://youtu.be/G77uuDVpsSo

I'm looking to get a more analog, complex sound that makes me want to dance and not just bob my head. The new tribe underwhelms in that department from what ive seen and volcas are too ambient (but neat!). I saw sauce use a reverb machine that helped add depth and though I'm not really into industrial dubstep or whatever he makes, it seemed to really help.

Can you recommend devices to give the wonderful esx a modern, professional dimension?

[sauce]

One thing I have taken to doing lately, and I haven't covered this in a tutorial yet, is I squash samples with a limiter/expander prior to loading them into the ESX. Also, when preparing live sets, it is not uncommon for me to send individual tracks out 3/4, into an EQ and back in for resampling. This helps avoid the frequencies of different parts from interfering with each other.

I saw sauce use a reverb machine that helped add depth

I can't recall exactly what unit I used for that video, but I am currently designing a box that will host VST's, with a built in I/O and controller. It is designed to go along with the ESX specifically.. You will be able to send parts out 3/4 on the fly, send the overall mix to a mastering rack and sequence two more synth parts with VSTi's. Think like NI Massive on part 1 and Alchemy on part 2. I am hoping to drop these for around $300. I will keep you updated.

[britzman]

One thing I have taken to doing lately, and I haven't covered this in a tutorial yet, is I squash samples with a lmiter/expander prior to loading them into the ESX. Also, when preparing live sets, it is not uncommon for me to send individual tracks out 3/4, into an EQ and back in for resampling. This helps avoid the frequencies of different parts from interfering with each other.

That makes loads of sense! Its weird how it plays whatever parts it feel like. All of my best songs have been happy accidents. Is interferance due to technical limitations or was it meant to be like that? The parts lose their definition when played at the same time so I feel like I have stick to only 5/6 parts to keep the sound fresh. Shame to waste the rest.

I look forward to your box and hopefully a tutorial on getting better fidelity.

[britzman]

http://youtu.be/MeeUtl2upY4

Look what happens to this electribe! Much more feeling and personality! I love the effects nd subtle manipulations from the roland space delay but I don't have 1500 to drop on an antique any ideas?

[Blue Monster 65]

I like the EHX Cathedral reverb for my EMX. Its not as fancy nor as deep as an Eventide Space, but it does the trick for me. If you really want a Space Echo, the Boss RE-20 is a decent emulation.

[britzman]

I like the EHX Cathedral reverb for my EMX. Its not as fancy nor as deep as an Eventide Space, but it does the trick for me. If you really want a Space Echo, the Boss RE-20 is a decent emulation.

I considered the boss pedal as well, but I just love that crackly trippy sounding tape that does its own thing, ill probably end up getting it anyway. And The cathederal has a pleasant warmth but is it able to echo the baseline like the boss space pedal can?

[DrHoo]

When i used an esx1 i had a chain that went like this.....

ESX1 - Each pair of outputs to a dedicated stereo compressor (analogue), then out to a stereo channel on the mixer (analogue)

The percussion & lead or mids up to highs went out via the master outs & the bass & kick went out of the alternative outs. I panned the kick hard left & the bass hard right & treated them individually with the compressor channels to get a mono path for each of them.

I had two rack muti fx processors & two sends per channel on the mixer to dial in as much or little as required. One fx was always a reverb & the other varied a bit.

Then i had my mixers main outputs straight into a stereo graphic equalizer (analogue) & then out again to my monitors.

For recording i diverted the eq outs through my soundcard.

I always felt that it sounded flat without the outboard extras..... & that 'swing' at 66 ! haha.

[Blue Monster 65]

The Cathedral does have an echo mode, but if you want a tape delay sound you probably want the RE-20. Actually for my tape delay sound, I use the Wampler Faux Tape Echo as I think it really hits the spot as far as tape emulation goes (I'm primarily a guitarist).

[britzman]

When i used an esx
The percussion & lead or mids up to highs went out via the master outs & the bass & kick went out of the alternative outs. I panned the kick hard left & the bass rd right & treated them individually with the compressor channels to get a mono path for each of them.

that's genius! I will set my gear up like your once i get all of it. I hope a cheap alesis 3630 will suffice as a compressor. Still searching for a good mixer. PLEASE tell me you have some examples of your work! I would love to see that setup in action

Blue monster, it sounds like the re20 will be the way I go.

[DrHoo]

When i used an esx
The percussion & lead or mids up to highs went out via the master outs & the bass & kick went out of the alternative outs. I panned the kick hard left & the bass rd right & treated them individually with the compressor channels to get a mono path for each of them.

that's genius! I will set my gear up like your once i get all of it. I hope a cheap alesis 3630 will suffice as a compressor. Still searching for a good mixer. PLEASE tell me you have some examples of your work! I would love to see that setup in action

Blue monster, it sounds like the re20 will be the way I go.

The Alesis compressor will do a fine job & can be used as stereo or 2x mono. I don't have the same set up now but i do have most of the rack gear still hanging around. My mixer is old, a Tascam MM1 20 channel keyboard mixer, all analogue. If i was going to buy a new mixer now i might well go for a Yamaha MG series, quite a lot of bang-for-buck i think.
As for my sounds, non pro, experimental stuff here - https://soundcloud.com/terminal-blox/tracks . Most of that was esx1 sequenced.

[britzman]

Great work! Some of it could be in movies I picked up a peavy usb10 because it had many effects that were in the peddles and I got a good deal on it. Your pan trick did wonders for my tracks. They have much more feeling especially now ive gotten to incorporate my kaossilator and em1. Thanks!

[DrHoo]

That's great news, when we work with limited options we have to apply these basic techniques i guess. Getting that kick & bass seperated out frees up some useful headroom for the rest on the other outputs. I think once i started doing that, i used the same method on nearly everything i did with the esx.
I suspect that new mixer will do wonders for it too, especially if it has good eq'ing on it & extra fx too then !

[sqz]

How about separating the bass-lowmid sounds from the mid+treble?
As in: send your subbass stuff to FX3 (eq) e.g. and the other (highpassed) percussionparts to FX2 (compressor).
Like this vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWTNT0ez0kI

Which creates this kind of sound:

https://soundcloud.com/leon-du-star/no- ... -funk-live