1Sound Design - LiveKeyboardist

29Jul 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Serum Vs. Massive (Which One Is Right For You?)

Choosing a third party VST can be a tough decision, but the good news is, in the case of Serum VS. Massive there isn't really a wrong answer. Determining which one to purchase depends on what is important to you. Each synth excels in its own areas. Let's have a look at each one. Situation Summary Both Serum and Massive are wavetable synthesizers, but Serum allows you to load in your own wavetables or convert audio files to wavetable; a feature that Massive doesn't allow. On the other hand, Massive comes with 1300 presets while Serum comes with only 499. Luckily, both synths allow 3rd party presets to be loaded in to supplement. They have similar enough prize points, that the cost shouldn't be much of a deciding factor. Massive…

16Jun 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

5 Best Keys Presets In Arturia Pigments

1Sound Design, Blog

Arturia Pigments comes with great preset sounds, so many in fact that it can be overwheming to find one that works for you! These are the 5 best keys presets that come with Arturia Pigments (In my opinion) It was really hard to narrow my list down to just 5, so at the bottom of the post, I will like my original list which was 25 presets long! JPP30000 This is a fantastic punchy synth stab preset. It stands out because it can be easily turned into a thick melodic lead sound. In addition, the timbre knob creates more of a pad like vibe without loosing the initial attack of the synth, creating the illusion that you are playing two separate sounds. Plucky Stab A percussive pluck sound, with just…

24Mar 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Should I Buy Serum Or Pigments?

1Sound Design, Blog

After working with both of these synths for a good amount of time, I decided it's worth putting them head to head; If you are looking to invest in one of these, should you buy serum or pigments? DISCLAIMER: They aren't the same type of synth Even though Serum is a true wavetable synth, and Pigments has its arms in classic analog, wavetable, sample playback and granular, they are still worth comparing and here is why: as keyboard players, creating sounds that are easy to listen to AS WELL AS easy to physically play are equally important. Whether you go down the Serum or Pigment route, you will end up with flexible and playable sounds that will step up your keyboard game. If you want to learn sound design, sign…

18Mar 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Is Serum Worth It?

1Sound Design, Blog

If you are looking for a great third party synth, you may be asking yourself, Is Serum Worth It? While it's not astronomically priced, it does come in at just under 200 dollars, so you will want to know ahead of time if it will work for you Key Features Serum packs a ton of power is pretty lightweight and is extrememly intuitive. One of the really nice things about it is that everything is right here on one screen. Not needing to switch between windows is a game-changer for sound design. Now, while there are other synths that I love working with that do have a ton of menus, I find that overall I tend to stay more focused while I am working in serum. Wavetables Abound While there…

10Mar 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Build Your Own Shimmer Reverb

1Sound Design, Blog, Live Playback, Presets and Sounds, Sound Design

Shimmer reverb has turned into such a buzz word. It shows up everywhere and produces an awesome effect. But what is it? Essentially shimmer reverb is a course pitch-shifting device paired with a reverb. The shimmer effect is achieved by creating a feedback loop between the two devices. In Ableton, this is most easily accomplished using sends and returns. Building Our Shimmer Reverb Start by creating two new send tracks. You can do this by right-clicking on the screen and choosing insert return track. Rename the first return track, "shimmer verb" and the second, "shimmer delay." You can rename any track by selecting it and pressing Command- R on your keyboard. You can also Right-mouse click and choose rename. Now we need to create our feedback loop. We are going…

03Mar 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Midi Effects For Keyboardists

1Sound Design, Blog, Midi

Playing Keyboard through a computer is an art in itself. You are expected to cover a ton of musical space and given zero extra fingers to do it with; luckily we've got handy Midi effects to help us on our way. Now, there is nothing wrong with coming in and just playing a really awesome and solid piano part. BUT. Since we are playing through Ableton, and because we can, I often ask myself this question. What superhuman effects can I create to add to my playing? This might be a dramatic question, but answering it can lead to dramatic effects. This is where MIDI effects step in to save the day. Here are three Midi effects every single keyboard player should be using in their live sets: Arpeggiator Specifically,…

10Jan 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Limit Voices To Keep Your Pads Clean

1Sound Design, Blog

Limiting voices is a really easy way to keep your pad sounds clean. I had a conversation with a friend of mine recently about his general distaste for pads. As I questioned him further I realized the problem he was having was that it felt like the notes that he played on a pad sound never actually stopped sustaining. In part, this is because he tends to use a lot of pedal, but that aside, there is one simple and glaring solution that takes care of his problem. Limiting the number of voices you allow your synthesizer to produce. How to Limit Your Voices In every synth capable of producing more than one note at a time, there will be a way to set the maximum amount of notes to…

09Jan 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

How To Get A Great Keyboard Mix

1Creating A Keyboard Set Up, 1Sound Design

Having a great set up and excellent patches are only step one of playing great live keyboard. We must also have an excellent Keyboard mix. As I see it, in a live context there are three tools we can use to help up get a great keyboard mix. Patch VolumeEQCategory Bus Control Patch Volume As simple as it is, getting all of your patches at the same volume is step number one. If you are using a dynamic patch list, this can be done by using the channel fader. But so long as you are adjusting the sounds one by one to get them to the right level in an isolated way, you are in business. Adjusting the volume in this manner helps your sounds to start to sit together…

07Jan 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

How To Use EQ

1Sound Design, Blog

EQ is a way simpler tool than many people think. Boiled down to its simplest form, it is a way to adjust the volume on specific parts of the sound rather than on a whole. This is extrememly important when you are working with multiple sounds because there is only so much space, and each of your sounds is completing for its own space along the frequency spectrum. What Is The Audio Frequency Spectrum? The audio frequency spectrum is the range of sounds that humans can hear. While there are waves that move at rates outside of the human ability to hear, EQ deals only with audible sounds which exist between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. What EQ does An EQ will be able to see all of the frequencies…

04Jan 2020 by Brett Pontecorvo

Is Arturia Pigments Worth It?

1Creating A Keyboard Set Up, 1Sound Design, Blog

Is Arturia Pigments worth it? This is a question I often ask myself before making any purchase. Is what I will get in return for my money, better than having the money itself? Deciding whether or not to purchase Arturia Pigments was no exception to this. For many years I have been of the school of thought that Ableton Suite comes with EVERYTHING you need to make great music. This includes synths, audio effects, you name it. Ableton on its own is MORE THAN ENOUGH. What caught my eye about Pigments wasn't necessarily that it was a flashy new synth, but that it was made by Arturia. And I am a huge fan of their products, so when I saw they were doing a free trial for Pigments 2 over…

Category: 1Sound Design