Doing The Unthinkable - Trying FL Studio

[Teksonik]

So I ordered a boxed version today from my local retailer

I've got Bitwig 8 Track just to get a taste. Haven't spent much time with it but it seems like nice DAW. I'm happy with FL 12 but if I wasn't I think Bitwig would be my next step as well.

Let us know how it goes..........

[bones]

Yeah, 8 Track is what came with the Roli. The good news is 8 tracks is a lot more than you think it will be, in that Bitwig's idea of a DrumMachine is a container for 9 samplers, each of which can have it's own EQ and effects, plus one or two tracks can be groups of tracks. I picked one of our songs that just has 8 generators, thinking that's all I'd be able to use, but it turns out I put it all down in Bitwig with just 5 tracks, although I cheated and rendered out one of the parts instead of trying to recreate it in Bitwig. But that will come later, I was just after a "proof of concept" before I spent money and rendering something out of Orion and putting it into Bitwig was part of that process.

[Cinebient]

Bitwig messed the MPE stuff a bit up. Logic is still the king here.
Edit: I mean this....not sure if that is still there....might be that it´s solved now?
From a KVR post and also what i experienced myself:
"Bitwig doesn't do 48 bend range, only 34 up and down. That's the second major issue of Bitwig's MPE implementation, aside from not recording the midi channel of the notes. They don't let you change the bend range that is expected. I can't totally blame them since 48 is in the MPE spec, but it sure would make things much easier wth many synths. And other DAWs let you change this."

[bones]

Yeah, I'm not sure I'm going to care about stuff like that, especially as the rise has an X-Y pad and I find touch pads/strips very poor for pitch bend.

[funky koval]

Bitwig is shaping up really nicely. Especially with the ver 2 release. I'm still using Live full time but have completed 2-3 tracks in bitwig and can see myself transitioning to it eventually. It's basically Live on steroids. The modulators are really freaking great!

[bones]

I'm a little disappointed in some of the on-board stuff. The Polysynth, for example, has a horrible sounding filter - it's like you can hear the oscillator sound separate to the resonance, it's weird - and I can't see myself using it. It was giving me real grief when I was trying to port over one of our existing songs, especially as the distortion effect is also pretty poor compared to what I'm used to in Orion. I eventually solved the problem by loading up DUNE 2, finding a preset that sounded a bit like Wasp XT and tweaking it to get what I wanted.

I'd forgotten how ridiculously low DUNE 2's CPU usage is. In my mind it's an uber-synth that's going to suck my CPU dry but in reality it is a total lightweight on CPU usage. I reckon I could fire up 100 of them if I needed to and still have plenty of processing power to spare. And with the way Bitwig works, it's gigantic GUI isn't the issue it was for me in Orion so I can see myself using it, and The Legend, a lot going forward.

The really important aspect of it all, though, is that it's doing what I've been trying to get going since I started on this spree - it's got me writing new material for the first time in close to a decade. I'm not sure how good that is, given that when I write a song, it gets little or no input from Sik, whereas when he hands off his ideas to me, we both contribute to the final result and I think that's when we do our best work. But it definitely feels good to have the creative juices flowing again.

[HYPNAGOGIA]

The really important aspect of it all, though, is that it's doing what I've been trying to get going since I started on this spree - it's got me writing new material for the first time in close to a decade. I'm not sure how good that is, given that when I write a song, it gets little or no input from Sik, whereas when he hands off his ideas to me, we both contribute to the final result and I think that's when we do our best work. But it definitely feels good to have the creative juices flowing again.

I've been musing about going with Ableton. Maybe I should just break it and do it.

[Teksonik]

I'd forgotten how ridiculously low DUNE 2's CPU usage is. In my mind it's an uber-synth that's going to suck my CPU dry but in reality it is a total lightweight on CPU usage. I reckon I could fire up 100 of them if I needed to and still have plenty of processing power to spare. And with the way Bitwig works, it's gigantic GUI isn't the issue it was for me in Orion so I can see myself using it, and The Legend, a lot going forward.

Hallelujah Jesus, Bones has seen the light............

[cooliadh]

I'd forgotten how ridiculously low DUNE 2's CPU usage is. In my mind it's an uber-synth that's going to suck my CPU dry but in reality it is a total lightweight on CPU usage.

Depends on what you're doing with this little beast. I have some patches that brings the CPU to 50% when you're playing two notes (in multi threading mode on an i7-3770).

[bones]

Sure but I bet you are still getting good bang for your buck, right? i.e. You're getting something you might otherwise have to layer half-a-dozen other synths to do as good a job. I'm only talking about replacing Wasp sounds, so it's not taxing it at all. It also means I don't have to delve into sub-menus and krap in the "screen", I can work exclusively from the front panel, which is another bonus.

[funky koval]

Yep, Dune2 is a beast, use it on every track. If you asked me to only use one synth that's the one I'd pick. The FX section is absolutely killer as well.

[Teksonik]

Depends on what you're doing with this little beast. I have some patches that brings the CPU to 50% when you're playing two notes (in multi threading mode on an i7-3770).

I've got an i7 3770K in the studio and I don't remember ever pushing DUNE 2 that high. But then I don't do a lot of audio rate modulation.

[Teksonik]

I'm only talking about replacing Wasp sounds, so it's not taxing it at all.

That's what is great about DUNE 2. You don't have to use all 8 layers. You can get very impressive sounds with a single layer.

Have you tried to do a 1:1 emulation of your favorite Wasp patches in D2 ? Would be interesting.

[bones]

I don't think it would be a challenge, given that DUNE development started out as an update to Wasp, so the basics should be very similar. But I'm not interested in simply replicating exactly what I've already done, I want to evolve and improve it if I can. And yeah, the workflow is brilliant. It is the perfect example of something I always bang on about - doing simple things is really easy and you only need to add complication as you need it. The Legend does something sort of similar, in that it is a really simple synth to use but it's sound quality is absolutely stellar. Usually you have to use something hugely complicated if you want that level of quality but Rich did his usual great job of keeping it simple without skimping on the sound.

[cooliadh]

Sure but I bet you are still getting good bang for your buck, right?

Damn right! Just wanted to tell that you CAN suck your CPU dry with DUNE 2. Nevertheless DUNE 2 is one of my favorite synths.