tools

this page lists some useful tools or vsts primarily for music production. i won't go over them in detail but just to give my own personal opinion on them and why i think more people should use them! i love older software or older, outdated or vintage stuff in general. it is not nostalgic or something else, it is just more optimized, handy, personal and actually there to SOLVE (your) problems. i also won't provide download-links to warez here because that would get me banned lol. i'd love to do that but yea..

this list doesn't follow a scheme like most important stuff, just things i just came up with.

____________________________________________________

ReCycle! (v2.2.4)

it was a gamechanger when i first found that program. it is especially useful if you work with drumloops. this program has been known since the late 90s. it actually has recieved an update after 10 years. it is now bloated and still the same! wow! i use v2.2.4. 

 

        it works like your standard drum slicer. but the main goal is to stretch the single transient hits. from 0-100% (of their own units?). very handy for when you have the desire to work with drumloops at a slower bpm or in general for drumloops with short transients.

(ReCycle loaded with a drumloop as .rx2 file)

        you load in a 16-bit (!!) .wav file and you set the bars it contains first. tell the program the bars. it matters what you enter. it affects the sample load-in when dumping the break into the piano roll. then you can already start chopping. i like to use the shortcuts "Q" for listening and "R" to 'draw' the slice segments in. you can zoom in nicely so you can accurately chop the breaks at their zero crossing. honestly, it's not necessary to find the zero crossing because it won't produce a popping sound after you have stretched and finalized the file itself. 

        after slicing the break you should normalize the file under the 'process'-menu. and put the attack on 0ms. it automatically sets the attack to 1ms. i have seen that problem with the cyberworm rx2 files. they just raised the 'sensitivity' meter up and exported it. without any big changes at all. that sucks and many many people use these. i don't use the EQ or Transient section. i like to add my own effects in the daw when i process the drumloops themselves in their own fx-chain.

        for the 'stretch' knob, use a range of 60-90% to achieve nice stretching, the 69% stretching like in the picture above is actually really effective and most of the time provides a nice, realistic stretching effect. it is my own thumbrule.

it outputs .rx2 files. they work like a charm in fl studio. the only criticism i have is that the final .rx2 file is a little quieter (less normalized) than the actual opponent .wav file. i usually fix that by using the transient processor while raising the attack knob.

____________________________________________________

        CDXtract (v4.5)

this is an sample-cd converter. that's how i call it. if you have the original CDDA file (.bin or .iso) of a sample cd, you can convert it in here to .wav files (i like to convert to .nki files so i can play in kontakt)

(CDXtract loaded with a random sample-cd)

        this program really is handy when you work with obscure sample-cds. sometimes i use sample-cds (really really few times i actually use them) in kontakt v2 i convert them like this:

        of course i have my own organization theme, because i don't want to work with folders called "PARTITION 1" – like, what's in there? :) so yeah the end result looks a little bit different, name-wise. otherwise it is an underrated tool and i bet i haven't used every option there is. what i also like about the .nki conversion is that they are really nice to play on kontakt afterwards. depending on what options you choose (see 2nd cdx picture) you will get a totally different folder tree. this program had a few changes in development – it was made by akai (?) – when i look at my warez collection.

____________________________________________________

        ReaEQ

yeah ReaEQ is an equalizer. a very, very simple one. if you have used the EQ2 in fl studio, you know how much just the loading of the plugin influences the sound (without touching it AT ALL !!). which you really don't want.

        works like every other eq. the only true advantage is that it is barebones and reduced to whats necessary. it uses like no cpu and for very simple eq'ing (if you don't want the fl mixer-eq), it is extremely nice. ihaven't really looked into the other Reaper vsts that get bundled with that one installer but i like the equalizer a lot.

____________________________________________________

        Soulseek

everybody should know this. audio-based p2p filesharing. if i find nice tracks to sample and they are in a bad quality, i search them up in soulseek first. it usually works just fine.

____________________________________________________