moonlake wrote:I use Delay Pro a lot, but I still also use other delays too, mostly the MultiTap, but also StereoSync.
Often in combination with Delay Pro, to get something more rythmically complex.
Delay is and always was a means of composition for me.
Sometimes I am acused of overdoing it with delay...
Before I got the MPC I actually worked as a DSP guy for audio fx.
I guess I spent 2 years of my life or more on reverb development alone.
While I wish I could port some of my stuff to the MPC, I think the AIR Reverb isnt that bad.
Its a bit cryptic what some of the parameters are though. Like Ambience.
I also use the older "lame" reverbs occasionally, mostly the gated reverbs.
At first I was a bit snobbish about the MPC fx, and thought I would have done everything on an other level.
But now I think different, and I think AIR really do some really great stuff. Sometimes a bit rushed it seems, like the wavetables names list in Hype is off, and doesnt match the waves on some point,
and simikar bugs..
but lets not forget the machine has limited ressources and I now recognize that "different than I would have done it" doesnt mean inferior, on the contrary in some cases, and I am surprised by the amount of fx this box can handle.
I also thought all the distortions were crap, but after using the MPC for 2 years I think some are really good, and I love the Diode Clipper which I hated at first try.
Whats missing in some cases is documentation, cause not everything is obvious.
What I am using a lot instead of or in combination with reverb is the Granular fx.
Another case of where I thought it was lame and "not how you do it" at first glance but again,
now I think very different. Its not how I would have done it but I am using it much more then I used my own granular things, its much more usable.
I also think Air fx are good, and by chance the same thing is happening to me with Diode Clipper, I hated it and snub it at the beginning but now I am using it a lot.
Another one I am starting to like and use is Flavour, I snubbed it in the beginning but now I am using it a lot, radio transistors and megaphone are really nice to make a sound go in the background for a while, you raise the timbre depth, maybe monofy it.
There are good distortions here and there on Air fx, the rectify in Lofi for example.
But honestly, I never find the reverb so good. I tried to chain it with some modulations or autofilters, and it improves a bit but still it sounds harsh to my ears if you go for longer decays and the infinite mode is just not good.
If you try a good external reverb pedal in send, you can clearly hear the difference, Air one has no spatiality, no depth, it sounds metallic.
It's ok when you just need to add some tail, shorter decay, it makes its job.