Icarus 3 Sound Design - Mid Bass

[@C_F_M]

that special moment when the kick sub and mid bass start jamming together is always satisfying

[@sammpaul]

Nice one MYR. Hope this plugin comes out soon

[@djmyr]

I believe the release date is in April, but on KVR you should be able to download a beta for free

[@sammpaul]

@@djmyr Sweet. Thanks for the update. I'm still wondering if you will make Uplifting Trance tutorials with 3rd party plugins, please? Your style of trance music is so good, MYR. You have no idea how impressed I am by your sound design and arrangement.

[@Wynmann1690]

Your masterclass in Fl studio trance production, can I follow in Ableton Live? I have Fl Studio too but it’s hard for me to understand it. Live is relatively easy to use. Will I learn how to use Fl Studio in the course? I don’t have formal training in Fl Studio yet

[@djmyr]

Yes, you will learn how to use FL Studio in the course, but I'd probably consider it a more "intermediate" course than a strictly beginner one. James Dymond has a few good FL courses that are beginner friendly. While you can follow along, I do use some features of FL internally where it may be more difficult to follow. The challenge of "translating" everything from FL to Ableton Live is not a bad exercise, but it depends if you want to spend the time and energy to do it (when I was getting started, there wasn't a lot of tutorials in FL or Live, so I had to "translate" many things from Logic and it made me a better producer. All that said if you plan on staying in Ableton Live and using it I do think a tutorial strictly for Ableton Live would be more helpful for you if you've been using Ableton Live under a year or so. ReOrder has some good ones, www.readyformasterclass.com/product/rfm14-how-to-make-trance-full-track-production/ Or a free one here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqHCZqqIe6l6mc0 I may do a course in Ableton Live as well :)

[@wiggertvanameijde4584]

If you must choose between spire, iqarus 3, diva and dune3 for sound design for trance. With one is overal the best sounding and/our easiest using in your experience?

[@djmyr]

Hmm that's a tough question. I think my first choice would be Spire followed by Icarus 3, but it may be that I'm most familiar with Spire and have been using it over a decade (plus there are a ton of good presets you can use to get started). For Leads, Icarus 3 is the best due to the low CPU and having the best unison modes. Spire has some really good FX and a great distortion engine, plus the multiband compressor which is really good; I find it is easier for me to make acids in Spire due to the distortion. Dune 3 and Icarus 3 are more powerful than Spire but I think Spire's limitations make it "faster" for making sounds. I love all four of these synths - however I wouldn't recommend Diva as a "bread and butter" synth for Trance because it can have higher CPU and lacks some of the other features as these other synths. Diva really is a more "analog" emulation (though it also does a wicked JP8000), meaning it lacks some of the unison features that a synth suited for all Trance sounds would have, like stereo unison with different detune curves. It's nice to have different synths to chose from in case one synth isn't getting the "sound" you are looking for. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses - sometimes more features makes the process of sound design more cumbersome and not as "fun." Spire, Icarus 3, and Dune 3 are all great starting points - I'd say listen to the audio demos and see which of the "sounds" you like more. Sometimes Dune sounds a bit "smoother," Spire a bit "edgier" and Icarus a bit "warmer" but these are all subjective and there is considerable overlap between them. Icarus may be the most "flexible" of all, though Dune's FM is a bit more sophisticated (however I wouldn't sue it primarily as an FM synth either). The best would be to download the demos and try making sounds in each.