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Nerd Alert – D16 software is the best & is 50% off now

Published November 25, 2009 Nerd Alert Leave a Comment

Wednesday – No one but geeks like hump day. Every week the SBR posse embraces our nerd soul and talks shop. Last week it was about the loudness war in music. This week it is about some of our fave 1′s and 0′s.

Last year around this time I stumbled onto a company I had never heard of called D16. They were being touted as having stellar emulations of Roland’s classic 303, 808, and 909 series. After testing them out I signed up and scored a great deal. I originally thought we would use them sparingly – but since then they have worked their way into nearly every song we have written since (wait for the acid remix we did for the next WGL single). They sound far better than samples of the boxes and are infinitely more tweakable. D16 has maintained the classic sound of each – including the massive sine boom everyone wants – as well as adding fun features that actually expand the possibilities.

Now of course TRUE music nerds like James Murphy and Juan Maclean will tell you that your music sucks because you are using emulators – and your music maybe does suck – but it would suck even if you dropped the $1000 for each physical box so… deal with it nerds.

D16 is in the holiday spirit and this year they are having another mega-sale… wait for it… 50% OFF! Considering these are already some of the best sounding and most affordable plug ins around this is a REAL DEAL. It ends on December 1st so you better get to robbing mailboxes for X-Mas cards. In fact I had just been demoing their Silverline effects collection and looks like I need to hustle up 86 euros right fast…

Hop over to D16 and check out these awesome VSTs

Nerd Alert! The Loudness War…

Published November 18, 2009 Nerd Alert 3 Comments
Tags: kool kieth, Laberge, loudness wars, Nerd Alert, rolling stone, White Girl Lust

Wednesday – it’s the nerdiest day of the week. We are going to embrace our inner geek on hump day and talk about production stuff. Maybe it will be mix down tips, maybe a piece of gear, or whatever. So without further adieu…

Last week there was a Rolling Stone article circulating on twitter amongst DJ folks about the death of high fidelity. Dance music in the last 10 years has been a serious victim of the “Loudness War” and Solid Bump has always had to find a balance. On one hand, you want your track to sound competitive in the club but the catch is that in the last few years tracks are getting compressed to such an insane point that they are becoming a block of squashed noise. Last year I bought a track from Beatport that was so compressed it was actually distorting – this was on a big label by a very respected producer. It was unplayable and really bummed me out.

So what is the loudness war? Peep this youtube to see how it applies to pop music. Loud is good. Distorted is bad. Ultimately every DJ mixer has a gain knob. In my opinion – turn it up yourself.

Everything on Solid Bump comes off vinyl and while it is already compressed in some form through mastering, we want the dynamic of the record or recording to breath… Especially on a release like Laberge’s This Feeling EP . The sound Laberge is going for needs dynamics. At the same time, a harder track like the forthcoming Funk Music Remix by White Girl Lust can push harder and still retain a dynamic feel.

As Kool Keith says, ” That shit don’t sound right, the mix down ain’t right, your vocals are too low, your fuckin’ cadence is off, your stage show is weak… Fuck you.”

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