Producing With Pro Tools

Hey Folks -

Here’s the second half of my NAMM report… where I get the lowdown from Diego Stocco from Spectrasonics about their new AMAZING synth, Omnisphere. I can’t wait until this is out in September ‘08! I also talk with Dan Boatman at IK Multimedia about their new cool Stomp box. Awesome stuff. Check it out:

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NAMM – the winter wonderland of music gear. I’ve been going to NAMM for 5 years now and I must say that this year’s show was the most uneventful yet, in terms of being blown away by new gear offerings. However, there was one shining exception to the last sentence… Spectrasonic’s new Omnisphere synth module. That thing blew me away. I watched the demo 3 times. I was at the Spectrasonics booth so much that I ended up on their Omnisphere promo video several times. Check out that video here.

I also interviewed Diego Stocco, one of the developers for Omnisphere as well as a friend of mine from NAMM years past. I’ll post my interview with him and his demo of Omnisphere in a separate post here as soon as the video gets edited.

While at NAMM, I filmed interviews with several of my favorite manufacturers… and had some of their reps talk about their new gear.

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By the way, the background music to this video is a new song from my band… visit us on Myspace by clicking here.

I’ve been using a ton of instrument plug-ins lately… and I feel like I have an addiction to them. I want to get all the ones that are available for Pro Tools. I’ve been very impressed with the stuff that Digidesign has put out under it’s A.I.R. division, including Xpand!, Hybrid, Velvet, Strike, and Structure. If you don’t have any of these, definitely get your hands on Xpand! It’s free and its really got some great sounds. There’s also a free version of Structure. Granted, Structure Free is pretty limited, but you’ll get a taste at least. If you’re an electric piano, Rhodes, or Wurli player, I highly recommend the Velvet plug. There’s something about that instrument that every time I play it, something cool comes out… either a new song idea, or a new part to the song I’m working on.

Digidesign is offering a boxed set of their A.I.R. virtual instruments - click here to check it out

What are you favorite instruments and why? One of my personal favs these days is Access Indigo. Although its been around for a while, its so robust, easy to use, and has so many cool presets that its hard to beat as my first call synth. For the music I make with my band, the arpeggiator on that plug-in rules. And, I CANNOT WAIT until Spectrasonics finally gets the Intel Mac updates for Atmosphere and Trilogy. I want to use those natively in Pro Tools without the VST wrapper. I’ve heard they’re close to releasing them. Go to http://www.spectrasonics.net/updates/index.php to check.

Talk to me about your favorite instrument plugs…