antic604

It gets better: http://www.ektoplazm.com/label/tranceform-records

No, I didn't but considering my playing skills it wouldn't be much different. I use the keys more to quickly figure out the notes and chords I have in my head. Let me / us know when Minilab arrives and if you're happy with it. BTW, the bundled Analog Lab 2 (I think it's some cut-down version now, though) is pretty great as well - you can't fiddle much with the sounds, but the provided library is pretty vast and sounds great. With Renoise's plug-in grabber this should work really well for leads, pads, fx

Purchased, thanks! Didn't have much time to listen thoroughly, but some lovely tracks there!

I really, really like it - it sounds very unique, quite different to most of stuff out there even in the forest genre and that's what matters. Sure, as @Twisted Desire above said, balance and placement in the mix of particular sounds could be improved, but that's a technical thing that you'll undoubtably improve on that as time goes by. The ideas are there, the story is there, the pacing is right. Followed on SC, looking forward to more tunes!

Purchased! Thank you

Hey, check this out - I never knew this existed and only saw smaller, separate component versions so far. Looks even more compact that either of those you're considering, works over Bluetooth, has an arpeggiator and X/Y pad: http://www.korg.com/us/products/computergear/nanokey_studio/

Only with FL you pay once and get lifetime updates free. With Live you pay for every full number update. Last full number update of Live was in 2013 and what it brought until now is improved sampler, RMS & peak metering, new filter algorithms, 3 Max4Live devices (so only for Suite owners), Link protocol and some free sound packs. Sure, the users didn't had to pay for 4 years, but they got very little in return.

Come on, you're one of those people too? No, you but what's in the current version and 12 months updates - which may well include a 3.0 version - are guaranteed for free. After that you're free to not pay and use the last version you that you've got. And then you can pay again whenever you feel new version justifies it, with additional 12 months of free updates again available. How people still read it is 12 months subscription boggles my mind. If such model encourages the team to put out meaningful updates more frequently - which based on last 6 months is happening - then I'm all for it.

Good choice! Let me know when you'll want to pair it with Bitwig (BTW, beta for v2.2. came up today) - I might have some advice to shorten your struggle

Minilab is great for Renoise - you can map all 16 encoders to whatever parameters across the whole project, pads to transport & general movement. In Bitwig it's not as great, because native script doesn't make much sense (to me at least), while the generic scripts work acceptably but far from perfect either. Can't tell anything about MPK Mini2, but consider this - for psychedelic trance you might wanna control at the same time a lot of parameters across many devices (filters, resonances, envelopes, effect sends, effect parameters, etc.) and Akai has only 8 knobs and they're of the pots variety, so with specified min & max. I don't know how that'd work in Renoise, but Bitwig currently doesn't have parameter pickup function, which means if you had your filter on one device (and on controller) at 20% and switch to a different device that has it at 100%, then turning the knob will make it suddenly jump to 20%. Arturia seems more solid & is slightly bigger, while Akai is even more compact (smaller footprint due to lack of pitch&mod, and flatter) and while it feels a bit more plastic (especially the keys), it definitely doesn't feel flimsy or easy to break. Tough choice, sorry

Yes, indeed I come from trackers as well (been using Renoise for 5-10 years, without ever completing anything though ) and actually for me clips were the natural extension - or evolution - of tracker paradigm. It was always killing my workflow that I had to copy & paste full patterns - so all the tracks together - and then delete, adjust or modify what I wanted. Jeskola's Buzz and Psycle tracker solved that nicely by detaching tracks from patterns, so you could re-use the parts that were repeating, but their interface and other things were off-putting to me. Pattern is basically a 'scene' in Live or Bitwig, so - in a way - it's still there if you want it. Live and now Bitwig are (almost) perfect for me, because I use the Session / Clip Launcher view as a sketch pad to accumulate ideas and their variations, then jam with them to find good combinations and their sequence to finally drag them to Arrangement for further editing. Usually what I end up with in Arrangement differs significantly from where I started in the Session, because I'll likely cut and chop the clips, stretch, reverse, offset the start positions, etc. But it really works for me, especially to get the initial idea going. The only thing missing - and surprisingly, in boht! - is alias/ghost clips, i.e. the workflow that you can create a clip in either Session or Arrangment and then 'clone' it across the project so whenever you change the original, all other clips will follow and be adjusted too. This is such an obvious functionality and most 'traditional' DAWs have it, that I was shocked to find out it's absent in Live and Bitwig... Regarding MPK Mini's joystick - please verify with its manual, but I'm pretty sure the joystick isn't freely mapable, i.e. it's there to save space on pitch & mod wheels and only sends those messages.

Can't wait to hear it in its entirety - samples sound very, very promising! Also, covers like those make me regret I stopped buying CDs It's beautiful!

Which DAW are you using? I find that the workflow facilitated by clip-focused software (Live, Bitwig, Maschine) is a good way to come up with ideas - you create bunch of different clips: drums, basses, leads, arps, pads, fx, acid lines; then just jam with them launching them in random order, at different offsets, etc. to come up - sometimes by accident - with interesting combinations. You can record all that, along with modulation to any and all of the parameters, to the arrangement timeline for further refinement. A clip-launching controller might come in handy in such a workflow, e.g. something like Novation Launchpad Pro, which you can use - at least in Live or Bitwig - to play MIDI notes & drums, control mixer and devices, launch clips, etc., so - in a way - it can do much more than regular MIDI keyboard. One awesome thing (for Launchpad Pro, lower versions don't have it) is that in 'notes' mode you can set the root note and scale and whatever note you play, it will always be correct, so - with practice - it's easy to come up with melodies, chord progressions, etc. without knowing the theory. Here's overview of how it works with Live (it's even expanded with custom scripts for Bitwig): Some time ago I bought a MIDI controller with keyboard & knobs (https://www.psynews.org/forums/topic/72618-which-midi-control-keyboard-youre-using/ for more details ) and I'm happy with it for the reasons that @recursionloop mentioned, but I'm seriously thinking on expanding my setup with the Launchpad Pro. See here for reference (the guy is using Bitwig, Launchpad Pro and Launch Control): BTW, I had a peek at your Soundcloud and it's really great - the tracks are well produced, musical, very varied so I just think you're going through a difficult phase, because you clearly got talent and skills!

You do that and while at this, check Saafi Brothers' album as well: https://liquidsounddesignuk.bandcamp.com/album/saafi-brothers-the-quality-of-being-one

Indeed! I in particular like the look on DJ's face, as if someone 'got him' from behind Weird choice considering the music, but enjoyable in its own right.