20, handmade stories with music and machines.
Biography
Product Reviews
Honestly I couldn’t stop playing with Tails. Just when I thought I heard all it could do, I’d slap it onto another instrument and get a completely different set of sounds. It only gives a small glimpse of what it can do on the surface. Literally a wormhole with synths. It comes alive and expands beyond just a reverb, and is more of a creative place to design textural soundscapes and nonlinear spaces I haven’t found anywhere else, not even in my Eventide. And just the name “Tails” reminds me of something that would easily fit inside my Eurorack cases… perhaps with the Mutables….
The Silver Bullet is like having different colored engines (analog consoles!) tucked underneath its wings in one box, while still flying boldly around with its own sound. The Bullet is cool on the front end of a mix buss, driving the mix quickly into sonic hyperspace with a polished sound and tonal options. Oh, and it works great as a preamp too.
I love how Bass-Mint can be an effect as opposed to only being a utility for subsonic bass enhancement. I found I could easily use it for creative sound design with all my analog synths, Eurorack, instruments, and drum machines; the added sub-bottom is clear, defined, and smooth. The Synthesize mode is super cool for acoustic kick drums because it adds an almost “unreal” electronic 808 style tuned tail. It was literally like threading it through one of my drum machines.
I am the type of producer who loves to shape my sounds to how I like in the analog domain, record the sound into Pro Tools, and then further layer with more effects plugins or hardware to get sounds no one else (or myself!) can replicate again. In songwriting, I follow a rule of “go four or five angles down the road to the one no one else can get to”, and I feel that Tantra 2 and its several creative effects, huge modulation matrix, and rhythmic steps allow me to reach those undiscovered destinations in my sound design.
The whole plug really feels like a mini mastering desk where everything is packed into one easily-navigable module. Definitely helps ease some of the anxiety I have about getting the track loud enough, yet while keeping my mix intact without all the nasty distortion and headaches... and tears. Hope my LUFS meters are ready to get hot! :)
Needlepoint should also stand for how you can specially tailor the sound of the grit and white noise to your input signal, like crafting different sonic clothes for each sound. Honestly, it’s more than making synths or drums sound like they are dressed up with vinyl; more like making them become old skool, quirky, and alive…
One of my favorite things to do with saturation units like the HG-2 MS is to just lightly lick the source so that it brings up an overall sheen rather than a distorted crunch, more like a harmonic EQ for a touch of sparkle rather than full-on audible distortion which is perfect for stuff like vintage breakbeats, drum machines, or the entire track. But then if I also want to dress my analog synths, bass, or uke in full-robe character clothes, the Black Box brings the whole closet to the concert.
SILO reminds me of some of my favorite granular Eurorack modules, yet it is still unique from them all. Analog synths and modular naturally pair well with it, especially for pads to get lo-fi, grainy vintage textures that sound like some of my favorite electronic records. For acoustic drums, it becomes a percussion industrial machine. For vocals, I can easily create a layer of warbly, detuned unison backgrounds or a demented sounding octave-down enchantress sneaking under my lead. Now I’m gonna push my uke, violin, and acoustic into the SILO! :)
I slapped Sculpt on everything, and stretched it out in ways that were probably beyond legal. Analog synths, pads, FX chain, room mics, percussion, drums bus, bass, piano, uke, and even my voice. Two serial compressors and a free transient designer at that. And a tone control that never became too harsh or boomy. Very clean and smooth. Mid/Side popped out the width. I think it’s safe to say that this will land a spot on the return of my Eventide, guaranteed.
When I bought my hardware pair, Brit Mod was a must. So having British mode in the plugin form was a must too. Beware. This compressor loves to embrace daredevil attitudes and asks commands you to experiment and break rules along with it. It’s dark magic.