SonicTransfer

DrumStack Drum Layering Manual & Tutorial. House music, drum n bass, trance, and hiphop need big, loud, powerful drums. The best way to get massive kick drums, snare drums, and hihats is to layer lots of samples together. This technique is used by every major electronic music producer. Unfortunately for Ableton Live users, this useful trick is pretty hard to achieve using the built-in tools. That’s why SonicTransfer developed the first drum layering system designed specifically for Ableton Live users. It’s called DrumStack, and it will rock your drums. To use DrumStack you need:

• Ableton Live 6.0 (or newer)
• The DrumStack Live Rack. Get SonicTransfer DrumStack.

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There are very few free compressors that support sidechaining. The SSS Side Chain Compressor makes it extremely easy to get the ducking sound made famous by french house producers like Daft Punk. Click the link below to download the SSS Side Chain Compressor.

SSS Side Chain Compressor - Free Windows VST

NEW OS X Version! SSS Side Chain Compressor - Free Mac OS X VST & AU (The download link is in middle of the page).

This is an excellent free VST gate that supports sidechaining. The SSS Gate provides easy ducking and keying effects. Ducking and keying are some of the hottest effects in electronic music production today. Stay tuned for a ducking and keying tutorial from SonicTransfer.com. In the meantime, click the link below to download the SSS Side Chain Gate/Expander.

SSS Side Chain Gate/Expander - Free Windows VST

Synth1 is an excellent replication of the Clavia Nord Lead 2. The Nord Lead 2 is one of the best synthesizers on the planet. To quote Vintage Synth Explorer, “The Nord Lead 2 is the synthesizer of choice for many professionals including: The Crystal Method, Fatboy Slim, Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy…”

The Nord Lead 2 is an electronic music standard, and for that reason alone Synth1 should be in your musical toolbox. And why not? It’s completely free. Also, it has some of the best patch presets of any synthesizer - commercial or gratis. Click the link below to get Synth1, a bunch of presets, and the manual all bundled by Sonic Transfer.

Synth1 Free VST Synthesizer

Click here to read a tutorial on using Synth1 to build a Kick Drum.

Voxengo Boogex is the best free distortion / guitar amplifer VST plugin for Windows. It offers cabinet modeling, wave shaping, and uses a relatively small amount of system resources. This is one plugin you definitely want in your sonic arsenal.

Voxengo Boogex Distortion Plugin - Free Windows VST

How to use VST Plugins in Ableton Live. VST plugins allow you to have unlimited variety in your sonic palette. They are little computer programs that run inside of a bigger music program like Cubase, Protools, or Ableton Live. These tiny programs can make a dramatic improvement on the quality of your sound.

There are two types of VST programs: VST instruments (a.k.a. VSTi) and VST effects. VST instruments produce sounds and VST effects change sounds. A synthesizer is a common example of a VST instrument. A reverb is a common VST effect.

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