Masmöd vs the ES2

As some of you may know, a new release of mine has been in the works since the completion of my album, Axiom. Unfortunately, the transition from Axiom to my new release hasn’t been a smooth one. I hit an unexpected snag. The snag I’m referring to is specifically Logic Pro 8. When I made Axiom, I was using Logic Express 6.4. I’m sure if you’ve ever used LE 6.4, you know its limitations. Anyway, I really pushed the capabilities of that limited software, and the one key factor that really made Axiom possible was the EXSP24. The one major factor of the EXSP24 that really made all the difference was the ADSR envelope capabilities for manipulating sine waves. From the research I’ve done, most people never used the EXSP24 for actual sound design with the stock sine wave, (that would be without loading any samples into the plugin). Through excruciating trial and error, and weeks of nonstop loops through my headphones, I was able to produce a frequency kick, using only the parameters of the EXSP24, with no samples at all. Later, I beefed it up using the stock EQ plugins provided by garage band, and LE 6.4. The end result, well, if you’ve heard Axiom, I think the work speaks for itself.

Anyway, once I was finished with Axiom, I decided to treat myself to upgrading to Logic Pro 8. I can’t tell you how excited I was to have all the capabilities of Logic Pro 8 at my fingertips. Unfortunately, to my disappointment, Apple (the now proud owners of Logic) had decided to do away with the EXSP24 (play back sampler). I can’t tell you how crushed I was to discover this. I thought to myself, “how could this be?” “Why would they do this?” Then I remembered… No one ever used (or at least documented publicly) the EXSP24 like I did, so there was probably no reason for them to keep it. Besides, they had the EXS24, which is supposedly better, but so far it seems to fail in comparison. But that’s a whole new rant for another time.

Moving on, after panicking, contemplating using a new DAW, and desperately searching for a way to port the old, and now diminished EXSP24, I decided to roll up my sleeves, and get down to the dreaded task of working with a new synth that could carry the torch of the EXSP24.

This was not an easy task I had ahead of me… But! After more trial and error, especially with the really shitty “Sculpture modeling synthesizer”, (which, if I might say, is supposed to be able to produce such results, but has a bug in it, but apple refuses to acknowledge that fact), I was able to find a suitable, and more than capable replacement, using the ES2 synthesizer.

The ES2 synthesizer is everything that the EXSP24 was, and more (minus the sampling capabilities). The great thing about the ES2 is that is has the capability to use both the ADSR envelopes, and it’s vector envelopes simultaneously. It’s like layering frosting with whipping cream. It’s dangerous, but it tastes soooo good.

Anyway, I’ve decided to share my experience, (and the parameters) with designing my new frequency kick for my new release, using the ES2. Please note, though, I purposefully used an earlier saved progress version screen shot for this post, so that you can learn to familiarize yourself with the ES2, without just jumping right in and using it, without knowing what does what.

I have since refined the ES2 kick sound, so if you end up using the parameters that you see here, and they don’t sound the same as the example below, don’t worry, just tweak the parameters more, and eventually you’ll nail it. :)

You can preview below what I was able to achieve as my kick, using the ES2 soft-synth. Please note, the track below is just a test:

You can download the ES2 preset here:

masmod-sub-kick-9

The preset should save to your download folder. After you’ve downloaded the preset, be sure the logic application is shut down. Then go to the Finder, and select the » “GO” tab from the horizontal menu. From there, select » “Home”, then select the “Library” folder. From there, select the “Application Support” folder. Then select your Logic folder. From there, select the “Plug-In Settings” folder, and then scroll down to / and select the “ES2″ folder. After you do this, drag the ES2 preset you downloaded into the ES2 folder. After you do this, start Logic Pro 8 again, and select the ES2 plugin. You should see the “Masmod sub kick 9″ preset. Once you select it, all the parameters that you see here should load.

In the event that you end up using these parameters as a stepping stone to create your kick, I’d love to hear what you create. If you want to share what you’ve done, (presuming that you’ll do anything at all with these parameters) feel free to post a link to your work here, or you can hit me up at:
michael@masmodmedia.com

So anyway, that’s it. Thanks for reading. :)

Peace ¥,

- m

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