Wednesday, March 9, 2011

10 Handy Programming Tips for ReFX Vanguard

If you haven't checked it out yet, head on over to the Programming Tips section of the Waveformless-Soundware site for 10 random programming tips on programming your own sounds for ReFX Vanguard.
The plan is to post programming tips for different softsynths as I release new soundsets. And yes, I am hard at work on the next release. No idea when it will be done. I'd rather get it right then get it out right now.

Note that if you're a total noob and don't know an LFO from an Envelope, you can start by reading my Synthesis Made Simple series which should help you get up to speed.

Incidentally, you can click on the image above and copy the settings manually if you want to hear year another sound from the soundset. You'll be out of luck with the LFO 1 and 2 settings, but this will get you most of the way there. You can also check out the demos below if you haven't already to hear the sounds in a musical context. Feel free to embed the demos on your own site or share them via Facebook, Twitter, or whatever your social networking poison of choice is if you want to help spread the word!



6 comments:

Jeremy said...

Thanks for all the vanguard tips Tom, it's a pretty cool synth with low cpu usage, that has been unfairly typecast as a one trick pony. It's quite versatile, maybe not extremely deep but definitely a pleasure to use for leads.

I enjoyed your preset bank that you put out recently. I hope there will be more in the future, I'll be more than happy to pay (a rare thing these days, it seems) for more banks. Your Virus patches were cool as hell back when I first got my Ti and loaded them up, went and straight away recreated a few classic basslines with those.

I want to express my appreciation for your articles over the years. I've been following your work since 2002, when I first began making music on a low end computer. I've moved up and learned a lot since then but I learned much what I know from you. Cheers! Love the blog.

Tom said...

Thanks very much, Jeremy. Glad you enjoyed the Vanguard bank and the blog. I totally agree with Vanguard being unfairly typecast. I actually was one of those people who unfairly judged it until I really got into programming it and realized that there was a lot of untapped potential in it for such a simple synth. The presets it ships with don't do a very good job of showing what the synth is capable of.

By the way, would you mind if I used your statement about the Vanguard bank on the testimonial page of Waveformless Soundware? I'm trying to build that section up a bit...

Jeremy said...

Sure thing, feel free to use my statement. : )

Joel R. Bisson said...

These are wonderful tips to see, I hope you'll post more tips on Vanguard, I would like to hear 1980's sounds on Vanuard as well as other synths, I love Arturia, I hope you release a bank for Arturia synths and others!!!

Jérôme said...

Hello Tom, and congrats for your music :)

I ordered a virus TI2 and i'm looking forward to trying your bank.

What do you think of this synth?

I chose it because i think it's the most versatile one for the price, and i wanted to experience hardware instead of just using a comupter; but how good is it at emulating analog such as Jupiter 8? (my dream synth but way too expensive for me). And how would you rate it vs Arturia Origin?

Cheers :)

Joshfx said...

I'm interested in purchasing Vanguard for $79 without all the bundled presets. However I've read in places that the "lite" edition comes without a lot of features like arpeggio and such. Can you confirm if this is true or not?