It’s called “One 2 Trance” and will be available for free on iTunes.

The show is currently 90 minutes, but if the feedback will be positive enough it will become a 2 hours show, each new episode will be kicked off the 7th of every month, you can subscribe to the podcast directly from your iTunes and you can select to update the show automatically so that every time a new episode is available it will be downloaded on your computer and synchronized to your iPod, iPhone etc.

In case you don’t want to go thru iTunes you can just subscribe the podcast RSS ( in the “Radio” page) that will give you the direct download link to the mp3.

The 1st episode is done already and will be available from Sunday 7th of Feb.

For more info simply click the podcast banner you find in the home page or check the “Radio” section of this website.

and last but not least, enjoy!

Did you ever listen to some online radio shows and the tracks playing sound like there is an lfo modulating the volume or the phase? Or to be more clear, Did you ever listen to some online radio shows and the tracks played sound like crap?

That’s because of the ableton (or mix meister or what ever) algorithm, by default in Live, this algo is set to “beat” (but in the preferences the default can be setted to any other algorythim) which for full tracks isn’t really appropriate.

The “texture” algorithm doesn’t work either and nor does “tones”, there are 3 other algorithm available “complex” that I personally never liked for full tracks, “complex pro” which works quite well but misses a little something.

What I’m going to suggest to use is the other algorithm Ableton offers “Re-Pitch”, this one despite the other warp modes previously listed, alters the pitch of the track because it acts like the actual pitch from cdjs or turntables.

That’s exactly the point! by using this algorithm we don’t just get rid of that hateful crappy sound, but we also simulate the set being played on turntables/cdj, this gives (in my opinion) a better “in da club” feel.

This thing of course (as all the good things) has its cons, since “Re-Pitch” alters the pitch, most of the time when a track is heavily pitched up or down its key changes so you ll have to re-consider the key you are mixing the other track with, which is a pain in that place.

With a little bit of work though this method gives the closest result to an actual dj-set, worth giving it a try if you never have :)

1) Renaissance Eq-6 : I have it almost everywhere, I love its color and its very light on cpu, pain that I have to carry my ilok  everywhere but is the price to pay (plus the price of the actual bundle)

2) Renaissance Comp : Another tool from the waves renaissance max that I uber-use , I love its character and and the way you can achieve an awesome sounding compression with just a few tweaks, I use this for almost every main sound in my track, however not a fan of it when it comes to mastering .

3) Sonalksis TBK1 : Simply the fucking best filter out there, 1 big knob and 3 other settings, no additional crap added, and one of the few filters that goes on auto-bypass when fully opened.

4) Logic Dub Delay : Priceless for 2 reasons, it’s awesome, and it comes with logic so you don’t even need to buy it.

5) Cytomic The Glue : WTF how did they fit an SSL inside my mac? Oh no its a plugin…The best comp for buss compression, mastering and whatevercomporession!

6) Flux Epure II : Another ridiculously good sounding EQ, actually, with high chances the best sounding soft eq ever, clean and crisp, I love it for mastering, but for mixing I still prefer R-Eq.

7) TC-Electronic M30 : At TC one day they all took a huge amount of drugs and got drunk at the same time and decided to give this reverb plugin for free, glad they did that cause this thing is amazing!

This was the effects/dynamic top 7 now, for the synth we have …

1) Sylenth1 : So far the best and more versatile virtual instrument ever coded, from basses to leads to pads to alltheother7skiesshit if its not from my Jp or my virus it’s surely from this one.

2) ES2 : Another priceless plugin for the same 2 reasons of the previous mentioned “Dub Dealy”, comes with logic and it sounds so effing GREAT, there are no 7 Skies productions were I didn’t use at least 10 instances of this baby

3) Fxpansion DCAM : in particular Strobe, that has become my default “bass machine”, these synths do not simulate analog sounding, they ARE analog!

4) Massive : I bought this one only a few months ago (even thought I knew it from ages) it has quickly become one of my fav synth, I especially like the matrix concept, the sonic power of this monster is…Massive.

5) EXS-24 : Another Logic default, another plugin that has usually from 25 to 40 instances opened in my projects, simple, light, amazing.

6) MS-20 : Part of the Korg Legacy Collection Analog Edition, I swear to god I can’t tell the difference from the original, and so can’t many others, oh well, you don’t have that annoying constant buzz going on for freaking ever, but is that so bad?

7) Minimonsta : Now, that IS fat !

Soooooo, that’s it, hope you enjoyed this reading and hopefully discovered some new stuff to have fun with.
See you at the next geeky post

David | 7 Skies

I’m more a synth slut than a dynamic processor one so for some people my judgement might sound obvious for someone else might sound stupid and hopefully for some others, will sound interesting (I’m in this category).

Today after a long time I took a small break from productions and sound design, all the remixes and singles I had to finish are done signed and in the hands of the various labels so I’m enjoying a bit of free time doing tests.

I recently put my hands on a new product from a new software house called Cytomic, the product is called “The Glue”, a really nice sounding compressor that has similarities with the well known SSL 4000 G master Buss Compressor.

I’m not lucky (and rich) enough to have the original hardware, but I decided to give a try to another well known and very promoted emulation of this compressor, the Waves SSL Comp.

Downloaded the demo of this last mentioned on my computer I started A/B comparing both emulations and surprisingly I found more difference on the price rather then the quality itself, the waves costs over 800$ the Cytomic 99$.

Here comes part of the trick, I have no shame admitting that more than once I have been victim of the “More expensive = Better” a bit due to my ignorance a bit from reading the forums. I ve always trusted this price rule while I was buying new plugins, only now I m realizing how a cheap product can be twice as good in comparison to an expensive one.

That said, I’d like to put a note and saying that :

its always a matter of taste  and, each plugin sounds different compared to others that emulates the same hardware, but what I’m trying to say here is, can we tell the difference?

back to this 2 plugs, I did some tests with both compressors working on the same audio file with same settings (Actually same compression actions as they have a slightly different threshold setting), the result is a ridiculously similar result.

Not happy I decided to do the phase inver test, for those of you who are not familiar with that, the concept is pretty easy and exactly the same that happens in math when we have -1 + 1 = 0.

So when we have a sound layered with the exact same sound at the exact same position but with inverse phase the result is silence (try it its fun and useful sometimes especially to grab sounds).

Anyway, following the concept written above, I layered a drum loop using the 2 different compressors and inverting the phase of the second layer, I didn’t expect silence, because as I said each plugin is coded differently and they are modeled on hardwares, and each analog hardware has a different type of sound, can be even just slightly different but still unique from others from the same model.

The sound as I expected didn’t go completely silent but is quite close, the main difference is more on the bottom end (low freq)but I was expecting this since “The Glue” has a High Pass filter that allows the user to select at which frequencies the compressor starts to react, the waves compressor doesn’t but as far as I remember in this compressor there is a built-in high pass that doesn’t let the compressor reacting below 50hz (but I repeat I m totally not sure about that).

Well to end the SSL emulation part is that what came to light is : A/B comparing is almost imperceptible, or it is but for a very trained person and still over 70% of these  trained people won’t be able to tell which is which (doing a test on a forum of audio geek right now).

The spectrum analyzer represent a small difference on the mid range (see picture) but apart from that, the spectrum is incredibly similar.

Below I posted a link of the same files I used for the test the way that everyone can do the same test, of course I won’t tell which is which as your brain might trick you and your response would be conditioned.

you can get the files here :

http://7skies.dancenode.com/WavesGlue.zip

And the test is pretty simple, there are 3 files, 2 are drum loop and the other file is a vocal part each file have both compressors “The Glue” by Cytomic and “SSL Comp” by Waves working in the same file so for both the drum files (Slap.wav & StereoBus.wav)we have : 8 beats with the loop compressed by compressor 1 that drops instantly in compressor 2 for other 8 beats, so back again to compressor 1 for 8 beats and again 8 beats of compressor 2, after this session of loop there is a few sec silence and then the phase invert test where you can hear the actual difference between the compressor.

For the vocal file we have : the clean voice with no compression, when the voice restarts we have compressor 1 active, when it starts again compressor 2 active, and the last part is once again the phase inversion test.

So to close this long post what I’m trying to say is, do not judge plugins from their price or their brand, no one said that great coders only work for the best companies, sometimes they do but at the same time they find a little spare time to work on their own products and sometimes these products are as good or even better than the “professional standard” plugins.

That said, I hope the meaning of this post won’t be misunderstood, I love and I (legally) own various waves products I think they have been making great stuff for years, but I also think that if the price of the plugins would be proportioned at its value and not at its brand, people would enjoy buying original softwares a bit more than getting the pirate version.

David | 7 Skies

Hello everyone.

Just a small post to wish you all a happy Christmas and an awesome new year.

2009 has been an eventful year for me, filled with gigs and new productions.

The next year will start even better, with my new single signed on Anjunabeats and a bunch of other new remixes and more…

But, let’s get to the 7 Skies Christmas gift…

My “gift” is a selection of some of my favorite tracks released this year, tunes are mixed by me in a  2 hour set and featuring 21 trance and progressive tracks.

Its probably not a big gift but due to my restricted free time that’s the best thing I have been able to do, but  who knows, it might come handy during your new years eve party :)

The playlist is included in the zip, why didn’t I post it here?

Surprise…

You can get the set HERE

Once again, my best wishes for a merry christmas and a happy new year.

David

Hey guys, as you know, last week on my website I started a poll to pick your favorite 7 Skies production (either single or remix) and get its Logic project fully reviewed by me.

The track you guys picked is Ronski Speed : Something Happened On the Way To heaven (7 Skies Remix)

the video will then posted on youtube and I will reply to the most interesting and common questions asked

This will be a good way for you guys to understand my workflow and hopefully a good way for you to learn something new about trance producing.

How to post your question:

Due to a huge amount of requests, the question submit will be done thru twitter, simply because it allows a max of 140 characters,This will give space for other people to ask something else and will make things less confusing for me.

To post your question on twitter all you have to do is write in the following mode :

@7skies “your question” #7skiestv .

The @7skies will allow me to read all the questions, and the #7skiestv will allow you to display what people have already asked this will help in composing your own question, and create a variation of topics for me to answer.

I apologize hijacking all this to twitter but its the best way to manage this at its best.

So what are you waiting for, sign on twitter and shoot your question (and don’t forget the @7skies & #7skiestv tags)

cheers

David

p.s.

click the button below to spread the voice ;)

This time I’m not going to ask to support and vote for it at the web vote winner poll since I m more than happy with the support given.

What I do ask though is your support on the ASOT end of the year vote, where you can pick your fav tune and get it on the annual ASOT compilation.
There are 3 of my tracks there this year and it would be nice to see one of them on the final tracklist.
If you want to drop your vote just go to :
http://www.arminvanbuuren.net

And search for both 7 Skies & 7Skies (People still confusing my name which is 7 Skies by the way)
The last thing for this post is another link, nothing to vote or anything, just an interview to Above & Beyond but with a few lines where they talk about someone :P
you can read it HERE
Wish you all an awesome weekend!
David