This is the first I’ve heard of it. Is There a community I should join so I can participate next year?

I feel your pain. There doesn’t seem to be much choice for quality earbuds, even when you are willing to pay more for it. I recently returned a pair of Sony earbuds that sounded so dogshit it was insulting.

Based on some audiophile conversations I have read, it might be worth looking into IEMs (in-ear monitors). From the bit of research I’ve done, it seems you can get better quality from these compared to regular consumer earbuds. It looks like you may need to get a cable that has a mic built in, but that might give you more options.

Vital gang!

https://youtu.be/izGwDsrQ1eQ?si=KhkunMu7wAnOLn8B

That was great. I totally hear the Pictureplane, but you took a very unique direction with it.

Yeah that guitar thing came to my mind as well when listening. I missed the part about the “organ” in your post the first time.

I hear it now, and when I look up “how to synth an organ” the first result says just regular sine waves. I made a patch of 3 sine waves at different octaves, added unison (more voices) and a little detune, then a lowpass filter, and it sounds pretty close. Some optional effects I find help are chorus, reverb, and another lowpass filter.

Dead Duck effects Suite is free and has a pretty easy-to-use de-esser, imo. I don’t use them that often, but this one is pretty easy and has a visualization to show how much it is affecting the sound. It also has a “listen” option so you can hear what is being cut off in isolation. Like most things, “less is more”.

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/free-effects-by-dead-duck-software

Can you be more specific about which synth? I think I hear at least 2 different pads and a lead.

Zyn is very capable, but also more complicated than most other synths, and afaik doesn’t have wavetable capabilities (though I could be wrong). I would recommend getting Vital which is free/ has an optional paid expansion. It’s very similar to Serum so you can copy patches manually pretty easily too.

https://vital.audio/

For the ambient pads I suggest watching this tutorial to start - I hear a lot of movement in the first pad similar to what he achieves here: https://youtu.be/ImWJixBPZj0?si=lLPUY8Kk34_qRVgS

In my limited experience, the answer to most “how to make this sound” is “detuned and unison on a saw” with varying amounts of filtering and envelope.

One of my favourite albums ever

They are great, and once you “get” it it’s easy. Basically just duplicating your signal and doing something else to the copy. Many possibilities :)

I agree with the other comment saying double track and hard pan.

Stereo imaging / widening, reverb, ping pong delay, chorus, can all make things sound wider as well. Don’t be afraid to play with sends and pan them too (eg reverb send panned hard left while the dry instrument is hard right)

What drama are you referring to? Bandcamp being sold and half their staff fired? That’s shitty, but they still pay artists more than any other platform.

To answer your main question, I’d say Soundcloud is easiest for yourself and listeners.

CAS is back

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School

Fleurety. This vocalist did permanent damage to his vocal chords.

https://youtu.be/aYimUNtWLd8?si=WiXnErMTnFC5317M