Signal Tutorials, videos, opinions and working notes from the studio.

14 entries

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29 Sept 26Video

Spek: a saturation plugin I built for my own mixesSpek is the saturation plugin I built for my own mixes. Here is the signal flow, what each control does, and how I use it on a master, a drum bus and Acid V.

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19 Sept 26Video

Arturia MiniFreak V firmware update: wavetable and sample oscillatorsNew wavetable and sample oscillators, custom import, and granular that can finally load your own files. Software walkthrough of the Arturia MiniFreak V firmware update.

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22 Aug 26Video

How to build a dual-filter trance supersaw in PigmentsSingle-filter supersaws lose the pluck when you open them. Two engines, two filters, two FX chains.

8 Jul 26

Vibe Coding a Plugin: What AI Can Build, and What It Can’tI recently made a decision on a plugin I’m building that I thought worth surfacing as an example, one that shows exactly where issues arise when vibe coding a plugin. A prompt wouldn’t have made it for me and trying to one shot a task without understanding would have most likely missed it completely. I … Read more

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27 Jun 26Video

How to Build Layered Ambient Pads in One Bitwig SamplerThe usual way to build a big ambient pad is to stack instruments. A pad synth here, a texture layer there, a vocal sample underneath, maybe a field recording for grit, each on its own track with its own effects. It works, but it gets heavy fast, and it ties your sound to a fixed … Read more

16 Jun 26

Finishing tracks: Why I Spent a Year on a Remix and Six Hours on a HitThe remix took me the better part of a year. The track everyone actually remembers took an afternoon. This is not me bragging, it’s one of the more useful things I’ve learned about finishing tracks in my twenty years of doing this. The piece I agonised over, picked apart, and rebuilt over and over again … Read more

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14 Jun 26Video

UVI Rumble: A Bass Synth That Thinks in Three BandsMulti-band is a word I associate with the back end of a project, not the front. Multi-band compression, multi-band saturation, OTT slapped across the master. It’s a mixing tool: split the signal into frequency ranges and treat each one differently because what works on the sub will destroy the top. So the first thing that … Read more

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3 Jun 26Video

Sequencing in Zebra 3: Building Sequences in a Synth With No SequencerWhen Zebra 3 finally arrived in April, after more than a decade of “it’s coming,” one of the first things I saw in the comments was a complaint: no arpeggiator, no step sequencer. People expected the big rebuild to ship with the one obvious thing, and it didn’t. I get it. I miss the arpeggiator … Read more

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31 May 26Video

Arturia Memory V Review: A Polyphonic Memorymoog With FM Up Its SleeveThe interesting question with any new Arturia V instrument is never “is it an accurate emulation.” They have been good at that for years. The interesting question is whether the software version gives you something the hardware never could, because if it doesn’t, you may as well chase the real thing and live with the … Read more

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25 Apr 26Video

Zebra 3 Is Out, And I Have 60 Presets In ItZebra 3 officially launched on 20 April 2026. I’ve been part of the sound design team since June last year, after meeting the u-he crew at Superbooth in Berlin. I had my first proper look at what they were building, and walked away thinking: this is going to take people a while to understand, and … Read more

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3 Apr 26Video

Most Mix Problems Aren’t Mix ProblemsSo here’s a scenario… I spent about 20 minutes the other day trying to get a pluck to sit over a super saw. The pluck kept getting swallowed. The super saw was wide, long, full of harmonic content — great sound on its own, complete nightmare to mix against anything rhythmic. So I did what … Read more

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3 Jan 26Video

Bitwig 6 Automation Layering: A Different Way to Build MovementMost automation workflows follow the same logic: you draw a curve on the timeline, it does its thing once, and you either loop the whole section or draw another curve elsewhere. It’s fine. It works. But it also means your automation is essentially just a shape that plays back at a fixed point in time, … Read more

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3 Dec 25Video

Zebra 3 Beta: A Beast of a Synth (If You’re Willing to Learn It)I’ve spent the last couple of months deep in the trenches doing factory sound design for u-he’s upcoming Zebra 3, and with the public beta finally out in the wild… the verdict is in. It’s a beast. It’s also entirely its own thing. If you’re coming from Zebra 2 expecting a simple UI refresh, you’re … Read more

3 Nov 25

The Resurrection of a Legend: A First look at Native Instruments Absynth 6The music production community thought Absynth was gone forever. It hadn’t been updated in years and was eventually officially ‘canned’ from the Native Instruments lineup. However, NI has surprised everyone by bringing this unique synthesizer back to life. Absynth 6 isn’t just a small update; it is a complete rebuild of the original software. It … Read more