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The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.

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Music

So many saturation and “mangling” plugins…

27 March 2023 By Avinash Meetoo Leave a Comment

I have a lot of saturation plugins and I need to properly evaluate them:

  • Baby Audio Parallel Aggressor
  • Black Box Analog Design HG-2
  • Black Box Analog Design HG-2MS
  • Elysia Karacter
  • Elysia Phil’s Cascade
  • Fuse Audio Labs Flywheel
  • NEOLD BIG AL
  • Softube Saturation Knob
  • Solid State Logic SSL Native X-Saturator
  • SPL Vitalizer MK2-T
  • United Plugins Autoformer
  • Vertigo VSM-3
  • Waves Abbey Road Saturator
  • Waves BB Tubes
  • Waves J37 Tape
  • Waves Lil Tube

I have also a lot of plugins to completely transform the audio into something completely different:

  • Cableguys DriveShaper (ShaperBox 2)
  • Cherry Audio Voltage Modular Ignite 2 FX
  • DS Audio Tantra 2
  • iZotope Stutter Edit 2
  • iZotope Trash 2
  • iZotope Vinyl
  • Klevgrand DAW Cassette
  • Softube Dirty Tape
  • Unfiltered Audio BYOME
  • Unfiltered Audio Dent 2
  • Unfiltered Audio Fault (Pitch and Time)
  • Unfiltered Audio Indent 2
  • Unfiltered Audio Needlepoint
  • Unfiltered Audio SpecOps (Spectral Effects)
  • Waves Berzerk Distortion
  • Waves MetaFilter
  • Waves MultiMod Rack
  • Waves OneKnob Filter
  • Waves Retro Fi
  • Waves Scheps Parallel Particles
  • XLN Audio RC-20 Retro Color

I wonder how I am going to choose which ones to use on a regular basis…

Filed Under: Education, Mauritius, Music, Technology

Memento Mori by Depeche Mode

27 March 2023 By Avinash Meetoo Leave a Comment

Depeche Mode released its latest album, Memento Mori, on Friday 24 March. During the day, I started listening to the songs on my way to work and I was quite happy. Happier than with some of the previous albums to be honest. Interestingly, I felt that the second half of the album was stronger than the first half but, because I was commuting, I knew I needed to give the album a proper listen before deciding.

The next day, after lunch on Saturday 25 March 2023 at 14:00, Christina, Kyan and I properly listened to Momento Mori from the first song to the last. We got the album on TIDAL (FLAC 48KHz 24bit, MQA 96KHz) and listened on our dream Hi-Fi setup.

During the 50 minutes, I took some notes and rated the songs:

  • “My Cosmos Is Mine”: Industrial. Lots of reverb. Atmospheric. Good way to start a concept album. 7/10.
  • “Wagging Tongue”: Organic. Arpeggiated. Simple lyrics. Not too profound. 6/10.
  • “Ghosts Again”: Anthemic Depeche Mode song. Good singing. Nice bridge. 8/10.
  • “Don’t Say You Love Me”: A much slower It’s No Good. Orchestral. “I’ll be the punchline of course.” 7/10.
  • “My Favourite Stranger”. Another anthemic DM song. Recognizable baseline (Fade to grey?). Slow electro. Heavy distortion. 8/10.
  • “Soul with Me”: Generic DM ballad. Martin Gore singing. Good chorus. 7/10.
  • “Caroline’s Monkey”: Starts like Dream On. Chorus could be better. Sometimes… and chord. 7/10.
  • “Before We Drown”: Fantastic song, music and lyrics. Restrained voice. Beautiful electro. Fantastic strings. 9/10.
  • “People Are Good”: Kraftwerk / DM symbiosis. Crooner-kind of singing. Effective electro. 8/10.
  • “Always You”: Nice Grahan ballad. Very electronic and organic. Recognizable. Repetitive. 7/10.
  • “Never Let Me Go”: Dark Depeche Mode. Great music and lyrics. Orchestration good. Guitar distortion. 8/10.
  • “Speak to Me”: Tranquil outro. Easy way to end the album. Very predictable. 6/10.

Overall, I gave the album 7.5/10. In fact, I like the album very much as it is sounds much more electronic than previous albums (which were too rock-oriented for my own taste). One criticism is that some of the songs use way too much saturation and distortion but this looks like to be fashionable these days. I wonder what would happen if the next album (if made…) was produced by someone like Deadmau5? Will Depeche Mode then have a Violator 2 album? Who knows?

Here are my favourite five songs as reflected in the ratings I gave:

  • Ghosts Again
  • My Favourite Stranger
  • Before We Drown
  • People Are Good
  • Never Let Me Go

At some point, I will have to restrict this to the three songs I like most to add to my Top 50 Depeche Mode songs (which will then have 53 songs). Give me a few days to make up my mind.

Filed Under: Family, Mauritius, Music, News

My Top 50 Depeche Mode songs

21 February 2023 By Avinash Meetoo 1 Comment

I discovered Depeche Mode in 1985 and, for the past four decades, I have been a massive fan of the group and electronic music in general.

Last night, I gave it a go and I selected the 50 Depeche Mode songs I like the most. There are a lot of songs which I didn’t choose despite loving them but I tried to keep things balanced by choosing three songs from each album, except for some seminal albums such as Violator where I had to choose more than three songs. For good measure, I also chose Shake The Disease which, for some reason, was never part of any album but only released as a single.

At the end, this is what I consider to be my Top 50 Depeche Mode songs ever:

  • Just Can’t Get Enough (from the 1981 album Speak & Spell)
  • Photographic (from the 1981 album Speak & Spell)
  • Tora! Tora! Tora! (from the 1981 album Speak & Spell)
  • Leave in Silence (from the 1982 album A Broken Frame)
  • My Secret Garden (from the 1982 album A Broken Frame)
  • See You (from the 1982 album A Broken Frame)
  • Everything Counts (from the 1983 album Construction Time Again)
  • Love, in Itself (from the 1983 album Construction Time Again)
  • Told You So (from the 1983 album Construction Time Again)
  • Blasphemous Rumours (from the 1984 album Some Great Reward)
  • Master and Servant (from the 1984 album Some Great Reward)
  • People Are People (from the 1984 album Some Great Reward)
  • Shake the Disease (from the 1985 album Shake the Disease (Single))
  • A Question of Time (from the 1986 album Black Celebration)
  • Black Celebration (from the 1986 album Black Celebration)
  • Stripped (from the 1986 album Black Celebration)
  • Behind the Wheel (from the 1987 album Music for the Masses)
  • Never Let Me Down Again (from the 1987 album Music for the Masses)
  • Strangelove (from the 1987 album Music for the Masses)
  • Enjoy the Silence (from the 1990 album Violator)
  • Halo (from the 1990 album Violator)
  • Personal Jesus (from the 1990 album Violator)
  • Policy of Truth (from the 1990 album Violator)
  • Waiting for the Night (from the 1990 album Violator)
  • World in My Eyes (from the 1990 album Violator)
  • I Feel You (from the 1993 album Songs of Faith and Devotion)
  • In Your Room (from the 1993 album Songs of Faith and Devotion)
  • One Caress (from the 1993 album Songs of Faith and Devotion)
  • Walking in My Shoes (from the 1993 album Songs of Faith and Devotion)
  • Barrel of a Gun (from the 1997 album Ultra)
  • Home (from the 1997 album Ultra)
  • It’s No Good (from the 1997 album Ultra)
  • Useless (from the 1997 album Ultra)
  • Dream On (from the 2001 album Exciter)
  • Freelove (from the 2001 album Exciter)
  • Goodnight Lovers (from the 2001 album Exciter)
  • I Feel Loved (from the 2001 album Exciter)
  • A Pain That I’m Used To (from the 2005 album Playing the Angel)
  • John the Revelator (from the 2005 album Playing the Angel)
  • Precious (from the 2005 album Playing the Angel)
  • Suffer Well (from the 2005 album Playing the Angel)
  • In Chains (from the 2009 album Sounds of the Universe)
  • Peace (from the 2009 album Sounds of the Universe)
  • Wrong (from the 2009 album Sounds of the Universe)
  • Heaven (from the 2013 album Delta Machine)
  • My Little Universe (from the 2013 album Delta Machine)
  • Should Be Higher (from the 2013 album Delta Machine)
  • Cover Me (from the 2017 album Spirit)
  • Going Backwards (from the 2017 album Spirit)
  • Where’s the Revolution (from the 2017 album Spirit)

This is more than four hours of pure enjoyment.

Take a nice scotch. Relax. Close your eyes. Marvel.

Filed Under: Family, Mauritius, Music, News

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