Tag Archives: CHOB

5 Mystic Eggs

Bob and I did a track with samples from Diamond & Silk. The reference source for this is a monologue they had about how “Socialist Cubans only get 5 eggs a month.”

This was too funny so we made a song.

Diamond and Silk
Diamond & Silk

Bitchin Bob’s birthday gift was used for this. He got a groovy drum pad. It’s a Kat Percussion KTMP1 Electronic Drum and Percussion Pad Sound Module. We were breaking it in and came up with this track. The timing is off and its very sloppy but MAN did we have fun and laugh while making it.

Bob's New Drum thingy
Bob’s new drum pad thingy.
5 Mystic Eggs

Click the play thingy and give it a listen. The orchestra hit at the very beginning was left in intentionally. It was triggered by Bob on the drum pad.

Also used:

  • Korg Volca Bass, Keys, & Drums
  • MicroKorg
  • Korg Kaossilator
  • Korg MiniKP (red box)
  • Zoom MS-70CDR Effects pedal (on the Volca’s)
  • Korg Minilogue XD

It Catches Up Down The Road

It has been quite some time since I posted anything on the blog. I figured I should put something here since I pay for it and the numbers (what little I get) are dropping to nothing.

Today I thought I’d do some drone’y ambient’y thing with the Volca’s and this new Zoom MS-CDR-70 effects pedal. I have it connected to the output of the mini-mixer that holds the Volca Bass, Beats, and Keys. It has a lovely shimmer effect that I over used on this track.

This track was really slapped together (as most are) with little edits. Everything here is a hardware synth (no MIDI or Ableton was used).

Ingredients:
Korg Volca Keys and Bass (through Zoom pedal)
Korg Minilogue XD with tons of Riser reverb
Korg MicroKorg with tons of delay from the Korg MiniKP (red box)
Korg Kaossilator Pro with 2 drum patterns and a little solo lead synth noodling.

I recorded the thing at 60bpm but things are triggered haphazardly and initially when the drums kick in, its off beat. But if you listen and let the trance wash over you, it sort of catches up (hence the quicky song title).

It’s about 10 minutes long. Probably TOO LONG, but enjoy either way

Unemployed Early rainy Friday Morning

I woke up around 7:30am and did this 5 minute bit. It’s a repetitive 2 chord loop with hand pressed automated sustain pedal (had to figure out how to do that). Soloed another reverby/delay’y piano on top for fun. Then figured, I would just solo some foggy pad in the background in hopes to keep it together or make it more interesting. Recorded it without a metronome/clock so not a finger snapper or dance hit. (You should know by now).

This is what ya get. A futile musical brain fart. Hope you find this amusing and it sustains you for 5 minutes or takes you out of where you were.

Best in headphones.

Formlessness (Updated With Bass Solo Re-pitched)

Formlessness

This was started with an Active Step Recording experiment on the Volca Keys for the arpeggio that runs throughout the bit. I kept dropping out and changing the keys subtly for the duration. Note: There is no beat or rhythm even though the whole thing was done at 100bpm.

After creating this, I found a “Filter Delay” effect that allowed changing the sound filter per left and right channel of speakers so this arpeggio doesn’t just have a variance on the keys being played but also the timbre of the sound per channel. Essentially its changing notes then it changes quality per Left/Right speaker channel independently. So, IT’S ALIIIVE!

I added some space delay piano, a little MicroKorg here and there, and I actually noodled around on the bass guitar a bit.

Good murder of a Sunday.

UPDATED (Thursday June 25, 2020):
I learned how to re-pitch audio file SEGMENTS and fixed the sour notes on the bass solo at the end. I’m much happier with it now. I also did some volume changes on the bass solo. It starts at 1:45 if you are in a hurry to compare the two. Give it a listen if you want to challenge your ear a bit.

Formlessness Bass Corrected

AS ALWAYS, BEST HEARD IN HEADPHONES.

CoronaVirus “we care” music

It’s all about the money, folks.
CoronaVirus We Care Music

I was tired of seeing and hearing about all these huge corporations doing somber solo piano music commercials about how much they care about people “in these trying times”.

I thought I would take a whack at trying to make a coronavirus “we care” song of my own.

This is what I came up with. Feel free to think of some corporate bullshit to say on top of it. Try to get in the spirit of depriving your employees of income while you spend millions on trite music like this with somber stupid stock video footage to make people think you give a shit about their survival. This usually helps!

Say things in a low deep caring concerned corporate type voice-over like:
“in these trying times”
“when people must survive against an invisible enemy”

Feel free to leave your own stupid insensitive stock voice-over script in the comments. Maybe I can get Bitchin Bob to do a proper voice over.

AS ALWAYS – BEST IN HEADPHONES!

Hozpitality – WaWa nurr nurr

This is in NO WAY an ad for Wawa.
Wawa Nurr Nurr.mp3

OK. This is crap. Found this laying around my hard drive on an old Windows Desktop back up. This is where I move things on a hard drive when my desktop gets too littered with icons.

From what I can tell, I made this as a tester file (not unlike my Lowering of The Table tester file). It is dated 9/25/2016 and it’s 20 minutes of noodling that was clearly improvised. The multiple beats and timings don’t match up at all, except in rare instances (so settle down Bob).

There are some vocals near the end of me singing in the vocoder. I have no recollection of what I was saying/singing. If you can figure it out, let me know in the comments. I may make a song about YOU! ??

I didn’t know what to call it. It is labeled as “Wawa Nurr Nurr.mp3”.

I didn’t think it was worthy to make it public, but :

  • I’m getting old
  • I pay nearly $200 a year to keep this blog up
  • We’re living through a pandemic.

Might as well shake the tree of its junk onto the public stage.

Personally, I feel, I am MUCH BETTER than this track (lately), but see if you can live through all 20 minutes. It’s a challenge for me and I CREATED THE DAMNED THING!

As always, SOUNDS BEST IN HEADPHONES!!

The Lowering Of The Table

Today I lowered the keyboard stand to match the height of the surrounding desks. This meant unhooking stuff and rehooking it which means ANOTHER TESTER TRACK TO MAKE SURE EVERYTHING RECORDED. (Which also means, it was a scratch track, so dont think for a minute this is supposed to sound “good” or be “official”).

The Lowering of the Table Tester File

And now I can SIT at the keyboard stand instead of STAND at it. Thank you quarantine.

Used Microkorg, Volca Bass, and Kaossilator Pro.

Ninth Release from Hozpitality! Beach Week

Hozpitality - Beach Week

Wow! So much time has passed since the 2015 release Hozpitality-To Go. There has been a lot of moving around and acquisition of new noise making devices and volunteering of new noise making people.

As you know, Hozpitality is a collective. Anyone who wants to make sound and record may do so. Since moving the “Hozpitality Home Studio” around a lot, more people have come on board. They will be listed in the Personnel List below.

Track List:

  1. Beach Week (4:16)
    This was a drum pattern recorded by Bush, keys by CeMeGo, and vocals by Gloria Snatch (now known as Eriyyka BaDont). Please do not miss the Beach Week video (which is the first music video for a Hozpitality song). The lyrics/vocals for the song were created after watching Brett Kavanaugh hearings. He still likes beer. Yeah well so do we all, but we don’t get to be a life long supreme court justice (you dick).
  2. D and C Drone for DC (5:43)
    This was extracted from a long jam session (May 2019) between Derek and CeMeGo. Derek plays bass. Not sure about the drums. Keys and noise by CeMeGo. Probably first recorded use of Korg Minilogue XD (closer to the end).
  3. Don’t Know What To Say (3:45)
    Bitchin’ Bob souls up a hit. Drums and 2 chord melody by Bush. Extra keys and augmentation by CeMeGo. This is a touching song, about hats, impaired vision, and lots of grumbled Joe Cocker styled wailing.
  4. Exceptional (5:33)
    A jam session created in April of 2017, chopped up, and repositioned by Bitchin’ Bob and CeMeGo. The Novation Launchpad was heavily abused for the drum pattern.
  5. Epipen (2:33)
    A lounge statement calling out Big Pharma. The skyrocketing price of Epipens used to ward off an allergic reaction causes us to do a timely lounge piece. Gloria Snatch on vocals and Randy Glands on keys.
  6. Guest Parking (with CHOB) (10:02)
    The voice sample is audio from an instructional video explaining how to park your car in a parking lot and remember where you parked (very ridiculous). There is also a dramatic reading of the guest parking rules for a certain overpriced apartment community in North Bethesda, MD.
  7. The Tootsie Throwdown (4:34)
    Derek plays bass and croons about Tootsie (the cat). What else do we know? Right?
  8. High Mystic Water Rhythms (5:27)
    This is not the first time CeMeGo has stolen drum sounds from the band Rush. This is a mash up of drum samples from Rush songs “High Water” and “Mystic Rhythms”. This was one of the first experiments with the Novation Launchpad.
  9. Staying Up Late To Make Some Beats Tonight (But You’re Not Alone) (4:10)
    Instruments, vocoder, and junk by CeMeGo. Yet another stolen traffic report sample from WTOP radio.
  10. Exceptional (Bangin Remix) (4:35)
    The heavy rocking mid section of the track Exceptional had us dancing around so hard, we had to jam on it. This is what happened.

Personnel:

Bitchin Bob: Words, Crooning, Synth, Percussion, Drums, Ideas
Bush: Drums and chord ideas
CeMeGo (Randy Glands): Vocoder, Synth, Keys, Bass Gtr, Drums, Audio Shenanigans
Derek: Bass Gtr, Voice, Drums
MsNeeBo (Eriyyka BaDont, Gloria Snatch): Vocals, Lyrics, Insane Laughter
Tootsie: Throwdown.

Tools used:
Ableton Live 9 Suite (too cheap to upgrade to 10!)
A bunch of free .VST files from the Internet
Adobe Audition (too useful unfortunately!)
Fender Aerodyne Bass
Korg Electribe Sampler 2
Korg Kaossilator Pro
Korg Mini-KP (red box)
Korg MicroKorg (lots of stuff and vocoder)
Korg Minilogue XD (still new).
Korg Volca(s) (Bass, Beats, and Keys)
Novation Launchpad

Click here to download the album in a zip file with cover art (48megs).

As always, we aren’t getting rich on this, so comments and opinions of this are welcomed/encouraged on this blog.

Hozpitality thanks you and wishes you a Happy Beach Week.