So I cropped this looping segment out of the How Not To Be Musical post I made when I first bought the Yamaha Reface CS because I found it to be pretty.
NOTE: This original post is over 30 minutes so it is a hefty undertaking. This is why I segmented this part out.
Someone told me, “way to go, you made wind chimes”. I said, “yeah but wind chimes don’t loop”, so SUCK IT!
Today, FINALLY, my new MicroKorg 2 arrived. I ordered it Saturday January 4, 2025. I BARELY got it on sale before the Trump tariffs kicked in.
The reason for the “Fed Ex Sucks” is because Fed Ex is THE WORST delivery service in America. They promised it would be here Thursday and required a signature. This meant I had to cancel all my plans and remain home for when it arrived and required my signature. I stayed home like an excited child canceling all my evening plans and waited. IT NEVER CAME and was rescheduled for today (Friday). The most annoying part is, the delivery man chucked it on the sidewalk in the snow, lightly tapped on my door, ran away, and NEVER ASKED FOR A SIGNATURE. Fed Ex is a SHIT OPERATION.
This purchase is nothing more than G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome), as I had an original MicroKorg for years and it was a very useful part of my music creation arsenal. I was excited about the newer edition and had to have it. It has a full color screen for editing sound.
The original MicroKorg requires the sound architect (me) to fight through a matrix of battleship game like settings with two knobs and it made visualizing the settings rather difficult. Also there are a lot more bells and whistles on this one.
I used:
The fancy part about this keyboard is its very easy to tie any sort of effect or action to the mod wheel. This made adding all sorts of strange effects in real time quite easy.
Here it is. As always, it’s best in headphones.
Today my wonderful friend Daanish came by and we took turns moving through the presets of the Korg WaveState Native plug in.
I honestly believe we are pretty good. He is officially inducted into the Hozpitality hall of fame®.
Made a new “quicky” album tonight. It has multiple “suites” of muzak for your enjoyment. THERE ARE THEMES so put on your thinking cap.
The new album is titled:
Are You Ready, I’m Not Ready Yet, OK I’m Ready
Here are a few songs. Title is before the track:
Poop Flingin Serenade
No I’m Not Ready Yet OK I’m Ready
Now You Are Just Being Cocky
Needle Point
All this was shamelessly done with the Korg Wavestate Native plug-in and our own magical musical powers.
The track titles are half the charm:
STAND BACK AND BE AMAZED!!!
Today I acquired the Korg Wavestate Native plug in. I always thought the Korg Wavestate synthesizer was neat because it allows for these very involved sounds. Everything has a tail that does something crazy. For example, you hold a piano note and a million things happen before the sound releases. The Wavestate is good for sound creation and layering.
Korg does make an actual hardware synthesizer for this but I’m out of room for devices so I bought the software version of it.
IT BLEW ME AWAY!
I recorded myself playing 4 different presets on the thing. There is no overdubbing or layering. This is really a lot of fun. Makes me sound better than I am.
Was in the mood for mushy underwater fuzzy lo-fi piano noodling with lots of delay. Added some “Arturia Melo-Fi” tape motor noise and wobbling to give it that “lo-fi” sheen that is all the rage.
It’s all in a major key so all white notes. I may have to do one with all black notes to prove I’m not a note racist.
Either way, enjoy because I enjoyed making it.
What do Godzilla, Buck Rogers and Twiki, Gloria Estefan, Prince, and the word “Booty” have in common?
This video above is the answer.
This is a song made after a Phillies NLCS game, late night, and drunk.
Concept was by Mike Ortiz. We pressed the buttons, I made the video, and made this miraculous concept a reality.
Things used:
Ableton 9 (too cheap to upgrade it) for the music.
Arturia Keystep 37 (to play godzilla noises).
Novation Launchpad Pro (to trigger the samples).
PowerPoint to make the video.
In summary, “Bidi bidi bidi, booty booty booty, B-b-b-b-buck!”
I AM STILL getting over the passing of Burt Bacharach. (I know I know… GET OVER IT CHAD!!!)
This has always been one of my top Burt songs done over by Herb Alpert. Today I found that the original, which I love so much, he had redone in the past few years. It’s such a yummy song, that I like them both. Here they are for comparison.
This is the first time he did it. This is off my favorite Herb Alpert and the TJB album, SRO from 1966.
Here is the re-do from his 2016 album Human Nature.
Which do you prefer? Vote below in this crappy old poll plug-in I’ve had in WordPress for a million years.
Loading ...There are no words, probably because Hal David wrote most of them. Burt Bacharach had the ability to take the simple and complex aspects of music and roll them into an intoxicating sticky lump that you can’t stop whistling/hearing in your head. His quote: “Never be afraid of something you can whistle” holds true in most, if not all, of his music. For me, personally, it always makes me think of warm sunny days heading to the beach. I imagine it coming out of small transistor radio’s on a crowded Jersey shore in the 70’s. It makes me smile.
The modern day Mozart has left us.
My favorite Bacharach song will always be:
And this version of “Wives and Lovers” (the original) has to be the most dramatic, dynamic, complex, and catchy thing I’ve ever heard an orchestra do. I always play it very loud. The tempo changes are amazing. The ending always makes me smile. It shows Bacharach’s quirky side. Timeless. I will always be humbled by his genius.
I’ve always been a Bacharach fan. His music infects me like COVID. After 52 years, and I like to think I’ve been listening to music that long, it has come to my attention that I can safely select my favorite Burt Bacharach song.
It is KNOWING WHEN TO LEAVE
Dionne did it best with the lyrics.
The symphonic Burt one without the lyrics. Good one to test your speakers with.
And I have to include the “Karen” version. This one is special because it was never released. They did it as a medley with other Burt songs, but this is it ALONE which makes it wonderful.
It may be desperation or whatever, but I’ve decided to post more. DEAL!
Today I took the Korg Minilogue XD out of cold storage and found a way to make instant “music for airports” style ambient music with a tortured twist.
It was really easy to do and fun once its established
I forgot that the arpeggiator on the XD has a randomize feature. If you SEQUENCE the arpeggiated notes that are randomized (randomized within the chord you play) it makes nice random changes. Basically, each of the 16 sequence blocks holds 6 notes (two 3 fingered chords). Every time the sequence moves to the next block it plays those notes in that 6 fingered chord randomly.
So the little sequencer light is like: CA-CHUNK, play 6 random notes in the chord, CA CHUNK play 6 random notes in the next chord…. over and over down all 16 CA CUNKS of sequencer blocks. This creates a long random sequence of chord structures.
Once the sequence is set, then you can just diddle the hell out of the knobs while the sequencer loops with random chord structures that you predesignated. It’s really fun to mess with.
There are THREE oscillators (sound makers): Osc1, Osc2 and the Multi/User Osc.
I started with just the first oscillator. It was set as a triangle wave which makes it mellow. Then I slowly mix in osc2 which is a sawtooth which is a brighter sound. Then I slowly mixed in the multi/user oscillator using the “FAT 2” user oscillator setting to add growl.
The first minute is just the mellow osc 1, then there’s a pause. Then it comes back while slowly mixing in each of the other 2 oscillators adding some body and crunch to the sequence. I mess with various reverbs and low frequency oscillation throughout the piece to keep it freaky.
There is a ping pong reverb and chorus in there so it kills in head phones.
It’s like electronic wind chimes for the talentless (pretty much music for airports).