All posts by cemego

CHOB, Hozpitality, Music Sound Noise Audio

Wonderful Spring Day, Saturday, April 20, 2024

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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:

  1. While You Were In There
  2. I’m Back Now
  3. Now You Are Just Being Cocky
  4. Are You Ready
  5. No I’m Not Ready Yet OK I’m Ready
  6. Makes My Teeth Hurt
  7. Poop Flingin Serenade
  8. Needle Point
  9. Tokyo Nightmare
  10. Al Fine

STAND BACK AND BE AMAZED!!!

OR just click on this thing to download the whole album with the awesome cover in a .zip file you can share with people who like stuff and things.

CHOB, Cool stuff, Hozpitality, Music Sound Noise Audio

Korg Wavestate Native VST

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Korg Wavestate Native

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.

CHOB, Hozpitality, Music Sound Noise Audio

Harold Budd Obsession Hits Hard Today

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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.

CHOB, Chronicles of the Absurd, Cool stuff, Hozpitality, Music Sound Noise Audio, silly, WMOM

Stupid Twiki Shit

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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!”

Cool stuff, Music Sound Noise Audio, Polls, WMOM

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart

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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.

From Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, SRO (1966)

Here is the re-do from his 2016 album Human Nature.

From Herb Alpert, Human Nature (2016)

Which do you prefer? Vote below in this crappy old poll plug-in I’ve had in WordPress for a million years.

Which "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" do you like better

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Music Sound Noise Audio, WMOM

RIP Burt Bacharach (1928-2023)

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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.

Cool stuff, Hozpitality, Music Sound Noise Audio, WMOM

My Favorite Burt Bacharach Song

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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!

CHOB, Cool stuff, Hozpitality, Music Sound Noise Audio

Korg Minilogue XD Ambient 1

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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).

CHOB, Cool stuff, ctrlZstudio Podcasts, Hozpitality, Music Sound Noise Audio, WMOM

Weather Channel WeatherStar 4000 Muzak

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I have become addicted to the MUZAK on the WeatherStar4000 software. This is the software that was used to do the local forecast hourly display on the Weather Channel. Somebody hacked this software and hosts it on a live stream on YouTube. I don’t know how or why they would do this, but I found the music to be such a mindless noise and kind of a flashback. I can recall sitting around during blizzards when this stuff played in the background.

I’ve taken to listening to this while working from home. Call me nuts or tasteless, but it just works.

I recorded the stream’s audio for 3 hours, and found the 2 hours where the loop stops and starts. It breaks into 33 tracks. I’ve done the track breaking and the labeling. Sorry I don’t know the titles or artists. I “Shazam”‘d them with my phone and nothing consistent comes up. So I named them how I felt they sounded.

The song titles are totally ridiculous because of this. You KNOW you wanna hear Nurt Nurt Nurt Nurt. It’s totally different from Nerp Nerp Na Nerp, and wholly unlike Ningningning Nahnah.

Please forgive. (And if you give me artist and title, I’ll fix appropriately).

Here is a download link to the “album” (as it is). It’s a 110meg .zip file of 33 mp3’s.

NOTE: You may have to right click the link and select “Save content as..” or “Save target as…” because it’s a “spooky” .zip file. Trust me, it is virus free. I wore a mask!

Enjoy, and MOST OF ALL do not be ashamed to admit the power of MUZAK! Tracks 20, 31, and 33 are my favorites!

CHOB, Cool stuff, Hozpitality, Music Sound Noise Audio

The Birds are Back

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The Birds are Back

Still messing with the Arturia Keystep 37 and learning new stuff. I find it amazing how the on-board arpeggiator and sequencer can work independently of Ableton, so you can pre-plan, audition, and rehearse stuff before you trigger and record it into Ableton as MIDI files. It is SUPER nifty. The delicious ingredients list follows:

  • Arturia Keystep 37
  • A bunch of stock Ableton 9 gadgets and samples
  • Addictive Keys plugin (for dinkly piano)
  • Lounge Lizard plugin (for the Rhodes Electric Piano bit)
  • Yamaha Reface CS (for the screechy mono synth bit)
  • Novation Launchpad Pro (for various drum patterns and cymbal fills)
  • Audacity software (to record Bird noises found on YouTube)

This project started last weekend when my friend Keith was here. I was demonstrating the crazy stuff the Keystep does and just started laying out tracks. I finished the rest of it today.

As always none of this is perfect or etched in stone, but I had fun doing it and I like to listen to it. As always USE HEADPHONES!!!

(*As a special afterthought note: I just renewed my CtrlZStudio account. I noticed it started in May of 2010 (for those of you scoring at home)).