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.
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.
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.
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).
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).
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!
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)).
Made my first experiment with my new Arturia Keystep 37
IMPORTANT! THERE WAS NO PLAYING ADDED ONTO THIS! JUST THE INITIAL SEQUENCE AT THE START. The expanding of the sequence is all achieved by adding notes to the chord structure with the dials. (And well, because I like effects I played with some chorus and panning because YOU SHOULD EXPECT THAT OF ME BY NOW!)
BEST IN HEADPHONES!!!
Keystep chord mode seq 1
The ingredients are as follows:
Created a few notes sequence very slowly which you hear immediately at the beginning.
Added some sustain pedal just because.
Went from 1/4 division to 1/8 division (faster) and removed sustain.
Added the chord mode with a user chord I set up earlier and slowly increased the note count in the chord.
Then reduced the chord note count and added sustain and slowed it back to 1/4 division.
Then messed with some of the chord modes (5ths and sustained chords etc) while adding notes to it.
I’m in a bit of shock right now. So I’m going to step away and think about how I’m going to exist moving forward. I am completely blown away already.
Got some fancy new colored buttons for the Korg Minilogue XD (in the back there with the colored buttons). The original buttons were black with black lines so you couldn’t tell where anything was set. It sucked. Most owners of the Korg Minilogue XD replace their buttons with brightly colored buttons with clearly visible lines, so you can see where stuff is actually set.
Well since I replaced the buttons, I had to test it. So I set about playing some “latched arpeggios” washed in too many effects. I recorded that. Then, because I don’t know when to quit (because I am not a real “artist”), I went back into the recording with the Yamaha Reface CS (in white in the foreground) and did a layer of noodling on top. This is how it sounds.
XD new buttons + CS
It’s not too long and is kind of a mess, but this means EVERYTHING WORKS! HOORAY FOR ME !
Today I got tired of my bass guitar being all dusty and junk. I haven’t played it in so long, I started to feel guilty. As many know, I do not know how to play bass guitar at all so once again, Ableton and looping come to my rescue. I ASSURE YOU THE BASS IS IN TUNE (even if my E sting is STILL strung backwards).
I simply played a couple of bits and chopped and looped the good. I used this chorus effect that makes the bass sound like it’s fretless (as I love the sound of a fretless bass even though I do not have one).
The drum pattern has been dormant on my computer now for a few months and I didn’t do anything with it, so I figured this would be of good use. It’s a Roland 606 plug in. I created the pattern a long time ago when I first acquired the plug in.
I added a little Yamaha Reface CS two chord loop to make it less boring (although it is still boring). The Mod and Texture sliders on the CS are AMAZING. I slide those up slowly for the duration of each chord. Powerful stuff.
I figured this is yet ANOTHER WORK IN PROGRESS laying around on my hard drive but I figured I’d post it just to see what people think.
No EXTERNAL HARDWARE effects (which really is a shame) but that could change in the future.
Thanks for listening/commenting and using headphones (they always help).
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