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!!!

The ingredients are as follows:

1. Created a few notes sequence very slowly which you hear immediately at the beginning.
2. Added some sustain pedal just because.
3. Went from 1/4 division to 1/8 division (faster) and removed sustain.
4. Added the chord mode with a user chord I set up earlier and slowly increased the note count in the chord.
5. Then reduced the chord note count and added sustain and slowed it back to 1/4 division.
6. 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.

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

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.

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.

AS ALWAYS, BEST HEARD IN HEADPHONES.