Commodore Remix

Trying to work with HD recording in layers... a short riff from yesterday:

Brilliant. Now cover Near And Far!






Your riff is very BBC-meets-Kraftwerk. It would be wonderful if you finished it, though a tv credits-length piece is also quite peachy.

@Commie User:

He he... yes... it's this sort of cheesy sound I was after... in the past, many B Zombie movies had this synth music in them... not exactly very frightening, but that sound sort of define that era's music

Today I recieved two devices that I've had before, but regret selling; The Vermona PH-16 analog stereo phaser, and the Synthoma Elkorus V2.

Actualy I bought them back from the same guy I sold them to, so it's my own units, that I bought new back then.

The Elkorus is an analog ensemble effect, reverse engineered from the Eminent/solina machines, just with a bunch of added tweaking options compared to the originals.

This allows me to put the ensemble effect on any synth I've got, which is nice now that I do not have the Eminent 310 Unique anymore.

I connected it to my Waldorf Microwave 1 today, and here is a small demo I made of the Elkorus added (the first phrase is just the Microwave raw sound with some ping pong delay added):
I'm happy with this module... at least it does not weigh 70kg like the Eminent ... I just wish there existed a stereo rackmount version of the Electro Harmonix Smallstone Phaser as well... but I'm thinking about making one from a small modular system instead... I think there are some Smallstone clones in the Eurorack modular market these days...

I've tried adding my new PH-16 analog stereo phaser from Vermona, but it do NOT sound like a smallstone phaser.





Also... I decided not to get the MOOG Voyager... I simply cannot defend the price it cost... it'll have to wait until one show up used instead...

I bought this instead to get the MOOG sound (yes I've had it before, and now I have it again ):

I'm not dead yet ... I've been making some serious changes to my studio lately, being bussy and all (don't think that's anything new I guess)

Lately I've begun doing more ambient oriented music, rather than rhythmic stuff, and I really like that genre now... I guess that at some point you just get tired of that 4 on the floor thing.... still hear it, just don't do it myself much anymore.

Thus I've changed quite a few synths in my studio, as that type of music calls for some specific kind of synths... more digital ones actualy, and some flexible analog/hybrid ones as well... also I've decided to make the studio less big... I'm tired of too complicated setups, and all that spaghetti-wire it end up being.

So I've dropped creating music via MIDI directly... I still use MIDI to play my synths, but I record in Audio Layers these days, and have decided that I do not want more than 8 synths maximum, and I try to make most of them run by USB connections, simply to remove half of the cords needed for MIDI connections... a few synths do not have USB, but I got a Roland UM-One for each of them, which also boils them down to "one cord" per synth.

I'm also using only modern synths... tired of old quirky stuff that need repair, and has MIDI quirks... stuff has to WORK! ,,, so all old stuff is gone now.

So what gear do I use now? ... these:



Everything else I've written about prior in this thread has been sold... I've got one Lexicon MX400 still, that I use for adding FX to any synth while recording, but this will be exchanged with a Lexicon PCM92 in the future for more pro FX capabilities.

I only use a small 1U rackmixer these days for mixing the eight synths together before they enter my recording device in my DAW, and have a Mackie Big Knob monitor controller for routing the output of my DAW to different monitos.

In my selection of synths, I've tried to get as many types of synthesis as possible, and preferably with analog components as I like those best.. .I've decided on mostly polysynths, since these are best for ambient, and also the flagships out there, as they offer the most flexibility.

The synths are:

Dave Smith Instruments - Poly Evolver Rack (hybrid synth with built in sequencer)
Dave Smith Instruments - Prophet '08 Module (analog polysynth with built in sequencer)
Dave Smith Instruments - Prophet 12 Module (hybrid polysynth with semi-modular mod.matrix)
MOOG - Sub 37 (analog monosynth)
Roland - V-Synth GT (VA synthesis & general sampler)
KORG - WaveDrum Global Edition (performance drum synthesizer)
Yamaha - VL-70m (physical modelling synth)

I still don't know what the last synth will be... one slot left, only time will tell.

I plan to make some Ambient C64 remixes soon, so stay tuned

In the meantime you can listen to three experiments here: https://soundcloud.com/kaleidoscopic-artworks

Well those sound very lush, though things like that aren't my favourite sounds in a synth. A synth isn't a synth unless it buzzes, bloops, whines and rumbles. All synths should buzz, bloop, whine and rumble, just like the Commodore.






On that note, how come even expensive soundcards couldn't do ambiences far more like the kind of thing on the Sparks' Number One In Heaven album? Not even the Soundblaster Live.

Good to see Razmo back and posting and as well Commie User

Yeah... it's been a while... life goes on, in several different directions... but I'm back again

Here is a short experimentation I did with some of my synths... especialy I wanted to test out my new MOOG Sub 37.... Jarre fans will very likely find themselves familiar with this I think ... and it's even a bit more bleep'n'bloop than my ambient pieces Commie

http://razmo.ziphoid.com/test.mp3

Haha, that's excellent. We should get you to do a track for Project Sidologie

That sounds really good Razmo.

Awesome test Razmo Turn it into a full track

Crazy test, Razmo. I second Analog - please make it a full track.

It's been a while since I've ranted in here, but hey! there are other things in life but C64 right? ... no!?

As this thread probably should indicate, I'm a bit of a gear'a'holic, and that has not changed one bit I'm afraid... studio always changing as usual, and I have given up on ever finding a "hardwired setup", so these days I have an open system, where I simply plug in the stuff I want to use, for a given project.

One thing that has changed though is, that I'm sick and tired of programing music... editing music... copying/pasting stuff around, even recording in layers is becoming boring... I've realized I'm a performance kind of guy, and my goals these days is to perform a whole peace in one go, using sequences and playing live on a keyboard to it, tweaking knobs along the way.

This has led to a bit of a change in the synths I now have... all the display/menu driven ones have gone, and been replaced (are being replaced) by small tabletop synths that has ALL parameters up front at the same time... no dual function encoders or fiddly displays anymore, sounds are being created from scratch for each project, tailoring it to the tune at hand.. I really love this way of working, but it requires that the synths are plenty, and easy to use and not too complex.

It's mostly analog synths I've got now... not that digital ones are not welcome, they just HAVE to have all controls on the front and NO menus ... digital synths like that are pretty rare, so it's mostly small desktop analog synths now... same thing goes for the FX... must be desktop units with all controls on the front. I need to change things quickly in a performance (think Klaus Shulze... that's the way I want to work)

I have plans to do some serious Berlin School /Ambient analog recreations of various C64 tunes, so maybe you'll hear some of these as they pop up...

Right now I'm using a small Mackie ONYX 1220 analog mixer, where I plug things into as needed... my main synths are Dreadbox - Hades, Erebus, Nyx and Abyss, and I'm ordering an MFB Tanzbär for some percussion very soon... then I'll get started creating something

Well.... that was about that... just a little hello to let you all know that I'm still ranting

Welcome back, Razmo.

Just got my Dreadbox ABYSS home, and tried creating a Jarre'ish stringer sound on it... a little test of it here (with a bit af Dreadbox EREBUS and HADES thrown in for good measure):

http://razmo.ziphoid.com/ABYSS-EREBUS-HADES.mp3

I like these synths, as they have that oldschool 70's like sound about them... there are some Lexicon PCM92 on this as well, otherwise there would be no stereo as all Dreadbox synths are mono

Tomorrow I'll be buying myself a Doepfer Dark Time hardware sequencer... if I can live with working on sequences in realtime, I'll completely take out anything DAW related in my studio... and work solely in hardware live... I hope I will like it because I'd REALLY like to get screen, mouse and keys out of the equation these days... I hate having to have a DAW around for making music....