Adventures in the virtual studio

Nevertimes

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Mon, 6 Aug 2007 08:59:00 +0100

I will not be maintaining this blog for the foreseeable future. See Neverimes for new music.

Song Update - The Perfect Way

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 11:00:00 +0100

This song has now been renamed from "More Together" to "The perfect way". Added Scotts vocals. Maybe to many effects on the vocals, sounds a bit darthy. Eastern descender riff now repeats in verse 2. Fiddled with compression an the bass to bring down the chorus level.

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Song Update - More Together v2

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 15:13:00 +0100

Drastically shortened the intro. Added a new chorus with a twangy guitar. Song now a lot shorter. Maybe need to ditch last chorus and have a bridge instead. I think I need to sort the levels out maybe bring up the twang and lower the bass in the chorus. I think the last verse with the twang guitar could just be a solo part. Also I think the 2nd verse needs the same descending eastern meloday as heard in the 1st.

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Song Update - Midnight Show v3

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 09:35:00 +0100

Took out the slow bit in the middle. Solo thats replaced has been reversed but it sounds just dreadful anyhow. Need to completely re-record the solo. Song been renamed from Downstrokes to Midnight Show.

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Song Update - Downstrokes v2

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Wed, 4 Apr 2007 12:48:00 +0100

New break after 1st Chorus and of course new Vocals. Break down in middle needs to be redone.

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Song - Chips 'n' Gravy v1

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Wed, 4 Apr 2007 12:43:00 +0100

Inspired by the likes of the White Stripes and The Eagles of Death Metal, this is a simple ,bluesey, raw sounding song with some intresting percussion.

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Song - What's to come v3

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Wed, 4 Apr 2007 12:10:00 +0100

Due to problems with my Odeo account there's been a build up of new songs that I can now publish therefore there are a lot of new ones today. This is the 3rd Version of "What's to come", the other 2 were never uploaded. This is identical to the 2nd version just a better mix. The main differences between version 1 and 2 were the drums. It may well be that we revert back to those old drums.

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Song - The Multiverse Song v1

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:27:00 +0100

Stab at an elektro type tune. 1st use of the highly recommended EZ drummer and it's latin percussion library. I really need to add some variation in all drum patterns, and convince Scott lay down some vocals.

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Song Update - Princess Alexandra v2

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:48:00 GMT

R-recorded vocals and guitar, added a second layer of guitar, panned both slightly. Used a slightly punchier drum kit. 2nd verse string synth is louder probably too loud ?!!? The break after 2nd chorus is now only Scott's guitar, this is a part we can't decide on. Added more drum fills. Also re-recorded bass now in tune ;) and altered melody slightly to fit G major scale.

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Song Update - I wanna be you dog v3

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:40:00 GMT

Added Scott's Vocals and some more drum fills.

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Song - Heading Out v1

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 17:30:00 GMT

An Acoustic folk song recorded by Scott on My new SE MINI M1C Cardioid Condenser Microphone.

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Song - Wasted Time v1

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 16:17:00 GMT

Bass is inspired by "Love I Never Had It So Good" by DJ Krush & Ronnie Jordan . The percussive rhythm that appears later in the song is recorded with my SE microphone. Its just tapping on a desk going through a resonator.

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Song Update - I wanna be your dog v2

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 09:24:00 GMT

Recorded some live bass and guitar. Added so lofi Motown style breaks in background and removed the drum machine track. Dubbed a solo over the original too that has an auto filter effect on.

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Song - I wanna be your Dog v1

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 18:46:00 GMT

Dancier version of The Stooges classic for the intention of playing live with the band. Used some EQ to extract Iggy's vocals.

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Song - More Together v1

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 12:25:00 GMT

The intro chord is three identical samples of a clean guitar picking an Am triad chord. The 1st panned slightly to the left, the 2nd is in the middle and is reversed and finally, slightly to the right, the riff ends a 1/4 bar early and very slightly delayed. This gives a four bar variation, it's loosely based on a technique called "phasing patterns" which I learnt about in an episode of the South bank show a while back about a composer called Steve Reich. The main drums are a pattern taken directly from the Groove agent pattern bank, they sound a bit like Air's Sexy Boy. The intro electronic sounding drums are an impulse preset I got of Computer Music "Live Special" DVD. The descending harmonic minor scale melody was recorded clean through my alesis multimix and then through NI Guitar Rig on one of its trippy presets. The rhythm guitar was again recorded clean then fed though the Steinberg Warp amp modeler VST. The speaking sample at the start was off a recent documentary about the LA music scene in the 70's (recorded on my mobile phone), I time stretched it a bit to give extra trippyness. The synthy sound at the end is one of the free 8bit chip emulator VSTi's I have, can't remember which one now. I quickly laid down the arrangements using Live arrangement recording which can be tricky using only a mouse. Will have to revisit the arrangement really.

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Song - Alone in the makeout room

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 23:58:00 GMT

Song - You do best v1

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 15:10:00 GMT

This is based on an old old song I used to play in my old band about 10 years ago. It's changed significantly though. The bassline is made using a Refx Junox2 VST plugin. The guitar melody over the verse is a placeholder for the vocal line, I don't have one for the chorus yet! The solos at the end are going through NI guitar rig, I mapped a nob on my midi keyboard to the wah wah pedal effect and recorded it's wah level seperatley to the guitar.

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Song - Downstrokes v1

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 21:15:00 GMT

A straight forward punk song with 2 twangy guitars and a distorted bass.

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Song - Woo woo v1

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 08:38:00 GMT

Song - Princess Alexandra v1

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 17:50:00 GMT

First recorded collaboration with The shrimp boat captain Scott. Vocals and guitar is by Scott in 1 take - amazing. It was recorded through my new Multimix 8 firewire mixer/interface. They sound a bit clicky probably due to levels or clipping. They need to be done again I think. Drums are the rock drums on groove agent 2 with one breakbeat sample used in chorus. The bass was recorded by myself through my line 6 Guitarport. It has a URS Classic console compressor on it with a bas preset.

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Song - See Line Woman Remix v1

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 14:47:00 GMT

This was mixed last night, it took about 8 hours solid. I was listening to A live Nina Simone album and a gem of a song came on - "See Line Woman". It's a very sexy, rhythmic and repetative song almost like some kind of tribal chant, perfect for a dance remix. In the process of making this I have learnt in detail how the complex beat warping works. It's a time consuming process to sync each bar up but worth it. An amazing feature of Ableton. The intro beat is a Reason rex loop chopped up a bit so is the digeridoo and the 909 drums also come from a reason refill i have. The Indian drums are from the Live clip library, there's an autopan effect on them. The bass and guitars are all my recordings, I think they may be out a bit, may need to redo. I also learnt that you can cut up clips in the arrangement view by simply selecting a section and dragging it. This allows a quick way of making drum fills, something i was struggling with before. My fault for not reading the manual. The whole mix is going through the PSP Vintage Warmer compression VST plugin as will all my sets from now on. The combination of the bass guitar, beats and dark scale remind by a bit of an U.N.K.L.E tune.

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Song - Gaps that don't exist v1

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:05:00 GMT

Hi this is a song heavily influenced by DJ Krush, in particular the double bass sound in Ha Doh. I've just used my bass guitar with modulation to create the weird effect. This is my first use of the amazing PSP Vintage warmer VST. It is used on the whole mix with a preset. Reason is used heavily through out, all the beats are Dr Rex. I figured out you can save the midi rex info from Reason into a file then load that into Ableton. The scratching effect is also from Reason and is heavily choped up in Dr Rex. Its also going through reverb and distortion through Reason.

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Song Update - Robotix v3

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 12:50:00 GMT

Ok last time I left this track I said I would tidy up the bass as it sounded all off beat. I think I may have recorded it live or something. Anyhow I reprogrammed it properly and rerouted the midi from Absynth to Reason. There are quite a few presets in the factory refill in Reason so it took me a while to decide on the bass sound (They all sound bloody good). I fed the bass through the scream distorter, I love the warm distorted sound that makes. I’ve shortened and tidied the mid arpreggiator bit (reminds me of “Move any mountain” by the Shamen) and turn stuff off behind it as I thought that bit sounded cluttered, the scale is now bluesy minor pentatonic rather than the eastern sounding one (The Harmonic Minor I think), it’s going through an autopan effect as well BTW. There are now trumpets in the higher bass bit, these again are from Reason’s sampler. I added a break down towards the end and a couple of fills done with groove agent, after the first intro fill I leave groove agent playing a programmed beat with it’s rock kit.

There’s a click when the bass comes back in, not sure why, will sort that out, tidy the arpreggiator *again*. Also I need to turn the scary sound back on, I muted it by mistake J. Then I’m done with this track, getting a bit bored of it TBH, may see if I can get some vocals on it but not that fussed right now.

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Song Update - Robotix v2

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 12:58:00 +0100

Tidied this up by adding compression on the 303.
Making the bass start before main kick drum.

A few enhancements:
Used the "Beat Repeat" Live effect one of the beat loops. This creates the random feel to the snare sound.

Added a solo of sorts using operator synth, the Live arpreggiator and the midi scale effect. I used the apregeggiator's hold setting to make it insanley quick, this makes a kind of sinclair spectrum loading sound. This was also fed through Live's compression device. I'm getting a better grasp of compression now thanks to various magazines and some books I've bought.

Going forward, want to make it shorter and put a breakdown in the middle. Do move higher bits on the bass. Also the Bass timing is a bit dodgey.

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Song Update - 1st Experiment v2

noreply@blogger.com (stubar.blogspot.com@hotmail.co.uk) — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 11:51:00 +0100

This is an updated version of my first experiment with my bass. Think I got guitar and bass in tune now. It is alot faster now. Still need to work on the structure, maybe a bridge. Also have some melodies to lay over the verse and pre- chorus. Maybe do using a different instrument or maybe guitar I just don't know do I.

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