Archive for September, 2009
Rocking with the XV-5080…
EDIT: Updated version with different patches with some more bite for “vocals”. What do you think?
Today, like many days, I was going through the thousands of patches in my Roland XV-5080 and came across a few replicating some of Jon Lord’s (Deep Purple) organ sound. So, I decided to remaster an old MIDI of one of my favorite Deep Purple songs on the XV-5080, Child In Time.
The two organ patches I used for this song are called “Fire Perc” and “HeavyTraffic” from the “SR-JV80-08 Keyboards of the 60’s and 70’s” expansion board . I customized both of the patches a little bit until I was happy with them.
Next, after spending more time than I would have liked to looking for a suitable guitar patch for the song, I gave up and made a new one. I wasn’t really going for emulation and just made something I thought sounded nice in the song. I spent a fair amount of time on the guitar patch. I’ll try to remember to write something about it later.
The next thing on the list was the drums, I used the “Studio Set” kit from the “SR-JV80-10 Bass & Drums” expansion board and customized some of the cymbals and crashes a bit. I also routed the drumkit to a separate audio output on the XV. So that I could amp it up a bit during recording, I set it to output from the XV dry, and added a different reverb and very minor EQ to it.
After that, I worked on the “vocals”. Normally I don’t bother using or keeping “vocals” in MIDI music. But, seeing as Child in Time is as much a great organ piece as a voice solo, I decided to keep it. I settled on a smooth mellow sound using a couple patches on the SC-8850 which I think does the job of keeping the melody of the song’s lyrics.
Here’s the recording, let me know what you think:
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Download My Updated MP3: Child In Time MIDI Remaster v2 (Roland XV-5080 & SC-8850)
Download My Original MP3: Child In Time MIDI Remaster (Roland XV-5080 & SC-8850)
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SynthStudio Has Moved To A New Web Host!
Update your links!
I have finally given in and bought some new webspace with Dreamhost via a recommendation from a friend who says they are good. My only hope, is that their claim of unlimited space is actually true. I looked at a lot of webhosts, and many claim to have unlimited storage, but always have a clause reguarding actual content that takes up space, like MP3’s in my case. I wasn’t able to pinpoint anything with dreamhost on that issue. So we’ll see!
Why did I do it? I’ve done this for a few reasons:
- First, It’s less maintenance for me and more secure in the backup/disaster recovery area.
- Second, I was running my site off a first generation Apple Mac Mini! LOL! That thing is slow, the new host is much more powerful.
- Third, because I was running the site out of my home, I was unable to host on the default TCP/IP Port 80. So this solves that long lasting issue for those of you that were not able to see my site.
So, what does this mean for you? My very few but faithful readers? The site will be better than ever moving forward!
Now, why not celebrate the new with somthing old? The following are some old recordings of mine that go back to the ‘FruityLoops 3.0‘ era:
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Download Links to tracks above, in playlist order.:
Just got a new mixer to help make my life easier. I didn’t want/need anything fancy, like automation, or stupid effects processing. I just wanted a real preamp for my microphone, and some extra inputs. I decided on the Yamaha MG102c. It was a toss up between the Yamaha MG102c, and a much more expensive Behringer Xenyx 1204FX.
The issue for me was that I would have liked the multiple outputs of the Behringer. Additionally the Behringer mic preamps are supposedly better than the ones in the Yamaha, but I’ll leave that to the real experts. On the negative side, the Behringer has the effects processor I don’t need and comes with an external USB sound card which also would not help me since I use my M-Audio Delta 1010 ASIO anyway. In case you don’t know you can only have one ASIO driver loaded in FL Studio or any other software as far as I know, its a limitation of the ASIO driver spec or something.
The big positive of the Yamaha MG102c on over the Behringer is that it has more inputs than the Behringer 1204! One more stereo pair to be precise. I really don’t see why they (Behringer) call that thing Xenyx 1204, it should be called 804, or 84. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t count as an input just because you have two kinds of plugs! This rant of coarse is directed at the fact that the Xenyx 1204 has both XLR and TRS plugs on its 1-4 inputs just like the Yamaha. Behringer counts it as 8 inputs, Yamaha is realistic and counts it as 4! What professional engineer would use both of those plugs at the same time? I don’t imagine they would. Moving on, the only drawback about the Yamaha? It has no mute buttons! That’s kind of a bummer but not in a way that really matters for me.
By now, I’m sure you are saying: “But comparing the Behringer Xenyx 1204FX to the Yamaha MG102c is unfair if you don’t want effects! Compare the MG102c to the Xenyx 1204 instead! It has no effects, which also brings its price down a bit!” Well, they didn’t have that model at the store, and the Yamaha still has more inputs, so I opted for the Yamaha. Additionally, the fact that I am relatively brand loyal also entered into it, as I am thrilled with my Yamaha HS80 monitors. I also have my old Yamaha PSR530 keyboard, and a fair amount of my dad’s old Yamaha Stereo equipment that has yet to break down in my lifetime. 🙂
So I bought the Yamaha MG102c and so far it works great! The sound quality is perfect near as I can tell. For $99, I don’t think there is anything better at the moment.
Here are a couple photos of it.
My Yamaha MG102c Mixer.
Close Up of my Yamaha MG102c Mixer.
Now, because he was in the room, here is a photo of my bird!
Herman, my pet cockatiel posing for the camera.
This guy is one of the most amazing MIDI composer’s I have ever heard. I’m not really clever enough to write a nice bunch of paragraphs about how good he is. So, I’ll leave you with some of his music. Skeptics please remember, what you are about to hear is simply a recording of “one of those crappy .mid-e files” played straight through one of my Roland Sound Canvas’.
Enjoy! Oh, make sure you use the ‘next’ and ‘back’ buttons in the player to listen to all 5 songs posted here. Each one is better than the last!
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Click “More»” for the MP3 downloads.
More »
Today I thought I’d record some of the on-board demos from some of my synths. I got my old Yamaha PSR-530 keyboard to work, I thought it was broken! It appears that the plug for the DC transformer on the keyboard is busted. I recall never trying to test it with batteries, I kind of forgot it had a battery compartment. Low and behold, I put in 6 D-size batteries and it powers right up! I’ll have to take it apart at some point and see if I can replace the DC-in plug and repair it. So for now, here are some synth demos. Enjoy!
Note: Don’t forget to use the ‘next’ and ‘previous’ buttons in the player! 🙂
Roland D-110 On-Board Demo Songs:
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Yamaha PSR-530 Demo Songs (Some on-board, some from cartridge)
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Korg X5DR On-Board Demo Songs
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Click “More»” for the MP3 downloads.
More messing around with the XV-5080.
I made a couple weird analog-ish patches using a few interesting techniques.
Have a listen:
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Download Link: WeirdPatch001
Here is how I did it.
One patch uses MFX #16 StepFlanger and Pan-Delay global Reverb. The percussive sounds are a side effect of the Step Flanger effect. Pretty cool, huh?
- Here is the first patch without effects enabled:
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- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel1_Dry
- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel1_Dry
- Here it is with effects enabled:
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- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel1_Wet
- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel1_Wet
The other patch uses MFX #45 Multi Tap Delay.
- Here is the second patch without effects enabled:
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- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel2_Dry
- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel2_Dry
- Here it is with effects enabled:
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- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel2_Wet
- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel2_Wet
The pitch bends are done manually. I may try to program it into an LFO later on.
Here is the whole mix with all effects disabled:
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Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Dry
Now, you may ask: “Where is the phasing effect coming from?”
The answer is, I am emulating “Pitch Drift” of the classic analog synthesizer using LFOs on the waveform level. I used a technique derived from this great article from Sound On Sound magazine.
…And now for something completely different. For my friend Arfy, here is a little remix from an old Casio toy keyboard. I don’t remember the model at the moment. Other then the arrangement of the loops and the fact that I layer them sometimes, they are exactly as you would hear from the instrument itself.
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Download Link: CasioToyFun
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