King Fidget – 180311

Sponsored by the letters F, G, H, I and J.

A challenging day to say the least.

I had a tradesman coming round today (not that he was unconscious or anything…), so I decided not to track guitar parts. Instead, I decided to address the issue of programming synth parts for King Fidget.

And it was going so well…

…I programmed up a nice little arpeggiated synth line in CE5 using the MinimogueVA VST plugin (Big Drift). Purely out of idle curiosity, I started messing around with the LFO settings and came up with some very interesting variations that I wanted to keep. I tried to record these as automations, but for some reason this wouldn’t work. Being prudent, and dreading the possibility of losing the synth line I’d already programmed, I recorded it to audio using the Behringer mixer and the Phonic Firefly.

I kept working at my LFO variations, but to no avail. Since the automation angle wasn’t working, I got the bright idea of recording the synth line to CE5 and adjusting the LFO “live”, as it were. But as soon as I started trying to record the adjustments, all types of crap happened; either the adjustments wouldn’t “take”, or the Minimogue refused to work at all. Most frustrating. I tried to copy the MIDI part onto other VST plugins, but they either didn’t sound right, or they wouldn’t work – in any event, I couldn’t recreate the arpeggio off the Minimogue.

I even tried running the MIDI part through the Juno-D, but the LFO adjustments wouldn’t take. Total bummer. I couldn’t record the adjustments, but I could play them. Occasionally…

…it was very late in the day, when I finally got the bright idea to record the adjustments “live” onto the Tascam 2488. After much trial and error, I got things working smoothly. The only complication was the fact that I had to solo the Minimogue while making the adjustments, so I had no idea, while recording, whether the adjustments would work properly within the context of the track. When I eventually transferred the wavs in CE5 and played back my efforts, I found the adjustments worked well enough, for the most part. I may, or may not, run both synth lines together from time to time in the mix and at other times switch between the two.

Oh, and I almost forgot – I programmed 3 nice ambient-sounding parts off the JV-880 (JP Heaven) and recorded them to audio.

After the day’s efforts, I now find that the track has taken off on a somewhat unexpected direction – the power of synths, eh? Editing and mixing should be fun…

Regards,

djp

Private Sector Weather Forecast Service – 140311

Sponsored by the letter B.

Programmed two further VST plugin parts in CE5, to wit, Gargoyle (Horror Cat) and MinimogueVA (Emerson’s Tarkus).

Job done. Time to move on…

Regards,

djp

Braille For The Feet – 080111

Sponsored by the letter I.

Dull, miserable and uninspiring sort of day today, so I thought I’d have a go at running up a new track in CE5. Not sure if it matches the mood of the day, but we’ll persevere with it for the moment.

Programmed a repetitive “pizzicato” part using the MinimogueVA VST plugin (Soft Mini Sweep). Detuned two of the parts and built a loop which will drop in and out of the track as it progresses. Programmed beats using HALion One. Found a nice strings voice on the JV-880 (SoarinString), the arrangement of which I built up and then reversed. I also used the ElecPiano3 voice on the D-110. I hope to put a nice tremolo effect on that when I record it to audio eventually.

Some nice ideas are coming together for the bass and guitar parts.

I’ll stick with this for a while.

Regards,

djp

Faster, Then Slower/Future Plans For Yesterday – 040111

Sponsored by the letter D.

FASTER, THEN SLOWER

I got a mad burst of inspiration to record a track that would “do exactly what it says on the tin” – get faster and then get slower.

I reckoned the only way to do this was to go totally MIDI – no guitar or bass parts – so that I could then achieve the faster/slower effect by messing about with the tempo track in CE5.

So I programmed some beats using the HALion One VST plugin. I then used the ElecBass 2 voice on the D-110, the Autumn Breez voice on the JV-880 and the Power Slice voice on the Juno-D. And that’s when things started to go somewhat awry…

…the Power Slice effect can be set to a particular bpm on the Juno-D, but the intention was that the track would change tempo, and I couldn’t  find any way to use CE5 to change the tempo on the effect on the synth in sync with the other MIDI parts. I could’ve dropped the Power Slice altogether, I suppose, but it sounds really good, so I was loath to lose it.

In addition, it’s no easy thing to draw a smooth tempo change curve in CE5. I had a number of cuts at it, but I couldn’t do it right.

So now I have a track called FASTER, THEN SLOWER which cannot live up to its title at all. So what did I do? I changed the title to another one I had stored away for consideration – FUTURE PLANS FOR YESTERDAY.

I decided to  press on with some more programming. I copied the MIDI data for the Power Slice voice and applied it to the Creamy1 present on the freeware MinimogueVA VST plugin. The idea is that I will cut from Power Slice to Creamy1 at various points throughout the track. Finally, I programmed a strings voice in HALion One (Old Tape Strings).

I’ll need to do a bit of editing between the various MIDI parts before I record them as audio. Another factor to consider is the fact that the Power Slice effect changes pattern if you happen to stop the MIDI playback part way through a track. So I may have to record a number of different versions of Power Slice to audio and pick the version that works best (if you have me…).

Plenty to do yet, but since there are no guitar or bass parts to record, I should have this track finished quite quickly.

FUTURE PLANS FOR YESTERDAY sounds like the title of a collaboration between Bill Nelson and the Moody Blues, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your own perspective on the world of music.

I still intend to complete a track entitled FASTER, THEN SLOWER  – I just need to work out a different strategy for programming/recording it.

Regards,

djp