Share your Groovebox / Electronic Creations

monquixote

For this weeks weekly beats the challenge was to do a track entirely with the Yamaha DX7 (Or the Arturia emulation of it). This followed on from my previous challenge of using only the Roland D-50 it seemed only fair as they were bitter rivals.

 I decided to make a UK Garage type track purely because I haven't made one for a while and I think the clean FM sounds of the DX7 suit the genre really well (MJ Cole used a Yamaha in the studio). I made heavy use of the super cliche Lately Bass, Organ and E-Piano patches which were in a huge percentage of 80's radio hits to hammer the DX7 vibes home.

 Unlike other weeks I didn't set myself a challenge to use crazy scales or chords so this one is in C Lydian and is pretty diatonic. I'm using a high F# on every chord as an upper extension to bash home the Lydian feel, but other than that it's all very basic chords.

 The other challenge was to make a track with the Synthesizer V vocal synth as I've had it for a while and used it very little for completed tracks. I'm using the Solaria voice print which seems to be better than the default voices although like all of them it's a little bit musical theatre. The vocals sometimes lapse into someone auditioning for Frozen the musical.
I added a bit of Minimal Audio Evoke to give it a bit of hard tuned robot sheen.

colourofsound

Not sure I’ve ever posted in here…I am not prolific but here’s a YouTube playlist of the bits I have done. Most are on the EP133

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHqXeUJzrCF2YTlVcw6PTw1XsW9XwA7gl

monquixote

colourofsound said:

Not sure I’ve ever posted in here…I am not prolific but here’s a YouTube playlist of the bits I have done. Most are on the EP133

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHqXeUJzrCF2YTlVcw6PTw1XsW9XwA7gl

Nice work subscribed and banged in some likes!

colourofsound

monquixote said:

colourofsound said:

Not sure I’ve ever posted in here…I am not prolific but here’s a YouTube playlist of the bits I have done. Most are on the EP133

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHqXeUJzrCF2YTlVcw6PTw1XsW9XwA7gl

Nice work subscribed and banged in some likes!

Thank you sir!

monquixote

Not really electronic, but this weeks track:

This is quite a departure for me

The challenge this week was to create something using Hemiola. Music with ambiguity between the rhythm being grouped in 3 or 2. 

I also wanted to explore Synthesizer V further and write a more conventional song.

I did this by having a harp playing an arpeggio in 3/4 and vibraphone playing the same chords in 4/4

The song is harmonically very simple with a basic line cliche progression with the bass note walking down over a static chord.

The Harp and Vibes are from a Roland XV-5080 which sounds quite good for a 90's rompler I think. The flute solo is from Arturia Augmented Woodwinds and the piano is the Kawaii model from the excellent pianoteq.

The ghostly noises are from Arturia Fragments.

The track was made in Bitwig.

Story 

The lyrics tell the story of Clara Schumann 

Clara was a virtuoso pianist and the wife of the composer Richard Schumann (A master of hemiola).

He was envious of her ability and attempted to stretch his hands using a machine leading him to paralyse his fingers and becoming reliant on her to promote his music.

He was introduced to the much younger Richard Strauss who he felt was the saviour of music and promoted as the "Favoured of the muse" unfortunately Strauss fell in love with Clara and the three of them ended up in a love triangle which drove Schumann mad leading to him throwing himself off a bridge and then checking himself into an asylum. 

Strauss then moved into the Schumann home looking after his wife and children, but never acting on his love due to his great respect for his mentor Schumann. 

When Schumann died Strauss moved out and finally died of grief when Clara died a few years later.

This song is their story.

Lyrics 

Far away

Longing to hear you play

Notes I wrote for you

Turn the page

In every score I made

Lines in three and two 

And if you were here I would hold you

In these broken hands

But I gave you to

The favoured of the muse 

Flute solo!

In my ears

Demons and ghosts appear 

Screaming out in A

On the bridge Clara I think of you

Lost in three and two

And if you were here I would tell you

I lived inside your hands 

But I lost you to

The favoured of the muse

monquixote

Snow White Testarossa

No Socks Penny Loafers

He just stepped of the plane from San Tropez

Ray Ban Aviators

Chinos Padded Shoulders

He Makes me feel like I'm the only girl in here 

He makes my yacht rock 

My jan hammer and my moet pop

he knows what a fool believes 

He wears his gucci with rolled up sleeves 

Treats me like a lady

Dressed up like I'm Sade

Wrote me a solo on his CS-80 

goes like....

MASSIVE SYNTH SOLO

Took me to Hawaii 

Mustache like Magnum PI

He proposed while we were fighting crime

He said

You make my yacht rock

In red stilettos and a feather cut

I'm not a fool to believe 

I wore my wedding dress with rolled up sleeves

Geoff Bridges is Rockwell Steele - Part time bartender at Bongo's Tiki Lounge and synth player in the house band Boogaloo Joe (Played by the real life members of Toto)

Fights crime in his Testarossa Spider. Lives on a super yacht in Marina Del Rey in LA and wears nothing but Gucci even though he has no obvious source of income other than his part time bar job.. 

Rosanna Arquette is Alexis Silke - Pulitser prize winning investigative journalist and part time swimwear model. 

Together they are the crime fighting duo Silke and Steele.

Bongo - Dean Stockwell  owner of Bongo's Tiki Lounge and creator of PORCARO (Patchable, Oscillator, Routing, Crime, Analysis, Reasoning Operating-system) - A self aware computer and modular synthesizer which they use to fight crime.

Their main plot of the show relates to a drug triangle between LA, Hawaii and Miami leading to the show having regular crossovers with Magnum PI and Miami Vice.

Kenny Logins plays - Santino the drug gang enforcer and Christoper Cross plays the shadowy "El Conquistador" the kingpin of the whole organisation.

Eventually when the ratings slip PORCARO is downloaded into a futuristic hovercraft deigned by knight industries and he becomes "Hover Cop" although many people feel the show jumped the shark at this point.

Music Breakdown

This started as a lofi indie / hiphop track, with some weird modal mixture chords. 

A: Am7 -> Cm9 -> Bm7 -> Fmaj7 -> Am7 -> Cm9 -> Bm7 -> E7

B: Dmaj9 -> Gmaj9 -> Dmaj9 -> F#m7 -> E7

When I was trying to work out what they were called Gemini commented they were "Yacht Rock" chords which set me off on the lyrical theme and accounts for why the lyrics don't really match the musical style.

Musically it's very simple: Easy drummer for the beat with a very damped 70's type kit. Moog Bass from The Legend, Prophet 5 keys from Repro 5, Arturia Yangtze for the instrumental lead riff, 

The solo is a tribute to Rosanna, but the Purdy shuffle on the drums sounds a bit weird at the higher tempo.

Depite declaring it to be on a CS-80 I found it didn't sound right for the Rosanna style solo. Looking up the original it's apparently a layered CS-80, Moog, Prophet and Jupiter (The 80's huh ) I used an Oberheim via Obsession as that always screams 80's synth solo to me.

Vocals are once again Synthesizer V Solaria, she makes an excellent Alexis Silke.

Snap

@monquixote ;
both tracks are really good. I've started watching Miami Vice again right from the very first episode, am on S1 E11 I think, maybe a bit later. Love the vibe!

I finally got round to publishing this track, it's been sitting in my files for months, so I just thought, stop faffing, render it and master it and be done with it. I was coming from a late 80s/early 90s 808 State + Orbital vibe.....

Snap

Synths:
Most of the arps were done with Z3TA+ 2
the "wob wob" bass clip was done using Massive X
Rest is from Omnisphere 2, Absynth, I think the lead vox humana is from Omnisphere
Drums  - various sample packs and Butch Vig Drums.

Ravey horn - Battery 4

A few samples here and there, crowd noise etc.

Mastering in Ozone 11
Various plugins - Soundtoys & NI mostly.

monquixote

Snap said:

@monquixote ;
both tracks are really good. I've started watching Miami Vice again right from the very first episode, am on S1 E11 I think, maybe a bit later. Love the vibe!

I finally got round to publishing this track, it's been sitting in my files for months, so I just thought, stop faffing, render it and master it and be done with it. I was coming from a late 80s/early 90s 808 State + Orbital vibe.....

Thanks!

Weekly beats has really upped my production game.

I like this a lot. - You should put it in the composition challenge. 

Once suggestion might be maybe to sidechain some of the synths to the kick drum to give them a bit more bounce.

Def getting the prodigy / 808 state vibe.

Snap

@monquixote cheers mate. My music making has taken a serious nosedive tbh. I daren't admit how little I pick up a guitar these days either. All needs sorting!!

Snap

this was a short idea I got down when I'd first loaded up Sequis Dark in Kontakt8. I really like the sounds in this instrument, and will have to do something with this idea I reckon. Butch Vig Drums again - that's a good sounding instrument

monquixote

Snap said:

@monquixote cheers mate. My music making has taken a serious nosedive tbh. I daren't admit how little I pick up a guitar these days either. All needs sorting!!

Doing weekly beats has been huge for me in terms of getting stuff done and you can drop into it mid way through the year and there is no demand to do something every week. 

I very rarely play guitar these days. 

Sporky

I made a sort-of new one. It's based on a track my last band did but converted to my current instrument set - was originally guitar, bass, and drums.

monquixote

Sporky said:

I made a sort-of new one. It's based on a track my last band did but converted to my current instrument set - was originally guitar, bass, and drums.

Love this. 

Great kind of electronic prog rock vibe and some awesome chord changes.

Sporky

Thank you!

The bass player was great at offsetting things. The shifty bit near the end is all my own work though. 

Sporky

And another. This is the theme tune for The Wrong Princess, minus the voiceovers. If anyone wants to record those and sounds like either Ray Winstone or a furious princess let me know - I have the lines written already.

Snap

Sporky said:

And another. This is the theme tune for The Wrong Princess, minus the voiceovers. If anyone wants to record those and sounds like either Ray Winstone or a furious princess let me know - I have the lines written already.

nice, and I really like the string pad that comes in from the start. Rich!

Sporky

Ta. I'm now doing the voice overs myself so will update. 

monquixote

Latest quick noodle on the Polyend Tracker: 

monquixote

Sporky said:

And another. This is the theme tune for The Wrong Princess, minus the voiceovers. If anyone wants to record those and sounds like either Ray Winstone or a furious princess let me know - I have the lines written already.

Love this dude!

Starts off like some post punk moody thing then just explodes into classic Sporky crazy arpeggios.