(OT) My New Track: A Case Study on How I Work
2001-01-05 by Aaron Rosenberg
Hey gang,
Sent this to some other groups and people and got some really great feedback and ideas. Even song recommendations. Let me know what you think and how you think I could improve anything. So here's the scoop:
I recently just busted a gut working on my latest track M100 and I thought that this sort of work which all of us are doing would be great learning material. Other peoples' styles, techniques and gear have always been a real curiosity of mine.
So I thought I might give a track along with a little technical background as I thought others might be interested in the prodution. Give it a listen while you have this open so that you can read along and hear the various parts. It's at www.mp3.com/phenotype. The latest track is called "M100." (I've been reading too many String Theory books and such lately...) I would REALLY like feedback and technical recommendations as I am very interested in improving my music and technique.
Anyway, here are the details of the track:
-Samples are courtesy of NASA. The beautiful, wonderous copyright-free NASA. They're from several missions. They were used without the EXS24 and simply put through the standard audio tracks. Occasionally they have a delay. The stuff from the noisy missions got a high-cut filter on them. It's really great. I put it at about 3000-4000hz generally.
-ALMOST FORGOT: The sqeaky crank wheel part that alternates in the beginning and gives the track that kind of locomotive sound is the K5000s. It seems like the synth has this wierd ability to lose it mind distortion wise in the upper levels of resonance. Anyway, I have in running though the ADA Flanger. It's more complementary than anything else. Kind of lends to the groove a bit.
-Drums are from JoMoX Airbase 99. It is a great machine. The midi program changes are very iffy, yet the Logic environment is terrific. I simply pull up a drum kit that I for the most like (there are like 100000 of them.) At that point I switch to 'Edit' mode, edit the kit in the environment and then tweak one parameter on the Airbase 99 which in turn triggers the ability to manually save all my changes. As a point of interest, the ER-1 maps it's keys very very similarly to the Airbase.
-MS2000 has the slidy, legato synth part. There is an on-board delay/pan effect on the sound which adds nicely to the rhythm as it is set to sync to beat clock. This synth is a total blast and so easy to tweak into the land of "where am I." I love this synth.
-The big choral hit is from the Roland JD990 (great box) crossed with a sample of the JD990 in the EXS24 routed through the Logic Audio Phaser Plugin.
-The high frequency (radarish beacon sound) loop is the SH101 routed through a delay in the Digitech Studio Quad v2. Overall, I'mnot so happy with the Quad but it's a nive machine at times when it does the job.
-The Rumbly low-freq pong syncopated parts are from the Nord Lead running through the Lexicon Vortex, which as you may know defies explanation. Really, half of the great stuff on that box just happens. I don't ask. It just does it... If there ever was a box that encouraged mindless knob twiddling with amazing results, it's the Vortex.
-Strings are courtesy of the JD-800 with the Strings card. Maybe a parameter tweaked here and there.
-The 8th note bass landing on the off-beat is from Juno 106. The chorus II button is set. Noisy, but works well at times.
-When it breaks down at about the 5 minute mark, the Nord begins a fluctuation of its FM modulation and cutoff frequencies in the high register. Meanwhile the MS2000 gets pulsating high part resulting in a big crash with upward pitch bends and the blending of the strings and some more NASA shuttle samples.
Well, anyway I'm hard at work on the next one and I'll be sure to run by all you fellows. Thanks for any feedback and please send any similar tracks/songs with technical background info.
All the best,
Aaron
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____________________________ Phenotype _______________________________
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Sound Design ___________ Aaron Rosenberg
New Media Production ___________ 22 West 77th Street, #57
Internet Development ___________ New York, NY 10024
___________ (212) 496-9108
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http://phenotype.com ___________ aaron@...
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