The Mystik Garage

This Emu format CD Rom disk was made on an ESi Sampler. 
Loads perfectly into the Esi 32, Esi4000/2000, 
E4, E-Synth , E64, E6400 (and all the Ultras) 
and even the EIII 

add $5.00 Shipping

Version 2.2 Now Available!

$39.99

Not in stock-special order only.  Send a private message to Tweak at

www.studio-central.com/phpbb

   Register first

Sound Effects and Lo-Fi: A Little Discussion  

The Elements are things you've heard before--metal, wood, water, fabric, glass, fire, plastic, concrete, and energy exerted among them to make noise.  They might be struck, dropped, ripped, sawed, poured or smashed, or they might be in a more refined form of a traditional musical instrument. One might say that there are SFX CDROMs out there, but my question is, can you do something with them?  I have one, and while interesting, there is not a bit on there i can use for any project. While they use Foley or artificially create large environments with small common sounds, they don't give you the sample elements to do it yourself, but rather one sampled wave that will always sound the same.  Its analogous to getting prepackaged Loops instead of getting the individual hits, it always sounds the same and its use is limited. Sure you can put a loop in a program like Recycle and tear it down so you Can use it, or you can get the sampled elements, like the original samplist did, and construct it from scratch. A Good SFX collection will give you elements that you can put together to make cool new sounds with.  Hmm. I just listened to The Future Sound Of London's CD "Dead Cities".  They certainly aren't buying the SFX CDs out now!  But listen close to it.  You hear the elements woven into textures, hits, and unusual effects.  Creative samplists, to be sure.  

Then I listened with great care to one of my fave bands, Enigma.  How do they get that sound?  Its not just the chants  and the groove that do it.  Call it Lo-Fi.  Some of you know what i am talking about, so be patient OK.  As we create our MIDI and audio masterpieces, we at a point run into a brick wall with all these great sounding full-bodied samples.  We over saturate the audio bandwidth and as a result nothing sounds interesting.  The true artists among us have learned to exercise restraint.  A handful of well selected colors on the canvas will do better than a wash of 50.  The problem is often referred to as "cutting through the mix".  Over the past decade or so, we have learned that LO-FI cuts through the Mix like nothing else.  It contrasts with things often dramatically.  Listen to Enigma's 1st track on that last album.  How many LoFi sounds are there?  Tons!  Lo FI is no longer to be regarded as low quality.  In fact, one might argue that the benchmark of quality today is to do Lo Fi with state of the art quality.   If you have a lot of sounds and your mixes still seem to lack something, your fidelity quotient probably needs to be lowered.  Its really pretty ironic.  It used to be the guys with the lo-fi stuff were hopelessly locked out of what was considered professional.  Now, one has to have it to get in.

The Mystik garage is a combination of the Elements of Sound Effects and Samples that are LoFi, and done with the express purpose of obtaining the contrast we want in our art.  It is aimed to provide these two things, which you don't find in plentitude on any synth modules.  I attempted to show with Ice Kold that the MS20 is far from a "vintage" museum piece, but when sampled it can give you an edge in your stuff that $2000 synths can't do, including the modern virtual analog synths.  The Mystik Garage furthers that tradition.  You will hear sounds you never have heard before, but when you break them down you will find the samples that made them are common items you hear every day..  Best of all, you can use these elements and experiment.  That's what the folks leading the pack in sampling fame are doing, and thats what you can do in my garage!

My desire has been to make a disk you/I will find tremendously useful in your/my sonic explorations.

My garage is filled with lots of junk.  There's all the usual stuff like tools and lawn mowers, nails and screws, wood and sheet metal (and even a car when i can move enough of it out of the way), then there's lots of other stuff.  Broken Guitars, odd drums, toys, decades of audio equipment, shelves of old tapes from my college days, an old Silvertone amp, old commodore 64s running the very first computer sequencers, a crusty banjo, warped cymbals, an intermittent Akai X7000 sampler with my original library i sampled a decade ago, with its pawn shop basses, and other delightful recordings, like my world famous thunderstorms.  Real instruments include rain sticks, wind chimes, several different flutes, kalimbas, tambourines and shakers, cuicas, my very avante violin, and classic guitar and tons of "found art". If It makes a good noise when I throw it on the floor, it in!  Ok, I'll even throw in a few samples of some female vocalists that wandered into the garage once.   In fact, everything i can't fit in my audio lab ends up in the garage.  Such a musical garage!

Some things you will hear are the metal drops, box Kiks, screw pings, drill motors, vacuum cleaners, car ignitions and other motors, hack saw scrapes, power saw, fast food bags thrown from my car towards the trash, my gas can tabla, various tool drops, pots and pans played with drum sticks, cloth tears, tennis shoes snares, and more. More?  Yes.  How about some ambient noise, like conversations overheard at Airports, the Captain speaking, Noises from The Street, and  in addition to the Faucet squeaks, various water spills, even my leaking roof in a rainstorm.   I'll even throw in a the Toilet.  It was tricky lowering the mic into the whirlpool.   Of course you can use these sounds at there natural pitch, and yes they all go in various drum kits so you can play allot if them together.  But the real fun comes with the different pitches you get on your keyboard.  They sound rather Industrial.  

Speaking of drums, I've made a killer set for you.  I took my Sharp 702 minidisk up to the Austin Rehearsal Hall--an incredible place where all the Austin musicians go to practice.  Lo an behold, there was James Welch of the Orange Mothers (and other bands).  James arranged for me to record local drummer Tim Audi who gave me some powerful raw drum samples.  My drum kit is going to make anything else you have sound "old". OK, I don't know how peerless your kits are so that might be hype, but  each drum hit is enhanced using every trick I know.  Its will move you.  And gosh, just cause I'm so generous, I'll give you the raw kit in another bank in mono and stereo versions.  But in the main bank you get processed real drums. (Did I mention what Acoustic Modeler software can do for drums?  You will think you died and were in sample heaven.) Add to that 5 select hits from my MS-20 collection, modified for the garage, and some very Kold films and flams from my Old Dr. Rhythm edited to the extreme of cheesy-ness and some great drum rolls.  My Tom Roll will deliver you to Africa.  Oh while i was getting these drums sampled, I met an African percussionist who generously gave me conga samples and a great berimbau.

Industrialists:  Note that this set is a natural follow-up to Ice Kold Tekno.  Where Ice Kold was totally synthetic, this is more "natural", as most of the sounds have their source in the nature of things, rather than in pure electronics.   I even went out to some real workplaces and brought home the stuff. So I was thinking, if i could sample everything in my garage, which by the way has a most beautiful ambiance, add my usual bizarre tweaks on things, I would have one Fantastic and Strange Ensemble in my sampler. Then let me add some real home sampled instruments.  Like a 16 meg stereo multisampled Piano.(33 Stereo samples) (in its own bank--there is a 5 sample version in my 32 meg bank)  Its funky and cool! No it won't rival a Steinway Grand, but it will make your MIDI tracks come alive with feel. Then put my creativity to task with the programming of all the above.  How about a half dozen prepared pianos, totally avante gard key maps,  and some sounds that defy all conventional studio wisdom with a freshness all its own. This isn't enough for you?  OK then, let me also mention I am running these through Sonic Foundry's Acoustic Modeler Software.  Oh my God!  That's what I said when i said "OH!" in a train tunnel with an onrushing locomotive.  Want to hear some virtual instruments you have never heard before?  I have some pipes that are so big it would take a 50 foot person to blow them. Did you know the best Sex sounds are made by straws?  They are all here and the work is done for you. In addition to getting some very unique acoustic environments, you will get common sounds as if they were recorded in great concert halls with some of the world's greatest microphones.  Hey,  I didn't believe it either. Neither did my old college jamming' partners when they found out one of their characteristic madman laughs from a tape made long ago was cleaned up and is going around the world on this CDR.  Pure spontaneous madness.  Love it. 

What's a garage without a Garage Band.  I've sampled an authentic Garage band, The Factory, which i used to be the guitarist for  in Chicago Illinois.  You'll get garage band hits from real gig environments, complete with audience applause, count-offs, and a very addicting drum loop. (Just one drum loop, guys, you can handle it.).

Speaking of laughs I  have some great ones. My long term friend from the old MIDI Composers Workshop which was on GEnie many years, Deb Massey, has generously given me permission to use some of the vocal samples she gave me years ago. Among other more musical samples, there's a useful witch's cackle and a giggle.  Deb has an incredible voice and she's been singing professionally all her life.  I've got some really hip vocal hits you will use over and over. 
 
 The trouble with recording environments is noise.  If ambient noise doesn't get you, the mic pre amp will.  And dealing with tape, there's the hiss.  I've gotten around this with state of the art software noise reduction.  The result is a professional clean sound. Don't believe me?  OK then!  I'm up to the challenge!  4 Years ago I recorded myself playing an Aeolian Harp up in the wilds of Michigan at a Harp Makers house on a Dolby B cassette recorder.  Well i cleaned it up with my new Noise Reduction software and all my little digital audio tricks.  You will think these samples were recorded to DAT.  In this set you get this multisampled harp with a generous array of glissandos.

All the sound effects sounds were captured by me with my equipment.  There are some synth sounds that are taken from synthesizers and modules that have been discontinued.  I did not sample anyone's music, however, I did take liberty to sample my own.

Remember why we got into sampling in the first place?  Well, it started as a fun thing for me.   So I wont bore you with straight versions you already have somewhere else.  I'll give you all the stuff you don't have.   Some of these sounds are certifiably crazy, and a ton of fun. Put them in your sampler and you have a powerful palette that will put you in the big leagues.  If you are already a sampling pro, you will appreciate how much work i saved you with my 400 plus samples.
 Ok Off the soap box, on the the Bank List.

I think you will agree, this is sampling --and programming --at its very best.  Sure are plenty of CD ROM's out there.  But there aren't any like this! 

The Mystik Garage is Available for immediate shipping worldwide and is only available at TweakHeadz Lab

Rich the TweakMeister 

TweakHeadz Lab        Studio-Central        Audio-Pro-Central
About Tweak's zZounds and SameDayMusic Affiliations | Site Map | Support the Lab | Privacy Policy | ©2008 TweakHeadz.com