Sound
Development Journal of Rich the TweakMeister
while Making the
Post-Industrial CybrSound Depot
Part 2
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1-5-01 We are in Overtime,
folks. I added a few more DnB style snares--rim shots with select
frequencies removed and the kits just blow me away. I am planning to
make one more super preset. This is going to be something you will
not find anywhere. I'm going to take some ms20 super saw waves and
route them to everything in EOS. That's right, to ALL the
controllers. This will allow the closest thing to true analog
synthesis on your emulator. Just think, you can take this preset and
point it to other samples for the ultimate in real time cords modulation.
The new demo, Rave at the Temple
of Tut is up, and a new sample preset list has been updated.
1/13/01
Many refinements added during the
last week which you will appreciate, and hundreds of samples are
retweaked, re effected, eq'd, gain optimzed, and cleaned of pops and
blemishes. and many are being replaced. I've got to like it for it to
stay, or it gets marked for removal. Most newsworthy is the drum
kits which are now slammin' hot, and quietly cool. While I
liked the snares i cooked up a real lot, I decided it was time to add a
real snare drum and real hats to my arsenal. So you'll hear the
samples of my new Tama 5.5 x10 snare. This snare is great for DnB
samples, it really has an attitude. Out of about 50 pedal hat
samples I made last night I found one that was perfect for the project.
I am also replacing some of the redundant synth FX with acoustic samples.
So I am putting in some new sound effects elements for that ambient touch,
bamboo wind chimes, stereo babbling brook, an alternate sample of my
Mystik chimes which were featured on the Mystik garage, a hit of my
Egyptian Tambourine. So things are rounding out in a nice way.
The project will be going to beta
test next week. We are getting closer. But you will be glad it
took so long, when you get it.
1/25/01
I finished tuning, then decided
after doing the Rave at the
Tomb of Tut demo (which makes me recoil in horror at
parts) that overall the bank was bass heavy so I swept through all 1000
samples and re-eq'd them. Now they stack up in a mix a lot better
and the top end is cleaner. Of course I can't just leave in a dud
sample or two so I decided to add CZ101 Brass and Violin. Hey I know
they are cheesy, that's why they are in. Fixed some DC offsets and
then when back to the preset level, calibrated my Ultra and mixer to 0db
with the on board test tone and then set the preset volume for every patch
so the peaks of each sound dance around 0db. This has added real
polish to the overall sound. You can run your Emulator with the
master volume on 10 and the midi volumes at 127 and there will be clear
sound with a crisp edge, but no distortion even holding down a chord..
Back off from 127 and you can stack to your heart's content.
And I am back to demo-ing.
Trying all the presets and learning which don't seem to work so I can
modify them or replace them. I'm going to take my time here and make
sure its final before I do, yep, one more bank reorganization and make the
non-ultra banks. I made a killer Sitar out of the acoustic guitar
samples and reworked many of the drum kits and refined "just 4
kiks", "all snares" and "kiks and snares" which will be useful at mix time
if you like to isolate channels of these central drums.
So we are miles ahead of where we
were on New years day, and my ears are still open. My feeling is to
hold off on release.
I just updated my article,
"Secrets of Sampling"
since I am working so furiously the last few months. if you want to
read up on my methods, here it is!
You climb a stairway to the top
only to find a door. You knock, no one answers but you can hear
muffled voices inside. You touch the doorknob and realize it's open.
You know you are ready because you have painstakingly prepared for this.
Ah. back to tweaking, inspired.
1-30-01
Hyper critical mode! I am
slashing samples from the project with a vengeance Doesn't matter if
I spent a day on it, if it doesn't please me, it OUT! Readily
replaced by a new candidate that will satisfy. This is slash and
burn time before the final, long dreaded day of reorganization #3.
2-4-01
Another week has passed and
improvements were made every night. Tossed out samples and replaced
them with hot new stuff from Dynamo's new Juno plugin and sample munger.
Also Sampled in more acoustic stuff, my new Aztec drum and Ocarina,
Maracas, straight Tambourine, and one African drum that I don't have the
name for. Also made a full Cyber Disco song, available in a few
days. finally. I'm psyched, because at last I am hearing the kind of
music that has inspired the project a 21st century Dance music, resting
solidly on the shoulders of the '80s, but with an intensely modern
cyber-spacey feel. My friends, you will not find anything like this bank
anywhere else. And more good news is, I only had to go into
SoundDiver one time to fix something wrong with a preset
2-12-01
More tests; more tweaks, and more
real world samples. Went out and got a new set of windchimes, the
Matador Jazz Chimes and made up a nice long stereo glissando which will
give a nice ambient touch. Decided this weekend I wanted to be a
bongo player! Put two hard slaps in the set that will gut through
the mix and shake booty. Irritated by the lack of long cymbals in
synths I added a strong China Cymbal. Decided too that one of my
long stereo MS20 drones didn't have to be stereo and added a Korg
Electribe animated sweep that is very reminiscent of the old Morpheus
samples. Finally, added my new "Goat's Nails". These are actually
the rattling toenails off dead goats and they sound exotic.
Retweaked all the major drum kits and built Cybr Kit III.
The interesting thing about the
Cybr Kits is that they start out like a solid hard hitting electronica kit
for the 1st 2 octaves, but each successive octave gets a bit more abstract
and spacier till you hit the c6-c7 where its "way out" but still makes
sense musically with transposing up a basic pattern. . Incorporated
the Aztec 'tongue drums' into the Ambient kit at their natural pitches and
with the new chimes and goat's nails, this kit will softly rock you into
mysterious realms. Added 2 more basses that cut through on the low
end. Tonight I started getting ready for sample
reorganization,,,dread of all dreads; its almost here.
2-17-01
The last samples were added--mini
bongos, a beautiful maracas with a long tail, a mbira hit, vibraslap and
cleaner congas. These have really made the ambient kit sound worldly
and I just love it. Finally, I put in a few Korg electribe hits and
drones adding yet more color. I am finished with the set! I spent the last
2 days going through the awful reorganization process (about 10 hours of
button pushing in extremely repetitive ways, battling all the file system
bugs in EOS on the way). It's now done. All samples and
presets are in perfect order. End in sight!
2-24-01
Now we are having fun. When
you get to this point in a project of this scope, that is when all the
pieces are in place and everything is good, you keep at it and add value
with every move. I logged over 50 hours this week on the project.
Hundreds of presets refined, hundreds of samples retweaked and a few
replaced. I have tons of ideas for new samples and sometimes I can
actually manage to justify a replacement. SoundForge 5.0 arrived at
the lab and I've been making good use of the new WaveHammer
compressor--really nice for samples. Spent most of today and
yesterday tweaking kiks--very tricky and oh so important. Getting it
loud and thumping without destroying the sonic field is a matter of art in
itself. You will love my 808/909 kit. I have never heard a better
one! I invested in a gabber/hardcore cd to see what they are doing.
Lots of distorted kiks. While I am not a hardcore guy, I have let it
influence me in an artful way. Many of the pads are simply
awesome with textural beauty now, basses are retweaked again, the space
sounds are deep and evocative. I am also tweaking the onboard fx.
But this is just for those who like the Emu effects. I will probably
recommend that the FX be globally turned off for thick arrangements.
Even with the sends set to 2-3% the emu reverb seems to get in the way in
a mix. It can be useful for sparsely tracked ambient mixes. I
will make sure that patches sound great both dry an wet if I use the FX
options.
Today I added a cold satellite
from my VFX set and an ambient sample recorded outside the clubs of
Chicago at 4am. Metaphor of the day: Endless abyss of possibility.
When you get the idea behind the Cyber Depot, you will realize you are in
an audio universe where anything is possible, Tonight auditioning
patches, I was at last strongly blown away. But I am still not ready
to call it quits--we are waiting for the point of diminishing returns, the
point when adding makes things worse. I am already there with the sample
set. It takes a long time to come up with better stuff than I have.
Yet there is still some room among the 980 presets. I like to have
presets where all 88 keys do something meaningful in a related fashion.
And I love throwing in surprises. I like every preset to be a "portrait"
that totally stands on its own. Yet I also insist that it be useful
to another artist. And at every point I am thinking of all of you.
What will you need when you call up this preset? What do you need to make
your project stand out? This cd rom will only be successful to me if
you actually use it. My goal is nothing less than to make your music
great. So when I think of adding a sound, I am thinking of every angle by
which you might approach it.
2-27-01 The Landmark Day
Arrives
Last night I realized, while
making a new song called CyBr DisKo, hunting for patches, that I am
truly blown away. Then today, as soon as I started
programming the feeling was stronger. Didn't stop me from running
out to pick up one more instrument for the set. I added a Doumbek to
my arsenal and yer gonna get it soft and hard. Gotta have it when you go
ambient and need those subtle deep bass tones. Then later as the Tweak had
to mow his yard today, I found some forgotten old rusty bells in the
backyard. They are simple gorgeous in their exotic qualities.
So I crafted a stereo loop of them and they will please and relax you.
Finally, I added some 11k lo fi samples of my phone dialing and 56k modem
connecting. I mean really, how can i approach the sounds of
cyberspace without a modem sound? You'll like it.
Then I started a new song
"Ambient Two" and within suddenly the wash of emotion came on like a warm
ocean wave. Realization: I've made it past the threshold of
Quality, and the overall vibe of the disk is speaking with
a clear voice. Its like the clouds have finally passed and I realize
the sun is shining. The sounds are smiling! No
kidding, You will smile! You play through the
presets and you'll hear it too. No I am not crazy, stoned or
tripping. I'm a TweakHead, I know about these things. This is a set
that will engage not only your musical mind, but your heart as well.
Wondering how sampled electronic music can have a heart? Buy this
disk and you will find out. Believe me, i am not just saying this to
sell disks. Its not easy for me to be blown away. I've heard
everything and rarely get past detached amusement. This is not
another techno-industrial-dance set. Consider it enlightened
techno-industrial, infused with feeling. Genuine raw dance
power, yet with a perspective on the beautiful, the beatific, the worldly
and other-worldly. Its a very good vibe. You will put sounds
together and you and your audience will feel the irradiating soul of
the 21st century. Many of the sounds touch on memories we are
only about to first experience. Read that again OK? As you
see, I am confident. I can sell with confidence knowing you will not
be disappointed. And my bet is that you will instantly hear what I
am hearing and this disk will be on top of your stack of cd roms.
Also I can now announce the release date: March 9th at midnight.
There is a new just
uploaded list of presets and samples. in the online Manual. I will
have a logic environment ready by the release date. (ed. Done 3/11/01)
And later I will make a cubase .dev file and cakewalk .ins file. All
of these will be downloadable. There will be a dedicated MP3 page
for user songs (ed. Done 3/11), I will set aside a page on TweakHeadz for
user presets in SoundDiver format. The price? Come back on March
5th. Or subscribe to my newsletter.
3/1/01
The Latest demos :
1.
Ambient Two
2.
At the CybrDisKo
3/3/01
Try as I might to shut it down, it
won't let me. And now I've got a deadline to mind. New
instrument at the lab and the final one for this disk: A north African
Kora. Sort of like a Koto, but softer, due to its light nylon strings.
I was going to save this one for the next cd rom, but gosh, I had to
sample it and once I did, I had to include it. Its only 2 samples
(I'll do the full treatment next time) but you will like it because I
tuned it to an exotic scale that will fit in the palm of your hand. Also
in the preset are doumbeks tuned low, mbira, and the aztec drums, so it's
an ambient party ready to play. It's so playable and good sounding
its now in the #6 spot. Also made a BPM string section patch.
You'll hear the traditional fast bowing of an string section on steroids,
but on this one, the bowing speeds up and slows down according to your
sequencer's tempo. There's also a new preset called Bombay Strings,
ideal for a worldly sounding Orch.
3-06-01 5am
I spent my weekend doing nothing
but adding spices to the performance presets, and enjoyed every moment,
watching and hearing keymaps come alive with imagination. A great night!
Sunday night I called an end to sampling and programming. And
started the final disk building process. As of today I have a rough
draft of the disk finished. Right now there are 10 banks, the master
128 meg bank and 8 other smaller banks which include all 980 presets.
There's also a Mystik Garage demo bank. I still have 15 megs on the
515 meg disk free. I'll put something cool there. The smaller banks
are meant for people using non-Ultras with the 456k limit on preset RAM.
They range in size from 17 meg to 62 meg, so those of you using Flash ROM,
(which uses up 64 megs of your total RAM) can still use banks from this
project. Of course, even if you only have a 4 meg EOS machine you
can use this disk. You just browse for presets within the banks and
load them into memory till you run out. I think my range of banks
will have most of you covered.
Here's the Bank
List:
00 Master Bank 128 meg
01 Ambient Bank 48.2 meg
02 DnB and Dance Bank 46.7 meg
03 Industrial One 63.4 meg
04 Orchestral Bank 38.0
meg
05 Noiz and BPM FX Bank
62.7 meg
06 Guitars Bank 15.5 meg
07 FX and Performance Bank
60.1 meg
08 Build Yer Cybr Kit Bank
14.4 meg
09 Mystik garage Demo 1.3
meg
10 Celestial Windowpane Demo
7.4 meg
The cool thing is the 1st 6 banks
can be used by themselves to make a complete song. Each has drum
kits, basses, synths, pads, etc., so you can load it and merge your
favorite bank (s) on top or vice versa. For example, you can load
your Emu Orbit Bank, or World percussion, or one of the many proteus banks
and load one of mine on top. See, i never stop thinking about you
guys and how you will use this disk. The Build yer own Cybr Kit,
Bank 08, has all the drum samples but few presets, so its perfect
for constructing your own kit out of the 250 drum sounds
Looking like we are on target for
the deadline of March 9, but it will be tight
3/8/01 11:30pm
There is 24 hours till my self
imposed deadline and I intend to keep it. Tonight is the last tweak
on every preset and the final burn. So come back in about 24 and
pick one up!
3/9/01 Midinight
Time for me to let go of the
project, and time for you to have fun with it!
We are burning and
shipping Post Indie right now!
SCSI problems hampered the final
burn and my system again went down to blue screens, broken scsi drivers
and I have enough coasters to decorate a Xmas tree. But this
afternoon I isolated and corrected the problem and we had a perfect burn
and successful drive image made. The burn from image was also perfect, and
now l and I am printing covers and burning disks! I can have on in
the mail to you tomorrow!
Because I haven't yet sent the
info to my normal credit card server, I have given you the option to pay
via PayPal. Its very simple and safe, and you don't have to have an
account with them to pay by credit card if you live in the USA. If
you are outside the US you do have to set up an account, but its all free
either way to you. (I have to pay them a percentage).
3/11/01 Revised the
manual
and put up the final preset list and uploaded the logic environment.
Other sequencers will be supported soon. Thank you all for your
support.
3/16/01 The regular secure
server is updated
Its time for me to take a break!
Sound development and the quest
for truth and beauty are one.
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