There's a spanish slang phrase that says: ¡Tintorro p'a las penas!
When you're down, sad or screwed up you go to a Bar, drink some glasses of cheap red wine (Tintorro) and try to cure your pain (p'a las penas) but in the end you finish totally wasted... :D
Some days are better than others, and as a well-known artist's topic says pain can evoke art. So here I'll post one song evoked by some pain and nostalgia, where the synth full strings pad flows with my fingers, following my hard-earned emotions like a river of teardrops.
Enough emo stuff.
You can hear a nice 303 pattern flowing through the song matching the groove thanks to its accent punctuations and some melody note programming that accompanies the main harmony. I think it's the catch of the song, as I thought it was an inspired bassline and it doesn't get old fast.
Then you have the bass, oldskool analogue sound with oldskool sequence-alike. Maybe I can update it a little to sound more à la page... then the base, with this hard kick and a lot of hi hats... making it defined in lows and highs but lacking mids... so I can accomodate the rest, 303 and rough analogue bass.
Tell me what you think, let the strings flow and drink a cup of harmless acid! [put smiley here]
Click or right click: bombjack - acidorro pa las penas.mp3
viernes, 21 de noviembre de 2008
martes, 18 de noviembre de 2008
thursday
When you have a spare night on your own, with those desktop dimmed lights and a couple ice cubes with coke...
Thursday night everyone went out, so I did what I do with my spare time: videogames. Not really.
Trying to use three sidechain modulators for just one track can be a hassle, but after some rehearsal I found that using the pre-fader send is a joy. When you have three different dynamic tracks that you can use to duck that juicy pad everything could happen, and it happened.
You can hear when the pad starts to fade in a subtile dynamic change, followed by more drastic ducking, besides going off-tempo to do a nice atmosphere movement side to side that repeating chord pattern and drum programming. In the end you can hear the ducking itself fades in and out with some different patterns, thanks to kick drum and that percussive chord pattern.
Also, there's a little melody that comes near the end with some sort of synth pan-flute that adds some mystery.
Check it out (and try it mixing upwards another rhytmic song ;)
bombjack - thursday.mp3
[right-click, Save As... to download]
Thursday night everyone went out, so I did what I do with my spare time: videogames. Not really.
Trying to use three sidechain modulators for just one track can be a hassle, but after some rehearsal I found that using the pre-fader send is a joy. When you have three different dynamic tracks that you can use to duck that juicy pad everything could happen, and it happened.
You can hear when the pad starts to fade in a subtile dynamic change, followed by more drastic ducking, besides going off-tempo to do a nice atmosphere movement side to side that repeating chord pattern and drum programming. In the end you can hear the ducking itself fades in and out with some different patterns, thanks to kick drum and that percussive chord pattern.
Also, there's a little melody that comes near the end with some sort of synth pan-flute that adds some mystery.
Check it out (and try it mixing upwards another rhytmic song ;)
bombjack - thursday.mp3
[right-click, Save As... to download]
(let's talk about) ssexs
sexual innuendo here
This track came to me when trying the infamous sidechaining effect where a signal ducks (lowers the volume) another with the required attack and release. Cubase is very tricky on this matter, because of no native sidechain routing. You need to do it using a Quadro (four channel surround buss) group. Sending one track pre-fader through inputs 3&4 (thus controlling the ducking level at your wish without affecting the track level, as a modulator) and routing the track you want to be ducked through group inputs 1&2. If it sounds tricky (it is at first) check here. Video not done by me.
The cool thing is applying this technique to a 303 bassline with some crazy delaying with spectral shifting and stuff, check yourself: bombjack - ssexs.mp3 [right-click, Save As... to download]
This track came to me when trying the infamous sidechaining effect where a signal ducks (lowers the volume) another with the required attack and release. Cubase is very tricky on this matter, because of no native sidechain routing. You need to do it using a Quadro (four channel surround buss) group. Sending one track pre-fader through inputs 3&4 (thus controlling the ducking level at your wish without affecting the track level, as a modulator) and routing the track you want to be ducked through group inputs 1&2. If it sounds tricky (it is at first) check here. Video not done by me.
The cool thing is applying this technique to a 303 bassline with some crazy delaying with spectral shifting and stuff, check yourself: bombjack - ssexs.mp3 [right-click, Save As... to download]
noname
A month ago I decided to try some of the automation tricks learned after battling with VST-instrument tracks into Cubase.
You can hear the pitch changing up and down (about 7 st.) with the help of a little VSTfx called Pitchwheel. This fx lets you change pitch accordingly with a large wheel AND the possibility to click outside the wheel, following the out-ring, to do some cool pitchshifting instant effects. Also a glide parameter can be configured, so you can do a portamento-effect between semitone steps.
The next thing I did was using a chopper-random-swissknife tool (like the freeware dBlue Glitch) to process some loop and add a rusty malfunctioning mechanics effect. Quite satisfying.
I've done in the past a lot of tracking with my Trinity Plus thus when I've had the possibility to permanently connect it to the soundcard I've recorded a lot of takes. Like this awesome pad. Lots of filtering, phasing and pure Korg quality-oscillator coolness. You can hear it washing everything else midways and in the end.
Then it came the idea to add a main line synth, to add some bass and expressive, non-cold-programming instrumentation. So there you have, a bass line played almost at 5/4 measuring growling and eating frequencies :D
To accomplish the presence I saturated a vintage compressor pushing input to its overdriving then controlling (lowering mostly) the output. Like it was analog gear (I wish) [thanks for the tip everlast!] plus a little stereo widening to separate it from the mid-center. You should try it.
The track: bombjack - noname.mp3
[right-click, Save As... to download]
You can hear the pitch changing up and down (about 7 st.) with the help of a little VSTfx called Pitchwheel. This fx lets you change pitch accordingly with a large wheel AND the possibility to click outside the wheel, following the out-ring, to do some cool pitchshifting instant effects. Also a glide parameter can be configured, so you can do a portamento-effect between semitone steps.
The next thing I did was using a chopper-random-swissknife tool (like the freeware dBlue Glitch) to process some loop and add a rusty malfunctioning mechanics effect. Quite satisfying.
I've done in the past a lot of tracking with my Trinity Plus thus when I've had the possibility to permanently connect it to the soundcard I've recorded a lot of takes. Like this awesome pad. Lots of filtering, phasing and pure Korg quality-oscillator coolness. You can hear it washing everything else midways and in the end.
Then it came the idea to add a main line synth, to add some bass and expressive, non-cold-programming instrumentation. So there you have, a bass line played almost at 5/4 measuring growling and eating frequencies :D
To accomplish the presence I saturated a vintage compressor pushing input to its overdriving then controlling (lowering mostly) the output. Like it was analog gear (I wish) [thanks for the tip everlast!] plus a little stereo widening to separate it from the mid-center. You should try it.
The track: bombjack - noname.mp3
[right-click, Save As... to download]
Hello World
This is my first entry. A little presentation:
My name is Guillem Pascual, former musical producer of all kinds of electronic stuff, pop and everything worth spending time in it.
This blogspot is related to everything that comes by my spare time, from free productions downloadable directly here (however take in account that a limited 5GB-per-month bandwidth is present) to some production tips and some musical and VST reviews.
Cheers and see you around! :)
My name is Guillem Pascual, former musical producer of all kinds of electronic stuff, pop and everything worth spending time in it.
This blogspot is related to everything that comes by my spare time, from free productions downloadable directly here (however take in account that a limited 5GB-per-month bandwidth is present) to some production tips and some musical and VST reviews.
Cheers and see you around! :)
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