all things SYNTH & KEYBOARD thread

[jibberish]

here is a pretty decent song to work on separating your left hand from the right on keyboards.

the spinning song.  I would call it advanced beginner when played at speed, but it is relaxed played 1/2 speed. it's a 1-2 beat anyway and the bass just pounds away all 8th notes on just 2 notes at a time.

this let's you focus more on only the right hand and left rhythm vs moving the left hand too.
it's just the 1st page. play the 2 parts over and over just as a dexterity exercise.  but it kind of cooks for horseshit classical music. I try to blaze through it as fast as I can.
maybe I will find the rest of it, but probably not. this is about all I can take heh.

http://cloud.freehandmusic.netdna-cdn.com/preview/530x4/warner/elspinne.png

[eyeprod]

that's a good idea to post links to learning tips etc.

The thing that I've noticed over the years about keyboard players is that most of them have learned shitty styles, which form the basis for their sound. I have probably never jammed with a keyboard guy who was actually fun to play with and sounded good. Sure, some of them can actually play piano and whatnot, but it's like jamming with a guitarist who learned to play by covering chili peppers songs or something equally lame, imo. The whole right hand/left hand thing is great to know, but it also leads to some godawful styles of keyboard based music. I am very careful about what I attempt to learn when it comes to playing keys because I don't want to learn any techniques that will kill my natural style. It can be difficult to find the right kind of lesson that you need, no matter what instrument you're learning.

The other thing I find disturbing is how so many keyboard folks are clueless about synthesizing their own sounds and rely on presets. You know, the guy who has the expensive, cool gear and only uses the preset sounds....embarrassing! Then there's the great player who makes his/her own sounds but those sounds are horrific. Such a waste of good gear. I've heard many a pro who has awful tone. I guess it's the same with guitars.

[jibberish]

i guess it was good to have classical piano type lessons. that teaches basic technique. there is no jamming.
just rote learning. so you walk into the world with no style, just technique.

i was noticing that in most cases of what keyboard parts for rock songs i have looked at, they are not piano compositions.
they look like the bass player wrote them.  probably by ear off the chords.

[jibberish]

here is a practice thing that came out pretty cool even tho I messed up the left hand about a dozen times.
the game was to mimic emerson and play an endless pattern w/left hand, then jam over top.
jamming forces thinking, so no muscle memory cheating. I pushed myself on this round, but this is definitely the prototype for a bolero or something.

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/doktordeath/idea4jbolero1amp[/soundcloud]

[RAGER]

Stuff going on.

*I have modules showing up and Saturday
*My Dual mode ladder filter box should be done in the next day or so
*I think an Octatrack is in my near future

[jibberish]

I keep looking at all that electron crap FUCK SPELLCHECK

how do I turn this shit off?

[RAGER]

Fuck it. Octatrack is in my future. About a week away shipping wise.

[jibberish]

that elektron stuff is in almost every nice performance setup.   I think the octatrack will be a killer piece

I have been really thinking hard on how I want to integrate and control all my stuff.
beyond an organ style foot pedalboard I am getting more unsure by the day, especially with the new things coming out

I definitely am having issues on the general category of sequencing

on one hand, a pc can create any and all sequences, but I don't want a pc-centered rig either.
on the other hand.  one 16 step sequence isn't going to get me through many songs so I am looking at more sophisticated sequencers

[Beta Cloud]

Fuck it. Octatrack is in my future. About a week away shipping wise.

the wendy carlos doom machine is exponentiating nicely!

[RAGER]

I've been eyeballing that Elektron stuff since I got into this mess but I never thought I deserved that kinda gear.  But I think this will solve many logistical problems I'm having with doing all this shit freestyle live with a drummer.  Factor in that I'm very new to this so...sloppy it is most of the time which ain't cool live.  If it's just me that's another story.  Shit can get free flow and freaky, but with a drummer it's gotta be tight.  I've walked on bands as the drummer cuz they couldn't reel shit in.  If shit's off they always wanna blame the  drummer.  Fuck that noise.  He ain;t havin' it.  I understand.

Anyways, I've been looking into Cirklon, Oberkorn, Beatstep Pro, Engine, Seq 12, Doepfer, and a couple others but I really think Octatrack is it.  I may still end up with the Dot com Q960 or the Oberkorn in the future but for now and live shit it's Octatrack.

[RAGER]

Well. Looks like its pretty much just you and me Robert. They fired Jib yesterday.

[eyeprod]

I thought it might be coming. good luck to him.


here's a little demo of some sampler methods I'm using. I make the sounds on my synths, then set em up to play in loops, or like percussion. It's pretty fun.

here's another with different samples.

Probably will use some of these ideas for my rpm challenge.

[RAGER]

Retro Mechanical Labs Jekyll and Hyde dual mode ladder filter.  Nice lfo and self oscillates too.

I went and picked it up on Sunday but he had it all packed up nicely.

[RAGER]

Got a couple of the first modules the other day too.

[eyeprod]

cool, but what boring modules to get first! I'm sure you have some more interesting ones coming.

[RAGER]

I know   They send you the boring shit first.  The next ones will be 2 oscillators and a multiple module which is basically a small patching station to connect multiple things together through one signal.

[MichaelZodiac]

So if I want a nice sounding drum computer around 500 bucks what should I go for? I'm thinking of getting one. I want to be able to make more music at home and maybe different sounding than my current band. I figured just to get a Micro or Minibrute for synth sounds but don't really know if there are alternatives in that price range for that?

[eyeprod]

The volca beats seems pretty good for the price, but it's analog drum sounds (synthesized and electronic sounding), so depending on what you want as far as drum sounds go, you may want to research some stuff in your price range. If you want real sounding drums, that will be sampled drums and there are machines that offer that specifically. Check out alesis stuff.

[RAGER]

Maybe look into a korg emx-1 or yeah what eyeprod aid about alesis or the Arturia Spaakrk.  I'm also a big fan of mini/micro brute.  I have both.  For that range people seem to dig the Novation Bass Station II also.  I also recently got an Akai Rhythm Wolf for cheap.  Not the best but can be useful with some effects and filtering.

[MichaelZodiac]

Yeah, apparently either the Volca Beats or the MFB 522 from what I've been reading are definitely the sort of thing I'm after. Easy access into a DAW is also much appreciated, although not depending on the DAW to work. The video I saw from the Arturia Spark, it seemed to be hooked up to a laptop always which isn't what I really want.

[RAGER]

Maybe the new Electribe.  Most of the time people have their shit hooked up to laptop to run Ableton or something but that isn't always necessary.  Electribes run fine as a stand alone unit.  I'm getting an Octatrack sometime this weekend because it it like Ableton in a box.  No need for laptops.  I do not want a laptop on stage.

[MichaelZodiac]

I'm not even thinking about live stuff yet. I just know I need something that produces beats that I can program myself without a computer, planning on traveling quite a lot in the near future and so portability is definitely a plus. If I get a nice beat, I'd just quickly record it, play bass over it and put synth over it. That's the plan anyway.

The Akai seemed on paper to be a thing that would be perfect but the reviews are scary and not in a good way.

[RAGER]

I know.  I've read all those reviews but what you have to look at is the cost.  It is not a Vermona or a Tanzabar.  It's less than $200 and can be useful with some effects.  The drums and bass synth have separate outs which is cool.  The volca beats is cool to but not the same thing and not as tweakable  I don't think.  Not sure cuz I don't have one.  I have a Monotribe though and I use it rarely.

[RAGER]

Man if you could swing an Octatrack, that right there is the shit.  Just sample stuff wherever you are and turn it into songs.

[tombhex]

I'm not even thinking about live stuff yet. I just know I need something that produces beats that I can program myself without a computer, planning on traveling quite a lot in the near future and so portability is definitely a plus. If I get a nice beat, I'd just quickly record it, play bass over it and put synth over it. That's the plan anyway.

The Akai seemed on paper to be a thing that would be perfect but the reviews are scary and not in a good way.

I've been looking for the same functionality you are recently and I've got my sights set on either the Electribe (http://www.korg.com/us/products/dj/electribe/) or the Volca sample (http://www.korg.com/us/products/dj/volca_sample/).

The VolcaSample seems to have almost all the functionality of the VolcaBeats with individual sounds, TB303-style bass generation (youtube is full of people showing how to do this) and the ability to do field recording of samples using an iPhone/iPad app that's free and integrates really easily. I think my old lady is planning on one of these for my birthday gift this year, but if that's not the case I'm just going to buy an Electribe.