Song: Ordinary Day

Greg Whitehead - Ordinary Day by GWGumby

I've finally finished my next song, "Ordinary Day" which is probably my least synth-y song I've done yet. This song is also unique in that it features guitar for the first time played by my brother, Jeffrey.

I actually wrote and started recording this song before my last two that I've published. I believe I started working on it in August. The melody came into my head in church, of all places. (Though I have often found creative inspiration whilst sitting on a pew.) Unfortunately I couldn't do anything about it other than repeat it in my head until I could get home and start playing it on the piano.

I have two initial tests/trials that a new song must pass before I start working on it seriously. The first is that it needs to be memorable. If a song idea comes to me and then I can't recall it later, it probably wasn't good enough to keep. Second, the melody/idea has to hold up to some type of basic instrument accompaniment. I've had plenty of song ideas that seem great in my head, but then when I work out the chords and basic structure on the piano it ends up much less interesting. I have several songs that exist in my head that I have yet to find an interesting accompaniment for, so they stop there.

Needless to say, this one passed both initial trials. I was able to remember the melody well enough to recall it to mind after church and the next day as well. Then playing it on the piano made it even more interesting. The next step was writing some lyrics.

I hate writing lyrics. I'm much more interested in the music--in melody and harmony and taking all these sounds and putting them together like a jigsaw puzzle until a nice picture emerges. Great instrumentals exist, but a song is much more memorable if it is sung.

The opening line came to me first "On an ordinary day..." but then what? I played with a few things until this idea came to mind of a guy who decides to stay home and watch life happen on his HDTV since it's just as good if not better than real life. I was inspired by artists such as Ben Folds, Blur, and ELO all of which often wrote song-stories about quirky people (see "Zak and Sara", "Country House", or "Horace Wimp").

Now I had some words and a melody. Time to start working out the arrangement. The song is a very power pop-style piece, inspired by some of my favorite bands like Jellyfish and Queen. I also had wanted to do something some day with my brother who is an amazingly talented guitarist. So I worked out some piano, drums, and vocals and then I emailed everything to him and asked if he would add some nice Brian May harmony guitars to it.

Jeffrey took it and then disappeared. He sent me one rough draft in September that sounded great. Then a final version in December. In the meantime I wrote four more songs (published two, recording two more at the moment).

After getting the guitar parts, I added them into the mix, added a bassline and a couple extra musical bits, mixed it all up and then poured out what you hear now.

I used my Roland digital piano for the piano parts. The Roland JV-1080 was used for the bass part. The Korg R3 was used for vocoder and minor string/synth flourishes. A VST was used for the drums. Any other non-vocal noise comes from my brother's guitar of which I have no information about to provide here.

Here's another static-image YouTube video with the song:


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Song: Run For Your Life

I just finished my sixth song at the end of October, "Run For Your Life" -- an ode to a failed supervillain.
Greg Whitehead - Run For Your Life by GWGumby

I worked on this song over much of October. The opening melody with harmonies came into my head one night and kept me from sleeping the rest of the night for fear of losing it. Meanwhile, I kept expanding the melody in my mind until I more or less had a song. I just had to write lyrics for it.

Originally, my mind was using the words "Reach for the sky"--which is what I sing right at the first. Eventually as I began playing with different words, "Reach for the sky" became "Run for your life." I imagined someone who had it good early on, but then failed, and that morphed into an idea of a very successful supervillain with intentions of world domination, who nearly succeeds, but then fails and has the entire world after him. So now with what little he has left, he has to leave and start his life over again on a cool space lair or moon base or something.

Once again, everything here was done by me. The bass and synth noises are all performed on the Korg R3. The piano was from my Roland FP-9 digital piano, with added post-effects to make it sound slightly more like a honkey-tonk or chorus hall style. The percussion is all through VST plug-ins in Cakewalk Sonar. I think it all works pretty well together. I'm particularly proud of the piano solo 2/3rds of the way into the song. I'm not always that great of a player, but I can always go back and fix things by hand; however other than some post-quantization (rhythm fixing), I did the entire solo in a single take.

I delayed posting this a few days until I could make an accompanying YouTube video. I was recently looking at viewing statistics, and even though the videos are usually an afterthought, more people view the video than listen to the widget from SoundCloud. So I figured I'd better keep making them. Once again, I just found a bunch of random images from the web to throw together that basically fit the song.

Song: Another Fine Mess

So it's been a couple months since I've posted a song or anything to the blog. I haven't forgotten about this, I just have been focusing on a few other things, like a giant jigsaw puzzle that took over our kitchen table for a few weeks.

However, I'm still making music and here's the latest piece:
Greg Whitehead - Another Fine Mess by GWGumby

I've actually been working on several songs over the past couple months. One is a Mannheim Steamroller/Fresh Aire-style instrumental piece that I'm currently stuck on. The other is a bit more power-pop oriented that I've currently handed over to my brother (probably the only one who reads this) to see if he can incorporate some guitar with it. Then there's this one which I think I wrote and recorded in record time of about one week.

Once again, the song is written and performed entirely by me (Greg). All sounds are from my Korg R3 and Roland JV-1080. The Roland is used mainly for percussion, and the Korg for nearly all the other synth sounds. There's no great story behind the song, just a riff that came into my head and lyrics that seemed to work with it.

The bass line comes from a Clav sound on the R3 run through some effects in Sonar. I had a lot of fun building up the percussion track using the JV-1080's drums. The only other sounds are a sync-sound the acts as a filler, and a brass sound. Both of those come from the R3, while the brass sound is actually doubled with another brass sound on the Roland.

While making the song several other similar songs often came to mind. It was not my attempt to emulate them through this piece, but I'm sure they were each influential:
Yes - "Leave It", Jackdaw 4 - "Bipolar Diversions", Tommy Sparks - "She's Got Me Dancing", and The Fixx - "One Thing Leads To Another".

Once again I put the music to a YouTube video. All the images in the video are just random pictures found on the Internet of not-so-great situations. Again, there's not particular story behind the lyrics of the song. It's just words that seemed to fit as the melody came to mind.

"A Fan's Lament" Lyrics

Here are the lyrics to my last song:

When I first heard them on the radio
I swear that time stood still.
I bought their album, played it non-stop on my stereo,
I couldn't get my fill.

But that was over three years ago.
(Where did they go?)
It seems that nobody knows.

Time moves on,
Like a faded song.

I joined their fan club, hung up posters,
Taped their videos.
I was their biggest fan.

Stood in line all night for tickets to their sold out show.
They were the greatest band.

That all seems like so long ago.
(Where did they go?)
I hear they're back in the studio.

And now time moves on
Like a hopeful song.

(Chorus)
There's a new album coming out!
(Coming out, coming out)
There's a new album coming out!
(Coming out tomorrow)
There's a new record coming out!
(Coming out, out, out)
There's a new album coming out
And I'll be the first one in line.

When I first learned I'd hear my band once more
I swear my heart stood still.

I counted down the days til I would hit the record store
The news was such a thrill.

Now there's only one day to go,
(Where did time go?)
To resurrect them on my stereo.

And now time moves on
Like a skipping song.

(Chorus)

(Solo)

(Chorus)

When I got home I put the record on
I couldn't trust my ears.

It seems the band had changed their sound
And left me all alone,
It was my greatest fear.

What happened to the band that I know?
(Where did they go?)
And now we've got three more years to go.

And now time moves on
Like a distant song.

Song: "A Fan's Lament"

Here's my latest song entitled "A Fan's Lament."

Greg Whitehead - A Fan's Lament by GWGumby

This song is dedicated to Underworld, Ben Folds, Genesis, Blur, and any other band that I really liked but took forever between albums before finally releasing something terrible and/or changing their style altogether into something I couldn't stand. Or almost as bad, break up altogether before they can produce something else (like Jellyfish, Imperial Drag, Sugarbomb.)

Of my recent songs, the first song that I posted was meant to feature the synthy-sounds of my Korg R3. The second one featured a lot more of the Roland JV-1080. For this one, the foundation is pretty much all built around my Roland digital piano.

I had this idea of a song about the joy that I have felt at times discovering a new band. There have been times when I've heard a new song where everything just disappears, time almost literally stands still, and the song holds my entire focus. It happened the first time I heard Jellyfish's "The Ghost at Number One" on the radio. When it got to the bridge "Mrs. Lynne the fruit of your labor..." I had to stop everything I was doing and just focus in on the song.

So after buying the album and memorizing all the songs, focus eventually shifts attention to waiting for the follow up. It seems like in the 70s albums were released annually. In the 80s closer to bi-annually. Then the 90s to today, it seems like 3 years is the norm. That's a long time to wait for another 40 minutes of music. So the song goes from the love of a band from the first album, to the excited anticipation of an announced follow up. Then it falls apart at the end when the fan finally gets the album, listens to it, and finds out the album isn't what was expected.

This happened to me when Underworld went from a pop band to a weird repetitive techno band that I just couldn't stomach. It also happened after Ben Folds went solo and after a great first album followed it up with "Songs For Silverman" three years later. The album was so disappointing and completely unforgettable that it serves as the main inspiration for the thoughts behind this song. (Ben Fold's has since somewhat made up for it with his last album, "Way To Normal," again released three years later.) Blur was another band that I loved but then shifted their sound to this weirder, harsher, experimental stuff that held little of what I originally loved about the band. I didn't discover Genesis until their "Invisible Touch" album which they didn't follow up for another 5 years with "We Can't Dance" which was quite a let down. Then 6 years later they released another album without Phil Collins, "Calling All Stations" which was even worse. (I've since discovered all their great albums prior to "Invisible Touch" which made up for their weaker later albums.) So these are all the pieces of my history that inspired this particular song.

I've been playing around with the opening melody on the piano for over a year now and had the opening verse in my head for sometime as well. I also had the chorus "There's a new album coming out" in mind as well. Though when I played it on the piano it never seemed to join up with the softer, slower verse part. When I started to work on recording it, I figured I'd just go ahead and put the two parts together and see if they fit. I think in the finished product they actually fit well, both musically and thematically.

As I said earlier, the main foundation of this song is recorded from my digital piano. I used an electric piano sound for most of the verses and a regular piano sound for the rest. I've never been a big fan of electric piano, at least not the adult-contemporary DX7 tinkly piano from the 80s. But I've enjoyed the sound from Supertramp, Billy Joel, Queen, and others in the 70s. I probably would have prefered to try and use a Wurlitzer if I had a good emulation. As it is, I think this one sounds pretty good without sounding to schmaltzy.

After working out the piano parts, I used a soft-synth for some brush-style drumming and used another soft-synth for the rest of the drums. I did all the drums by hand, and only used one loop for some tambourine during the solo. The bass parts are from the JV-1080, and then most of the other synthy background stuff and solo were done on the Korg R3. These were all a combination of presets, modified sounds, and sounds I built from scratch.

The distorted bass in the chorus is a direct reference to Ben Folds Five. I also took some inspiration from the sound of this song from Josh Fix and Ambrosia.

For the record, I've never bought a vinyl record. I had a small turntable when I was a kid where I used to play a Smurf's album and a Muppet rendition of "Bremen Town Musicians." I grew up mainly on cassettes until adopting CDs in the early 90s. For the purposes of this song I mention records, since I don't know anyone who looks fondly back at cassette tapes. I do still love finding a great record store--even if I only buy CDs.

The video, which is a bit more animated than my last one, is filled with images of a sampling of various albums that I've really loved over the years -- until the last verse where it's all images of albums I am less fond of.

"Infinite In Between" Lyrics

I'm nearing the finish point of my next song. For now, here are the lyrics to "Infinite In Between," so that they are actually recorded somewhere:

Did you ever wake up
In the middle of a dream
Amid your everyday routine
And wonder what it all means?

Did you ever look up
At all the stars in the sky
As the world passes by
while you're questioning why?

You look for all the answers.
Grasping for truth,
For something you can prove.

You're drowning in the questions.
But if you want to know,
Just where can you go?

If you want to find me,
I'm in the space in between.
The infinite in between.

I'm in the moment
Before you wake from a dream.
The infinite in between.

I'm in the instant
Between the light and the dark.
Between the flame and the spark.

Divide by zero,
And you will know what I mean.

I am the infinite in between.

Now it's time to get up.
You've got to read between the lines.
'Cause when your world's undefined
It's time to open your mind.

But you're much to fed up
To try and change your point of view.
So when the world freezes blue,
You hit reset and you're through.

You're searching for the answers.
Grasping for clues,
For something you can't lose.

You're struggling with the questions,
Like where can you find
Your own peace of mind.

If you want to find me,
I'm in the space in between.
The infinite in between.

I'm in the moment
Before you wake from a dream.
The infinite in between.

I'm in the echo
Of other moments gone by.
I'm in the blink of an eye.

Divide by zero
And you will know what I mean.

I am the infinite in between.

(Ahhh, the infinite in between.)

If you want to find me,
I'm in the space in between.
The infinite in between.

I'm in the moment
Before you wake from a dream.
The infinite in between.

I'm in the instant
Between the light and the dark.
Between the flame and the spark.

Divide by zero,
And you will know what I mean.

I am the infinite in between.

New Song: Infinite In Between

Where have I been most of this month? Working hard on my second and latest song: "Infinite In Between." Presented here both through a static-image YouTube video and Soundcloud player at the bottom. Both present the same song.

This song is sort of my trippy pseudo-Moody Blues-inspired psychedelic synth odyssey. I used the JV-1080 a bit more this time and the R3 as more dressing, save for the lead parts. I also added a bit more piano; most of it is single octaves, but there are a few sections where I played a bit more.

Lyrically, the song was sort of inspired by the idea introduced to me way back in 9th grade, I believe, about how between any two points there is a theoretical infinite distance in between. For example, if you stand on the opposite side of the room from a wall, then walk half way to the wall, then half way again, then again, and repeat over and over again, you would theoretically never, ever reach the wall. There is an infinite amount of half-ways to pass through before you ever touch the wall. I coupled that idea with the idea of the undefined state. The point between ON and OFF. What is that point exactly? At what point does something stop being on and start being off? And what about that moment, however infinitely small where you are in between those two states which isn't defined. What if you get stuck there? As a programmer, I often get stuck there and it usually leads to unwanted results, like the infamous PC blue screen of death.

Anyway, once again, I wrote, performed, and recorded everything you hear on the track. The JV-1080 was used for drums, saxophone, and bass. The R3 was used for leads, vocodor, and various effects. I used a lot of presets and very few original or modified sounds. So any R3 owners might recognize a few of the sounds.

The main lead theme of the song, which is played in the intro and during the chorus, came about because I was trying to find a way to get into the song and while I was improvising I found the lead riff. It's actually a coincidence that it fit in with the chorus as well, since it was never in my head when I was originally composing the song. The instrumental break is also an improvised addition that I didn't originally plan on. I was going to just repeat the verse again with some type of solo over the top, but when I sat down to do that, the brassy fanfare popped up in my mind and I built something to suit that. Then added the vocodor and Moody Blues-esque swelling background chorus as well. I liked it so much I had to go back and end the song on it. Originally it would have ended right at the "I am the infinite in between" line at the end of the chorus, but instead I went back to this and faded out. The repeating high piano octaves that sort of add rhythm to several sections of the song came about due to how I have my keyboards set up. I sit near the top of my piano with my computer in between that and my R3. So my left hand which usually accompanies low note octaves could only play on the top of the piano. I was using it to keep time while I played around with the opening lead riff. I didn't intend for it to be part of the song, but then my wife commented how she liked it while listening to an early version of the song, so I kept that in there and through the rest of the song.

I'm still learning about mixing and I've heard a lot about compression so I put compression on everything. I don't really understand what I'm doing and as I was making the song, everything sounded really muddy and unclear. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Then I turned off the compression effect I had on the whole track and suddenly everything sprang to life. I really need to figure out what I'm doing there!

The final song clocks in at almost six minutes. I'm not sure how it got that long. It's really fairly straightforward pop arrangement of: intro, verse, bridge, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, instrumental, chorus, outro.

Anything else? I'll probably post the lyrics in a separate post later on.

Enjoy and leave a comment here or on one of the embedded files if you like it.

Greg Whitehead - Infinite In Between by GWGumby

Synthesizer Boot Camp

I just found a series of synthesizer tutorials on YouTube called "Synthesizer Boot Camp" by Simon Cann. Mr. Cann is the author of "How To Make A Noise" which I posted about earlier. Like his book, it's full of a lot of good information, though I've seen it done better and more clearly elsewhere.

Tutorial One: Modulation


Tutorial Two: Filters


Tutorial Three: Envelopes.


Presumably if more tutorials are released they can be found here: http://noisesculpture.com/bootcamp.html

Black Rock Lyrics

I've had a request for the lyrics to my song "Black Rock." Here they are:

Greg Whitehead - Black Rock by GWGumby

If you see me looking in the mirror on the other side,
Don't be afraid, I'm here to help you.
I've got a warning. Listen to me and I'll be your guide.
Black Rock, don't know where to find you.

(chorus)
If there's black in your white
If there's wrong in your right
How come you've always gotta take so long?
If there's day in your night
If there's peace in your fight...
Black Rock, don't know where to find you.

I can stop time, reverse it to the moment when you most regret.
So tell me when do you want to go?
It's never easy picking up the pieces with a broken net.
Black Rock, don't know where to find you.

(repeat chorus)

I'll be good please tell when it's over.
I'll be good please tell when it's over.
I'll be good please tell when it's over.
I've been good please now tell me that it's over.

Now it's all over, you're a hero, yes you saved the day.
Stand up, be proud now and take a bow.
My work here's finished, it's time to be on my way.
Black Rock, don't know where to find you.

(repeat chorus)

I'll be good please tell when it's over.
I'll be good please tell when it's over.
I'll be good please tell when it's over.
I've been good please now tell me that it's over.

Song: Marble Madness Medley

While I'm on a video making kick, I made this for my Marble Madness Medley which I shared early on in this post:


I'm also experimenting with a site called SoundCloud for hosting/streaming music. You should be able to both listen to and download the song through this widget.

GWGumby - Marble Madness Medley by GWGumby

Song: "Black Rock"

Here's my first fully original song that I put together with all my new equipment. The main synth sounds are almost all Korg R3. Some of the sounds are presets, most of the rest are either programmed from scratch or modified from the preset sounds. The drums come from the Roland JV-1080 as well as one or two minor synth sounds.

I've been playing around with the main theme for several months now, to the point that my 7 year old son has learned it and plays it regularly when he is on the keyboard. After coming up with the theme, I started to think of lyrics. Somehow after recently watching the terrible (and wonderful) movie "Troll 2" the idea of this poor dead ghost of a grandfather being forced to appear to his grandson to help him save his inept family from being eaten by goblins (not trolls despite the title) was on my mind and inspired the lyrics. They are only loosely based on the story, but since it was a source of inspiration, I included random images from the movie in the YouTube video. Feel free to ignore the video and just listen instead.

A link to the mp3 itself can be found here:

• Greg Whitehead - Black Rock.mp3
  

Finally, I have a lot of experience with writing music, and some of recording, but I have little-to-no experience mixing. So if anyone out there who sees this and has any comments to share in helping with getting a better final mix, I'd love to hear it.

The Amazing Casio Keyboard!

"That's no band..."

This was posted on Synthtopia and it cracks me up. This is the intro to a video called "Introduction To Your Casio Keyboard." I remember all these sounds from my own Casio.

My New Favorite Site: Synthtopia

Currently on my link list on the right, my top link there is to a synth blog called Synthtopia. Every day there's always a bunch of posts about vintage and newer synthesizers, electronic bands and music, reviews for various gear and software, and random goofy electronic noises. Many posts have embedded video or audio to better show off their subject.

What I like most about Synthtopia is that they find and gather up all the good stuff so I don't have to!

Korg R3 Patches: Welsh's Recipes

My third post on this blog was talking about a book called "Welsh's Synthesizer Cookbook." It describes the basics of subtractive synthesis and then at the end it contains 101 or so recipes or patches for various sounds that can be built with a simple 2 oscillator synthesizer. The recipes are extremely generic so that they can be programmed into almost any synthesizer and I implemented them all for the Korg R3.

I've uploaded the bank and have placed it here. It's also available at the Korg forums in the R3 section found here. This file can be uploaded to the R3 through the R3 sound editor software.

For the most part, these patches generally approximate acoustic instruments such as horns, strings, and drums, though there are a few more exotic synth-like sounds near the end of the bank. The recipes are generally based on a simple, generic 2-oscillator synthesizer with a single LFO and no effects. I programmed them as closely as I could from the recipes, though I occasionally modified a sound or two to attempt to sweeten it up a little based on the R3's capabilities. The values in the recipes didn't always directly correlate to the 0-127 input values of the Korg R3, so much of the programming was done through dial approximation and by ear with no audio examples to build to. Hopefully I was able to get close to what the original programmer intended.

I'll be the first to admit some of these patches sound awful. For example, the piano patch is rather pitiful and I have no idea what the timpani is trying to do. Still, it was a valuable learning experience for me as someone who had never programmed a sound three months before doing these and hopefully these patches will serve as a jumping off point to better sounds in the future.

Lots of News; Early Birthday!

In my last post, I wrote about my old Roland XP-50, which I regretted selling. My wife had asked me to start looking for potential birthday presents for next month, so I was searching for synthesizers on Craigslist and found someone selling a Roland JV-1080 synthesizer rack module for a really good price. The JV-1080 is essentially the same as the XP-50, minus the sequencer and keyboard but with extra expansion card slots and a few more audio-outs. I couldn't let a deal like that pass by, so last weekend we drove out to Plano to buy it and bring it home. The seller was also selling some expansion cards, only one of which I was at all interested in, the "Experience" card (SR-JV80-99) which is sort of a sampler card with some extra piano, orchestral, and synth-style sounds.

On the way home from picking up the synth module, we stopped at a music store to pick up an extra MIDI cable to control the module with, and we also decided to get a synth stand with a second tier addition. So now I have my Korg R3 and the new JV-1080 on a double-decker stand. I don't think it will work to keep them like this permanently, but it will do for the moment.
Before we picked up the synthesizer, we actually made another stop to pick up a package from FedEx. It was my Fast Track USB sent back from M-Audio. I mentioned a couple posts ago that it had broken. When I opened the box, I discovered they had sent me a brand new model. It looks different, I think the buttons are different, and it even comes with different software. So that was a bit surprising.

I've spent the rest of the weekend and this week just playing with the JV-1080 and connecting and disconnecting various cords and wires for audio, MIDI, and computer input. I think I've got things more or less to a point where I can start trying to make some music soon. So here's my semi-annotated current set-up:


To follow up with my previous Fast Track humming problems, I set things up with this new model and discovered that I'm still getting the same humming problems. However, I tried something new. I routed my MIDI cables through the JV, in the R3 and then back to the computer. Doing this eliminated the hum! In some of my tests, it still seemed like I was getting some audio looping this way, e.g. the metronome click faintly recording to the track; however I think I can get around that by either recording live without the MIDI cables connected, or recording MIDI first, and then turning off all accompanying tracks when I want to capture the final audio.

Anyways, I hope to be making some music soon! I'll post some more specifics on the Roland JV-1080 soon.

My Third Synth, Roland XP-50

Around 1996, while I was in Provo UT attending college at BYU, one of my friends, Nathan, formed a band with some of his friends called Piper Down. It went through several incarnations including various drummers, singers, and musicians before finally disbanding in 1998 or so. My friend Nathan invited me to join the band as he was exiting. The previous keyboard player switched to Nathan's role of bass player and I took over on keyboards.

Since I was now performing regularly with a band, I needed something impressive to play on. First, I purchased a digital piano. It was the Roland FP-1, a full-sized 88-key hammer-action digital piano. When I bought it, I asked for something that had no whistles and bells, but just a great piano sound. Also, it needed to be portable for gigging. While the FP-1 was an excellent machine for piano, I needed something else to use for all my other sound needs.

I went to several music stores and decided upon the Roland XP-50. This time I wanted all the bells and whistles. So I got not just a synthesizer, but a workstation. The Xp-50 came with a 16 track sequencer, a disk drive, and tons and tons of sounds. Plus I bought an expansion ROM card entitled "Keyboards of the 60s & 70s" that had tons of Electric Pianos (a la Supertramp), Organs (a la Doors), and Mellotrons (a la Moody Blues.) The synth had room for two expansions boards, I debated endlessly over what to get for the second ROM. I probably would have ended up getting the "Vintage Synth" board, but I also really wanted a good Harpsichord sound which I didn't have on either the XP-50 or FP-1.

Anyway, I got some pretty good use out of the synthesizer for playing live with the band. If I didn't want to drag my large digital piano with me to gigs or practices, the piano sounds on the XP-50 would cover for me. However, outside of live playing, I never did get much more use out of the machine. I admit I was both intimidated and frustrated by the machine. I never used the on-board sequencer which seemed to difficult to program in place, and the limited amount of effects meant that all those rich sounds on the machine lost most of their flavor when going into multi-timbral mode for sequencing. After I left the band, the keyboard mostly sat unused except for occasional tinkering here and there. Finally, at a moment when we were struggling to pay some bills, I reluctantly parted ways with the synthesizer through eBay hoping it would go to someone who could get more use out of it.

Today I really regret parting ways with the machine. I felt like I never really got to know it or understand it as well as I could have. My new found interest in synthesizers coupled with better software capability for recording multi-track audio means I could now get lots of use out of the keyboard without having to sacrifice the great on-board effects.

Anyway, here's some links to some XP-50 resources:

• Vintage Synth's XP-50 page
• Roland's old XP-50 page
• Another Roland page for the XP-50's big brother, XP-80.
• Some pages on the available expansion boards
  

More Recording Issues:Broken Fast Track

So I continue to be completely befuddled by my inability to track down the humming/feedback noise when I attempt to record. However, that has recently been trumped by the sudden random breakdown of my digital input device, the m-Audio Fast Track USB module.

When I turned my machine on the other day, it was outputting nothing but a loud white noise. Plugging in and removing any audio input made no difference. It was pretty much broken. So after waiting an hour on the phone for m-Audio's technical service, they sent me a form to use to ship the thing in for repair or replacement.

Before the unit broke, I attempted to determine the source of the humming through a few more experiments.

First, the noise goes away when I take the R3 out of the loop and plug my digital piano in both through audio and MIDI. This would appear to point the blame at the R3 and not the input device.

Second, I tried buying some ferrite magnet signal blockers to put on the USB cables which are supposed to block extraneous signals from the wires. I don't really understand what that means exactly other than to say it made no real difference.

Third, I tried changing the MIDI channel on the R3 at the suggestion of someone on the Korg boards. They said that certain channels produced a hum on his machine so he just had to avoid using them. No such luck with my own set-up.

Fourth, I tried out a few other recording programs. All other programs I have used have the same noise in the signal.

It's my best guess that the hum is feedback noise. I did some recording tests while recording blank audio (hitting record but not playing anything and just letting the software capture input noise.) In my first test, I only captured blank audio and get the high-pitched humming noise. In my second test, I captured blank audio while the internal program's metronome clicked. Playing it back I got a hum and a very faint echo of the metronome click. In my third test, I captured blank audio while playing back some other recorded tracks simultaneously. This and the metronome are absolutely necessary to be able to do multi-track recording. If I can't hear what I'm playing along with, I can't play in time nor know what I'm playing on the track. Sure enough, the third test captured the hum and the faint sound of the audio playback. That means every track I add will continue to add more muddy noise to the song I'm recording.

Last weekend we went into a Guitar Center to look at a few things and possibly talk to someone there who might be knowledgeable on recording and/or synthesizers. Unfortunately, the place was fairly crowded and I couldn't get a single person to talk to me. I doubt if I held a hand full of thousand dollar bills in the air and shouted "I want to buy something" that anyone would have even given me the time of day. However, I did see on their shelf another input device, the Lexicon Alpha a fairly cheap and equivalent version of the Fast Track unit I already have. If my replacement Fast Track doesn't fix the audio problems, I may try that unit instead to see once and for all if the problem exists with my synthesizer or with my input device.

Classic Synths: Jupiter-8

Beyond the "How to's" of synthesis, I'm also trying to expand my knowledge of the history of synthesizers. So from time to time, I'm going to focus on a classic synthesizer.

Today is the Roland Jupiter-8.

In the late 70's and early 80's, the Oberheim and Prophet 5 were the main rock synthesizers. When the Jupiter-8 came out in 1981 it suddenly took over as the "must-have" synthesizer. Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Relax" made extensive use of the Jupiter-8



The Roland Jupiter-8 was an 8-voice analog polyphonic synthesizer (hence the "8" in the name) that came out in the Autumn of 1981 and was quickly adopted by many influential bands at the time. Some of its features included the ability to split the keyboard and assign two patches on the top and bottom of the keyboard or layer them on top of each other. It also had an arpeggiator that can be easily recognized on such classic songs as Duran Duran's "Hungry Like The Wolf" and Queen's "Radio Gaga."

According to Wikipedia the Jupiter 8 was used by the following bands, many of which are personal favorites:

• Duran Duran - "Hungry Like the Wolf"
  


• Michael Jackson - Thriller


• Depeche Mode


• Howard Jones - esp. Human's Lib
  


• No Doubt


• William Orbit


• Journey on different albums. It is shown in the "Separate Ways" music video.


• David Bowie


• Underworld


• Moby


• Queen - The Works (1984), A Kind of Magic (1986). Radio Gaga's recognizable bassline was created using the Jupiter-8's arpeggiator, and the solo on I Want to Break Free was performed on Jupiter-8 as well
  


• The Cars - Heartbeat City, Door To Door


• Roger Joseph Manning Jr.


• Devo - Oh, No! It's Devo


• Freur - "Doot Doot"
  


• Go West - "We Close Our Eyes"


• Rush - Signals, Grace Under Pressure Notably, the bass line for "Red Sector A"


• Tears for Fears - "Head over Heels" and "Shout" on Songs from the Big Chair


• Toto - on Toto IV Africa, Rosanna


• Simple Minds - New Gold Dream


• Blancmange


• Scritti Politti


• Prince

On the Jupiter 8 page at synthmuseum.com some other favorite bands are listed that used the Jupiter:

Damon Albarn of Blur, Alphaville, Cocteau Twins, Martin Cooper of OMD, Thomas Dolby, Jan Hammer, Paul Hardcastle, Human League, Brian Kehew and Roger Manning of The Moog Cookbook, Pet Shop Boys, Robert Smith of The Cure, Swing Out Sister, Talk Talk, Tangerine Dream, Ultravox, and Wang Chung.

Vintage synth lists a few others:

A Flock Of Seagulls, Heaven 17, Huey Lewis and the News, Yes, and Stevie Wonder.

There were only about 2000 Jupiter-8s made, so it is very hard to find these days, but Arturia has recreated the classic synth virtually with their Jupiter-8V:

http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/products/jupiter-8v/intro.html

The reviews are a little mixed on whether it truly recaptures the original sound or not, and supposedly it's a huge power hog for the computer, but it's certainly much cheaper than tracking down an original vintage and still working model.

Synth Secrets, Sound On Sound Articles

I'm currently reading through a series of articles called "Synth Secrets" by Gordon Reid. They were originally published in "Sound On Sound" magazine monthly from May 1999 - July 2004. There's a ton of really in-depth information here including individual articles on all the basic parts of subtractive synthesis as well as other types of synthesis. There are also dozens of specific articles discussing techniques on synthesizing various styles of instruments such as percussion, brass, strings, piano, and others.

There are over 30 articles available on the Sound on Sound site (link to main site) and I'm still making my way through the first half. There's a wealth of information there, but even though the author breaks all the elements down into their simple components, he doesn't explain everything very simply. In fact, he can get quite complicated just to explain a very simple, taken-for-granted technique or component. There's a point to the complexity, and that's to make readers aware that there's more to most aspects of synthesis and synthesizers than meets the eye, but it certainly doesn't make for easy reading.

It's not a good starting place, but it definitely is a great resource that I'm sure I'll continue to return to in the future.

My next synth, the Roland D-5

The next synth that I owned after the Casio and Kawai from the prior post was the Roland D-5. I was probably around 18 when I got it, but I have very little memories of it. I don't remember buying it, I don't remember getting rid of the Casio to replace it with this, and I don't remember what led me to sell and/or replace it later with another synthesizer. I don't even know for sure if this was the actual model of synthesizer I had. I did quite a bit of detective work just to try and figure out what it was that I had.

What I do remember is that I had a different synthesizer that I brought with me to college. I had it set up along with my Kawai sound module on an X-style keyboard stand with adjustable flip-up arms that held the module over the keyboard. Then I had a 3 foot amp that I often used as a chair to sit on while composing.

At this time I was now using a Mac classic along with newer versions of Cakewalk (as well as Finale Notepad for sheet music, which sadly I almost never used) to do all my sequencing. At some point late in my senior year of high school, the Mac crashed and I lost a ton of music that I'd done. So there's a bit of a gap between the music I did for my high school band Narrow Escape and the music I did in college due to the loss.

To figure out what the keyboard was, I had two blurry pictures that had my keyboard in the background. Neither of them showed the name of the keyboard. However, I could at least confirm that it had what I believe is a signature Roland controller, which is the combo pitch bend/modulation. Most synths have two wheels on the side to control these separately, but Roland combines them into one lever as seen here.

So from that I started searching Roland keyboards for late 80's/early 90's. I found a few different models that could have been the right one, but when I found this manual, it convinced me the D-5 was the one I had:

http://www.soundprogramming.net/manuals/Roland_D-5_PlayManual.pdf

One thing I remembered was that the D-5 had a multi-timbral function which turned the synthesizer into 8 individual synthesizer modules and a rhythm module. Plus it had velocity sensitive keys which made for much more expressive sound. So this replaced my Casio as my main keyboard and drum machine. Aside from drums, I mainly used it for the piano and bass sounds, but I don't particularly remember the more synthy-style sounds being particularly impressive. From what I can tell, this was meant to be a cheaper entry-level keyboard so most of the impressive features of other synths were not to be found here. So no on-board effects, and no on-board sequencer or anything like that. Supposedly there was an apreggiator, but I don't remember that, and probably wasn't interested in it at the time.

Still it had a fairly high polyphony and the multiple, concurrent MIDI channel playback was really what I wanted it for. At the time I had no way to record audio for individual tracks, so I needed everything to play simultaneously. I never really got into the heart of the machine at all, and this was before the Internet was widely available so I had no way of finding other patches for the machine. I believe it had room for a "RAM" card that you could purchase separately for more sounds.

I found a YouTube video with one of the demo songs on the machine. I definitely remember hearing this before.


As I said above, I don't remember getting rid of this keyboard. But I know I didn't use it much after I returned to college from my mission. The last I really remember using it was to set everything up to make some audio recording with a tape recorder of many of the songs I had sequenced on the computer.

Again, those songs can be heard on my Sketchbook music section mainly under "Freshman Music Originals" and "Freshman Music Covers".

My first synth, the Kawai K1-M

When I was about 16, my interest in synthesizers was originally peaked. I'd been taking classical piano lessons for almost 10 years and I had just quit and decided I wanted to make some "real" music. At the time I remember really liking the music of Howard Jones, Camouflage, and other 80s synthpop bands.

A music center had recently opened nearby our home offering lessons for guitar, bass, drums, and keyboarding. The center would then organize the kids taking lessons for the various instruments into make-shift bands that would perform at malls and zoos and other places around Salt Lake. I began taking keyboard lessons and needed a synthesizer. The instructor convinced my parents that the perfect keyboard for me would be a Casio.

(A blurry picture similar to the model to what I had.)

Yes. A Casio. One of those fairly cheap awful ones with no velocity control or weight in the keys, and with all the awful rhythm patterns so you can play "rock" or "march" or "bossanova" for no one who would ever care. I think the instructor was also a Casio dealer or something. So it was purely self-interest that he sold us this keyboard assuring my parents who specifically asked that this would be all I needed and that I would not grow disinterested in a year and want a better keyboard.

I grew disinterested in about two months.

So I convinced my dad to go to a real music store where they actually sold real equipment. Since we had just recently purchased a keyboard, we were steered toward a synth module rather than a full synthesizer. A module is simply a synthesizer without the keyboard part. That's when we got the Kawai K1-m.

Here are some page that gives some details about the K1m as well as links to other K1m resources:
http://www.retrosound.de/k1m.html
http://homepage.mac.com/synth_seal/html/k1.html

At the same time we also purchased one of the earliest versions of the software "Cakewalk" for sequencing and a special MIDI card for our new PC. I was able to hook up the Module through the Casio and use them both together to create music. I mainly used the Casio for it's built in drums and its slightly better piano sounds. The rest I relied on the Kawai to provide.

I used the sound module for about 3 or 4 years. I used it to do most of the keyboards and sequencing for my first band in high school, Narrow Escape. And used it quite a bit in college making my own songs. I have most of the songs in my sketchbook here (scroll down to the bottom of the page. Pretty much everything there from 1990-1993 used the Kawai module).

Gumby Sketchbook Music section

I still own this Kawai sound module to this day. I've been through quite a few other keyboards and synthesizers since I first purchased this the K1m, yet I've held on to this one. I don't remember the last time I actually turned it on and hooked it up. It might not even work anymore, provided I could even find the power cable. But it will always be special to me for being the first instrument that allowed me to start being creative musically.

Link to the original owner's manual should I ever turn the module on again:
http://www.kawaius-tsd.com/OM/K_SYNTH/K1_Synth.pdf

Book: How To Make A Noise

After getting a good introduction to Subtractive Synthesis with Welsh's Synthesizer Cookbook, I found another book that went in a little deeper into the subject of synthesis called "How To Make A Noise" by Simon Cann: http://noisesculpture.com/htman.html

This book goes in depth into subtractive synthesis as well as into other forms of synthesis such as FM synthesis, Additive synthesis, wave shaping, and more. I'm still working my way through it, but it's been fairly educational so far. One of the reasons I got this particular book was that it was pretty low-priced for all the information it seemed to contain. I got it for about $15 on Amazon. (An earlier, smaller version of the book can be found for free on the Internet.) The low price is actually a little bit misleading, though.

This book looks at programming using examples from six software synthesizers: Cameleon 5000 from Camel Audio, Rhino 2 from BigTick, Surge from Vember Audio, Vanguard from reFX, Wusikstation from Wusik dot com, and Z3TA+ from Cakewalk. This means to be able to fully understand and follow along with everything in the book you need the book, the six software synthesizers, and the specially made patches that go with the synthesizers to illustrate the concepts in the book. The author sells the patches separately for $10. The synthesizers range from $90 to $200 each.

So let's break this down:

Book: $15.00
Patches: $10.00
Cameleon 5000: $125
Rhino: $90
Surge: $150
Vanguard: $100
Wusikstation: $200
Z3TA+: $100

Total price: $790

Now to be fair, most of the synthesizers have demo versions available that can be used rather than having to buy the full product. However, you can see how it can feel a bit misleading to buy a book due to its relative cheapness and discover that to fully experience everything the book discusses, you've got to spend a lot more money.

I recently purchased the patches on-line (I'm not sure why they weren't included as a CD with the book) and have been gathering the synths to soon be able to properly follow along. Hopefully it will be worth the effort.

Audio Noise Continues

I'm still trying to figure out the solution to the recording noises that I mentioned in my last post. I've been trying all sorts of things, but have yet to find a solution.

I've been searching M-Audio's site and trying many of their suggestions. No solution. I registered on their forum and posted my problem, but didn't get too many responses.

I found a Korg forum and posted my problem there. I had a few responses, but nothing that fixed my problem.

I unplugged everything and tried plugging it into our clean power Monster strip. That didn't stop the hum. Then I tried unplugging the laptop and unplugged the synthesizer (turning it off) and the hum still persisted. So there was no outside current which was what most people believe the noise to come from.

Then I tried installing everything on Maria's laptop, but it didn't work there for some reason. So I installed it all on our main desktop. Still got the hum.

So I guess that rules out the computer and the power source. It also rules out the software because it happens on Audacity as well as Cakewalk Sonar. So it's somewhere within the Fast Track, the Korg, the USB cables, and the patch cord.

My next step will potentially be to look into getting some nicer USB cables with ferrite filters which is supposed to suppress noise. We'll see if that does anything.

My Recording Problems: Hum and Interference Noises.

So I mentioned in an earlier post that I got an M-Audio Fast Track USB to record sounds, but I was getting some humming noise and some interference. It's been driving me crazy trying to figure out how to fix it. Is it the unit? Is it my computer? Is it the cords? Is it noise from the electrical system and power strip?

So I've been trying all sorts of things including a ton of Google searches to see if I can find out the problem. I think I've finally narrowed things down tonight.

First, the advice was to remove everything from the computer (printers, speakers, etc.) and then test for noise. I thought that didn't really apply to me because I was using a laptop which has no printers or external items plugged in--except the things that I need to record and run my computer, e.g. power cord, usb mouse, Fast Track device, MIDI device. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that I had four or five items (if I plugged headphones into the laptop) plugged into the computer that could all be making the noise.

I thought at first it was the patch chords. I even went and bought a new one since the ones I had were over a decade old. I think it helped, but it didn't solve the problem.

So I unplugged everything except the Fast Track. With no other items plugged in, I got wonderful, beautiful silence. I was able to record with no interference, hum, or noise. Plugging the power cord in, I got hiss and pops--but no hum. Plugging the MIDI cord back in, I get the source of the hum.

So I've got two problems now:

1. If I want to record, I have to record on battery. That or find a way to clean up whatever the electrical interference is causing that noise in the recording. At least there's a workaround even if I don't like it.
   
2. I can't use MIDI while recording audio. This is a fairly major problem. I want to be able to record MIDI notes, clean them up, and then play the MIDI and record the resulting audio. To do that and keep everything correctly synched, I need to have the MIDI and audio both coming into the computer.

So I'll experiment with the power noise. We've got one of those Monster clean power strip things that I got talked into buying when we got our HDTV. Maybe that can help the interference noise when running all my keyboards and electronics.

As for the hum, maybe get a better USB cable? I honestly don't know. I'll have to research deeper on this one.

Inside Synthesis

Inside Synthesis is a blog with quite a few video tutorials on synthesis as well as reviews for synthesizer products including the Korg DS-10 on the Nintendo DS. I believe the videos were made specifically for this site: Sonic State, another synthesizer/music gear site.

These videos are very well done, and the guy who hosts them really seems to know is stuff and is surprisingly clear in his delivery of some very complex material.

Sadly, the videos are in a format that I can't seem to embed, but here are some direct links to four of the "Inside Synthesis" tutorials:

• Episode One : Your Korg MS-2000 is a Drum Machine
• Episode Two : Using LFOs as Sequencers
• Episode Three : Modular Synthesis - The Basics
• Episode Four : FM Synthesis - Part 1

I have no idea if the Inside Synthesis series will continue or not, but there's a lot of great stuff just in these 4 short videos. Hopefully "FM Synthesis - Part 2" will eventually show up.

Classic Synths: Oberheim OB-X & SonicProjects OP-X

In my previous post, I talked about making the opening growl sound from Rush's "Tom Sawyer." In looking up information about how the sound was made, I learned that it specifically came from the Oberheim OB-X synthesizer.

Wikipedia article on the OB-X synthesizer.

Looking a bit more into this synthesizer, I learned that it and other Oberheim synths were used by quite a few classic rock bands, including Rush ("Tom Sawyer"), Queen (Who were vehemently against synthesizers until they started using this from the "Flash Gordon" soundtrack on), Van Halen ("Jump" and the prelude, "1984") and Styx ("Come Sail Away"), among others.

This classic synthesizer has been recreated in software form as the SonicProjects OP-X.

You can go to their site an hear many samples of the software synthesizer including many recreations of famous synth sounds.

Here's a quick Youtube video of someone playing around with the virtual synth:

Creating a Sound: Tom Sawyer

So I've been learning about how to make sounds. I've been listening to songs trying to pick apart the sounds in my mind and trying to figure out how I might recreate them on my synthesizers. I figured I'd start with one of the most famous synth sounds of all time, the opening growl sound at the beginning of Rush's "Tom Sawyer":


I had no idea how to make that noise despite all the different books and tutorials I'd seen so far. So I did some searching and found this page that talks about recreating the sound:
Tom Sawyer Growl Sound

There's quite a long discussion on what was used to make the original sound, and some discussion on how to re-create the sound. From there I made my first attempt to recreate the sound. It really sounded awful compared to the original sound.

TomSawyerTake1.mp3

I think I ended up passing the sound through both a high and low pass filter essentially removing most of the sound and getting nothing but the growling noise. I had to add a second sound to try to add the low E back into the sound.

After studying the write-up on the page again, I went back and started again. The page talked about modulating Oscillator 1 with Oscillator 2. I attempted that by using the R3's Cross Modulation feature.

TomSawyerTake2.mp3

This still ended up more of a hiss than a growl.

So I went back and looked some more. He talked about Rush using the Oberheim OB-X synthesizer. I found that there's a virtual version of the classic synthsizer here:
Sonic Projects OPX

I'll post more about that synth later, but using that plug-in I could see how they programmed that particular patch more carefully and attempt to recreate it on the R3. Here's the Tom Sawyer patch on the virtual Oberheim:

TomSawyerOPX.mp3


So once again I went back to start over. This time I tried to match the settings of the OP-X virtual synth with my R3 editor. The biggest difference this time was this time setting the patch to monophonic with 4 unison voices. The Oberheim has 6 which gives it a slightly more powerful sound, I believe. And then adding a slight LFO while holding out the sound.

TomSawyerTake3.mp3

It's still not completely right, but much closer to the original sound. It's amazing how just tweaking one or two little parameters can have a major effect on the sound which is why it's hard to get it completely accurate.

And just for fun, I tried to recreate it on my Korg DS-10 as well, this time just by ear.

TomSawyerDS.mp3

Yikes.

Korg DS-10

The Korg DS-10 is a virtual synthesizer for the Nintendo DS. It was something that seemed like a semi-interesting novelty when it was released last year, but beyond knowledge on what to do with it. Just look at the picture to the right with all the knobs and virtual wires. However, having now gained a basic understanding of how synthesizers work, those knobs actually made sense to me. I'd read about musicians using this as a sort of "sketch pad" to work on ideas while travelling with an extremely portable synthesizer. So I decided with my new-found knowledge of synthesizers, it might be a fun little tool to invest in. I don't have any songs to show off with it yet, but I've gathered a ton of information about it.

Demonstration trailer:


One general tutorial/overview:


Another general tutorial/overview from IGN:


And I couldn't embed it, but here's another great review from someone who really understands synthesizers:
http://insidesynthesis.blogspot.com/2008/09/korg-ds-10-review.html

The people who released the games have also been releasing a series of tutorials called "Synthesizer 101".

Lesson 1: Pitch


Lesson 2: VCO


Lesson 3: VCF


Lesson 4: EG (Envelope Generator)


Lesson 5: EG Part 2


Lesson 6: VCA


Advanced Lesson 7: Patch Mode


Advanced Lesson 8: Patch Mode 2

Programming Analog Synthesizers

Video on programming Analog Synthesizers


How to program analog synthesizers from Ethan Winer on Vimeo.

Some Musical Experiments

So here are a few quick musical kernels or experiments from playing with my new equipment. Most of these are 10 - 30 seconds at most. They are just me jotting down some ideas. So could be expanded to full songs later on, and some are just for me to try out some various tools and techniques.

Experiment 1: This was mainly to test setting up MIDI tracks, audio tracks, and multiple tracks in Sonar. So it's a lot of noise but uses the R3 for synth and vocoder, some microphone vocals, a drum track within Sonar, and some random effects. It also uses the R3's appegiator and making sure I can synth Sonar's MIDI clock with my synthesizer. So it's a lot for just 10 seconds of audio mess.


Experiment 2: 12-29-08 take 1. This is capturing a piano riff I was playing with a few days earlier. It's also an attempt and playing with some dials while recording MIDI playback and some reverb effects on the drum.


Experiment 3: 12-29-08 take 2. This is me playing with the vocodor through the arppegiator to use my voice as a rhythm track.


Experiment 4: 01-04-09. I honestly have no idea what I was doing here. It's only been a few weeks, but I barely remember doing this.


Experiment 5: 01-11-09. I had the rhythm and bass in my head before sitting down to do this. I couldn't find anything good for the melody, so I'm pretty sure I created the lead sound on my own to fill in until I flesh it out further.


Experiment 6: 01-18-09. Another one where I had the tune in my head before adding other things to it. I wasn't sure if I wanted the melody here to be a bass line or a melody line. So right now it's a deep sound that could go either way.


And here's the first full length track that I more-or-less completely finished. Other than the drums, it comes almost completely from factory setting sounds on the R3. I created one or two sounds to fill in a few gaps. This is a medley of the first three levels of the 80s arcade game, "Marble Madness," one of the first game soundtracks that I remember that used an analog synthesizer soundtrack.


Direct links to the files:
Experiment 1
Experiment 2
Experiment 3
Experiment 4
Experiment 5
Experiment 6
Marble Madness Medley