A demo project I did a while back to test out some new things: specifically, Reaper, MicroTonic, and SynPlant.
Available for you are three different versions, with varying effects.
Category Archives: Albums
Crazy Demos
Sometimes, when I’m testing out a synth and trying to learn it, I just hook up my keyboard and start playing around with them live, tweaking every knob I can get my hands on and seeing what happens. Sometimes, if something interesting happens, I record it. The following are some of the results. Warning: some of these amp up unpredictably – make sure your speakers are set at a safe volume before continuing.
Radioshift
This is actually a visual pattern exercise rendered into musical form. Each of the notes start out playing in sequence, then slowly move, one by one, into different phases in relation to each other’s positions. The first iteration of this track was rendered using a bunch of loud bells, but it didn’t seem quite… interesting enough. This version switches over to Logic’s venerable EFM1 synth, and adds slowly varying modulation amounts to the mix. The result is a track that I find both intriguing, and at times almost unbearable to listen to all the way. If you are able to listen to this track all the way through, you have my full permission to remove the letter F from the title should you so desire.
Gatlin’
This song originated when I was listening to a very driving prog rock song, and half-wondered if if it was sort of like the musical equivalent of a machine gun attack. Then, I wondered, what would the musical equivalent of a machine gun firing be? Probably not quite like the piece that resulted, but that was at least the general driving idea behind it (and, at least toward the end, it does take on a bit of an impression of its namesake). Basically, it’s a fast, growing sequence that’s somewhere between music and sonic assault, but I like it nonetheless.
Drums are a custom program (and custom sound programs) done in Logic’s Ultrabeat, guitars are Slayer 2, and synths are Vanguard. There’s also a limiter on the master output which I probably put in a couple of minutes too late. When I say some of this stuff is ear-bleed material, it’s not just your ears I’m talking about…
http://www.idlecircuits.com/digintmedia/gatlin.mp3
Oh, and despite the fact that mashups officially jumped the shark the moment they were featured on “Glee”, I created an experimental mash of Gatlin’ and one of my other tracks (Ambient Distance).
http://www.idlecircuits.com/digintmedia/em_gatlinambdist.mp3
Blasting
Just noodling around live in iDrum. For some reason, I liked how this session sounded, with some interesting acceleration.
Strange Electroacoustics
Pretty much everything on this track is generated to some extent by Reaktor’s various ensembles. The core of the track is a heavily transformed live playing of Reaktor’s Acoustring ensemble, modified by Traktor effects, and accompanied by a large number of Reaktor algorithmic grooveboxes and sound generators. The overall result is a pseudo-ambient piece with an interesting, pulsating sound that cycles between gentle and gritty. This song was definitely interesting to work with, as it took the original melody line and managed to transform it into something almost unrecognizable compared to the original, but much more interesting.
There are two versions of the track that you can download – the Minimal version, which focuses mainly on the transformed melody accompanied by a couple of generated sounds, and the All-Inclusive version, which includes many additional generators and grooveboxes. The minimal version is good for listening to the essence of the track, while the all-inclusive version has a much fuller sound.
All-Inclusive:
http://www.idlecircuits.com/digintmedia/seall.mp3
Minimal:
Choir Gone Mad
I was playing around with Wusik EVE when I discovered that you could do some interesting ribbon-controller style sweeps using the mouse on the instrument’s mini-keyboard. This is one of those tracks, riffing randomly using a Mellotron choir. The result is a bit on the weird side, but strangely compelling and relatively melodic.
Not 2001
I was playing around with Wusik EVE when I discovered that you could do some interesting ribbon-controller style sweeps using the mouse on the instrument’s mini-keyboard. This is one of those tracks, where I was playing around with some octave shifts with one of the interesting Mellotron sounds. WHile I was playing it, I thought it sounded slightly like the intro to the movie 2001, but not really… hence the title.
Alchemist/Dark Alchemist
A short while ago, Camel Audio was offering one of those nifty “pay what you want” deals for one of their sound sets, which came with a fairly versatile software player for them, along with some default sounds. I was playing around with some of the arpeggiation presets that were included, and found that one of them made for some very interesting sequences, and I just started playing with it live. I happened to record one of the takes, and this is the result. Not a very interesting story to be sure, but sometimes you just start playing around with various instruments, and suddenly you find inspiration.
Dark Alchemist is a continuation of the series started with Alchemist, and is another, somewhat more random/dissonant take on the sequence.
Techno Jam
This is a techno jam.