Archive for the Category: ' Synthesizers '
I’ve been laying down track after track on my Christmas MIDI album for 2009…
I made one back in 2004 that the family seemed to really like, that was using only my Roland SC-8850. This time around I am using mostly my XV-5080 and Fantom XR, with some D-550 and other synth’s thrown in the mix for some tracks as well. It is shaping up nicely so far. At the time of this writing, I have 12 tracks completed.
Here is one track to give you a taste of what’s coming: Now Rock, Ye Rested Gentlemen, a ‘big band’ take on God Rest, Ye Merry Gentlemen.
This song was re-mixed and recorded using my Roland XV-5080 and Fantom XR with multiple SRX Expansion boards each. Enjoy!
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The source MIDI file was used with permission from Gary of Gary’s MIDI Home Page. So be sure to check out his website for some more great MIDI music.
EDIT: Updated version with different patches with some more bite for “vocals”. What do you think?
Today, like many days, I was going through the thousands of patches in my Roland XV-5080 and came across a few replicating some of Jon Lord’s (Deep Purple) organ sound. So, I decided to remaster an old MIDI of one of my favorite Deep Purple songs on the XV-5080, Child In Time.
The two organ patches I used for this song are called “Fire Perc” and “HeavyTraffic” from the “SR-JV80-08 Keyboards of the 60′s and 70′s” expansion board . I customized both of the patches a little bit until I was happy with them.
Next, after spending more time than I would have liked to looking for a suitable guitar patch for the song, I gave up and made a new one. I wasn’t really going for emulation and just made something I thought sounded nice in the song. I spent a fair amount of time on the guitar patch. I’ll try to remember to write something about it later.
The next thing on the list was the drums, I used the “Studio Set” kit from the “SR-JV80-10 Bass & Drums” expansion board and customized some of the cymbals and crashes a bit. I also routed the drumkit to a separate audio output on the XV. So that I could amp it up a bit during recording, I set it to output from the XV dry, and added a different reverb and very minor EQ to it.
After that, I worked on the “vocals”. Normally I don’t bother using or keeping “vocals” in MIDI music. But, seeing as Child in Time is as much a great organ piece as a voice solo, I decided to keep it. I settled on a smooth mellow sound using a couple patches on the SC-8850 which I think does the job of keeping the melody of the song’s lyrics.
Here’s the recording, let me know what you think:
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Download My Updated MP3: Child In Time MIDI Remaster v2 (Roland XV-5080 & SC-8850)
Download My Original MP3: Child In Time MIDI Remaster (Roland XV-5080 & SC-8850)
This guy is one of the most amazing MIDI composer’s I have ever heard. I’m not really clever enough to write a nice bunch of paragraphs about how good he is. So, I’ll leave you with some of his music. Skeptics please remember, what you are about to hear is simply a recording of “one of those crappy .mid-e files” played straight through one of my Roland Sound Canvas’.
Enjoy! Oh, make sure you use the ‘next’ and ‘back’ buttons in the player to listen to all 5 songs posted here. Each one is better than the last!
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Click “More»” for the MP3 downloads.
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Today I thought I’d record some of the on-board demos from some of my synths. I got my old Yamaha PSR-530 keyboard to work, I thought it was broken! It appears that the plug for the DC transformer on the keyboard is busted. I recall never trying to test it with batteries, I kind of forgot it had a battery compartment. Low and behold, I put in 6 D-size batteries and it powers right up! I’ll have to take it apart at some point and see if I can replace the DC-in plug and repair it. So for now, here are some synth demos. Enjoy!
Note: Don’t forget to use the ‘next’ and ‘previous’ buttons in the player! 
Roland D-110 On-Board Demo Songs:
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Yamaha PSR-530 Demo Songs (Some on-board, some from cartridge)
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Korg X5DR On-Board Demo Songs
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Click “More»” for the MP3 downloads.
I made a couple weird analog-ish patches using a few interesting techniques.
Have a listen:
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Download Link: WeirdPatch001
Here is how I did it.
One patch uses MFX #16 StepFlanger and Pan-Delay global Reverb. The percussive sounds are a side effect of the Step Flanger effect. Pretty cool, huh?
- Here is the first patch without effects enabled:
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- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel1_Dry
- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel1_Dry
- Here it is with effects enabled:
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- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel1_Wet
- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel1_Wet
The other patch uses MFX #45 Multi Tap Delay.
- Here is the second patch without effects enabled:
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- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel2_Dry
- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel2_Dry
- Here it is with effects enabled:
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- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel2_Wet
- Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Channel2_Wet
The pitch bends are done manually. I may try to program it into an LFO later on.
Here is the whole mix with all effects disabled:
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Download Link: WeirdPatch001_Dry
Now, you may ask: “Where is the phasing effect coming from?”
The answer is, I am emulating “Pitch Drift” of the classic analog synthesizer using LFOs on the waveform level. I used a technique derived from this great article from Sound On Sound magazine.
…And now for something completely different. For my friend Arfy, here is a little remix from an old Casio toy keyboard. I don’t remember the model at the moment. Other then the arrangement of the loops and the fact that I layer them sometimes, they are exactly as you would hear from the instrument itself.
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Download Link: CasioToyFun
Screwing around with the Guitar Amp Simulator…
Wrote this little metal ditty last night using the XV-5080 with SC-8850 on drums. The first half is original, or maybe it’s based on something I’ve heard that’s stuck in my head. Either way I’d like to elaborate on it some more. The second half of the recording is a surprise. Comments?
EDIT: Updated version:
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Download: NewMetalTestXV2
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Download: NewMetalTestXV
Be sure to check out the about page. I updated it with some photos of my gear.
Some excerpts:
Another angled shot of my Roland XV-5080
My Desktop as of June 30th 2009... Havn't installed the XV in the rack yet.
Just got an XV-5080, more on this later as I have a lot to learn in the means of how to use the darn thing.
Here is a recording of all three on-board demo songs.
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download: xv-5080_demosongs
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