Autumn

Ah... this cold, misty morning of autumnal majesty ! I've been longing for this all through the dreadful Summer...
Took my girlie dog out for a stroll through the only real beauty of these southern parts of this country: the landscape. Some sites almost resemble the most magical country on earth, England.
This serene, total silence for me, is the utmost experience of aural delight... the sweetest music. A soundtrack to Taoist emptiness...
And thus begins my fav time of the year....
Now off to the Piano (or rather the Midi controller & samples :), inspiration has dawned...
The first part of Song #5 is almost done !
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Recording the CD (Part 39)

Just fired up my old Pentium 4 3Ghz XP PC in order to run the plug-ins that Win 7 64 bit refuses to run: Korg Digital & Analog Legacy Editions, Arturia Jupiter 8.... So now I'm able to record parts on the new machine, then load them (the Cakewalk Project files) into the old hag & export the audio (24 bit) using the desired patches ! A small hassle, but until the plug-ins become available on 64 bit systems.... it works perfectly :)
Started working through zillions of drum sounds for use on the first part of track #5.... think I found some kicking combi's...
Also recorded the chords w/ a fine patch outta the Korg MonoPoly.
I'm taking my time, cuz this 1 really needs to be HUGE !!
Cheerz,
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Recording the CD (Part 38)

Well, well....
This 5th track is heading in many directions, stylewise :)
Have a lot figured out in my head, but recorded only a small piano section (which I'm including here) to give every1 an impression of some of the melodies.

Piano Parts (preliminary stage)

It's going down a 'Progressive Rock meets House meets Techno meets really anything' street.
It will be divided into about 5 parts & will become lengthy I'm afraid (dunno if there's a market for this kinda thing, but WTF !).
And: there will be some guitar parts, haha !
Talk to ya later,
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Recording the CD (Part 37)

Well, w/ track #5 I'm taking a different approach. Normally I'd go for lotsa different drum patterns (breaks & stuff) but this time around I'm keeping that quite simple and repetitive.... All focus on the keyz & melodies :) .
Not shure if this 1 needs vocals...
Later...
Gotta do some daily practice to improve my keyboard skills (I can't complain, it's going fab :) ...
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Recording the CD (Part 36)

Well well, long time no update....
Track #4 has been finished, a sort of Intro or Interlude containing a spoken part from W.B. Yeats' 'The Second Coming' poem. I used my Korg Wavestation SR a lot on this one !
A demo of this one can be found on SoundCloud ("Bethlehem")... it's the first mix, however not yet mastered.
I'm spending lotsa time learning all I can regarding the Mastering process... pretty complicated ;)
Track #5 has already been 'started': an uplifting house tune with a MASSIVE beat !! I used the Reason 4 DAW for the creation of the first part w/ some Triton & Roland samples.... sounds really cool ! Sample to follow later on!
Cya!
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Recording the CD (Part 35)

Yea, well.... just 2 further changes to 'Wild' befo' mixing'll kick in: Entered a brilliant sample of a thunderstorm @ the start (suits the title & general feel), somewhat reminiscent of The Cure's 'The Same Deep Waters As You' ('Disintegration' holds a zillion memories for me, 1 of the greatest albums EVER, both musically & lyrics wise !!);
Then, I added some ARP sequences to the end chorus part, some squeeky things very much like the last 2 songs by Inna... Fits in beeeeautifully :)
After the 1st rough mix is done, I'll upload a sample.

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P.s. just figured out a very classy way (Piano) to convert the SFAS song 'The Hallway' into House territory... Mmm, might end up doing that 1 giving the vocal thing a shot !

"The Blessed Spirits Must Be Sought Within The Self, Which Is Common To All..."
-W.B. Yeats.

Recording the CD (Part 34)

Recording wise, track #3 is DONE !! On to the mixing, and mebbe some embelishments here & there.... Definitive title will be 'Wild! (3rd 1's the Charm)'....

Recording the CD (Part 33)

Well, the 1st 5 minutes of "Wild" are done ! After tweaking the main chords in many different ways and positions it's now time for the real, standard melodic chord end section.... Still deciding on the beat: a dive into Jungle/Drum N Bass, or remain in House territory, or Techno... Mmmm, we'll C !
Sample to follow soon.
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Recording the CD (Part 32)

Brrr...

Took some time configuring the Battery Drum Sampler from inside Sonar... but, phew, finally got some nice results.
Added some Hi Hatt patterns and some kicks to Track#3, check it out here:
Sample from 'Wild! v3.0'

If you're looking for the best in drum samplers, Native's Battery 3 can't be beat :)

Later...

Recording the CD (Part 31)

Here's a small snippet 4 y'all from the 1st few measures/beats from 'Wild v3.0':

http://soundcloud.com/matt-yanzen/wild-v3-0

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Recording the CD (Part 30)

Heya!
After a short time-out I'm back on track #3 (vacation period, so I'm kinda sssslow :) !
Been through all the samples in this HUGE soft synth called 'Massive' & mangled the main theme quite a bit.... beyond the point of recognition haha.
Gonna use that stuff @ the beginning of the tune, gives it a somewhat techno feel. Samples to follow in a week or 2.
Well, I'm off now to check out a Korg Karma Synth which I plan on buying :)
Cheerz and have a great w-kend !

Recording the CD (Part 29)

Installed the M-Audio 2496 card yesterday and all went x-tremely well :) . Sound is crystal clear and thunderous. Midi tranmission works perfectly both ways, so now on to installing all the software, should be easy I guess as all is compatible w/ 64bit OS... they say ;) .
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Recording the CD (Part 28)

Brrrr, bizzy installing the new computer.... slurps away huge amounts of time. 1 thing's 4 sure: the onboard Audio Controller doesn't cut it (that's a surprise ;) .
My M-Audio Audiophile 2496 just got in, so I'll be installing that 1 this w-kend (gotta grab some cables & stuff 1st).
In the meantime... I'm composing track #3 which is a reincarnation of the S.F.A.S. song 'Wild!' (which I wrote somewhere in 1984 I guess). This is a different approach as opposed to writing and recording everything on-the-fly, which is pretty relaxing, although the output cannot be sampled and shared with y'all right now :) .
It's getting a wee piano-ish, with a slight trancy/house flava, haha ...
I'm planning on doing some vocoded vox myself (originally intended for Jo S., but alas, all contact has been broken off I guess....).
Cya in a few....

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Now that's what I'd call 'Wild!' :)

Recording the CD (Part 27)

Well, just finished mixing the drumtrax for ' Starbirth & Death', which was a kinda easy job to do as all the patches/samples were already neatly in-tune sonic wise. Just kept 'em outta the reds, to avoid clipping and stuff....
On with the rest.
I'm considering using Pro Tools 8 for the next track(s), to keep things a tad more interesting.
New PC is on its way (Pentium i7 4x2.8 w/ 6GB RAM) & I'll have to wait & see what Windows 7 Pro will bring (probably some migraine to start with :).
Bought a VERY nice Korg Wavestation SR Rackmount t'other day & my new weapon of choice in Soundcards is the M-Audio Audiophile 2496.
Peace!

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O yea, for those who are wondering WFT, I'm outta the running 4 the S.F.A.S. reunion project... To be the 1 NOT throwing dirt & starting hatemongery (or to put it in a more simple way, calling any1 a faker and/or the most ugly person ever), let's just say there have been some personal differences (ever so popular).

Recording the CD (Part 26)

YES!!!!

Track #2, 'Star Birth And Death', has been completed recording wise (just a few remaining FX's and stuff @ the end, to round things up...).
Here's a link to a sample of the complete VERY ROUGH mix (320 kbps mp3) of it:

Starbirth And Death (Superwindz Mix) - VERY ROUGH Mix

This is what I call the 'Superwindz Mix', which means it has a rather long, atmospheric mid section.... track clocks in @ about 8 mins !
Well, lemme hear whatcha think :)

Cheerz,
Sp#13
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Recording the CD (Part 25)

Finally getting towards the finalization of track 2, just have to add a repetition of the main hookline and some freaky stuff here and there...... & done !
I'll keep y'all posted !
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Recording the CD (Part 24)

Hell yes !
Just sampled a speech (woman's voice) from NASA.com about the birth and death of stars (supernova's and stuff, VERY interesting), took out a small piece where she says 'star birth & death', ran it through the vocoder (wow, I feel like Kayne West :) ) added some notes.... and damn, I got me myself a singer for the chorus of track 2 !!! Also did a robotized rendering of the voice.... Below is a sample, so you might check it out !

http://www.zshare.net/audio/760114797924c284/

Song #2 had a very obvious title change, it'll be called 'Star Birth and Death'.
I'm almost done w/ the mid section, which I call the Out In Space part.... very ambient with a trancy ending to it, before launching once more into the house hookline.... Methinks when finished, it'll cross the 7 minute line.
Wow, I'm totally hyped about this song !
Cheerz y'all !

Recording the CD (Part 23)

Yea!
Completed the synth (spacy chords) & drum (same bouncy beat but with different snares and hats) parts for the second bridge of track #2. Also recorded some 'Simmons' drum fills which just sound sooo kool !
On to the mid section..... some ideas are bubbling widely :)
Oh, track #2 has gotten it's title: 'S-IVB' (pronounced es-four-bee)... more info = here:














Catch y'all later !

P.s. been bizzy working on the next Sweetz From A Stranger track ('The Hallway'), sounds quite promising !
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Recording the CD (Part 22)

Hey'all !
Well, just finished programming (and choosing sounds for) the drum patterns for the bridge section of Track #2, turned out pretty splendid !
The track is going along much speedier than its predecessor, well it's a more basic approach to dance music in general, with some tweaky stuff thrown in here and there... (my influences from the likes of Royksopp, Moby, Kraftwerk, and of course Mr. Derakh :) , etc... are clearly more present this time around).
I'll see if I can post a new sample in the next few days, 'kay ?
Tschau !
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Recording the CD (Part 21)

A sample of the first few minutes of track#2 still can be sampled here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/7529203361d951c2/
More later, bizzy ri' now....
Cheerz,
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