Komuso
527 posts
Apr 04, 2015
4:04 AM
|
This is a little improvisation I did at the end of a gig today.
It's not "the blues" but at least for me it's "blues influenced"
ymmv;-)
----------
Paul Cohen aka Komuso Tokugawa
HarpNinja - Learn Harmonica Faster
Bringing the Boogie to the Bitstream
Last Edited by Komuso on Apr 04, 2015 4:37 AM
|
harp-er
564 posts
Apr 04, 2015
7:19 AM
|
It's always nice to hear expansions and extrapolations of 'the blues'. Today, on the forum I mean, there seems to be a mood of droning 'blues' offerings - check out Brendan's 'Irish Blues'.
Carry on.
|
Komuso
528 posts
Apr 05, 2015
5:51 AM
|
Technically it's not really a drone song, though it *may* sound like it a little. Afaik the drone backing in real drone songs usually doesn't modulate musically only tonally, but I could be wrong?
This one has a progression to it. But it is drone influenced, a bit like the blues influence.
Plus the story the improvisation is based around.
There's three parts in this.
1. An ambient backing sound texture using Native Instruments Reaktor. You can just hear this clearly at the end as the guitar tails off and it fades out.
2. Guitar is into a Zoom MS50G then into Guitar Rig 5 custom patch. Guitar is played in the first half with an eBow and slide, which is where the drone sound comes from but a simple riff is being played. 2nd half is fingerstyle and slide with the same riff.
3. Rack Harp is into a Zoom G3 and then also into Guitar Rig 5 custom patch. Simple 3rd position playing unison and off-unison along with the guitar part.
Then it's run through an Ozone patch on the master out to tweak the overall sound a bit.
Native Instruments has some incredible sound tools.
Guitar Rig is not just for guitar, but you can use it as a general FX processor.
Keep an eye out for their sales and you can usually snag the Komplete bundle pack for a good discount.
----------
Paul Cohen aka Komuso Tokugawa
HarpNinja - Learn Harmonica Faster
Bringing the Boogie to the Bitstream
Last Edited by Komuso on Apr 05, 2015 6:35 AM
|
shadoe42
314 posts
Apr 05, 2015
9:40 AM
|
Good stuff mate. I did something similar not to long ago for an ambient electronic EP. huzzah for reverb!
----------
Dr. Rev. Mr. Cheeks Miller
My Electronic Music World
|
Komuso
529 posts
Apr 05, 2015
5:40 PM
|
Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeverberberberberbbbbbb ftw!
I like your soundcloud experiments ed, reminds me a little of woob's cinematic explorations.
----------
Paul Cohen aka Komuso Tokugawa
HarpNinja - Learn Harmonica Faster
Bringing the Boogie to the Bitstream
|
isaacullah
2983 posts
Apr 06, 2015
10:20 AM
|
Very atmospheric! Nice stuff... BTW, been crazy busy with work stuff, and haven't had time to get back to working on that reggae jam. It's on my to-do list, but I probably won't be able to do it for another several weeks. Eesh.
----------
YouTube! Soundcloud!
|
Martin
794 posts
Apr 06, 2015
12:08 PM
|
Impressive stuff, Komuso, really enjoyed it.
But I don´t understand a thing what you´re saying in parts 1-2-3 above ... (Ah, the plights of the technophobe.) Hopefully I can look it up ´cause I want to do this myself!
|
Komuso
530 posts
Apr 06, 2015
6:39 PM
|
ah, right, there is a bit if audio geek speak there now you mention it;-)
Just describing my signal chain and FX processors.
Here's the relevant links:
1.
Reaktor
Reaktor is what is called a modular synth where you can build your own instruments and effects.
There's lots of prebuilt ones and also a lot available from the user community.
2.
Zoom MS50G
Guitar Rig 5 Pro
EBow
3.
Zoom G3
Izotope Ozone is a mastering FX plugin, but you can also use it as an insert effect as well.
Komplete Bundle
It's cheaper to get the Native Instruments stuff as a Komplete bundle, and you can usually get that cheap at one of the online music stores (like TimeSpace for instant download or similar) during the big sales like Black friday or whatever.
Sign up for their newsletters to get a heads up.
Composing and improvising with these can be a bit overwhelming at first due to the huge number of sound possibilities, but if you approach it methodically you can make progress quickly.
Native Instruments has a very good sound preset system that's common across all their tools so once you get comfortable with that you can organize your presets according to your own style of work.
I've developed my own process now that works ok.
I'll never be able to play the same song twice, but I have rough notes on structure and effects that allow me generally improvise around the same feel again.
Lots of tutorials on the web on the various instruments/FX as well.
----------
Paul Cohen aka Komuso Tokugawa
HarpNinja - Learn Harmonica Faster
Bringing the Boogie to the Bitstream
|
shadoe42
315 posts
Apr 06, 2015
7:12 PM
|
Thanks man, haha I call it exercising the other side of my musical brain. If you want to check out the harp track here is the link to the EP I just released with a gentlemen in Italy. It was interesting recording with someone on the other side of the world. The track you want for Harp is Engine Room Blues, but if you enjoy ambient/Berlin school and such stuff I encourage you to give the whole thing a go thru :)
https://orbitalplane.bandcamp.com/releases
----------
Dr. Rev. Mr. Cheeks Miller
My Electronic Music World
|
Martin
795 posts
Apr 07, 2015
4:30 PM
|
Thank you Komuso (and shadoe42!), appreciate the input. An E-bow will probably be the first item on my wishing list, I think ...
|
shadoe42
316 posts
Apr 07, 2015
6:26 PM
|
Start slow. make a quick recording of some harp. couple minutes. just enough time to play around a bit. Then fire up say your reverb effect and start messing with the knobs/sliders etc. see what does what. Soon enough you can progress to turning a sine wave into whispering ghosts.
Use effects that you wouldn't think for harp. throw away the "box" that we tend to put ourselves in. And just start adding and then taking things away. The aim is to just see what the effects do.
You may be surprised at what you find :) presuming you are recording into the computer most DAWs have some effects included and there are plenty of free ones out there. even if all you are using is a guitar effects unit like the ZOOM you still have some effects to mangle things up with :)
----------
Dr. Rev. Mr. Cheeks Miller
My Electronic Music World
|
Komuso
533 posts
Apr 07, 2015
7:08 PM
|
The EBow is a killer little tool.
Takes some practice, and there's a lot of little nuances you can do with it that generate unique sounds - especially when fed through some FX.
re: sounds.
Ed's point about unleashing your mind is a good one.
You will go further in the end if at some point you learn the basics of electronic sound production because then you begin to understand what effects twiddling a particular knob is doing.
This becomes helpful when you are trying to dial in a particular sound either by tweaking a preset or building one from scratch.
But certainly in the beginning just have some fun randomly tweaking knobs and sliders and hearing the result. It's a little like learning harp. Don't let the interface distract you from the fun of playing with the sound toy.
Play a little, learn a little, rinse, repeat.
----------
Paul Cohen aka Komuso Tokugawa
HarpNinja - Learn Harmonica Faster
Bringing the Boogie to the Bitstream
|
shbamac
402 posts
Apr 08, 2015
5:00 AM
|
Very nice, love it. The EBow is a nice tool. Lost mine somewhere in the '80s... Although I've moved away from most computer based FX, Native Instruments is top of the line. I love to chain my delay pedals and route them into four amps... ping pong slapback ambient soundscape heaven!
|
