Zebra Brass Creation Part 1

I've been looking for a Alto and Tenor Sax so i tried sax lab from linplug but the overall feel i got was not what i was looking for. It felt too much like playing samples so i thought ok i'm never going to get the real thing so why not settle for synthesized brass and give it a try. So far i covered the low and mids but the highs sound way to synthetic and thin. I also need to come up with cool playing styles using aftertouch, velocity and modwheel. If it was only a matter of faking sax in an arrangement it wouldnt have been that hard because other instruments would take away the focus from the actual sound but if i want a sax for solo then its another game. I'm not a brass player so the emulation will stop where i think its good enough for a non-brass-playing guy.

Why do i have the feeling that this is NOT going to be easy heh heh ohh well...

Here is a snippet of the Zebra Brass Part 1 of god knows how many parts it will take to finish:

Brass Section and Tenor Sax

http://www.michaelkastrup.com/synthdemos/Z2_Zebrass_01.mp3

/Michael

Getting back into mixing

Seems that i would need to work my way from the 80's to present time. Loudness control is my main issue because i cannot compete with todays music when mixing in 80's style. Today music is made to fit into a soundwall, meaning bass and kick and arrangement have been made to get very high loudness. As an example, the typical synco bass of Rick Astley wouldnt fit into todays music because it would kill the ability to make pumping loudness mixes. A bass today needs to be straight on the beat or on the offbeat to produce the pumping effect.

I'm starting to get more familiar with my compressors and started to see where they fit in. The Sonalksis compressor is the only comp/limiter which can tie bass/snare and kick together as a single entity, it produces a warm compression and is a sound i'm used to from the (old) days.

This is my main goto comp/limiter

Then there is Kjaerhus Comp/limiter, well this one is not so musical but its precise and precision is what you need on the overall master. I use it to take all peaks and keep output at zero.

Fabfilter Comp is a bit complicated but have tons of nice presets, i would say that this one is more a nice tools for todays pumping methods.

So a typical setup would be:

Sonalksis is first in line comp, then Fabfilter on the general mix and finally Kjaerhus to control the mix.

All this mixing is going to take quite awhile because i'm starting from scratch and need to get my head around all the aspects.

As usual Zebra is the instrument i use for dropping down mixing ideas, in this case i've added a piano and Stylus RMX. To show how much Zebra covers i made the start of the mix with only piano and stylus. Zebra kicks in after that in 80's Disco style.


http://www.michaelkastrup.com/synthdemos/Z2_Dubbing_DiscoA.mp3

Far from perfect as usual but at least i'm trying :)

/Michael

Zebra 2 Oldskool Project FINISHED

Its been nearly 6 months since the first step into the fold of Zebras happend. Why carry on for so long ? Well the answer is that i am a persistant bastard who wont leave until i discovered whats to be found. If i cant share what i find it makes no meaning to me and it will be completely pointless. Some say that a painting tells you more than 1.000 words, i feel the same about music. So people, dont sit on it, let it out no matter what it is as long as it means something to you. Dont be scared of what people might say, fact is, theres ALWAYS one around who will appreciate what your doing. No person in the world is able to please everyone, remember that and stay focused :o)

To all of you who have been following this project, Thank you for keeping me alert and focused!!

Here is a link to the project on KVR forums:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=177685

/Michael

Entering mixing phase with Zebra

Its been like forever that i tried to mix in Cubase. Up until now i always made raw mix of synth presets but i feel i need to take Zebra a bit further by using it in proper mix situations. So this is kinda the good news, the bad news is i suck at mixing in Cubase, its been wayyy too long and just as an example i had to go thru 20 compressors just to narrow down what kind of compressor i want for the job. I like the sound of Sonalksis SV-315 MK2 but its costly so i need to be 100% before i take the jump at it.

In a way i feel like sitting at the big mixing desk again and have to start from scratch. I just hope i'm going to enjoy the learning process as much as i enjoy making preset and patches on synths. Now the really hard part is making Zebra not sound like Zebra, meaning its supposed to replace any kind of sound. Cymbals WILL be hell to reproduce but i'm not giving up.

Anyways, here are my first 3 Zebra Mix cases:

First one is speedy rock pop swing and second one is more old disco like and third is electronica.

http://www.michaelkastrup.com/synthdemos/Z2_MixCaseB.mp3

http://www.michaelkastrup.com/synthdemos/Z2_KoolZebra.mp3

http://www.michaelkastrup.com/synthdemos/Z2_Discover.mp3

/Michael