Chill track with a message

I hate using my own voice in tracks because all my focus goes into that voice instead of the arrangement. So i tend to use synthesized voices, that way i can stay objective and not get carried away by my own lousy voice. In this cases i have written down some words that made sense to me and had a synthesized female voice read it. I pitched the voice up a few notch to get a little girls voice. Childrens voices have a greater impact on the actual words than using an adult voice maybe it has something to do with we see children as the innocence and non corrupted part of our civilization.

The message of the track is quite clear and is one of those things that cant be said enough times.

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

Instruments used: Zebra, Truepiano and Stylus RMX

EDIT: Ok i've been listening to this some hours later and its difficult to understand the voice without it being edited with pauses and stuff. Nice try thou heh heh, back to the drawing board.

/Michael

Zebra Brass Creation Part 2

Today i gave the Zebrass a shot again and this time i dared to put them a bit more infront without the cover up of delay and reverb. All instruments,drums etc.. are played by Zebra

Its still pretty static sax you will hear but these demos give me a hint on what to focus on.

http://www.michaelkastrup.com/synthdemos/Z2_Zebrass_Part_02.mp3

/Michael

Song for Doru 2007 Version

Some might know who Doru was and some might not, i knew him because he was the one who inspired me to pick up music making again. In november 2005 i decided to pay my dues by sending Doru a song dedicated to him and the reply i got back was heartbreaking knowing that Doru had very little time left because of cancer (He died on Feb. 10 2006). Doru was one of those people who believed in the best of man and acted unselfish in everything he did. Knowing that he was sick some people started to speculate in his death by overtaking his original domain because of the high traffic he generated. So those of you who wonders why the domain is named http://www.dorumalaia2.com/ and not simply http://www.dorumalaia.com/ is because some low life spotted profit.

Ohh well, the world is what we make of it and Doru was one of the good guys. Not all the gold in the world can stop the fact that we are all going the same way, what we do in between is what matters. Some choose to spend their life taking while others spend their life giving.

To put this into some perspective try visit http://www.breathingearth.net/

Here is the 2007 Version of Song for Doru:

http://www.michaelkastrup.com/synthdemos/Song_for_Doru_v2007.mp3

EDIT: Speaking of taking and giving, watch out for www.domainrenewalonline.com its a domain SCAM asking you to pay for domain renewal while they have absolutely nothing to do with yours, mine or any others domains.

/Michael

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