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Songwriting and Composition
Here's the place to find out how to get out of creative ruts, analyze what makes a great song, discover inspirations for writing, and maybe even meet an online collaborator.
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- Folk music
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Trending posts on MPN
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Taking what Stokely says one step further, I'd love to have a bunch of regular people who just happen to love music listen to three mixes of the same song: one with analog synths, one with virtual analog, and one with all-digital, programmed to obtain as similar a sound as possible. See if they care even the tiniest bit. I believe we choose gear to make us happy, not the audience. But that's important, because the more we love to play, the more likely it is we'll create music - not so much sounds - that people enjoy. -
By Dave Weiser · Posted
A little bit of each. We did this one on our own over Thanksgiving. He's got a great ear, but I helped with the chord voicings, teaching him about inversions. He has a very hip teacher who covers guitar and keys, and is far more capable than me! -
Fun stuff! And someone knows how to mic drums, that's for sure.
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Which keybed, the GT or 88, do you think is more like the TP40 on the Nord Stage? I really love the feel of my Nord stage 4 HA73 but need an 88 note controller for it when at home. I’m not looking for better, I’m looking for as close to it as possible. -
Most of the time I'm not going for super-wide stereo, but with guitar, its "mononess" stands out in a sea of stereo drums, keyboards, and two or three vocal tracks. Basically, I have two main techniques: Separation via EQ, or separation via delay. When you listen to a guitarist, it's not mono. But, the recording process constrains you to that unless you use stereo miking on acoustic guitars (and then you have to deal with phase and other issues). To give a guitar sound that fills the stereo space without sounding like "wow, listen to that artificial-sounding stereo guitar," I often use EQ. One of my favorite techniques is sending the guitar to two buses, and inserting a multiband dynamics processor in one of the buses. All the ratios are set 1:1 so there's no dynamics processing. Basically, what you then have is a 4 to 6-band graphic EQ. Then I move the crossover frequencies so there's equal energy in the various bands. Once one of the EQs is tuned, I copy it to the other bus and pan them oppositely. Finally, I'll mute the high, and mid bands on one EQ, and the low mid and high mid on the other. Bass often stays in both to stay centered. This spreads the different frequencies out in stereo. You can also bring up the original track feeding the buses for more emphasis in the center. Unlike delay-based techniques, this collapses perfectly to mono. If the following phase meter was showing a mono track, it would be a straight line up and down. Using the filter-based mono-to-stereo conversion gives a wider stereo spread: With delay, I usually choose prime numbers for the two delays. The key is the dry/wet setting. Less dry and more wet means the sound won't collapse well to mono, but more dry and less wet doesn't give a big stereo effect so you have to trade off. If I don't go much above 20-30% dry, the sound still seems okay when played back in mono. The images below are (left tor right) mono, with 20% wet, and with 30% wet.
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In MPN’s GEARLAB
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Hi, Steven- This new architecture was introduced in the Nord Wave 2 minus the Piano and Organ sections- -dj -
By Dr Nursers · Posted
Mark thanks so much for this in-depth review. I don't have much of value to add beyond I'm fascinated by the Misha, and it's now on the list to buy if / when I make the eurorack plunge. I've been tempted on Eurorack for 3 or 4 years now but don't really have the room to kick much off. But the interest has not faded. Because of the lack of USB MIDI, it doesn't work in my setup as a desktop unit sadly. -
Key History Although Misha has only been available since mid 2022, its interval-based note-transposition concept actually goes back decades. In 1994, when I was on the editorial staff at Keyboard magazine, a rather confusing press release came in the mail about a product with the most unusual and humorous name I’ve ever heard: the Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee. If you have the July 1994 issue of Keyboard, you can see this text in the New Products section on page 139: MIDI INTERFACE. Yippeeeeee! Haven’t you always wanted to play music using a computer keyboard? Gruenbaum Research has the answer: Their Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee ($1,495) is a micro-processor-based MIDI interface that allows you to trigger synth modules from a standard computer QWERTY keyboard. Modulations and changes of scale are accomplished with the touch of a button or a footswitch. Tone rows and harmony configurations can be created or selected on the fly. Gruenbaum Research, New York, NY. Managing editor Debbie Greenberg and I co-wrote this text based on the press release materials we received, but there wasn’t a photo of the Samchillian and we didn’t understand that it was actually a unique MIDI controller, which you can see for yourself in this vintage YouTube video: Leon Gruenbaum’s Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee, as it looked in 2013. (photo by Mick F. Cantarella) Leon Gruenbaum created the Samchillian, which is really the predecessor to Misha. There’s another fascinating connection between Misha and Keyboard: Steve DeFuria wrote the Software for Musicians and Systems & Applications columns for the magazine — usually both in the same edition! — beginning in early 1986. In his Systems & Applications column for the September 1987 issue, titled Mapping Perfect Harmonies, Steve wrote, “Wouldn’t it be great if you could just tell your instruments what key you’re playing in, and then play whatever notes you want, while your instruments supply the appropriate harmony note or notes?” He goes on to describe how to program and play with diatonic, Lydian, and Ionian key maps on a powerful MIDI processor that was available at the time, the Axxess Unlimited Mapper. “One of the amazing things about playing this way is the resulting freedom from the standard harmonic ideas that we all tend to fall into in most keyboard styles. If you’re an improviser, you’ll be bowled over by the effect this has on your approach to melody and harmonization. Talk about instant gratification! You’ll undoubtedly find some music that you didn’t know you had in you.” Steve could have been writing about Misha. Isn’t it great that Steve and Leon got to work together in bringing Misha to life? Eventide project manager Joe Waltz was the third musketeer in making Misha happen. I will be Zooming soon with Leon, Steve, and Joe about Misha’s creation and where they’d like it to go. Stay tuned. Bottom Line Misha may not appeal to you. Maybe it would bother you for an E key not to play an E, and perhaps it would bother you for one key to play a different note every time you played it. Modular users might feel its 28hp width isn’t worth the features it delivers. It’s not cheap either. I get it. I understand these qualms. But for me, Misha hits so many of the right notes. In action, with multitimbral voices from different synths playing a melody or chord progression or sequence like I’ve never played it before, I’m drawn into what’s happening, how I can change what’s going on, where it might go next — it’s challenging and inspiring at the same time. While I worked with Misha, I found that I tended to record more often than I usually do to capture music I didn’t necessarily know how to recreate. Misha brought me new capabilities in making music, and it’s with me to stay. Pros: Inspiring MIDI note processing and sequencing. Outstanding for improvising and discovering new melodies and chord progressions, whether or not you know music theory. If you do, Misha is deeply programmable to meet your needs. Scores of scales are available, including plenty that are microtonal. CV control of VCO waveform volumes and pan positions. Cons: Addictive. No MIDI I/O via USB port. No MIDI control of VCO waveform volumes or pan positions. Tone Row restriction of notes in sequences might seem limiting. Bypassing MIDI note processing requires CC#88 or a multi-step menu dive.
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