Making the most of primitive gear

[J. Dan]

This is something I've though about frequently over the years. THIS thread is along those lines and got me thinking about it again. I was going to wait until I had an example, but I just don't have time right now and wanted to get this started on the coat tails of the other thread.

 

My idea is to start a thread of compositions done ENTIRELY on a multi tracked primitive synth or other instrument to see how far you can take it. The difference between my suggestion and the linked example would be that, for this challenge, EVERYTHING including percussion has to come from the same synth (you may have to rethink your idea of percussion. Outboard effects are ok but let's keep it to reverb, delay, chorus, phase, flange, EQ, and dynamics - no outboard distortion, rotary, pitch shift, Harmonizer, or synth type effects. No workstations. So subtractive, additive (including organs), FM and its derivatives (DPM, iPD, etc)....no samples.

 

From my own arsenal, I plan on attempting this with the Casio CZ-101 (and/or maybe VZ-8M) and my trusty Roland Jupiter 6. I have more confidence in the JP6 since it can do percussion with its noise source and filter.

[DulceLabs.com]

Not mine, but this is a great example of what Dan's talking about. A $40 Casio, some effects, and a looping pedal:

 

[video:youtube]

[MathOfInsects]

It's kind of like the 8-bit craze of a few years back.

 

For my part, I am very seriously considering doing all the lead vocals for my current/next album via the iphone's built-in condenser mic. Something about the intimacy of the interface brings out interesting stuff in a vocal performance, at least the way I "sing," and the aggressive hi-pass filter is easy enough to EQ back into sanity. Whatever the reason, somehow I'm always happy with whatever I record on that thing.

[J. Dan]

Scott (right? Down the road people won't know this was during Halloween and we all had different pseudonyms.). Anyway, that's a perfect example - exactly what I'm suggesting. I think it could be a lot of fun!

[Lindaru]

I actually have several pieces I did in the nineties on a Roland E-16 recorded direct into the board and then sent out to a tape deck, later sent to my producer who took out the tape noise through Dolby filtering and turned them into C.D.'s.

 

There were no effects beyond what the board had built into it, no other instruments. Percussion, bass and all of that was selected from the board and I did the melody. Just me playing it live into the board as it recorded and out.

 

I will have to see about putting some up on Sound Cloud.

 

 

 

 

[joegerardi]

Something done entirely on the Kawai K1 II. (Not by me.) Even the graphics are from 1994-ish using Musanim MIDI Animation. Both done pre-Windows in DOS and using Voyetra Sequencer.

 

 

..Joe

[stillplaying]

Great thread. Anyone remember a Keyboard article with a title along the lines of - "Cheap is beautiful or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the VL1" - or something like that.

[David Loving]

I've always thought it's the player not the gear, as much fun as gear is. It's a challenge to play well enough that you're going to sound good no matter what gear you're using.

 

 

 

[JoJoB3]

I've always thought it's the player not the gear

 

 

 

It is.