Fun and funky track Mats_Nermark and some tight keyboard work too. Do you work a chord sheet up first, or go from a melody, or start with a rhythm/groove?
Thanks, Per!
The way I start a new tune varies greatly. In this this case I started with the melody but it can be a chord progression, bass line or groove.
Cheers,
Mats N
New tune, i wrote this the other night. It's the Kemper STL ambient profile with a boss slicer and boss synth pedal in front. I thought it made quite an interesting effect although it was a burger to sync to the tempo.
This is a nice track that deserves vocals.
Slicer effects are really fun. I tend to use them as plugins in my DAW to make sure the tempo is correct.
Cheers,
Mats N
I missed this great one Mats, good spring vibe and I love B3 very much , funky horns backings are a great addition too.
Thanks, Renaud!
Cheers,
Mats N
Super smooth Mats! Better than Walter Becker.
That is indeed a great compliment and I thank you. You are way too kind!
Cheers,
Mats N
Hey - that is cool and funky blues. be bop sha loo bop baby!
Thanks, Halipino!
Cheers,
Mats N
Display MoreWow , that's quite huge as a compliment ! Thx a lot , this track was indeed built to shake some booty
Yes thx again, It's really minimalistic , just some EQ & comp on most stems , Nothing on the master bus as it did not add anything and worse, removing part of the dynamic.
Most of the mix comes from the stems categories that cover a single band each, and some careful leveling & pan : notice that the chorus parts (green region) are way up in level , to give a great contrast.
I'd be so honored, nobody has done it before
I'd be happy to share the stems for studying or even remix , but you'd see those stems do not really sound that good on their own.
Most interesting part of this tracks is the tone design , let me share you some hints and how I started :
I most always start from the rhythm & groove, so I went for my very old collection of percussion samples , building a cool 110 BPM base of maybe 5 percussion samples tied and untied together to give some variation on the whole track, that was my basis ( gray track : perk ), took 10 min.
I had to add a drum track, I went for my beloved Ujam circuit drumbox and fount a simple pattern that would fit greatly on the percs , the kit is 'Diode' very 808 like , and I pushed the reverb pretty hard on the whole kit for these long 80's power snares (red track ) took 10 min with inserting some transitions.
Then came the verse basses, I used your ring mod bass rig with pedal set for basses on the exp pedal (blue track purple and pink regions ) took literally 2 mins
For the chorus and other parts basses, I used my own 'Oud' rig, it's a pretty unique rig mimicing the oriental 8 string guitar and also the traditional 'saz' , it's built around EQ, 2 wowel filters in serial, a wah and some delay & verb. It's a killer instrument in itself as the exp pedal tied to some of the wah & WOW filters allow for some frequency shifting on the fly while playing and recording. it sounds really fantastic on it's own. This one is not shared as it's too complicated to use, but I can share it with you of course. ( Blue track on orange regions) took 3 mins.
I used the same Oud rig for the themes and leads , XP pedal set in the mids & highs , I used some oriental sounding scales to fit the genre, and a very special way to play that I developed watching some masters of the Oud & Saz style : it's a way based on short single staccato notes lines in melodic bursts. Best example is this guitarist on this excellent KEXP VID : , unique style and you can sure tell it's a saz player going electric as he's holding the instrument like a saz, and almost no chords... Highly inspirational. So I took 30 min to record some lines and after a screening process I kept the best ones ( green tracks TH and CG lines).
Then came the regular guitars , I used my own acoustic sims from my own commercial pack. I used a real germanium pedal or a wah filter to highlight the highs and give some Dub feel, no basses and mids on this parts, only brightness , shines on the mix ( "cot" and "cl r" lines ). Took 5 min max.
I also used my regular sparkle princeton cleans for some funky guitars on wah ( 'th' and 'ch' lines on green and pink regions), another 3 mins.
lastly came the icing on the cake, the pretty unique PD space guitar plugin for synths like leads and other strange tones , that really help the whole oriental experience , I used 3 custom presets on the strat with lots of delay for these 4 fills ( PD line) took 15 min in tone research & recording, with a bit of screening.
I also played the intro with an Ebow.
The editing & mix was done in an hour the day after recording, fresh ears & some tests on the whole glue, but as said I removed all master FXs and post prod as the KPA stems were so dynamic, and I guess it gives a great LOFI but punchy feel.
That may seem complicated and super long , but my workflow is really fast,natural & effective ( I 've got like 10 template with all tracks sets & armed , post FX & fx chains ready , master glue , comp, EQ , verbs , tape sims ...) this way most lines are already sitting on their frequency range. I also have some NAM presets & fxchains for my goto guitars ( JCM800, princeton , welagen cleans). The idea is to be able to write a track in 2 hours.
The KPA gives some instant killer tones in such a diversity that you barely have to tune the browse mode to instantly record any idea coming to my mind. I also have a perfect desk & room built on my own specs for enhancing an already fast workflow, with everything at my hands reach (gits, bass, synth, vocal mike).
Thanks, Renaud, for a most detailed explanation!
It fun listening to it again after having read this.
One more question, if I may? What guitar do you use when playing your Oud Rig?
Cheers,
Mats N
Hi Renaud,
According to memory, this is the best track from you so far and I really dig it.
The groove is really causing my whole body to move on its own accord.
And the mix is outstanding.
I foresee many hours spent analysing many aspects of this track, trying to learn from it.
Thanks for posting it!
Cheers,
Mats N
Hey Larry!
This is a really nice track!
While listening I found myself expecting David Bowie to come in. Would suit his style well.
Cheers,
Mats N
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OOOh! This is good! The general vibe is there but I especially like the vocal arrangements and the mix is just right for this track.
Cheers,
Mats N
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I like this one for no other reason than it's a good tune!
Cheers,
Mats N
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For some reason I would like to hear a symphony orchestra do a cover of this tune. It has a sort of majestic quality to it.
The guitar solo is great!
Cheers,
Mats N
A bit of soul with organ and guitar as main ingredients. I'm going for a Dumble ODS vibe with the guitar.
Guitar: Collings I-35LC
Hope you'll like it!
Cheers,
Mats N
Great picking Mats, you've been working your perks on this style , I can't do this stuff myself & find it impressive
Thanks, Renaud!
This is actually a lot of fun to play and I have definitely picked up a few things I incorporate in other genres.
Cheers,
Mats N
We got both kinds, both country and western!
You should do more, it sounds phenomenal especially once you're really getting going. Really nice tone there. Of course I love a little twangy stuff, Duane, Hank and Jerry.
Thanks, Per!
Personally, I think I should do more of everything but as I like to do many things, I'll never get really good at anything special. I'd love to learn more chicken picking, more heavy rock/metal, more jazz and more finger picking. Even though I now retired and have more time to get inte new stuff, I seem to lack the mental discipline to focus on a set goal. I have a tendency to follow what kind of music presently popping up in my head.
Cheers,
Mats N
No mistaking that for traditional Country! Sounds great!
Thanks, Larry!
Cheers,
Mats N
I'm using a multi-band compressor plugin that is helping me to tame the bass' lows and mids. So, more tight and focused seems to be the result I am after.
I'd love to get into using multi-band processing but even though I understand how it works, for some reason I don't "get it".
Cheers,
Mats N
I still think fitting the bass is the trickiest part when recording mixing.
I think my bass improved when I started using the free versions of the UA LA-2A and UA 1176.
Cheers,
Mats N
I listened a lot to the Alan Parson's Project when he first hit the music scene back in the day.
The influence on your music is quite apparent while your music is still your own.
Cheers,
Mats N
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Both this tune and Beaten Down has clear British influences. Once again, I get to enjoy music that I myself never would have written.
Cheers,
Mats N
Every once in a while I feel the urge to do some country picking. Sometimes I revisit and old tune or sometimes I write a new one. In this case I merged to older tunes into a new arrangement.
Guitar: Tele Partscaster with Don Mare pickups
Hope you'll find it amusing.
Cheers,
Mats N
