While doing research for my blog post about chords, I happened to read (again) about parallel chords. Now, I've known the concept for ages but never really tried it, it's just been on my to-do list for years. Parallel chords have been used in house music for ages, though it's been more like a byproduct of the limited sampling technology rather than something that the house pioneers were doing deliberately.
I also have a (virtual) notebook full of ideas for tracks and particularly track names I consider clever and/or funny and occasionally borderline moronic. One of the names in that book is Mbar A Thym. As you're probably aware, Bar A Thym is a famous Kerri Chandler track. Mbar is, or rather was, a popular (especially among the DJ crowd) bar here in Helsinki which rather sadly closed a while ago. As I'm a big fan of wordplays I combined these two into which is now the title of both this blog post as well as the accompanying new track of mine.
I rather like it (at least in this premilinary honeymoon period), even though I'm the first one to admit that it's quite a rip off. But as they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. At least I ripped off a great track and not the Vengaboys!
This is what the track sounds like:
As you can probably hear, it's not the most original track ever made. Copying others is a good way to learn though as long as you do it with the intention of finding your own voice in the end.
And that's it for now. Feel free to leave a comment. Positive, negative, everything is fine.
Loving your blog and your progress. Very candid.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see quick breakdowns of your tracks - things like:
Synths used
Effects used
Key of track
Chords used
I'm also a (struggling) house producer and this blog is very inspiring to me. I will send you some tracks when I have some bits together!
Cheers
Is there a particular track or a particular sound you'd like to see more information of? As the plugin count can get quite high even with such minimal tracks, it'd take me all day to list all the plugins and their settings!
DeleteHowever, I can tell you this much: It's almost all freeware VST's and free samples and I'm using Reaper as my DAW. I'm currently unemployed (so I got lots of free time for this project!), so I can't just buy a million plugins, hardware even less so. I have plans to buy a few key ingredients to get better results, but I have to carefully consider which tools would actually help enough to be worth the expense.
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DeleteOf course, a full breakdown would take all day. But since chords are a major point for you it would be great to focus on that, example would be:
DeleteI made this chord from (synth name) , using some light chorus effects and delay, filtering with (effect name) , playing a Amin 7th.
Something like that anyway, Cheers!
Well, here's how the chords in Mbar A Thym were made:
DeleteFirst, I played a C major 7th chord with a freeware Rhodes emulator called Mr Ray 73. No effects, just a long, sustained chord which I then recorded as a wav.
I then loaded it up to a sampler VST called Short Circuit 2. Sampling chords is an ancient trick in house, it creates an effect which music theory experts call paraller chords. It sounds quite different to play a progression with a sample of a chord as opposed to just playing the chord with a polyphonic instrument. You'll recognize that effect from various house records.
I then played a really simple melody (which of course turns into a chord progression because the sound is a sample of a chord) in D# minor, which modulates to E in the end.
Then I processed that chord progression with some plugins:
Satson Channel, which is a console emulation VST. Quite subtle, but I tend to use it on every channel to give a little bit of extra sheen. The highpass filter is very useful too, it sounds smooth and is a valuable mixing tool.
TAL Chorus LX, which emulates the chorus section of a vintage Juno synth.
TAL filter. The most important plugin here, as it gives the rather simple chord sound some character and movement.
TDR VOS Slick EQ: A little bit of boost in mid and hi frequencies to give the sound some presence. I know I know, you should usually cut, not boost. I'm not a professional.
The Glue compressor: Makes the sound a bit beefier by compressing.
TAL Dub III delay: A little bit of delay.
ReaEQ: Reaper's built in EQ, highpass filtering the low end content away to remove mud from the track.
Lots of plugins, mostly freeware. I don't usually use this many, but this sound required them. Most of the plugins do quite subtle thing.
Man thats awesome, thank you!
DeleteI've been sampling chords for a while now, but only ever minor chords. I never thought to sample a major chord.
Great to see the "gear" list there too. I have a lot of those, but some new ones to me.
Thanks man!
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ReplyDelete