THE SOUNDBOOTH
Acoustic Guitars; this is a sample piece using a virtual instrument called "RealGuitar" by MusicLabs. It is played completely on a keyboard. The samples are very faithful and the dynamics can not only simulate the sound of a string being plucked hard or softly, but also fret noises too. Quite amazing!
Funky Cheeky Groove; a short piece using some of the samples and effects in Ableton Live 6.0, just about the world's grooviest Digital Audio Workstation
Get Down or Get Out; A recent "Computer Music" disc had various sets of Cyclick samples, one of which was a whole set of funk riffs and beats. I used Ableton to arrange them in a variety of scenes as a Live session, and then recorded the scenes live, changing them on-the-fly to create dynamism and structure in the set. Good opportunity to explore and apply effects envelopes and switches in arrangement view; some great effects racks applied to drums to create a snappy snare and brighten up the bass.
Slow and Moody; a test piece to try out the arrangement function in Live 6. It uses Edirol Orchestral for the sax and flute; Groove Agent 2 for the drums and FM8 for the glassy electric piano. I know the drums are slightly out of synch and there is a chord error half way through but hey, c'mon ... this is a test page after all!
Hangman; A Live instrument version of Zeppelin's "Hangman" using acoustic guitar, shakey egg, tambourine and vocal. This was a great opportunity to test out my lovely new condenser mike I got for Christmas.
Air and Water a soundfield created for a short abstract film by Richard Marsh. The process of creating this allowed me to become a lot more comfortable with Ableton Live 6.0 as a sketchpad for music creation and production. It combines guitar, atmospheric sounds of the ocean and river, metaphysical synthesisers, vocal samples and even some electronically engineered orcas. The mix could be better but ... I'm learning!
Guess God Thinks I'm Abel A short version of the Oasis song to try out a vocal effect on a new mixer. This is a great song that is in the back of my mind to cover properly when there is time.