Stefan Ruzowitzky erhielt für “Die Fälscher” den Auslands-Oscar. Unglaublich aber wahr !
Herzliche Gratulation !!!
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selve amiche
selve amiche - alternative mix
composed by Antonio Caldara
* 1670 in Venice; †28. Dezember 1736 in Vienna [Wikipedia]
vox: jaqueline schwarz
vox edit: andreas ecker, pmm
drums: andreas ecker
keys: pmm
OASYS
- “Dark Aquarell” combination from KPS (indigo strings, ob-xa pad, modified #A-013)
- “Stage E.Piano”
- one of the many STR-1 “guitars”
- sample from Distorted Reality / Spectrasonics
Voyager
- Synth Bass
Nord Rack II
- Scratchy Pad
Any suggestion welcome:
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If you hear a crash after 32s then this is not in the recorded audio file… it probably was a bat crashing against the window of your studio when trying to localise its brother…. aliasing? 
AL-1 for bats & butterflies
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Die unten stehenden Spezifikationen könnten für diejenigen von Interesse sein die schon immer wissen wollten welche Konverter der OASYS benutzt. Die Information stammt von keinem geringeren als Dan Phillips, der diese im gearslutz Forum gepostet hat. Den entsprechenden link dazu finden Sie am Ende dieses Artikels.
OASYS uses the TI PCM1793 D/A converters:
24-bit
Dynamic Range: 113 dB
THD+N: 0.001%
http://chipcatalog.com/TI/PCM1793.htm
A/D are TI PCM1802:
24-bit
THD+N: 96 dB (Typical)
SNR: 105 dB (Typical)
Dynamic Range: 105 dB (Typical)
http://chipcatalog.com/TI/PCM1802.htm
“I can’t comment on the relative sound quality in comparison to Synclav Poly voices, since I haven’t listened to the two side-by-side. The Synclav will run at up to 100kHz, which would be an advantage in some cases. On the other hand, OASYS uses 32-bit floating-point processing, and 24-bit converters, both of which should reduce quantization noise.”
posted by Dan Phillips @ gearslutz
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© analogisch.com
Somehow I like what this guy is performing on his analogue synthesizer collection. It is not just a museum, the gear is really in use… good use, by the way!
If you want to listen to more audio files, download some video clips or find some pics of the studio then click analogisch.com
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© insidesynthesis
Im englischsprachigen korgforums.com hat Daz einen link zu einer sehr interessanten Webseite gepostet auf den ich hier ebenfalls verweisen will.
insidesynthesis.blogspot.com fm synthesis
Der blog als solcher scheint durchaus interessant und ist es meines Erachtens wert unter den Favourites von Synthesizerinteressierten gelistet zu werden:
http://insidesynthesis.blogspot.com/
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The above OASYS 3D render was created by Eberhard Geitz of whom you can find an interview here on the blog.
The higher resolution picture can be downloaded from here and in case you want to see a movie, then please click here.
© Eberhard Geitz
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blogasys: Charlie, could you start by telling us a bit about yourself, how you came to your music and what have you done up to now?
Charlie: In the next couple of weeks I am going to be 40, I’m happily married and the proud father of two children. Music is my favourite hobby. I am a businessman and run a family business that produces building materials.
I’ve been making music since my childhood. As is usual in Austria this began with the recorder. Then classical piano lessons. I didn’t enjoy this for long though. In the afternoons I did sit for hours in front of the piano and played about with chords and lines but practising ‘Elise’ and ‘Alla Turca’ wasn’t really my thing. As I didn’t want to take lessons anymore I managed to persuade my parents to change over to an electric organ. This was more like what I had imagined, and after saving madly, at the age of 16, I could afford my first synthesiser. A brand new Poly 800! I fiddled with it for hours, programmed the step sequencer and proudly showed everybody my acoustic accomplishments.
At this time I collected my first experiences with various school bands. The keyboard park was regularly expanded and eventually I landed in a semi-professional dance band. We were known for our rather unusual stage show, clothes and program and were quite popular. This was also a lot of hard work however and I knew I was going to stop as soon as I had finished my studies. It would never have fitted in with my career in the long run and I also wanted to compose my own songs and not just play somebody else’s.
I programmed and sold sounds for a while, mostly for Rolands D50. Later I completed my education with a few years of jazz piano lessons. I treated myself to a Bösendorfer piano in the 90’s. My views on practising have changed strongly in the meantime.
blogasys: What significance has music for you as a consumer, but more importantly, as a musician.
Charlie: I love music – As listener and as maker! Music touches, moves and inspires. A world without music wouldn’t work. It is an unbelievable feeling when music pours out of you. Sometimes I sit at the piano and it flows out as if on its’ own and I ask myself, ‘Who is actually playing here?’
Or when playing in a band there can be phases which are almost supernatural. One melts into a pulsating body of sound which can be felt by everyone including the audience. Such a condition has a meditative character, the consciousness kicks in when one starts to think about it and the feeling is gone. Music is for me one of the greatest gifts given to man!
blogasys: I know you don’t have a lot of time to make music so how do you fit it all under one hat?
Charlie: That’s a tricky question. It is not only about music versus career but about getting all of one’s life under one hat. The family is just as important, as is a minimum of healthy movement and a balanced body and soul. I have consciously busied myself with this for many years and experience it evolutionarily. One must decide on life’s priorities, set targets and find enough discipline to take on any mistakes. One often fails, not because of one’s own efforts but because of one’s expectations.
blogasys: Which music do you like to listen to and do you have any musical role models? If yes, who and why?
Charlie: Generally I’ve got a pretty wide taste: Jazz, rock, pop, classical, rap, folk, electronic etc.. As long as it is up to a certain quality and it’s not hard work to listen to I’m for it. Of course it depends a lot on the actual mood one is in.
When you mention a role model then you are automatically compared with them. That doesn’t seem at all fitting in my case as my own musical abilities are so low it just wouldn’t work.
But of course there are a few artists who particularly fascinate me. Donald Fagen, Tears for Fears, Judith Owen, Joe Sample, Nils Landgren or The Rippingtons. And in my youth Toto, Level 42, Prince, The Alan Parsons Project and Pink Floyd were my favourites. My latest favourites are ‘Shadow’ from Beady Belle and ‘When it falls’ from Zero 7.
blogasys: Let’s move over to the ‘makers’ side. Can you give us an insight into your working methods and the equipment you use?
Charlie: I’m in to song writing at the moment. After years of instrumental music and my growing discontentment with the usual texts; maybe also a more mature view on life, my palms have been itching to try song writing for years.
I begin with the decision about what I want to write a song about. Then I collect input – from books, internet, personal conversations, notes etc.. until I feel I’ve got the subject pretty clear. Then I decide what should be packed in to the text and write it. About now you realise why many song texts are a bit weak; it can take a while until you have written something that says what you want it to say, fits in to a song and rhymes.
Usually the first ideas for the melody and harmony appear while writing the text. They get tested on the piano or Oasys. Quite often I make up different variations to get a feel for what fits the best. When trying these out on the Oasys I often get my first sound ideas, and I usually start to fit the text in to them; maybe it was too long or short, or a sentence just won’t fit in to my melody etc..
If the melody and harmony are o.k. we can get on with the arranging. That is done on the Oasys. There is a wide range of access possibilities here, from manual playing to full karmatised recordings, where you are just programming pads and bending Karma phrases. With the Oasys you really have everything you need.
Wieder, immer wieder
Das tote Pferd
When the playback is ready I sing the most important audio tracks for my singer. The wav file is then made and the singer gets an mp3 demo for their preparation. Then the right melody is recorded track for track. I like to use the feed back from the singer here and other sounds are tried, lines added in or taken out etc… After a few days break it’s mixed and the final wav/mp3-file is made. I’ve usually heard it so often by now that I’m looking forward to the next song!
The equipment that I actually use is pretty thin: Oasys 88, Genelec Monitore, good AKG-Micro + headphones- I don’t need anything else. Before I worked with a Cubase VST and loads of external equipment. Today I’m happy that the simplified answer that I wished for is possible. The journey here was not always easy, key word, ‘sequencer’.
blogasys: You belong to the not very large group of Oasys users who have taken the time to really use the internal sequencer. What have your experiences been up to now?
Charlie: Short version: laborious start, if you come from a normal DAW – and then somehow everything does work in a pretty relaxed fashion. I’m no professional though and don’t want to say how it compares to all the other sequencers and DAWs. It is perfect for my needs and I enjoy the all-in-one answer. I can do everything that I want during the project. If I get stuck on a special subject then the helpful people in the Korg forum always help me on my way. At this point I would like to thank Mike Conway who shortened my learning process immensely with his pieces.
blogasys: Let us use your latest track ‘love is a verb’ to talk about your work technique in more detail. After you have the text ready and you start with the melody and harmony on the OASYS what exactly do you do?
Charlie: Let me first just say a few things about the song idea and the text. The singer was actually the catalyst here. He said he preferred singing in English to German and as I wanted to try song writing in dialect, ‘proper’ German and English, I wrote an English text. (English is missing in my collection.)
A book from Stephen Covey (famous for his ‘7 habits’) was the inspiration. I liked the idea of putting more emphasis on the active ‘loving’ side of things instead of just the feeling of ‘love’ that you get afterwards. In young relationships this happens intuitively: one pays attention, supports, listens, tries to understand, meets halfway, gives without expecting to receive – in short: one understands and lives love as a verb and gets to know the wonderful feeling of love as the result of ones actions. Some people complain that, over the years, the feeling of love has been lost and don’t see that they are expecting to receive something for which they have not worked for.
blogasys: Well spotted!
Charlie: The chorus harmony and melody were almost finished before I started with the text. They had popped up while I was playing around with the Karo string sounds.
blogasys: Kurt and Ollie will be happy to hear that! (Sorry for interrupting.)
Charlie: It was just the closing chord that hadn’t been finished. The release in E7 was discussed pretty heavily with the singer. In his opinion it sounded as if somebody was trying to release something else…in the end though it stayed as it is, if you listen to it enough you get used to it! The verse touches on a few chorus chords and this melody was consciously tuned deeper so that there was room for enough climax in the chorus. The bridge in the 2nd verse was harmoniously simplified and freed of additions to allow enough room for the choir to build itself up.
When the harmonies and melodies for the verses and chorus were more or less clear, I started with the arrangement. The mood of the song is important here. It is influenced on the one side by the harmony and melody and on the other by the sound. Should it be heavy and opulent, fragile and fine or raw and loud etc..? Even when I have a strong idea as to how I want it to be, I still like to experiment with my song. I used different Lead-Factory-Combis in the sequencer, filled the pads with the chorus chords, turned the Karma on and recorded several versions. This was easy and deepened the feeling for the sound, tempo and mood of the song. The actual sounds that get used are usually different to those in the Combi which often have a certain ’show factor’ built in. I don’t need a show sound, just music for singing! However the mood and tempo become very clear when I do this and it’s fun to produce a chorus in different styles.
Next I arranged the separate parts and recorded them. I usually start with the chorus because it’s usually got the most parts. In other words, lots of instruments and the highest output level in the song. The other parts follow through from here and are more or less steam-lined. I started with the drum track. In ‘Love is a verb’ this was produced first of all with the help of Karma. I listened to the different drum kits in the program browser until I found the right set (I-D052:Nu style kit). This was copied in to the sequencer complete with included effects, and then the Karma-GE was decided. From the 5 effects that are included you usually only need 2-3 of them. After turning the single effects on and off I found out which were which and saved myself I lot of IFXs for other sounds and tracks. The menu command ’drumkit IFX patch’ is very useful here. The Karma-phrase was then bent in to the realtime controls and all appropriate variants were saved separately. And so a rough drum kit for the chorus and other parts evolved. I was surprised how easy it was.
Then the bass was added. I wanted to use the Karma here as well but I couldn’t because my demands were too high. I needed the bass-phrase very near to the rhythm e.g., the same accent for the bass and bass drum. There are many Bass-GEs but until you find one that rhythmically and harmoniously fit the song…..well……this can only be satisfyingly solved through user-GEs in my opinion. Therefore the bass was played by hand. I wanted an acoustic sound as a completion to the modern drum sound that is why I decided on the U-E053: solo NoisY A.Bass.
The chords were up next. Firstly I set up a rhythmical accent with an AL1- sound which uses a stereo delay (I-F096: Uniformity) which only gets attached for the chord changes – the delay does the rest with perfect timing. Originally only a fine line should have been used as a connecting element- also an AL1 sound (U-F080: Aromatherapy) which is pretty good as a motion synth too. You can hear this sound mix quite well in the intro. It turned out later that the chorus in the middle needed more filling to be able to have enough climax to reach the verse. That is why the chorus took on the pad sound from the verse. We used the LAC, a polysix sound (U-D035: Healing pad), that builds up a lovely carpet of sound with an underlying chord. I find most of my sounds by using the category function in the program browser – it is a real blessing for quickly filtering out the potential candidates!
Now to the verse. Every song part gets its’ own song slot with me. I copy all the wanted sound and effect products from the chorus slot in to the verse slot. I do this for every new part, so that I have the pieces that fit together always available, including all Karma modules and pad fillings. At the beginning the verse is extremely spartan – the simplest bass, bass drum, snare and the pad sound allow a lot of room for the climax up to the chorus. 2 further sounds came in to play here: a reduced AL1-Leadsynth (I-F008: ooWEEoo/Vox) for taking the chord apart in the 2nd part of the verse, and a HD1-Bell (I-A015:BrightwaveseqBell) in the 3rd part which also changes the chord when it has more tempo. This, together with the drums, builds the verse up to the chorus and it becomes ‘fuller’.
After I have put everything that has been produced up until now in a song slot, listened to it, and decided that it is good enough, I arrange the rest of the song parts. From the chorus (without pad sound and strongly reduced drums) comes the intro. Instead of a fade-out I wanted an ’outro’. The bass should pick up the discussed E7 chord here, and disappear with a little pitch bend together with the HD1-Bell. Only the bridge between the 2nd and 3rd verses is missing. This should clearly lift up sound wise, from the existing song. So, next to the drums and together with another rhythm, we activated the Bending in the Karma (this was later inverted), the bass stepped on to the other rhythm and a further AL1-sound was added (U-F076: WindSong). This was sent through a ‘Guitar Amp Model + Cabinet effect to get more dirt. A distortion guitar was added- a STR1-sound (U_E037: Dist.Feedback guitar) to support the mood swing. To finish, a further Karma-Scene was used to let the drums go a bit wild in the bridge before the Hihat and AL1 are left alone. Then a short rest before the chorus is filled up with instruments again.
After all the song parts had been put together in another song slot, and a drum fill had been played by hand on all the transitions on a separate midi-spur, I then recorded a rough draft of the volume, equaliser and effects. I can only do a final mix when I have the singing. This leads us to the audio tracks. I am very lucky here to have nice friends who allow themselves to be used as ‘victims’ for my music. None of them are professionals and they don’t have much free time. With a good glass of wine, track upon track is recorded. We rarely need more than 3 takes and we have lots of fun.
Technically it was easy. The ‘Beat list’ is important. I can see immediately which song part starts with which beat. This saves recording time. The volume on the midi-tracks was reduced by 50% so that the audio tracks could be pumped up, to allow the singer to hear the headphones well. A new song slot was made to keep the original mix positions and then in the Multi-Rec-Modus I activated the recording track. The recording level on the back of the Oasys was set (found optically in preference window) and through the Rec/start button I started the recording. I always set the song location at the start of the recording so that I can jump directly there during the takes. By the way, the Oasys saves each take individually, it’s only when you command ‘delete unused Wav-files’ that the excess takes are removed from the HD.
The subjects of upper and backing vocals, effects and mixing are musically more interesting. We are also careful here that the chorus stands out from the rest of the song with more voices, and we also double the lead vocal in the chorus with a 2nd track. Backing voices are only used selectively in the verses. To emphasise single passages or for a bit of change on the one hand, and to build up to the chorus on the other. Apropos, ‘building up’. In the bridge a 5 voice choir builds up. I had to take back the ‘older’ voice so as not to over load the mix. This can be done through the fader automatic which I always record on its’ own midi-track. You just simply put the new midi-track on record, start the recording and pull the controller. It looks cool when the LEDs show the fader movement during play.
After recording the singer decided that a few extra lines would do the song good. There were gaps between the passages in the chorus and the verse. I grabbed this idea and made for a bit of interest with a MOD7 sound and popped a simple line in the 2nd verse (U-C073: The Innocence). A further line (U-C068: Mostly Mellow) was slipped in to the singing gap in the 2nd chorus. The third thing wasn’t so easy. There was already an AL1 sound here that also ended on the seventh of the E-7 closure, I couldn’t mess with this. This chorus line was doubled with a 3. MOD7-sound (U-C062: Rain from Heaven) in the 4th chorus whose pan alignment was put on RND.
Key word Pan alignment: This was decided on in the final mix, together with the volumes and effect sends. I laid the lead vocals in the middle, upper and backing vocals a bit left and right depending on which pan alignment had a synth line. Effects for the sounds were already decided on at the time of the sound choice. I used the two master effects for the vocals (some stereo chorus and O-Verb) but not in the bridge. To make this vocally stronger I used a Bi-Phaser, and for ‘are you ready to do it?’ I used the Guitar Amp + Cabinet which had already worked on the distortion guitar. We laughed ourselves to tears recording this sentence. In my demo it was gently whispered but the singer had other ideas. I found his definitely indefinite interpretation so funny that I happily included it in the final mix. In the meantime it has become our private joke with which we pull each others’ leg.
It was at this point that I was happy we were nearly finished. When I see how many hours work go into a 4 minute song I’m amazed at myself how much patience and motivation I have. Especially when it’s the work of amateurs and not from somebody who has to live from it. However, I find it fun and after a break I like to listen to my compositions.
Love is a verb
blogasys: I don’t want to know how many people work like you on the Oasys. Thank you for the detailed and interesting description of your methods. It reminds me of how little I actually use mine. What appeals to you the most about Oasys?
Charlie: The sound is a dream! I am really grateful to Korg that they have pushed the Oasys concept so far. I can still passionately remember my first contact. So brilliant, deep and then filigree or with unbelievable warmth, not even a touch of distortion…. I still come over all funny!
A further big plus is Karma. It was a completely new world for me and I’m still scratching on the surface of possibilities. I was pretty sceptical at the beginning if Karma could do more than impress others. I was used to playing everything myself track for track. In the meantime I have an idea of the enormous creative potential that sits in Karma. It’s creeping progressively in my compositions and has proven itself as a further source of inspiration.
And finally, the all-in-one concept is the winning punch for me. Even when the sequencer is not the last word in this field, I prefer this variant to none at all. At last no more PC with the cable, interface and driver chaos. I simply want to make music and not become a computer expert who spends hours in forums searching for the answer to an incompatibility problem. And when playing with the internal sounds and Karma it has a clear advantage over any external answers.
blogasys: the logical follow up question……. Where are the potential places for improvement?
Charlie: Before the Cubase VST I worked with the C-lab Notator on Atari Mega ST. It was a colourless mini screen and the hard disk had only 1 MB memory. It was a joy to produce midi recordings on it and it ran so stabile that I used the Mega ST live on stage. Not once did it cause a problem. That was in the 80s. My dream would be to have such a user-interface on the Oasys with a mouse you could plug in through USB and the usual piano roll, song structure bar.
A further wish would be the complete removal of the cancel bugs, although the last update actually worked quite well. Otherwise I can’t think of anything. I don’t want to join in with the usual more! more! Chorus. I know that this machine will cater for my needs for quite a few years.
blogasys: Are you considering any additions to your studio? If so, what?
Charlie: I have ordered a 24’ iMac. The reason is Stephen Kays Karma Oasys software. I wanted to stay PC free in my studio but there is no other way to produce user GEs. Now I can generate bass phrases that fit the drum GEs. Otherwise my set up should remain as slim as possible.
blogasys: Thank you for the interview!
Here are some more audio files recorded by Charlie. Probably not necessary to be mentioned, OASYS only.
Flat 2 Real
Flat 3 Real
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© all fotos by Karl Weissenboeck
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