This track is the result of a collaboration between Richard Courtel and myself. It was entirely produced on KORG’s workstation flagship - OASYS. Richard and myself exchanged either stereo tracks or the whole “project” as an OASYS file, which was made available as download.
All synthesizer and electronic percussion sounds are OASYS sounds. All effects, e.g. Delays, Reverbs, Chorus’, etc. are internal OASYS EFX.
Voices (for example mine) were either recorded with a Brauner Phantom microphone or taken from dedicated sample libraries.
Final mixdown was made with Digital Performer and a little treatment with Sony Oxford EQs.
Based on one of my older tracks recorded together with Ebse, and being available meanwhile on The Headroom Project’s record “Dominus Illuminato Mea” on iTunes, the below posted demo is a remix project together with Richard Courtel. Richard aka “RC” is a French OASYS user who recorded some very nice OASYS demos. Find out a bit more about RC and also about his collaboration with KARO at the end of this entry.
The audio demo has an abrupt end because it is far from being finalised.
Now that I have set up everything new with my MacBook I realised once more how convenient Korg’s OASYS is. Press the button to switch on this instrument and although it needs approximately a minute for boot up, beside that you never get the feeling to sit in front of a computer. Compared to the OASYS and after spending hours for finding the right drivers for Snow Leopard here and there, registrating on several websites, re-registering software, check my iLok and the account, have a look at audioease’s website for new reverb responses, find a firewire cable that is connecting my Apogee Duet with its Firewire 400 port to my MacBook’s Firewire 800 port - I can tell ya, life can be so exciting - I decided that is about time to do what I initially wanted to do - making music.
So I turned on the OASYS and during boot up I got myself - make an educated guess - a Nespresso. After playing thru all my old Combinations I thought it is probably about time to record a new OASYS audio demo. And there was one Combination that I have not played with for a long time. Its name is “Vector Vox pmm”. As usually I assigned chords to the 8 pads and started playing them and moved the Vector Joystick. One of the two used sounds, the pad, consists of three differend programs of which two are factory sounds (I-A039: Arctic Voices and I-B023: Classic Choir) and by moving the VJ I changed their volume ratio and faded between the three sounds. Of course the Joystick could control other parameters as well, just have a look at the subpage “Vector CC” or you could use Vector Envelopes… hm, I just realised how much is there and still not used by me. But I am getting off topic.
The second sound is a combination of a Program named “Nay Kirnberger v2″ using the Kirnberger scale and is getting some support from my good old favourite solo sound. Of course and OASYS is offering so many different ones and in a high quality, I used some of the internal EFXs. This brings me to the recording process itself (find recording chain at the end of this blog entry) - not a single plug in of DP7.1 was used. No EQ and no compression was used, neither in the single channel nor in the master channel. What you hear is the pure signal of OASYS recorded with Apogee’s Duet ADA converter.
“ethereal”
OASYS CMB Bank USER-A 026 Vector Vox pmm
In case you are listening to “ethereal” more then once then my recommendation is get yourself a cup of coffee ;-).
Recoring Chain:
OASYS - Apogee Duet - Motu Digital Perfomer 7.1 - bounced and converted directly to mp3 by using “L.A.M.E.”
what you hear is exactly what was recorded into DP, no Plug Ins (EQs, Compressors, etc.) were used
Addendum:
Screenshot Digital Perfomer 7.1
Nice Feedback is always motivation, something that unfortunately only few people in business know and practice (mostly those are lacking who claim themselves to have “leadership” - but that’s another story). Whatever..
Played a little bit with the above track, added drums, used EQ for the Vector Vox (find EQ setting on above screenshot) and automated the Volume changes, to avoid clipping. Used instruments Korg OASYS and Spectrasonics Stylus RMX.
The Hartmann Neuron was and in a way still is a polarising instrument. For those who like to generate unique soundscapes it is a very interesting tool. Several people claim it only can sound harsh, cold and digital and you can get the same sounds with software synthesizers. Let’s hear if that is true and decide for yourself.
Do not expect the sound of a real Orchestra when listening to the first example.
Orchestral Pad
To me this sound includes in a way horns, strings and a bit the decay of a harpsichord at the end. All thrown together, shredded and put together again. Do you think this to be a harsh, cold and digital sound?
Next sound is one of my favourites and named “bebe Tara”. Originally planed to be used in a short diving movie, but the movie never made it.
By using the sticks (= “chanterelles”) you can influence some of the characteristics of the sound, depending on the model used. The reverb you hear is the internal one and to be honest, quite important for most of the sounds…
bebe Tara
In the last audio demo you can listen to several sounds I played in a row. Yes, some of them are scratchy, to me this is part of the “charme” of Neuron. Switching between sounds sometimes can take a while as Neuron always has to load the model.
several neuron sounds
Mass & Time
sounds like a motor saw recorded thru a phaser
Der Erzaehler
reminiscence to a project in the 90ies, has some Peter Gabriel “genes” in it
VP-1 Bellpad
very scratchy, but I love it
Didgeridoo
a factory sound, played a little bit with the chanterelles.. surprisingly does sound better then during playing
Wave Tubell Pad
used a Wave sample and “ReModellized” it, does not need further explanation, does it? Maybe your monitor boxes cannot reproduce the low end at the beginning.
Unisonal
to avoid any depressed listeners I am ending with a “happy sound” … mh… maybe not to happy for others, but at least happy for me. Chanterelles were used once more.
Last but not least - in case you ever have the chance to switch on a Neuron one… no, two recommendations. First put on your sun glasses before you switch on… but before that check the fuses :wink:.
If you want to know more about this machine, then visit hartmann-music’s website. There are more Hartmann Neuron related websites online with lots of informations, like the one from Sylvain Kepler or the dedicated Neuron Forum. And if you want to know more about Neuron Forum user “neuronaut” - he is what I call the brain, maybe DSP brain describes it more precisely, behind the Neuron - then it is a must to click here.
Korg OASYS User minnkorg was so kind to provide a MIDI file in Supertramp style. Several Wurlitzer sounds were recorded as they are using on board effects. There are HD-1, MOD-7 and KARO sounds for the OASYS versus Roland factory and SRX expansion sounds. Feel free to post any comments.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
The following sounds were used (different order above):
Roland XV
- factory sound User Bank 006
- factory sound User Bank 019
- factory sound User Bank 065
- SRX Expansion 015
OASYS
- KARO Wurlitzer E. Piano 1
- KARO Wurlitzer E. Piano 2
- KARO Wurlitzer E. Piano 3
- MOD-7 Combination
- MOD-7 Combination + EFX
- Program D080
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