Stephan M. Bernsee,
German music/audio DSP applications developer and founder of Prosoniq.
Stephan M. Bernsee (born Stephan Sprenger) is a German music/audio DSP applications developer and founder of Prosoniq. Within 10 years 500.000 copies of their most successful software – sonicWORX Basic – bundled with Sony and Creative Labs hardware, were downloaded and sold. Today their technologies are sublicensed to companies like TwelveTone Systems, Digidesign/Avid, Autodesk/Discreet, Sony, Steinberg, Merging and many others. At Musik Messe 2009 Prosoniq announced a successor of sonicWORX with ist ability to extract, process or suppress individual notes and instruments in a song. Aside from that Stephan developed for Prosoniq the synthesis technology and sound synthesis engine for the Hartmann Neuron.
Blogasys: Stephan could you please be so kind and tell us a little bit about Prosoniq and the development of sonicWORX within the last two decades?
Stephan M. Bernsee:
Well, please allow me to make a quick remark on your intro: We never actually sold that many copies of sonicWORX. It is true that our free “sonicWORX Artist Basic” version was bundled with Sony CD ROM drives and Creative Labs sound cards for some time so while this means that there were actually that many users who physically had a CD with the software on it they were not necessarily active users. We had about 5,000 active users of sonicWORX back in the days if I recall correctly. For an independent developer and a software that was entirely Mac only this is still a pretty good number I think.
As for your actual question - I think I need to go back a few years to when we originally released the first version of sonicWORX. This was in 1993/94 when the Mac was still in its infancies as a multi-media platform and the PC was little more than a typewriter.
So back then we had this set of new signal processing technologies that we had developed on a Silicon Graphics Indy workstation which was *the* platform for scientific computing at that time. To give you a concrete example - I was working as a mastering engineer at a studio at the time and we had to provide optimum sound quality for vinyl cutting in very little time. We were mainly into producing all kinds of dance, house, techno and drum’n bass tracks. Back then there was a loudness war going on between different labels from different countries and we had to “trick” our own vinyl cutter, an elderly lady who had previously spent most of her life cutting classics and jazz tracks, into cutting our stuff at insanely loud levels as to provide the same level of quality as the underground labels in the UK and the Netherlands. I think she never even heard of the kind of music that we dealt with before we first came into her office, and I have my doubts that she was really thinking about it as music, so she was totally out of her league. So in order to do this we developed an adaptive saturation algorithm that was able to achieve a much higher loudness than our competitors. We did this by exploiting psychoacoustic properties - a concept that was still pretty new at that time. Our algorithm even took the cutting amplitude and speed limitations of that particular lathe machine that she used into account.
The problem we were facing was that there was no audio editing application that allowed us to use these algorithms as “plug ins”, as that concept was still new. On the Silicon Graphics there were no real audio applications because SGI never realized that they could have been the next Apple if only they were clever enough. So we had to develop our own application and that’s how sonicWORX came to be.
We did find out soon that there was a market for it and sold it quite successfully until the end of the 1990s, when audio and MIDI applications began to merge. At that time people started investing their money into all-in-one multitrack programs and plug ins and didn’t really want to use a dedicated mastering application anymore. They either did their mastering on dedicated hardware or with software plug ins, which was bad for sonicWORX.
Blogasys: …so you discontinued sonicWORX at that time, right?
Yes, that’s right - mainly for two reasons. First, like I said, with the emergence of countless plug in hosts and numerous home studios people either did their mastering on multiband compression hardware or with plug ins, so continuing sonicWORX didn’t make much sense to us - at least not with the feature set that it had back then.
The second reason was that it would have been exceedingly difficult and costly to bring sonicWORX to OS X. For instance, on MacOS 9 there was no multi-tasking. If you grabbed an analyzer window by its title bar it simply stopped drawing. We didn’t like that in a professional application so my former colleague Frederic Schelling, a brilliant Mac developer, devised his own way of drawing at interrupt time directly into the screen buffer using a predefined color as a “blue screen” chroma key. Something that was really frowned upon by Apple - for good reason - but worked beautifully for us and our users. Also, thanks to some tricky programming sonicWORX was the only application that could load an audio file and process it while you played it back at the same time. This wasn’t possible to do with any other audio editors back then - for some this is still true today. We couldn’t simply port these features to MacOS X because they were so deeply rooted within MacOS 9 that porting them meant essentially doing a complete rewrite.
So with these two main factors, the change in the market and the prohibitively expensive cost of porting we felt it necessary to rethink the concept of sonicWORX and redesign it from the ground up before coming out with a new version in 2010. It just doesn’t make much sense today to develop yet another audio editor as there are plenty of them out there already and some are actually pretty good at what they do.
We wanted to go past dealing with audio in the usual way and beyond simply cutting, pasting and applying effects to it. We wanted to make the things that you hear visible and at the same time accessible to editing. So we came up with a new editing concept that presents sound in a way that is easy to understand and intuitive to manipulate.
sonicWORX Isolate (find link at the end of the interview)
Blogasys: Can you please explain the new features and what was the reason for you to develop them?
Stephan M. Bernsee:
If you look at the popular media formats that you find today there is a huge need to re-master classic recordings that were done in stereo - or even mono - as a surround mix. There are some incredibly talented sound engineers who spend a lot of time meticulously editing classic mono recordings to convert them to stereo and surround sound format. Sometimes you even want to do a remix, or use a new score in combination with vocals from a classic recording. Not to mention all the new creative ideas that you can explore once you’re no longer limited to the original harmonic and rhytmic context.
Of course, extracting information from music is not really something completely new, there have been countless scientific and a few commercial applications that have attempted to do this, with varying success. If you look for keywords like “blind source separation” or “auditory scene analysis” you’ll actually find a lot of papers and some applications, even free ones such as ‘nmfdemix’ by Remy Muller. I’m not sure if you recall a product that we introduced at Musikmesse 1998 which was called “Pandora”. Pandora was a software for automatic de-mixing that could automatically extract voice and lead instruments from a mix. It worked remarkably well but was a desaster to operate because you had like 120 parameters that you could change and needless to say, it was painfully slow when processing tracks as the CPUs of that time were not very powerful. So we ended up licensing the SGI version of Pandora to another company as part of a 10 year exclusive contract and subsequently only sold “Pandora RT”, which was a feature-reduced realtime “voice reduction” software that came out as a plug in for sonicWORX and could reduce and sometimes even remove voice from mono or stereo audio files. In 2008 that contract expired and the CPUs were so much faster then, so this gave us the opportunity to design a totally new product and focus on the task of manipulating mixes at the instrument level.
With our new version of sonicWORX we wanted to create an application that allows a new way of interacting with audio, notably selecting and exporting individual features in a mix. There is currently no other product that can do this the way we do it - on a 1:1 high resolution representation of the real signal. You don’t want the computer to second guess you on what part of a mix you want to select, as this limits your degree of freedom. So we didn’t want to make this automatic. We believe that the human ear is still superior at identifying sounds so we really wanted to leave that part to the user and assist him in a very easy to use way rather than take important decisions away from him.
Blogasys: How does this concept compare to Melodyne DNA?
Actually, they might seem similar at first but really they’re not. I’m not even sure if this comparison is really fair. You see, both programs have, at least in my opinion, entirely different applications and problems that they solve. I think of Melodyne as a musical tool aimed at correcting recordings when you don’t have access to the musicians to redo it, because they’re no longer physically available. That’s also what they advertise it for and it does an amazing job at that. So, Melodyne is great when you want to quickly and semi-automatically change notes within a relatively simple to reasonably complex mix and I wouldn’t want to miss it in our studio.
But at the same time, with Melodyne DNA you stay within the original musical context, so the side effects and artifacts of the changes will in most cases be masked by the rest of the mix. If you have attempted to use DNA for actually extracting, say, the vocals from a mix you will have noticed that you don’t really have enough access to the decision that the program does to effectively do this.
Now, our interest is in extracting part of the mix as opposed to pitch shifting or time stretching individual notes within the original context. What we wanted to create is a comprehensive, “what you see is what you get” kind of way for the user to interact with the raw material. Until now the user was only able to hear things in a mix, now he can actually see and edit them - as instruments, not just as a bunch of frequencies, and let the computer take care of all the details such as unmixing voice and drums. This level of access is what we aim to provide with sonicWORX.
splitting audio signals into their components - sonicWORX Pro
Blogasys: What do you think will be possible with sonicWORX in the future? What are your ideas for future developments?
Stephan M. Bernsee:
Well obviously I can’t talk too much about the future, but feature labeling, sound extraction and -manipulation are likely to be a repeating pattern in our products over the next few years. For instance, we have just released a free plug in called “VuvuX” which is based on our sound demixing technology and removes the Vuvuzela noise from World Cup 2010 audio streams without affecting the stadium atmosphere or the commentary. So we already have a few interesting projects going in 2010 that I think will make for a very nice product portfolio.
Prosoniq has always been a company focusing on new technologies and we see ourselves primarily as technology providers. For instance, we were the first company to develop audio morphing based on feature recognition with a neural network, we had numerous wavelet transform based sound design algorithms in the 1990s when the concept was still new, we were the first to use raytracing to achieve room modeling and 3D localized sound, our TimeFactory was the first application to do polyphonic time stretching and we also helped Emagic beat MotU in getting formant corrected pitch shifting ready in Logic before they did in Digital Performer. By the same token, we’d be happy to start a dialog with anyone interested in using our sonicWORX technology in their own products, and I’m sure we’ll see a lot of new applications in the near future.
Blogasys: What can we users expect in the coming years? What do you think will be possible with hard- and software in the near future?
Stephan M. Bernsee:
Certainly a lot. We’ve come a long way in the past decades but we still have more brainpower than CPU horsepower, so I guess it’s fair to say there is plenty of room for exciting discoveries in the realm of understanding and modelling the auditory perception process on a computer.
Blogasys: What kind of instrument are you interested in?
Stephan M. Bernsee:
I’ve been playing the keyboard since I was 14 or so and did my school final on sound synthesis at the age of 18. I never quite liked the idea of being limited to the sound of a single instrument so this question is difficult for me to answer. I do like the human voice as an instrument as it is incredibly versatile, unique as an instrument and at the same time very personal.
Blogasys: Do you still have time to make music? Which equipment do you use and what do you like about it?
Stephan M. Bernsee:
I used to earn my money doing remixes and produce tracks in the 90s but I decided to give it up when I reached the junction where doing both was just too much and I had to decide what kind of future I wanted to pursue. I must say I am pretty much happy to develop and deliver the tools to people who in turn make the music that I like, so I never felt this as a loss. It’s only recently that I’m starting to make music again. Looks like I have to learn a lot from scratch - a few years have passed since I’ve used Notator SL on an Atari 1040ST but fortunately we’re still using the same black and white keys these days.
Our new CD the “Vaust Project” which is in cooperation with Bernhard Bouché and Klaus Abel will be out in late 2010. We still use a lot of our original equipment like a PPG 2.1, Oberheim Xpander, Prophet 5, Emu Morpheus, Yamaha VL-1, Neuron, a bunch of AKAI samplers, a JD-880, several Kurzweil modules, a Korg Phophecy, an Ensoniq ASR-10, a Yamaha CS-40 and a couple of other legacy synths and samplers. Not forgetting our own morph and OrangeVocoder plug ins of course.
Hartmann Neuron, a collaboration between Stephan M. Bernsee and industrial designer Axel Hartmann
Blogasys: You developed the DSP for Hartmann’s Neuron, could you please tell us a little bit about this collaboration? How it began and what you think about the Neuron, what are the advantages and what are the disadvantages in your opinion?
Stephan M. Bernsee:
Initially Axel Hartmann and I had the idea to put some of Prosoniq’s technology into a hardware device. Since all our software at Prosoniq evolves around pretty much the same basic neural analysis, modification and resynthesis technology this seemed like a logical choice. I also think that all people involved in developing software ultimately have the dream to see their ideas cast into hardware. I must admit that looking back this was pretty selfish of me, and I was most certainly blinded by the prospect of being involved in developing a real hardware synth as we really didn’t have the resources nor did they have the required infrastructure to make this happen. So this wasn’t a particularly good environment for a project of this magnitude but I guess I refused to see it. In the end a lot of compromises were forced upon the Neuron and regrettably in most cases I wasn’t even involved in the decisions.
In the end, the Neuron ended up as a - in my personal opinion - badly marketed, poorly manufactured, hopelessly underpowered device that ran a crippled feature-reduced version of what our technology was really capable of doing, with a half-done user interface software on top of it that was missing essential features. I’d say that this project, even though it had a lot of potential, good ideas and an absolutely fabulous design, was really a big disappointment for me when I think back to how the collaboration turned out. Partly this was due to my not taking a more active role in the management, which I couldn’t at the time, but mostly because Hartmann didn’t have the additional year that would have been required to finish their user interface software and they could not afford faster hardware because their manufacturing process was too expensive.
But despite all this disappointment I think that once you manage to look past the limited sound set that it has built-in the Neuron is still a hugely creative instrument and it holds a lot of inspiration and certainly a wealth of totally unique sounds for those who have enough patience and dedication to dive in and explore its possibilities. It never ceases to amaze me to see what a variety of sounds it can produce from a simple modellized sample. So even if it came out as something other than I had envisioned I do believe that it still managed to realize some of the potential that I personally wanted to see.
Blogasys: Do you see any chance for a Neuron II?
Stephan M. Bernsee:
Yes definitely. But if we were to develop a successor we would definitely need more financial resources and one or two skilled embedded systems developers who can afford to work on the system full time and not just in their spare time. We would need a project manager who is responsible for the project and for everybody getting ready in time, and a centralized development team - all the things that Hartmann didn’t have back then.
Blogasys: To what kind of music do you listen to and do you have any favourite musicians? If yes, what do you like about their music and about them?
Stephan M. Bernsee:
I don’t think that my taste in music is set in stone and I never had any favourite musicians either as I rarely like everything that a particular artist does. I grew up in the 70s and 80s and I never managed to understand why many people would want to keep listening to songs from their childhood for the rest of their lives. I certainly don’t. So I try to keep an open mind and I enjoy pretty much anything from drum’n bass to classics if it has something unusual or interesting in it or is simply well done musically or artistically, or moves me in a certain way. It does have to have a structure to it that I can understand, though, I’m not at all a fan of certain abstract contemporary “serious” music that is better read than listened to.
Above all, I love anything that has to do with sound design, and if anything you could call me a fan of Ben Burtt’s work - with the exception of Wall-E perhaps which I don’t like that much because I am allergic to sinusoidal resynthesis artifacts, but that is probably a very unique condition not shared by too many people on the planet.
Blogasys: Thank you very much for this interview, Stephan!
In just a few years Adam Nordén has established himself as the most sought-after young composer in Sweden. He has enjoyed a diverse career working in all kinds of genres and media, composing music for feature films and television series as well as commercials and TV station identification packages. Born in Stockholm in 1971 Adam began his musical career while still in his teens, playing keyboards in various local jazz and pop groups.
In recent years Adam has concentrated on composing scores for feature films and television series – with great success. In January 2006 he received the Swedish Film Institutes ´Golden Bug´ for his score to Josef Fares critically acclaimed movie ‘Zozo‘. ‘Zozo’ was Swedens official submission to the Oscar 2006. The score features the London Philharmonia orchestra. In 2004 Adam landed his first international assignments - ‘The Defender‘ and ‘Direct Action´ (Nu Image) – both featuring Swedish action hero Dolph Lundgren.
Adam has also lately been busy composing the score for 13 films based on world renowned author Henning Mankells popular character ´Wallander´.
Adam is a member of the European Film Academy. In 2001 he earned a nomination at the World Soundtrack Awards for his work on ´Beck - Revenge´ in the category ´Discovery of the year - young film composer´. He is the recipient of a scholarship from SKAP, The Swedish Society of Popular Music Composers, for his ´extraordinarily meritorious work as a composer.
Adam is currently based in Stockholm, Sweden where he runs his own production company.
Adam Nordén
Blogasys: I read that you wanted to become either a pilot or a piano player, what made you choose the latter? And did you think that one day you would be as succesful as you are today?
Adam Nordén: Well I had bad eyesight - not a biggie but had it not been for that I would maybe have had another career. I will get my license sometime soon in any case. That’s definitely on the list of things to do. Well, I was always confident I had the talent and determination to make a living from making music. Not knowing where it would take me, I was determined to become a film composer. But as we all know there are a lot of determining factors in a persons career and there’s really no way of telling what will happen after you reach a certain point in your career.
Blogasys: Could you please give us a bit more insight into your musical background and career? How did it all start?
Adam Nordén: Music was always a natural and big part of my life as my dad is a singer and I have very musical mother too. So I started playing the piano at an early age - mostly pop songs. And then I started discovering jazz - which still is a big love, incidentally. From that I got the idea that I should become a jazz piano player, Bill Evans being my big idol. And from that started playing keyboards in lots of local bands - doing jazz & fusion gigs. And rehearsing a lot. I also played in pop & soul bands playing our own material and doing cover gigs as well. Which is by the way a great school when it comes to understanding different styles. And that’s a skill that often comes in handy when you work with movies. And after that I started doing a bit of radio & TV work - composing and producing commercials & jingles. Which was also great for picking up producing & mixing chops. I still do commercials every now and then!
Blogasys: How did you get your first feature film comission and what was it?
Adam Nordén: I knew this producer, Lars Blomgren, who heard a commercial spot that I made. He liked that music a lot and thought that style would be perfect for a movie he produced. And he introduced me to director Harald Hamrell who was directing the movie - ´A witch in the family´. We connected instantly and have collaborated on a number of TV and movie projects since. And we´re still very good friends, ten years later.
Blogasys: What do you think were the most important decisions you made to become the musician you are today?
Adam Nordèn: I think I somehow down the road picked up a skill that I think is very hard to explain but I’ll try to put it in words. I have really high ambitions with what I do. And I have a very distinct idea if something is good or bad/right or wrong - knowing of course this something very subjective and may sound elitist. And I try to keep this relationship with my own music - trying to be objective all the time, trying to take a step back often and check if I’m on the right track or not. And I try not to give up until the music is as best as it can be. I think it’s a matter of putting in 110% all the time. Of course a lot of times you have to compromise, with budgets/schedules being tight etc. But in the right circumstances this is my ambition. Which goes for my tennis playing as well…
Blogasys: … What is your preferred method of composing? Do you always start for example on the piano or does it differ from piece to piece?
Adam Nordén: I usually have a pretty clear idea in my head, complete with orchestration/soundscape and all. And then I work out the nits and grits on the keyboard, with my sample library/instruments to play around with different ideas. But every project and composition is different - sometimes it does start with something I stumble upon in my studio. A new sound, or something I find when I’m just playing around. A new chord or a rhythm etc. and sometimes I do it all at home on my piano and then just complete the arrangement in the studio.
Blogasys: For the score in „Zozo“ you worked with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, how was that for you?
Adam Nordén: Fantastic. What a great orchestra, such professionals. We had a lovely time in London. We also had the luxury of using some great soloists that sight read, improvise or just play what you hum - everything with such ease. A great joy!
Blogasys: At which stage are you usually involved, do you receive the script in advance and start with composing the different themes?
Adam Nordén: Again every project is different and sometimes I start very early, I’ve sometimes started even before the script was finished, just based on what the director told me about his visions. And sometimes it’s complete panic such as when you have to replace another composer. Or worst case, when you replace the composer that tried to replace the first composer, haha. But the most common situation is that I start working while the editing is still going on. This can be very rewarding too, working closely with an editor, exchanging ideas as we go along. And surprising too - if you have a creative editor that likes to play around with your stuff. I’m very open to such experiments.
Blogasys: Which projects are you currently working on?
Adam Nordèn: Scoring the last three episodes of a mini TV series based on Danish author Hanne Vibeke Holsts bestselling books ´The Crown Princess´. The first part of the series was nominated for an international Emmy. We hope to match that with the last three!
Adam’s website with several examples of his work (see link at the end of the interview).
Blogasys: Which equipment do you use and why?
Adam Nordén: Mac, Logic, and lots of different sample libraries and software synths - new stuff come all the time but Vienna and Spectrasonics products have been with me for a long time. I’m an Apple/Logic guy since way back and that won’t change anytime soon…
Blogasys: Do you still have time for live performances?
Adam Nordén: Not really…nor do I have the chops. But I am practicing a little piano these days, so who knows :-). I also sing a little bit. We’ll see what happens to that…
Blogasys: I find that your music among other things stands out for its emotional depth. I particularly like „Linda’s theme“ from Wallander, its melody and the reduced arrangement which leaves enough room altogether (see itunes link at the end of this interview) – what does music mean to you?
Adam Nordén: Thanks! I find it very interesting and insightful that you mention this theme - in all it´s simplicity I do like it a lot.
Well I guess I always lean towards less is more. And I do like the spaces between the notes, that’s one of the things you hear in this theme I guess. Not sure where this comes from, there is an element of reduced nordic melancholy in my music I think. I can’t tell if it´s cultural or personal really. Also harmony is really important to me. Cannot stress that enough - it has a lot to do with my jazz background I think, that gave me a very firm grasp of what can be done with harmony.
Not comparing myself to the genius Bill Evans, but I think this is a perfect musical example of what I’m trying to explain with words. I have a very special relation with this kind of music - incidentally this is an old Swedish folk song, beautifully performed by Swedish singer Monica Zetterlund & Evans (see youtube link at the end of the interview).
Blogasys: Are there any other art forms that you are especially interested in?
Adam Nordén: Well I think conceptual art is very interesting. Maybe because speaks more to my intellectual side than music does. It definitely hits another muscle. And I do take a great interest in society and politics - which this art form has great means of addressing.
Blogasys: Thank you for the interview, Adam. I wish you continuous success and all the best for your future.
Adam Nordén: Thanks for taking an interest in my work! Pleasure talking to you!
After a short break Samu Teerilahti is the next interview partner at blogasys. Most likely you read some of his postings when he is writing as „sirCombatWombat“ at korgforums and karma-lab.
Blogasys: Samu, please be so kind and tell us about yourself.
ST: Hello Peter! First I wish to thank you for making this interview! I was born 1974 in Espoo Finland, a small five million people country up in the north of Europe. Besides music and sound synthesis my interests include 3D graphics, photography, technology in general, martial arts and blacksmithing. I work as a technology researcher and 3D graphic artist in our family business and as a practicing blacksmith. We married with my wife a year ago and life is good.
Blogasys: How did you start making music and have you been musically educated?
ST: I don’t remember how or why I started playing but I have always composed my own music. I have always played straight from my head or by ear, and it has been this way as long as I can remember.
My parents tell me that I started playing at the age of two. That was when I was able to reach the keyboard of the electric organ we had in our living room. The first evidence of me playing is this photo. I have no idea about the organs model.
young Samu
I went to an organ class roughly at the age of 8. After a couple of years in the class the owner of the school Juha Wiskari took me under his private tuition. From there Paul Fagerlund noticed me and offered to teach me. I studied with him until mid-teens, studying composing amongst other subjects. After a long time in private tuition under a good mentor I tried a couple of schools but could not adapt to class based teaching again and have studied by myself since then.
Somewhere on the way our electric organ was upgraded to Yamaha FE-50, and my father bought me my first synthesizer a Roland D-5. When my moped got stolen at the age of 16 I bought my second synthesizer an Ensoniq SQ’R with the insurance money.
Blogasys: Which musician influenced you most, why and who are your favourite musicians?
ST: Most influential music in my life comes from movies and computer games. I remember toying with my father’s computer a lot, a Step One PC with 8088 processor. There was a program written in basica that played music. One of the pieces was Francisco Tárrega‘s Recuerdos de la Alhambra. Even with the crude computer beeper I remember being moved by the melody. That was one of the reasons that persuaded me to learn computer programming.
Back in the 80’s there was a show on TV called The Silk Road that had Kitarō‘s Silk Road as the main theme, I loved that.
Then there were all the computer games we played with my friends Amstrad CPC 464. Like Never ending Story, Air Wolf, and of course Elite with Johann Strauss‘s The Blue Danube. The most beloved game music to me is in Origin‘s Ultima VI. I had it on PC and it had the capability to allow me to play the music thru MIDI to my Roland D5.
One of the most influential moments in my youth was watching George Lucas’s THX 1138 from the TV, I can’t remember what age I was but certainly too young. The end theme on that movie is Lalo Schifrin’s version of Bach‘s Matthäus passion (St. Matthew Passion) and I loved it. I still have trouble controlling my emotions when hearing it today. I must say that the version on the sound track CD is not as good as the original, I can’t put my finger on the difference though.
Of course Vangelis‘s Blade Runner main theme is one of the milestones for me. As is John Williams’ music on the original three Star Wars. And Richard Strauss‘s Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) on the 2001: A Space Odyssey. Other notable composers include: Sibelius, Bach, especially his organ works, and Tchaikovsky.
Blogasys: What kind of music are you listening these days and what does it make so interesting to you?
ST: I’m not aware of any musical style that contains only bad music. In my view lyrics are not important, to me the melody, harmony and sound is important but words are mostly a necessary evil. I listen to a very broad scale of different kinds of music. The most moving experiences still seem to come from movie and game music. Perhaps because a film and game scores need to convey emotions without words. Though I have to confess I have a soft spot for sexy female voices.
Blogasys: Now let’s talk about your music, are there any projects you have been working on?
ST: I’ve been doing music for some commercials and also have one short film in the list. I had the fortune to get a draft video for the short film, so the work was relatively easy compared to working only with a script. I would love to compose for a movie, but will need more exposure to land a job like that. I have also played in a band for a while, but my enthusiasm lies elsewhere.
Blogasys: What is your current musical project?
ST: Making an independently funded CD of my own. I’m studying mixing and mastering at the moment and that fits the project like a glove. But I think I will have to leave the actual mastering to a professional.
Samu’s studio
Blogasys: Which equipment did you use?
ST: On my previous jobs I had equipment like Alesis Quadrasynth Plus, Ensoniq SQR, E-MU Proteus MPS, Korg Prophecy, Yamaha EX5, RS7000, 01x and i88x and Kawai CA-950. On the software side various versions of Cakewalk and Sonar, plus others.
Today I’m using OASYS 88 (with HD-1, EXs1-3, AL-1, STR-1, LAC-1, MOD-7 engines and the EXb-DI i/o board), Alesis A6 Andromeda, Novation Supernova II ProX, Doepfer A-100 BS2, Sonar 8 Producer, RME FireFace 400 and a pair of Genelec 8040’s with a Tannoy TS-10 active subwoofer.
Blogasys: What do you like about them?
ST: The OASYS has 88 weighted keys, multiple synthesis engines and a 10“ touch screen with a sound quality that blows the competition out of the water.
The A6 Andromeda is my first step in to the analog world and I like it a lot. In analog circuits there is something that feels almost alive. And there is no substitute for knobs, I love knobs. That is why I bought the Doepfer too. And I like to drive audio through them. The real concern is keeping the signal quality on an acceptable level.
My first software was the Personal Composer. It was one of the first serious IBM PC compatible MIDI recording software. It had a horrible written command driven interface but it did its job. Then when I got my hands on the first DOS version of Cakewalk I have not had to look elsewhere. After something like 17 versions Sonar is now a formidable package, and has always been very strong in its MIDI editing capabilities which is the way I work mostly. It also includes its own scripting language, the Cakewalk Application Language, but regrettably it is not very well documented and has not been receiving a lot of attention lately.
What I like about the FireFace 400 is that it is practically invisible and the drivers are solid as a rock. I hate it when something does not work, and the FireFace does an exceptional job of keeping out of my way.
Blogasys: How do you start to compose, is it a sound that inspires you or do you have a melody already in your ear and start then by choosing the right sounds?
ST: I do both but mainly I improvise with sounds that have a feel that fits the project and then usually somewhere on the way a new idea strikes. The sound may need tweaking or I might try other sounds to the recorded midi data. But it is interesting to note that the sound has a lot to do with how I play, it affects me emotionally and my playing style adapts to it subconsciously. I don’t know if others do that but it comes very naturally for me. My current mood also affects the outcome a lot and that is one of the reasons I dislike playing live. I do play melodies in my head all the time and compose traditionally and the results are quite different compared to the improvisation. And of course the two methods can affect each other and the best results come from combining them.
I also try exotic equipment for inspiration, for example the Ergodex DX1 that I built to house a chromatic keyboard. It’s like a stripped down miniature version of the C-Thru Music’s Axis-64.
Samu with Ergodex DX1
There were few obstacles as usual as I had to overcome the 50 key limitation by using duplicate key ID’s and had to write my own software for it. There is no velocity sensitivity or other such goodies but it is still very fun to play, especially with the Yamaha BC-3 breath controller or the Thrustmaster Pro Throttle. The buttons on the sides are from top down “all notes off, sustain, transpose octave up/down/reset and programmable note shift”.
SMT Chromatic DX1
I have also just ordered the half sized Continuum from professor Haken. It should work especially well with the AL-1, STR-1 and MOD-7 EXi’s of the OASYS as they have a pitch bend range of 60 semitones and the engines cope very well with the range. I have very high expectations for the Continuum and I am prepared to spend considerable time learning to play it, which I’m told is not as easy as it might at first seem.
Blogasys: What about your plans to install a 5.1 audio system? Did you experiment with it and do you think there is a market for such mixes in times where people download mp3s?
ST: I have couple of good 5.1 surround music DVD’s and listening to a stereo record afterwards is like closing one eye. The clarity and imaging of the tracks is exceptional. I have read a book about surround mixing and feel that I simply have to give it a try. Also in my view surround sound in movies does not count as the theater format requires several compromises, especially having to tolerate large amount of people and their noises, and the engineers are usually determined to split your ears for the sake of few cheesy effects. Buying three more active studio monitors is going to have an ouch factor but otherwise my system is ready for 5.1. The mp3 downloading audience is going to be happy too as Fraunhofer has released a mp3 surround format with a reported average file size of only 10% larger than stereo.
Blogasys: Let’s come back to the musical instruments. What is your favourite instrument and why?
ST: The OASYS. I could talk about the OASYS for the whole interview and probably drown your readers on the way so I’ll try to be short. The OASYS for me is not the all in one solution that some people perceive it should be. To me it is a very high quality instrument that feels and plays in such way that it gives inspiration. It also is an extremely deep but still very comprehensible synthesizer that gives me ability to create my own aural worlds with the same aforementioned quality. To me there simply is nothing available to parallel the OASYS.
Blogasys: What was the main reason for you to decide for OASYS?
ST: I saw a concept for the OASYS in a technology seminar at Wanha satama in 1995 if I remember correctly. It was like a dream come true only it never came. When the OASYS actually was released ten years later it caught my attention big time. The bad news was that I could not afford it. Two years went by and when I heard that DLX Music Helsinki had one in their show room I could not resist. I went there and played the whole afternoon. When I got home I downloaded the manuals and digged in deep. Next time I went to the store I took my trusted headphones and my newly acquired knowledge with me. The rest is history; I sold a lot of stuff and bought it.
Blogasys: What do you use most and are there parts you rarely use?
ST: The keyboard! And the sound engines, all of them, I program a lot. The sequencer works as a sketch pad really well and is really fast and easy to setup. And the KARMA can be a good source for inspiration. The only thing I seldom use is the hard disk recorder as I work mainly with DAW.
Samu’s OASYS supported by some pedals
Blogasys: What is your favourite Exi and why?
ST: I really like all of them. And I like to combine them. There are these two techniques I discovered where you can route the engines through each other. Inside a combi and inside a single program, and you can for example create controlled feedback loops with nonlinear amplification. It enables really creative and unique effects. For example when I read a technical article about the Karplus-Strong string modeling algorithm, it was possible to test it in the OASYS using these techniques. Another example I would like to mention is one where I used the STR-1 string modeling engine as a comb filter. I made a combi with two layers where I drive the sound of left hand instrument, a metallic synth pad in this case, through the STR-1 that is opened polyphonically by the right hand. Here is an example.
Deep Bell Drone: OASYS
And here’s a link to the Karma-Lab Wiki tutorial I wrote concerning the routing of Exi1 in to EXi2 inside a single program.
Blogasys: Are there any things you miss in OASYS?
ST: I would love a possibility to edit programs inside the combi mode, which would enable several very cool techniques. For instance in detail program editing while the whole combi is sounding would make the tuning of delicate details more easy. My technique of program routing through each other in combi mode would be much easier when I could actually hear what I am doing. And as the built in sequencer is able to record sys-ex messages the whole program editing could be recorded enabling for example a complete program morph.
I’d love an ability to write per program, per combi, and per song notes so I could trash my paper notebooks.
Markers in the sequencer would make dissecting long improvisations a breeze amongst other things.
I have been looking for a stand-alone MIDI recorder that would continuously record everything I play. Too many times have I played something great and been unable to recall it with enough detail. It would be a life saver if OASYS could do that.
Blogasys: Thanks a lot, Samu!
Descriptions of audio demos:
Storyline: All OASYS except one washing machine sound
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.
blogasys: Now lets talk about your music, are there any projects you have been working on?
EJ2: Sure. Now, many veteran Karma and OASYS users have been patiently waiting for my next collections to hit the stage, especially OASYS users. So, let me first preface what I want to say with a little history of why and how I found myself becoming a 3rd party sound designer for Korg’s KARMA-fied workstations.
Prior to acquiring my Karma, as I previously explained, I had dabbled in sound designing with various synths from various manufacturers. I never stuck with just the presets. I had to “peel back the layers” to see how far I could push whatever piece I was exploring to create new sounds. But, it never occurred to me that I should be offering my work to others. Not until the Karma. So, what happened?
The “Maroon Monster” as I call it was a godsend. Once I “recovered” from the euphoria that accompanied most of Karma’s combis, I started in on my usual explorations in sound development. I found KARMA technology to be a fantastic labyrinth of sonic possibilities. It was both amazingly wonderful but demanding at the same time. Yet, I kept at it – deconstructing the preset combis, reading the manuals, reviewing Stephen’s FAQs, actively participating in Korg Karma Yahoo (the original Karma group), working late into the wee hours of the morning. Now with 3 empty combi banks - C, D, and F (no EXBs), I had plenty of room for my templates. Appreciating that the task of creating new combis is a very intensive daunting process, I was quite surprised when one of the Yahoo members offered a bank of combis for sale. The Karma was still a new groundbreaking synth workstation with an incredible depth to programming it. After all the sweat I had expired just to create a few decent combi templates (never mind polished models), I thought this was quite an accomplishment. Even though I was somewhat leery, I still purchased this collection mostly because the price was right and I was curious. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. The collection was full of reworked presets. However, it taught me a lesson – I could very well do this and I could do it better. That was impetus to start Double EJ Projects (EJ2 for short).
blogasys: .. thanks - I would have asked you for the explanation anyway!
EJ2: Eventually, a renowned 3rd party developer, Paul Osborn, offered a collection of Karma combis while I was working on my own set. Since they were marketed through Stephen Kay’s Karma Lab, I cast all doubt aside and purchased the inspiring set of grooves known as “Chemistry Volume 1”. Now, that was more like it. Paul and Stephen had raised the bar for other 3rd party developers of Karma combis. Incidentally, you can count the number of designers in the entire world for this synth on one hand; and, as far as I am concerned, only a couple can stand Karma Lab’s standards. Paul’s work was and continues to be my aspiration and inspiration, along with another Karma Lab collection, Scott Raposa’s “Reincarnation”. All the other collections paled in comparison. Most of the other 3rd party Karma producers had little or no clue about how to manipulate KARMA technology in my opinion.
My first commercial collection for Karma was called “EDGES”, a 64 combi set of mixed-genre KARMA-fied grooves. I was quite surprised that it was well received, although I know I cornered only a small share of the market. Nevertheless, all the letters, emails, and other feedback I received gave me the motivation to finish my second collection, “TETRA”. I was hooked on KARMA and developing KARMA-fied combis. In due course, I had developed combi collections for EXB MOSS (“Mosster”), EXB 09 (“TRANZFER Complete”), a jazz collection (EJAZZ), a compilation of my best work (ETM) and various spin offs from all of my work and templates. It was a ton of hard work; yet, it was a labour of love. With each new collection I developed, I learned more techniques to bring into my programming. Because of this, I decided to go back to revisit, revise and improve all of my work, not just for the users of those sets, but for future clients.
Now, at about the time I was completing and distributing my updates, rumors were abounding of a new Korg workstation behemoth – the OASYS – and it was loaded with KARMA 2. Oh, no… talk about incipient gear lust. By the time the OASYS was released at the beginning of 2005, I had already accumulated nearly 4 years of programming experience with the red Karma., and you can just imagine the extreme G.A.S. that was percolating through my innards. Needless, to say, I coveted this beast with a passion. It had Korg’s legendary sound designers’ signatures and Stephen Kay’s latest Karma 2 technology. Did these characters listen or what! And, my predictions back then are continuing to be proved today - I knew that this mammoth flagship was destined to grow. So, when Stephen Kay used to taunt us with a Star Trek quote, “Resistance is futile!” I knew I would cave in sooner or later come hell or high water. It was simply a case of finding the funds/credit to put the OASYS into my hands and into my studio. I reasoned that I would eventually recover my debt and I kept repeating to myself, “So why not do it now.”
As opportunity would have it, I was fortunate enough to finally snag my lovely 76 model in March 2006, thanks in part to Eryk Foss of Sweetwater, Jerry Kovarsky, and Stephen Kay in assisting me with getting over a few initial technical issues. Ever since then, my studio chair has dug its deep impression into the cheeks of my ass … LOL … and my wife thinks I have a secret mistress named OASYS.
EJ2: Now, having honed my sound designing skills on the Karma, it wasn’t long before I was navigating OASYS’ KARMA 2 technology and control surface. What a treasure trove of tools. This was exactly what I had been dreaming of. The OASYS is a sound designer’s paradise, at least from my perspective. To be sure, I had a new set of techniques to learn with the new real time control surface, touch screen, and all tabbed layers and menus to be accessed. However, on September 21, 2006, in both Karma Lab Forums and Korg Forums, I announced a “sneak preview” of a small 32 combi collection for OASYS. I dubbed this set, “ECLECTRIC v 1” blending the words “eclectic” and “electric”. The initial reactions from some of my former Karma clients who had migrated to the OASYS and others were very encouraging.
I promised the OASYS community that I wouldn’t be “charging an arm and a leg” for my collections, sticking to my plan of producing high quality, fully KARMA-fied combi sets for the OASYS community at reasonable prices as I had for the Karma. Twenty-six days later on October 17, I released “ECLECTRIC v 1”, as I assured earlier, at the low price of $32 US. By the way, that works out to be about 2 cents an hour for all the time and sweat I put into developing this first collection. But, alluded to above, it’s truly a labour of love for me.
Well, it wasn’t long after I had delivered ECLECTRIC v 1, that people were clamouring for volume 2. Accordingly, from October until February, I set about completing my next installment in the ECLECTRIC series aiming to produce 4 mini volumes to complete the full 128 combi set. I was very close to releasing volume 2, but fate or good fortune had other plans for my work. First let me sincerely apologize to the OASYS community for holding the delivery of ECLECTRIC v 2 in abeyance and explain the reason for doing so. I think a good many of you will concur with my decision when you find out why.
Now, during this time, as was my practice previously with my Karma sets, I had uploaded my OASYS PCGs to our KARMA Guru, Stephen Kay for his perusal. I knew full well that he had incredible demands on his time, especially with all the new updates, EXis, GUIs, online video guides, the up coming M3, not to mention his ongoing development of KARMA technology and accompanying software utilities. Too many characters want a piece of Stephen (I don’t believe he sleeps.). Nevertheless, I took the gamble that he would, in due course, audition my combis, both for the Karma and OASYS. Just as I was making plans to release ECLECTRIC v 2, Stephen contacted me via e-mail. I won’t disclose the contents of his communication. I’ll leave that for Stephen to reveal when he makes an announcement sometime later in October. Be that as it may, I have no idea what prompted Stephen to load up a few of my PCGs and take them for a test run (so to speak), but he did; and, he liked what he heard. Subsequently, I think I’m safe in saying this, Stephen decided to “take me under his wing”. What a golden opportunity! I feel like the Apprentice to the Wizard of KARMA.
So, now you know. My updated, augmented, and extended collection for OASYS continues to undergo “expert” tweaking by the Master. Stephen has been spending about 4-5 hours on each combi, individually tweaking every aspect including the KARMA, Effects assignments, and mix. I’ve heard some of the finished ones, and they truly are reaching the level of the internal voicing, if not higher! However, as time constraints and other obligations dictate, this is being completed in stages because as we all know, Stephen has many important tasks and priorities to attend to. As with anything that comes out of Karma Lab, my collection will not be released for sale until it is damn good and ready. Since Stephen is the executive producer and editor of my new collection, he has the final say when it’s ready to go. And I agree. We still have much work to do.
The OASYS community is going to be pleasantly surprised with the very cool adjustments and modifications being carried out on my new 64 combi collection which will be released under a new name (TBA). This set will be accompanied by a comprehensive and complete User Guide that will include full descriptions of each combi along with diagrams, charts, and tips etc.
To the OASYS community who have been waiting for my next work, thank you all again for your patience. It will eventually get here, but not until it is top shelf à la Karma Lab.
And for the M3 community, there is good news here as well. I will, with Stephen’s guidance and expertise, make an effort to revoice this collection for the M3. In fact, I’ll be going down to Karma Lab in a few weeks for some one-on-one instruction.
To paraphrase Humphrey Bogart (another Canadian), “This looks like the beginning of a beautiful relationship.” which will deliver high quality 3rd party KARMA-fied products to the Korg community.
blogasys: You really made me curious! But beside OASYS what kind of equipment are you currently using?
EJ2: My main equipment is the following
Korg: OASYS 76, M3-M, Karma (with EXB 05 Vintage Archives, EXB09 Trance Attack, EXB MOSS), Legacy Collection (Analog & Digital) + MS 20 Mini Controller.
Roland: JD800, JD990 with Vintage & Techno expansions, Fantom S, V-Synth XT, R8 Rhythm Composer with all the cards, D2 Groove Box.
Kawai: M8000 88 keyboard controller, 1 x midi in, 4 x midi bus out etc.
Digital Music Corp: MX8 midi patchbay/processor.
Alesis: Quadraverb.
BBE: 422 Sonic Maximizer.
BOSS: BR8 digital recorder.
Yamaha: CDR-HD 1000 CDR’CDR-W compact disk recorder with 20 MB hard drive.
Mixer: Roland M240 24 channel line mixer.
Monitors:
2 MAudio Audiophile BX5 near field monitors
Altec 5.1 Surround Sound computer speakers
2.Acoustic Audio HCD-12 large heavy duty stereo system speakers.
Computers
Main Studio: XP with Hyper Threading technology, 2.5 Ghz, 2 MB RAM, 120 GB HD. I stripped this computer of all the excess Microshit and performed the usual Optimization for music.
Mobile: Lenova Centrino Intel Core 2 Duo, T5500 1.66 Ghz, 980 Mhz, 099 GB RAM..
Supporting the computers, the OASYS and M3-M are a 250 GB USB HD, and a variety of USB flash drives from 1 GB to 4 GB, and various Secure Digital cards from 512 MB to 2 GB.
blogasys: Are there any things you would like to see in OASYS in the future?
EJ2: As I posted recently in Korg Forums, Jerry the K pointed out, Korg does listen. So, when it comes to the debate over the pros and cons of dedicating R&D time and effort to improving the sequencer vs delivering new EXi or EXs, I will continue to speak up for those of us who prefer the latter. However, having said that, I do believe it is time to address those concerns about updating and improving OASYS sequencer.
blogasys: sorry for interrupting you, but I have just posted here on the blog exactly the same thoughts.
EJ2: Another area of interest to me is the ubiquitous and cryptic “Function” button. I can very well see this handling the duties of toggling the Bank Structure to incorporate an A and B series thus doubling our program and combi locations. We are out of space already. I know, once we have those filled, we’ll be griping again. It would be nice, but it’s not crucial because I learned to archive, substitute, swap, overwrite, and basically manage my banks way back on the Karma using floppy disks. USB flash drives are a treat by comparison.
Now, in keeping with my thirst for sounds, I’d love to see Korg develop something similar to Roland’s VariPhrase technology to allow for time stretching and “elastic synthesis”. Along with that, a full blown vocal processor similar to the VC-2 card for the V-synth and within the V-Synth XT would probably have me considering a quick eBay transaction to sell my XT.
Whether through EXi or EXs, we really need a host of traditional ethnic/world sounds and rhythms – balalaikas to bagpipes, duduks to shofars, bodhrans to djembes, and don’t forget voices – Gregorian chanting, Arabic trills, Bhuddist growls, First Nations Pow Wow vocals, etc. I might add that I would strongly push for the ability to manipulate ethnic scales individually within each timbre of a combi. Currently, we can only set the scale globally. With my suggestion, you could have that lovely Shanai playing a non-western scale without affecting the other timbres. That would be truly icing on the already fantastic OASYS cake.
blogasys: Let’s come back to your sounds. Can you please give us some insight into your work, what you exactly did, how long it took to design them?
EJ2: Developing “fully KARMA-fied’ combis is a very painstaking, detailed set of processes no matter which route I take – starting from scratch, working from templates, or completely reworking what I have developed. In some cases, it’s a serendipitous exploration as in the case of my LAC-1 combi, “The Dark Side” in other cases, it’s deliberately planned and developed as happened when I designed my free Arabic combi, “Maqam”.
Here are some examples:
000 Catalyst - Synth - 124 bpm
This combi presents a moderately paced ambient techno groove powered by three complimentary drum grooves. The KARMA Scenes provide different combinations of the drum grooves - Scene 1 removes all drums and leaves just the percolating polysix synth as accompaniment, while Scene 8 culminates with a powerful drum breakdown. A cinematic layered choir is provided in the LH area from B4 down, with suboctave bass synth being added from E2 down, while the RH provides a powerful analog synth lead. Striking the lead at high velocity once the drums are running will retrigger the drum goove for interesting accents. The Vector JS provides a further means of mixing between the different modules and the choir.
012 The Dark Side [LAC-1] - LeadSplits - 098 bpm
As the last part of the title suggests, this combi was specifically designed to capitalize on the luscious sounds from Legacy Collection EXi LAC-1. In fact, 9 of the 11 timbres in this combi are LAC-1 programs. These are strategically complimented by the punchy HD-1 Trance Kit drums and a beautiful distorted feedback guitar from EXi-STR-1 which is driven by the versatile Pink Guitar 2 GE reminiscent of some of Chris Isaak’s slower expressive picking. Also, as the title suggests, this combi presents a set of dark and moody riffs and progressions which are artistically altered with the various KARMA Scenes. With KARMA running, pull back on JS-Y to induce a raunchy modulation to the Thick Synth Bass. Touching or sliding left on the ribbon control muffles the drums and bass. This evocative combi easily lends itself to dramatic television or movie sound tracks.
053 Romulan House - Synth - 098 bpm
Just right for your next Star Trek episode, this science fiction sound layers two beautiful slow synth pads for the left hand – Paddylicious and Combination Filters, a really great sound with washing filters ebbing and flowing. Two layered vocal programs supply the mysterious sounding female Romulan chorus in the right hand. Driven by the Simple Euro Bass GE, the 3 Way Scat Voices provide an unusual pulsing vox sound. A standard back beat works a cool FM Bass. With a hiphop GE the house drums kit keeps this combi’s rhythm on track. Tripping through most scenes is an maj/min organ GE operating on a sharp saw lead set to poly setting.
These audio demos are straight combis recorded live into the sequencer, bounced to wav, then rendered to mp3 in my computer. No post production or editing has been done other than the fade out. All sounds are played from the keyboard, chord triggers, and KARMA Scenes live in real time. Nothing more. That’s the beauty of a fully KARMA-fied combi - they’re ready to load into the sequencer, then all you need to do is hit the Stop/Start button and start jamming away.
blogasys: How do you start?
EJ2: For most of my designs, it’s a little of both – I have an idea of what I want to do, but more often than not, I stumble on something quite unique, so I pursue it to completion. Now, I should say that not everything I work on continues to become a published product. A good many templates get stored in the “junk drawer”. Sometimes, I’ll dig out a few to rework them, but in many instances they’re quite buggered to be able to wring out something worthwhile. When that happens, I just delete them and start from scratch.
When I approach building a combi with a particular genre or theme in mind, I call upon my understanding of programs and the GEs I think will best bring out what I’m looking for. By the way, I’ve been building this knowledge base of Korg’s programs and KARMA’s GEs for over 6 years now. Yet, I still manage to discover an unusual way to link a particular sound with an unexpected GE. That comes from a willingness to experiment, even though oft times the progression leads to the “Junk Drawer”.
The beauty of the Karma, OASYS, or M3 is that you can lay out your sounds in any timbre location you want. Often, I will put my synth or orchestral pads in the first three timbres, setting them to Gch and zoned C1 to B3 or B4, depending on where I want my lead voices. Next I will layer my leads in the next two or three timbre slots setting those also to Gch and zoning them C4 or C5 to G9. If I want any additional lead sounds, I may truncate the first set of leads at B7 or B8 and drop the next sounds into the next timbre slots setting these also to Gch and zoning those from C8 and up. But there is no hard rule. You may want the split at an E/F break for example. Now, having said all that, it really doesn’t matter what timbre locations you put these programs in, as long as you assign them to Gch and zone them according to where you wish to play them on the keyboard and/or chord triggers. Often, I may find that I want to add a few more sounds to the pads or leads, so they will get place in the next available timbre slots. And again, I just make sure zoned and pitched accordingly. Next, you need to select an appropriate pitch/octave for each purpose – lower registers for pads, higher registers for leads. This can be done simultaneously when plugging in the timbers or subsequently. Usually, I’ll test them out first before I do anything else. If I haven’t already set the pitch (based on past experience), I’ll make a decision if it is needed. Another trick with layering pads and leads is to slightly detune the corresponding “sibling” timbres against each other for a chorusing effect and spread (left, centre, right) their panning to widen the stereo field.
Before I move on to selecting GE operated voices, I’ll make another decision on whether to set the OSC to “PRG”, “Poly”, “MN”, or “LGT” and under that, “Both”, “OSC 1” or “OSC 2”. If I know that I’m going to be pressed for polyphony as often is the case with a busy combi having more than 8 timbres or one that uses a lower polyphony EXi, I will set many or all my timbres to either OSC 1 or OSC 2. Usually, it’s OSC 1 and, more often than not, there is very little change in the character of the voices. It depends on the results of my preliminary auditions for those timbres. If I wish to assign EQ, IFX and MFX/TFX at this stage, I will. During this phase of programming, I’ll explore other parameters to optimize the sounds – pitch bend, JS modulation, VJS, Ribbon Control, SW 1 & 2 assignments, etc. All of the above can take me a day or two or more.
By far the heaviest programming now follows, where I bring out the planned or discovered KARMA-fied grooves necessary to take my combi where I want it to go. What programs do I need for this and what GEs do I want to drive them? Trust me, there are heaps more decisions to make before selecting and manipulating the next batch of parameters. This is the stage where most OASYS, Karma and M3 users give up. It can be so frustrating if you don’t know what you are doing. And the only way you will really know what you are doing in this regard is to get in there and learn by trial and error and possibly with the assistance of a step by step tutorial on combi creation similar to what Paul Osborn wrote for one of his “Chemistry” combis. Even though it applies to the Karma, I would advise anyone interested in developing his/her own combis to download it from KLF and review it.
Now, listen to me carefully folks. You are not going to learn how to do this by simply reading the manuals or tutorials. You are not going to learn how to develop your own KARMA-fied combis unless and until you make a conscious effort to sit down at your OASYS, open the KARMA tabs and parameters, play around with them, and stick with it till you have something that resembles a combi. BUT, take your time and don’t try to do it all at once. You have to keep at it. How do you think I learned? There were no step by step guides to follow when I first started designing Karma combis. There was no KARMA mentor to walk me through the paces. Struggling through each sitting, I made countless mistakes, but with each failure, there was progress around the corner with my next challenging work session. Is it any wonder why only a handful few have ever made it to the KARMA-fied Combi Creation Club. Be that as it may, please don’t let me shy you away from jumping in and trying your hand. Some of you already have and to good results. For those who have programmed even just one KARMA-fied combi, you know the rewards are amazing. Playing and jamming away with your own creation is euphoric. Actually, there is not one word to describe that feeling, that sense of accomplishment. You have used KARMA technology to create your own manipulable, malleable, mini composition.
I realize there is so much more that I should be explaining for everyone, but it’s probably going to wait for me to write a small tutorial on OASYS Combi Creation to get you started. When I have the time (maybe I should say “if”), I’ll devote one of my projects to doing exactly that. Please don’t wait for that to appear before you explore creating your own OASYS combis. God, even Peter knows how long it took me to get to this blogasys interview completed.
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