Work in Progress : "Upon a Sleepless Land"

Still working on the "Upon a Sleepless Land" EP.
Korg MS-20 Mini, Piano, Moog Little Phatty, Volca Keys, Prophet 08, Gforce M-Tron Pro.

Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division)

Joy Division cover, live in studio.
DSI Tempest
Moog Little Phatty
Korg Volca Keys
MS20 Mini
Gforce Virtual String Machine

Recording Sessions : Bird Lady

New song for the upcoming "The Crack-Up" album.

Lead vocals by Miss Roxanne.
Instruments : Moog Little Phatty, Prophet 08, Korg Volca Bass, Beats and Keys, DSI Tempest, Casiotone 101, Microkorg.

Swan Song for the Moog Little Phatty

The Moog Little Phatty analog synthesizer is now officially discontinued, after a seven year run.

Analog synths came and went in my studio... Roland Juno-1, Korg Poly-800, Roland JX3P.

But one thing for sure: while I still haven't come to terms with the name, I have to say that the Little Phatty is possibly the one instrument (along with the Prophet 08), that I won't ever sell (actually, just watching at my blog labels while writing this says it all : 74 posts for the Moog, 73 for the Prophet 08, waaaay ahead any other gear I use). I might not always use the Prophet 08 (you don't necessarily need analog chords on a folk song), but I always use the Moog, because whatever the song, there's always room for that round, deep, legendary Moog bass.

I bought the Moog LP at a time when I actually didn't own many keyboards. I actually think it was my first serious (read "expensive") synthesizer.

For years I was a skeptic when it comes to the superiority of analog over digital, because virtual analog and software emulations were progressing by leaps and bounds in the 2000's. What initially seduced me about the Little Phatty wasn't the gorgeous sound alone, but also the sheer beauty of the instrument. Everything about it said "quality".

Then I discovered that true analog was indeed superior to emulation, because the cumulative effect of analog tracks is what provides the warmth, thickness and musicality of a song when compared to something done entirely with digital tools.

Owning an instrument like the LP is akin to owning a beautiful guitar or saxophone. Just watching it makes you want to create music, which is more than can be said about a damn computer in my opinion.

I'm also proud to own a Tribute Edition LP, which is the first batch of instruments with wood ends. As classy today as it will be in 30 years.

So, hats off to Moog for delivering this true classic.

Clockwork Cities (Microkorg Vocoder)

Featuring the ever popular MicroMoorg
Bass&Lead : Moog Little Phatty
Drums : DSI Tempest
Strings : Gforce Virtual String Machine
Choir : Gforce M-Tron Pro w/ Chamberlin




In the clockwork city they all look the same
Everybody’s working and nobody knows your name
In the clockwork city they all look the same
Everybody’s working and nobody knows your name

In the clockwork city there’s no hope in vain
The heart of the wise in the house of mourning
In the clockwork city there’s no hope in vain
Everybody’s working and nobody knows your name

It’s a room full of toys and nothing’s for real
It’s a desolate place you can never leave
In the clockwork city you’ve nothing left to hide
In the clockwork city where things never die

In the clockwork city you know the game is fixed
How much you lose and how small you gain
All summer long I’ve been wasting my sorrow
All summer long broken and forlorn

Kaiju Science

Kaiju Science from Karim More on Vimeo.

Jamming with analog gear...

DSI Prophet 08 & Tempest
Moog Little Phatty
Doepfer Dark Energy (sequenced w/ iPad)
And also M-Tron Pro Chamberlin, MPC500.

Voight Kampff

Restored from my archives... I've recorded this in december 2010 for a horror short film that unfortunately wasn't ever finished.
 

At the time, I did a little tutorial on the recording. Here's what I had to say.

This particular track was actually recorded before I was able to see any footage of the short film. Hell, none had even been shot at the time! I was told by the filmmaker that the film would need some fast-paced, street chasing music.

I decided to go for a tight, urban sound, built around a fat and biting Moog groove.The tempo is relatively slow, because I was expecting to create a sort of musical momentum, beginning with an almost hiphop-styled groove, Mellotron strings, a quiet break, then full-on electric and industrial madness, with nasty guitars and crazy electronic bleeps.

Whether it’s a song or an instrumental, and unless I’m 100% sure that there won’t be any beat and that the track won’t need any fixed tempo, my first step is always to program one, at the very least to provide a tempo guide for recording.

Method-wise, there’s a big difference between recording a song and an instrumental. I will almost always start the former with a completed song. On the other hand, building up the latter is pure improvisation, in that I simply have no idea what the track will be until I push Record and improvise something that I’ll then expand upon.

So, I’ve started by programming a first beat, with the Drums Overkill plugin as main source. This is an excellent database, using the Kontakt engine. Not only does it feature almost every vintage drum machine ever built, but also a clever sample collection arranged in sections such as “hiphop”, “drum and bass”, “experimental”. All in all, a very useful source that provides a large variety of drum sounds that you can tweak within Kontakt.

This particular beat also features a couple of “natural” sounds, that is, a gunshot and a falling bullet shell, both from a huge database of movie sounds I have assembled over the years. Mixing-wise, I’ve juxtaposed two layers of the same beat. The first one has a 6dB boost at 64Hz.

The second one is squashed to death by a compressor, then radically EQd to cut most bass and high frequencies, and boost the mids (EQ deep cut below 150Hz and at 16Khz, boost between 1Khz and 10Khz). This is pretty much a variation on what it’s called parallel compression of New York compression : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_compression.

I then programmed a second beat, which comes midway to reinforce the rhythmic section. This one was treated in pretty much the same way.

Beat (download)

Now that a basic rhythmic foundation is in place, my second task is to lay down some instrumental part that will define what the chord progression (if any) will be, and what the overall tune will be. I would usually play piano or possibly some synth pad, but for this particular track, since it’s meant to be very rhythmic, I’ve chosen to sketch out a bass groove.

Gear-wise, bass to me means MOOG!

A little bit of experimentation here as well : the Moog Little Phatty is plugged to the UA 710 preamp, with a blend of 50-50 solid-state and tube signal, and a fair amount of gain to make it distort. That little trick provides a bit of additional grit to the bass sound. There are 3 Moog layers involved here.

Moog Bass (download)

I then proceeded to add some more harmonic parts around that beat/bass core.The Prophet 08 was to put to use there.

Prophet 08 (download)

Now the track was coming together but it still needed a fuller sound. A couple of electric guitars, playing the fundamental note over and over, would fit it nicely.

It’s often a good idea to record the exact same guitar part twice, and pan one on the extreme left and the other on the extreme right. That’s what I did, and I should add that the slightly off-key, grungey guitar sound was obtained in two way : tuning the first string one step down and passing it through a Small Clone chorus.

Some EQ there too : light boost at 1Khz, cut at 10Khz and big cut 16Khz.
 

Guitars (download)

There’s a lot of orchestral software out there, but I do prefer to create little weird, retro chamber orchestras using Gforce’s M-Tron, and now M-Tron Pro, plugins.

Mellotron (download)

The Mellotron of course is very limited, which fits my idea totally. A little arrangement of Mellotron cellos, violas and violins gives a vintage, off-beat strings flavor which has far more character than any realistic emulation of orchestra would give.

Single du Jour : We Die in Sleep

This was recorded with the talented Molly Sundar some years ago, but didn't fit in the current projects.

Moog Little Phatty, Prophet 08 and Crumar Bit-01 for the main part (some Korg Poly-800 as well, if I remember correctly).

"A hard rain is gonna strike

And clouds will never part

Hard rain is gonna strike

Clouds will never part

The 30 ghosts behind me

They’re laughing in my back

They’re sleeping my sleep

They’re dreaming my dreams

Listen love, listen dear

Without regret or fear

Listen love, listen dear

Without regret or fear

The 30 ghosts behind me

They’re laughing in my back

They’re sleeping my sleep

They’re dreaming my dreams

That’s the thin, dry sound of bone

That’s the way things are done and gone

There’s no stranger land than this

We’re the living and the dead

We live in dream and die in our sleep"

Cover du Jour : Split Yourself Lilith (Liger)

This one has been laying low for too long.

I've recorded it for a Bitkins project that never came to fruition, where each musician would cover another one's song (Adcbicycle did an outstanding version of my "Way to Dusty Death").

So anyway, this is a great great song by Liger.

"Hello ghost, can i try to impress you?
Like with crushing my dull face on the pavement.
Split yourself Lilith,
like i drove a wedge between us
Oh ghost, i have betrayed you,
curb-stomped your infinite faith.
Stiched to the pillow in someone else's place,
baited with rags soaked in their saliva.
This is not a battle, it's a fucking massacre.
I am probably turning into something disgusting.
Oh ghost, oh how i failed you. It's like killing.
I could not impress you. I can not save you!"

More iPad Experimentation

Another quick experiment in integrating the iPad to the workflow.
The drums come from my newly acquired Abbey Road 80's Drummer.
Doepfer Dark Energy and Moog synth lines sequenced by Little MIDI Machine on the iPad.
Distorted pad recorded with the Animoog app.

Bowie du Jour : Funhouse

From my archives, at last finished, a rather obscure song from Bowie.
Prophet 08 and Moog, and Abbey Road 80's Drums.

"Back into the funhouse
Music is sublime
See the lady spinning
She'll show me
We all lie in the funhouse
No one is your friend
No one loves a loser
We love you
We all lie in the funhouse
Girls wag their pain
No one sleeps in the funhouse
They'll show you
Really good time

Back into the funhouse
My dream dogs have arrived
My summer turns to fall
And I'll miss you"

Cover du Jour : Action this Day (Queen)

Remixed version of the "Deer Me" EP cover song.
Lots of Moog in there, I tells you.

Cover du Jour : Captain Hook (John Cale)

Rework of a song I did for a compilation some years ago for the Bitkins label.
Original song by John Cale, "Sabotage" album.
This was the inspiration for my "Broken Sails" EP
Lots of Prophet 08 and Moog.

Monotribe + Doepfer + Moog

Nothing too serious, toying around with the Doepfer Dark Energy controlling the Monotribe's tempo, and some Moog bass and drone.

Youtube Update : Last Night I Was a Ghost

Some of you have trouble with the Dailymotion streaming, so here's the Youtube upload as well. Today, back to work on finalizing the mix.

I'm planning to release this on the "Crack-Up" album.
The new DSI Tempest is drumming all along and boy does it sound great.
Otherwise, the usual suspects : plenty of Moog and Prophet 08, as well as some acoustic guitar.

Work in Progress : Last Night I Was a Ghost

New work on the upcoming "Crack-Up" album.

Miss Roxanne on vocals.

The outstanding DSI Tempest drum machine provided the basis for the song, and I've added lots of Moog Little Phatty and Prophet 08. Also featured, the new Chamberlin expansion for Gforce M-Tron Pro.

Work in Progress : Last Night I Was a Ghost par khoral_kmore

Work in Progress : The Static Song

Work in Progress : The Static Song from Karim More on Vimeo.

Work in Progress : "All the Drugs" (session 1)

Recording sessions for a new song.

No playback, all shots show the actual takes being recorded.

I'll update the video as the recording and mixing goes along.

Untitled from Karim More on Vimeo.

Single du Jour : The Crack-Up

UPDATE : Track removed until the final commercial release.

Roland JX3P and Microkorg vocoder.

 

"The Crack-Up

All life is a process of breaking down

Sleep and eat and getting old

Everything under control

The crack’s in me.

Time drips down from your bones – falling down

Dodge and weave and getting bored

Everything under control

The crack’s in me.

The cure does not work

Little boy lost in the woods

With anything he wants to do

Finding nothing, nothing he wants to do

The cure does not work

Little girl lost in the woods"

Cover du Jour : State Trooper

This is actually a remake of a Springsteen cover song done a couple of years ago.
Still lots of Moog and Gforce VSM, but I also added Roland JX3P pad and strings, new vocals and better mix.

Download MP3

State Trooper by khoral