Nebenwirkungen With Toax - Promenade2239

Thank you Friend! I am sorry for responding with such a long delay in time! There is so much energy needing contribution to the actual reality of matters to survive and preserve myself (as a body-mind entity I mean) at this particular moment - a reason for my slow attitude in reacting to what I produced to Looperman. All Toax's sounds are midi based but I used only he's audio stuff here. I played some keyboard licks from sheet https://pl.scribd.com/doc/268519461/1001-Jazz-Licks-pdf This particular lick I used was form 'fusion' labeled instance of this book.
Obviously this is a kind of a 'fantasy' music - my take on Toax's 'Mebenwirkungen' materials transformed anywhere further.

Last Friday I've listened to fine discussion about Human Transgression and similar stuff on polish radio http://www.polskieradio.pl/8,Dwojka It made me think of that kind of concepts perfectly fitting to what actually Toax said about a track: it's an new age afterlife prolongation (in compositional sense) to his production.

I am happy you liked what I did and commented! Thank you once again!

Hi

Thank you for listening in details!

Regarding to the first section (till 4:30); for layering given midi files I used plugins: 'MrRay22' (epiano) and 'Wavestation' (plucked instrument) as well as 'Il Drum Synth' (some lighter ghost drumming in the background on the first section - till 4:30). All the rest is myself playing/recording everything from Roland's keyboard but also adjusting manually all recorded audio sequencies carefully a lot. So, in this case I came up with ideas by tweaking different synth sounds - I had no concrete vision or ideas what to do with midi's and audio stems at first because Toax's style is very different. Basically chord progressions and some melodies were already programmed so I had to build entire arrangement around it. Dminor-Aminor on the first section, DMajor7 on the jazzy section when keys are busy (5:04).
There is a plugin called 'Groove Delay' in Studio One that can 'animate' nicely plucked instruments and I used it here. Also a lot of delay used but always played 'live', not applying it afterwards - this just doesn't work for me. I didn't use Koto instrument actually - I think it might be low register of Harp or some other layer that has similar tone. Some of the sounds are layered so they may already contain Koto sound, I do not know. I used Basson (at 4:08) and many other instruments: synthesized pads and some single percussive weird shots along with huge reverb.
0:00 - 4:30 was my first take on given midi - then vox and bass were added. I had no idea what to do with it and how to manage the structure of the piece so yes, the music is just weird at some sections. I wish I could develop more funky section with jazzy keys more but there are many limitations regarding to CPU and human energy as well. Toax is making really fine music, we will probably continue our collab action in the near future (which is nice). Basically online collabs are challenging and might be a strange experience sometimes even but I do it a lot anyway.

Thanks a lot for very appreciative comments on this one. I did a lot to get the best sound as possible.
Im glad you enjoyed the results.
A.

Thank you Joe! I appreciate your nice comments.

The original 'Nebenwirkungen' song is 120 BPM and it is a kind of blues https://soundcloud.com/toax/toax_run_12_nebenwirkungen
I did it at 86BPM and it is overall a chillout style with use of few plucked instruments (airy harps and like) and soft synthesized string pads as well as gentle epianos. I made entire arrangement directly on Roland synth by using it's presets and soundbank sounds. JunoDi has also attached software editor and I can actually create my own patches - so far I have spent about 2 hrs with the editor in overall but it has great possibilities - it will probably take me few months until I will find enough time and energy to open it again. Programming is quite complex and time consuming at first - soon or later I will be focusing on creating and using my own original sounds more (I hope).

I am glad you liked the peaceful nature of the track - thanks also for your appreciation on the production matters. It is probably the more complex composition I ever made. I couldn't even play it back inside the DAW properly and had to mixdown few sections many times to record the keys and other stuff but it was rewarding.

Till next time, Alex

hello
I am glad you liked it! This one is a collage and a result of working with some materials we discussed online quickly. It is good to know that I managed to make a coherent and listenable track. The surreal vocal was the idea by Toax - it is just a single phrase from his song stretched and processed. I created instrumental and developed some of his midi sequences - we intend to make more collabs in near future so maybe we will come up with something that would be much closer to proper instrumental music or proper songs.
Thanks a lot for listening and your nice comments!
Alex

Hello Eric

Thank you for listening and nice comment! Yes, it is different and the waveform representation is quite small but also this track is very complex regarding to instrumentation. Basically my intention was to keep the 'natural' dynamic range and to get the best sound quality from the instruments as possible. Most of the layers were made on Roland hardware synth - I also compressed and somehow 'expanded' the sound of many single tracks so they have enough power at the start already, regardless of the low gain levels of the final mix. That section with keys and clavinet, for example, was added later but I think I found a good balance inbetween different areas of the track. I mastered it only very slightly, it is barely noticable. Just wanted to get the good quality sound that would be also pleasant to the ears, most of my tracks are not mastered to the standards.
I am glad you liked what I did.
Alex

I like that particular album too. Basically all the instruments are virtual ones (there are live-recorded real guitars on 2 tracqks though) - a very impressive and effective programming work. Also I like the conceptual vision of the album as a whole thing, each single composition is very carefully designed. I checked DEVO refference and you are right - Toax's music is just that kind of pastiche I guess.
Thanks again for nice comments!

Thank you Steve!
We did intense online collab before ('Toax' as other virtual persona as he had few different musical projects) but this is definitely the best one. I asked him for original midi files of 'Neberwirkungen' and layered them using virtual epiano, guitar and a little bit of 'ghost' drumming in the background. I transformed some sequences applying a 'groove delay' plugin to get the interesting rhytmic movement too. All the rest is simply a Roland JunoDi synth. I created 0:00 - 4:00 section first - he added vocal and funky bassline. Then I developed this final version. He stretched the vocal which I processed even more afterwards - the idea was to get a kind of 'afterlife' vibe (because he is obviously speaking to us 'from there'). I really liked that idea.
Funky bassline created by Toax on virtual bass guitar.
I made everything directly on Roland. Drums around 5:00, for example, are from Roland's 'Jazz Brush' drumset and it is actually a random linear pattern I recorded. It is layered with the other pattern with snare accenting 'four'. Epiano and clavinet are also Roland sounds - those are just few riffs I managed to record in a short time and mix along the given funky bassline. I didn't use arpeggiator for that sequence at the end - it is a 'Tri Sine Lead' Roland patch played in a real time with huge reverb and a delay by using the pitch bend wheel.
So this is basically a result of working with given sounds and sequences. Very much experimental and it is a colorful soundscape basically but has more dynamic sections too. Surely the most complex composition I ever made considering the amount of elements used.
I am glad you liked few jazzy flavours I introduced. Thank you for all good words and your support!
Alex

Thank you Orlando!
Here I discovered some new sounds from Roland I never used before - they are fitting the New Age music convention somehow (flutes, airy harps etc...). Just some more complex and experimental composition of mine.
Thank you again for your appreciation. Alex