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Electronic: Thoughts While Drowning

Posted: 23 Jun 2018
by jimmyklane




Here is a very short EP mixed as a single song with the transitions between tracks intact.
The song image is a placeholder...I've located an image that is not my own that I'd like to use, and have asked for permission to use it.

Created in Reason 10 with the help of lots of outboard synths, samplers, drum machines, rackmount processors, and effects. I mastered this track directly to cassette tape, using the noise-reduction system as an effect on the master buss. Here are some of the tools used, but I'm probably forgetting some stuff:

INSTRUMENTS:
Reason Pianos
Roland Alpha Juno
Moog Slim Phatty
Ensoniq EPS 16+
Emu SP-1200
Emu E5000 Ultra
Akai MPC 2000 (classic)
DSI Prophet '08
Korg Monotribe
Korg Polysix
Novation BassStation II

PROCESSING:
Moog Chain: Demeter Tube DI--->Neve Portico 5012--->Warm Audio WA2A
Urei 1178 (drums)
ART Pro VLA II (buss compression)
Speck ASC-T (buss EQ)
Thermionic Culture Vulture (just rounding off some transients before hitting the cassette tape)
Sony cassette deck, Dolby A
Pendulum Audio PL-2 (Peak limiter before hitting the cassette tape)

EFFECTS:
Reason The Echo
Reason RV-7000mkII
Sony HR-MP5 multi-effects unit
Lexicon 480L
ADA S1000 digital delay
Eventide H3000
Eventide H9
Strymon Deco
Strymon ElCapistan
Ibanez SC10 analog chorus


Reason handled all the MIDI sequencing, automation, and program changes. The drum machines were synced via SMPTE using my audio interface's direct SMPTE I/O. The entire EP was recorded live (all instruments playing at once via EMIs) through a Yamaha O2Rv2 directly onto the cassette tape, then recorded back into Reason and prepared for release with just a tiny bit of EQ and normalization. You'll notice that this is pretty quiet compared to modern releases, and that's because I could only get so much level onto a tiny cassette tape! I love the noise and distortion that comes with it however, and hopefully you enjoy this as well!



EDIT: Please give me your opinions and criticism of this piece! I love to hear others' opinions on my music.
-Jim

Re: Electronic: Thoughts While Drowning

Posted: 23 Jun 2018
by aeox
Very nice textures and timbre!

Re: Electronic: Thoughts While Drowning

Posted: 23 Jun 2018
by jimmyklane
aeox wrote:
23 Jun 2018
Very nice textures and timbre!
Thank you very much!!

Re: Electronic: Thoughts While Drowning

Posted: 23 Jun 2018
by jimmyklane
Bump for comments?

Re: Electronic: Thoughts While Drowning

Posted: 24 Jun 2018
by jayhosking
This is a great, compact EP/song-cycle. Sounds are great, really evocative sections, and while each individual section doesn’t necessarily evolve much, they transition quickly enough that it never loses momentum. Great work.

Re: Electronic: Thoughts While Drowning

Posted: 24 Jun 2018
by jimmyklane
jayhosking wrote:
24 Jun 2018
This is a great, compact EP/song-cycle. Sounds are great, really evocative sections, and while each individual section doesn’t necessarily evolve much, they transition quickly enough that it never loses momentum. Great work.
Thank you! Yeah they are meant to flow into each other like Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall....song into song into song. That’s why I combined it into a short 12-minute single song.

Thanks for commenting!

Re: Electronic: Thoughts While Drowning

Posted: 24 Jun 2018
by hurricane
Dangit Jimmy - you've inspired me to start using my hardware synths. :lol:

Re: Electronic: Thoughts While Drowning

Posted: 25 Jun 2018
by strangers
I really like the first song. Can't wait to hear the rest of that. The overall sound of each is impressive. I'm more familiar with the effects you used than the synths, which probably sounds kind of strange to see someone admit on here. It's the guitar geek in me getting the chance to nerd out over some rack gear and pedals. I've been wanting to experiment with a lot of the gear I typically use for guitar. Have to wait until I upgrade my interface.

You've got me curious... how come you used The Echo when you've got the ADA, Eventide and Strymon stuff? I only ask because I have a bunch of delay and reverb pedals that I've never used with Reason that I'm probably missing out on a whole world of sounds I should be diving into.

Re: Electronic: Thoughts While Drowning

Posted: 25 Jun 2018
by jimmyklane
hurricane wrote:
24 Jun 2018
Dangit Jimmy - you've inspired me to start using my hardware synths. :lol:
That’s awesome dude!!! The honest truth is that hardware is more of a luxury than a true necessity in Reason....but many times it’s got “a sound” that is specific to it and that’s reason enough to use it on top of Reason’s excellent modules!

Super glad you enjoyed it!!!

Re: Electronic: Thoughts While Drowning

Posted: 25 Jun 2018
by jimmyklane
strangers wrote:
25 Jun 2018

You've got me curious... how come you used The Echo when you've got the ADA, Eventide and Strymon stuff? I only ask because I have a bunch of delay and reverb pedals that I've never used with Reason that I'm probably missing out on a whole world of sounds I should be diving into.
I used the echo for two reasons:

1: the feedback send/return. I could do this with my mixer, but it’s digital and runaway feedback clips the input stages and sounds awful. I had a few sounds that required a specific sound to the delays.

2: most important.....I ran out of rack effects!

For effects (not processors)

1x Eventide H000
2x Eventide H9
2x ADA S1000 digital delay unit
1x Lexicon 480L
1x Ensoniq EPS 16+ (using input mode)
1x Sony R7
1x Sony HR-MP5
1x Strymon ElCapistan
1x Strymon DECO
1x Yamaha O2Rv2 (2x SPX-90 units built-in)
1x Ibanez SC-10 Analog chorus

and I’ve got more than WAY more synth, sampler, and drum machine outputs. The samplers alone have 40 outputs.....so, because many of the effects in Reason are excellent (The Echo holds its own!) I don’t hesitate to use them. The ADA in particular is a 16-bit digital delay that has a limiter at the front end. In order to have the repeats darken every iteration I have to run it into a feedback loop from a fader on the console with the LP filter (or EQ block) engaged. It allows the same type of automation that can be simpler to do in Reason and simply monitor an audio track with some effects sends on it. At 64 or 128 samples, I’m getting about 3-4 ms of latency at 44.1.....basically nothing.

So your short answer is convenience and ease of patching. Pure laziness :-)


EDIT: I’m not sure if I made it clear that I ran out of hardware effects to play the track back live. I was using almost every piece of hardware I own as both dedicated synth effects (both Eventides on the Moog for example) as well as overall send effects, like the H3000 and 480L.