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jonetsu
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123

Post by jonetsu »

Hello,

This is an improv based on some sounds from the Xebra soundset by Corin Neff for the Zebra2 synthesizer. As I got the update a few days ago, the first sound I played was the bass sound and the riff that I played. I liked the sound, so I recorded it. Then I added a few more synth ambient tracks. I grabbed the guitar and played along. This was nice but it needed some solo instrument. I found one in Xebra and then found the other in another Corin Neff soundset, 'Zebra Orchestra'. Drums and some percussion round up the improvisation. Done in Bitwig then exported and mixed in Harrison Mixbus32C. Then exported as stereo track and reloaded in Mixbus32C for 'mastering'. All on Linux.

Code: Select all

Synth sounds used:

 Bass
   ACBass+                Xebra
 Ambient
   Breathing Sidebands    Xebra
   Etheral Wind+          Xebra
   Sparrows and Frogs+    Xebra
   Watery Mallet+         Xebra
 Lead
   Cosmic Thunder Bell+   Xebra
   RTW Slow AG Brass      Zebra Orchestra
https://soundcloud.com/nominal6/123a
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GMaq
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Re: 123

Post by GMaq »

Hi,

I enjoyed the very ''organic" sounds and the acoustic guitar really blended nicely. I'm curious how the acoustic was processed, it has a nice dimension to the sound like a touch of chorusing or a bit of ambient reverb.
jonetsu
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Re: 123

Post by jonetsu »

I would say nothing much, which is basically it, but... it does have details and one special ingredient. Here goes.

The acoustic guitar is recorded using two mics. AT2020 and AT2021, one on top of the other. This goes to a MPAII stereo tube compressor operating in mono in order to make compensation from one mic to the other, and then goes to a VLAII tube compressor. On the receiving side in Bitwig, it goes to OvertoneDSP Pulltec emulations of the PTC-2A and PTM-5M with appropriate EQ settings, followed by a touch of RVB500 plate reverb emulation also by OvertoneDSP. These three are bundled into a Bitwig container and easily put onto any guitar track before recording.

At one point in time all tracks are exported and imported into Mixbus32C. Some compression is applied, this time in the form of Harrison XT-LC (not the builtin Mixbus32C compressor which is used for other instruments) .The guitar tracks find their way to their own mixbuss 'stem' which has a default Harrison tape saturation setting. A touch of reverb, depending on the context is blended in, this time using u-he Protoverb prototype reverb. And that's it. Now the special ingredient. On the 2nd guitar track, the 'solo' one that happens a bit later in the piece, there is use of u-he ZRev experimental reverb research tool. On that track only. I have no idea how it works, did not read any suggested article, just fiddle with some of the totally unknown controls. This is the second time I'm using it and I like the extra harmonies it adds. ZRev cannot save nor load settings but it seems there's a way to do that within the DAW - I haven't tried that yet.

And the acoustic guitar, no pickups, is a 30-year old Shiraki, the one on the left:

http://www.jedistar.com/pdf/Shiraki%20m ... 4small.jpg

ZRev (settings are not the ones used for this session) :
zRev.png
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GMaq
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Re: 123

Post by GMaq »

Hi,

Wow beautiful guitar, wasn't aware of that brand. Quite a workflow you have there, it's certainly working well, although I wouldn't say it's "nothing much". :lol:
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Re: 123

Post by jonetsu »

Shiraki does not exist anymore. The top carvings were inspired by Alvarez, such as this 1983 model :

http://www.pulsebeatguitars.com/html/19 ... lvarez.php

One characteristic of such a design is that since the sound does not go as much out as it would with a standard hole, some of it resonates in the body and in turn can vibrate some free strings. Which in turn made me realize that there's no sense in playing with a tuning such as the standard EADGBE which does not even sound good when all open strings are played. I realized that the Tuning Police in fact does not exist and I'm free to use any tuning I like 8)
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Re: 123

Post by jonetsu »

GMaq wrote:Quite a workflow you have there, it's certainly working well, although I wouldn't say it's "nothing much". :lol:
I've never done it, so I took a few minutes to make a diagram. It really is not that much. Mic/preamp and optional compressor are standard. EQ/Reverb also. What's different here is that the audio with the reverb can compressed a second time (not necessarily, depending), some EQ applied, and to which a touch of additional reverb is added.
guitarRecording.png
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Last edited by jonetsu on Sat Apr 08, 2017 8:00 pm, edited 4 times in total.
aicram
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Re: 123

Post by aicram »

Very nice! Love it.

Sincerely,

aicram
jonetsu
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Re: 123

Post by jonetsu »

Thanks for the comments !
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