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Another quick tutorial whilst my bigger projects are going on in the background.

This time we're looking at a synth funk bass line with the Roland SH-101. The video covers the dorian mode, writing in phrases and programming the right kind of sound.

There's also a short production at the end in Cubase to try it out in context.

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Remake of Alan Silvestri's Predator Theme using virtual instruments.

Most things are demonstrated in the video, but here's the list:

Strings: Spitfire Audio Chamber Strings, Albion, LA Scoring Strings, Orchestral Tools Berlin Strings EXP E.

Brass: Cinebrass Pro & Core, Albion

Woodwinds: Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds and Albion

Percussion: Spitfire Audio Joby Burgess Percussion, Orchestral Tools Symphonic Sphere Harp and Kontakt Factory Harp. Pianos are Kontakt and Project Sam.

FX: Waves, Goodhertz, T-racks, Pasttofuture Reverb impulses

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Got the Spitfire Audio Joby Burgess percussion library, obviously had to do this with it!

The infamous jingle from Back to the Future is as follows:

(descending triplets)
G, D, B
E#, C#, G#
E, B, G#
D, Bb, F
C#, G#, E#
B, G, D

Got a bigger Alan Silvestri video coming along soon....

Picked up a 303 and so had to try these two famous riffs together.

It's not 100% perfect, but pretty close. Once I've nailed it exactly I'll possibly make a video tutorial on how to do those sounds.

Drums - Sequential Drumtraks sequenced by the BeatStep Pro via its midi-in.

Squelchy sequence - Roland TB-303 running into an Ibanez Tubescreamer.

Riff - Korg MS20 mark I (with the type-35 filter) run back through its own external signal processor and with the keyboard voltage tracking the filter cut offs. The distortion is entirely from the synth, there's no extra processing.

Also put in the bass quarter notes after the fact on a Fender Jazz bass.

A complete re-record of the cue "Payback Time" from the Predator OST using virtual instruments.

Composition © Alan Silvestri
Recording © Alex Ball

Sample libraries used:

Strings: Spitfire Audio Chamber Strings, LA-SS Lite, Orchestral Tools Berlin Strings EXP E SFX.

Woodwinds: Spitfire Audio Symphonic Woodwinds / Albion Woodwind

Brass: Cinesamples Cinebrass Core, Spitfire Audio Albion Brass

Percussion: Spitfire Joby Burgess Percussion, Fluffy Audio Log Drum, Xtant Audio Slit Drum

Pianos: Cinesamples Abbey Road & Spitfire Albion Piano

Harp: Orchestral Tools - Symphonic Sphere

Synths: Omnisphere

FX: Waves EQ, Izotope Vinyl, T-racks

alexballmusic.com

A bit of a different upload this week, but I think it’s good to mix things up.

Whilst working on my documentary about ARP Instruments I got the opportunity to speak to David Frederick (aka Dave Fredericks) who was one of the key people who worked there from 1970 - 1976.

His full role will be told in the film, but in a nutshell, David’s background was as a performer, recording artist, demonstrator and regional sales manager for the Lowrey Organ Company. When one of his friends at a music store took in a strange new invention called the "ARP 2600" in 1970, David was asked to demonstrate it. A certain Mr Pearlman turned up to see his instrument demonstrated live and was impressed enough to snap David up to join him at what was then Tonus Inc.

David was heavily involved in the human engineering, patch books, overlays, soundsheets, point of purchase materials, marketing, demonstration and management of the sales teams and rose to the role of Vice President. He started the NAMM Jam (that still continues to this day) and is also the link between ARP and Eminent which resulted in the famous ARP/Solina String Ensemble that then lead onto the later ARP Omni and Omni II.

Post-ARP David went onto join Octave Electronics who’d released the CAT Synthesizer in 1976. The updated Series Revision Model (SRM) was released in 1977 and that’s where this recording comes from. David sent an original copy he had to me in the post and I asked if I could digitise it and upload it for posterity. So here we go!

There was a little nick in the soundsheet that meant that the very first sentence couldn’t be picked up by the needle but it was “…(missing)… for Octave Synthesizers” and then continued on where this digitised version picks up. I assume it was “This is Dave Fredericks for Octave Synthesizers” but I can’t be totally sure.

Anyway, here’s an Octave article from Sound On Sound for those who want to delve deeper. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/...

The Octave posters are taken from the wonderful Retro Synth Ads site:
http://retrosynthads.blogspot.com/

Thanks for watching!

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A few weeks back I did an 80s chord voicing tutorial and it was useful to a number of you. A couple of people sparked the idea of doing a different decade, so here's a 70s one. This is the kind of 10cc, Supertramp, ELO, Bee Gees, Elton John kind of vibe.

Timings:
Playing through: 00:00
Breaking down: 01:23
Putting into an arrangement: 11:46

As mentioned in the video, here's some examples of that 11th chord thing that reeks of the 70s!

Bee Gees: How deep is your love
Big dom 11 swell at 16 seconds
https://youtu.be/XpqqjU7u5Yc?t=16

Ace: How Long
First Wurlitzer chords from 17 seconds
https://youtu.be/Vo_GMMLULXw?t=17

Player: Baby come back
Again, it’s the Wurlitzer chords in the intro
https://youtu.be/Hn-enjcgV1o?t=6

10cc: I’m not in love
Right at the start you get it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STugQ...

and again in the middle 8
https://youtu.be/STugQ0X1NoI?t=194

Maria Muldaur: Midnight at the Oasis
11ths all over the place, including the very first chord!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlrKE...

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The Prophet VS from 1986 is one of the most sought after of the original Sequential instruments. They only made 1,500 of the keyboard versions and around 500 of the rack mounts. I was very fortunate to be able to borrow one.

I talked about this synth in my documentary "The History of the Prophet Synthesizer", but the (great) demo was done by Marko at Retro Sound and I'd never actually seen one in the flesh myself.

If you don't know, designed by Chris Meyer, Josh Jeffe and Tony Dean; the VS is basically a digital synthesizer with an analogue filter and VCA. The sound generation is through a wavetable style approach with 127 different waveforms being available on each of the 4 oscillators. As this is 80s tech, the single waves had to spread across the keyboard, which results in some cool aliasing.

Once you've setup up your combination, you can ride between them in real time with the joystick on the top left of the instrument.

It also has a 7 source / 7 destination mod matrix, two LFOs, stereo chorus with independent switching, split, link and double keyboard modes, an arpeggiator, 99 memory slots, midi and aftertouch. The latter is infamous for going wrong due to two different design flaws with the voltage level and the instrument bending.

Interestingly, the envelopes are setup with stages 0-4 and can loop between stages 1-3 if you wish them to.

Chris Meyer has documented the whole story of the instrument here: https://learningmodular.com/the-story...

Whilst I dove in and started finding textural soundscapes, bell tones and peculiar atmospheres, I was most taken back by the very analogue-style sounds it could create. But, with the stereo movement you get from the instrument, the sounds still have something very "VS" about them. I dubbed it a "straddler" in my mind; a synth that has its feet in quite different camps.

I followed my nose, which seems the way to approach the VS and this is the result. I hope you enjoy it.

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Sound Dust (run by Pendle Poucher) is one of my favourite sample developers. He's just released "Infundibulum #2" and I did a demo for the Sound Dust SoundCloud Page.

I thought it would be a good opportunity to show it to my viewers as it's a genuinely brilliant instrument that can get you out of a creative rut by giving back to you an awful lot more than you put in!

It's available now: http://dulcitone1884.virb.com/infundi...

Thanks for watching

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As summer comes to a close, here's a spot of Surf music.

Gretsch 5420T - Performed by Tim Rhys Davies
Dan Electro DBGB 56 Baritone - Performed by me
Amp - Fender Blues Junior II
Mic'd with an SM57
Double Bass - Mic'd XY with two condensors
GEM F30 Electric organ - Mic'd with an SM57
Claps - Abbey Road 60s Drums
Tambourine - Mic'd with an AKG C414
Drums - Pasttothefuture Surf Drums (can't recommend pasttothefuture enough): https://gumroad.com/pasttofuturesamples#

Sequenced in Cubase
FX - Waves, T-racks, U-he, pasttothefuture EMT Reverb Impulses
Song written and recorded by me

As requested by a dozen or more people, here's the Rollin' & Scratchin' synth tutorial.

Ideally you'd have a 1984 Juno-106, as it has fully implemented midi control, but I'm using the 1982 Juno-6 as that's what I have. The workaround is that I had to use the arpeggiator with external triggers for the opening bit of the video.

The other part of the sound is the Boss HM-2 "Heavy Metal" pedal. I'm using an original Japanese unit, but I imagine the later Taiwanese version will be almost identical. You could also try the MT-2 "Metal Zone" pedal too.

Thanks for watching.

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The first ARP synth to ever appear on my channel, and not a bad place to start! This is a straight performance video rather than a demonstration or talk through, but the 2600 will appear again.

Huge thanks to Ian Livingstone for the loan of this rare instrument.
http://www.ianlivingstone.net/

There were nine different iterations of the 2600 between 1971 and 1980 and this is the penultimate model, the 2601 v2. That puts it as having been built somewhere around 1977 - 1979.

If you don't know, the 2600 is a semi-modular monosynth with three oscillators. There's a normalled signal path that can be defeated with patch cables if required with various modulation possibilities, but you can setup loads of sounds without having to reach for the spaghetti.

I think the Roland System 700 is the only comparable synth from the era in that regard, but let me know if you can think of any others.

The 2600 is probably most famous for providing the voice and sounds of R2-D2. Hence the reference and recreation of the sounds in my video.

I also setup a snappy bass sound, ticking sequence and sequenced sample and hold thing. There's a singing lead sound, some chords (created by tuning the oscillators into triads), synth drums, loads of FX and textures etc. But the whole point (for me) is always making a piece of music, so hopefully it's enjoyable on that front.

The video also contains some footage from this Creative Commons video that tied-in nicely as the lady in the video was showing off a brand-new Star Wars t-shirt. This was probably filmed around the time this 2601 was in a factory being built.

Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t29dt...

ARP advert scans from the Retro Synth Ads blog:
http://retrosynthads.blogspot.com/

Alan R Pearlman's voice samples from the 2006 NAMM interview.
https://www.namm.org/library/oral-his...

All synth sounds: ARP 2601 V2
Drums: Linn LM-1 samples and Abbey Road Drums
Guitar: Squier Jagmaster, Fender Blues Junior II mic'd with SM57

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A video I've been meaning to do for a while; a quick play through of eight of the PastToFutureSamples kits. There's several more that I haven't included, but I thought these eight cover enough.

These libraries have no GUI and only cost $10 - $15 each, but are some of the most usable drum libraries I own. Recorded with period equipment, they have bags of character and get you quickly to classic 50s, 60s and 70s sounds.

I usually compress the drum channel with the Waves CLA-2A (as seen) so that there's around 1-3db of gain reduction. Then use Vulf Compressor on the mix bus (as seen) for some parallel compression. The trick is to not obliterate them into one plugin but to build the compression up in stages - channel / bus / mastering. You can see the headroom and dynamics displayed on the output lights in the top right quarter of the screen.

There's some additional channel EQ I've done on each kit - just some small cuts and boosts.

If you like these kits, here's their shop: https://gumroad.com/pasttofuturesamples

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Picked up the lesser known Roland JX-3P. It's a 2-oscillator per-voice analogue synth that's capable of some great sounds.

Made a quick 80s track with it and my other synths, plus some plugins.

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