Recording and playing electronic music are two different animals. I enjoy being in the studio but I can’t stand being on stage behind keyboards in an electronic based band.
My studio** is a hybrid of analog and digital. I’ve a bunch of older synths, some newer ones and some software based synths and samplers. I have a couple of drum machines and an electronic trap set for playing out drum tracks (it’s easier to play the drums with sticks over fingering hi-hat sounds on the keyboard).
Currently the main software in the studio is:
Sonar for MIDI sequencing and audio tracks.
Sound Forge for wav and aiff file editing and two track mastering.
Gigastudio for sampling.
I have a couple different ways I can record depending on what I’m writing. I can use my equipment like a standard recording studio where every keyboard sends it’s audio signal to a mixing console and that is recorded on a multi-track recorder. The other is to keep everything internal on one computer. All sounds are generated with software synths and samplers and recorded in a software multi-track recorder (Sonar). I also can do a hybrid of the two.
For the old school recording studio method:
All my keyboards are connected to the computer with MIDI cables. There is some misunderstanding on what MIDI is but basically it is like an old paper piano roll. It contains the information which says the middle C note is going to be played as a particular volume and held for X amount of time. MIDI also contains information like petal controls, pitch bends, sound changes. Basic MIDI can carry 16 different channels of information – or 16 different keyboards. New systems can have several different MIDI groups running at a time which will allow 32, 48, 64 different MIDI channels. Each keyboard or drum machine in my studio gets assigned a MIDI channel and MIDI group.
To record the MIDI information I have two dedicated keyboards and the electronic drum pads. One of the keyboards, the Roland D-50, has standard synth keys. The other, the Kurzweil PC-88, has 88 weighted keys just like a piano.
I record all my MIDI performances into different tracks in Sonar.
Let’s say I want to put down a bassline and I’m going to use a sound on the Juno 106 (which I’ve assigned MIDI channel 2). I tell Sonar to receive MIDI information from the D-50 on Channel 1 and echo all signals back out to channel 2. Now, when I play a key on the D-50 I hear the sound coming from the Juno 106. I record the bassline and move on to another part using another synth.
In Sonar I’ll have all my synth parts on different tracks. At this point I can copy and paste various bits. For instance, if I want a quick song that contains a verse, chorus, verse, chorus. I can play the verse, then the chorus, and than copy/paste for the rest of the song. Normally I don’t do this. I like playing the entire song all the way through for the added bonus of slight variations between bits.
I can also do the musical equivalent of a writers spell check. This is called quantize. It will align all the notes I’ve played and recorded to the closest defined time. 1/4 beat, 1/8 beat, 1/16… etc.
After I’m done with all the MIDI performances I need to actually record them -So far all I’ve done is punch holes in a virtual piano roll. I have a couple of different ways I’ll record the audio. I have a 16 track hard drive recorder or I can dump each keyboard line back into Sonar as an audio track. It really depends on the song and what I plan to do next with it.
The new school recording method is similar but everything is patched internally on the computer and the synths are pieces of software.
I prefer the old school method because I like using a real mixing console over one on the computer screen. I also feel I can get a warmer sound if I route through the mixing console.
Here are a couple of tracks where I used both methods.
Go to http://www.ampcast.com/tictok (if that link doesn’t work, I’ve uploaded these tracks to my working directory at http://www.tictokmen.com/mp3 )
Find the song called “Flatline” (standard elecronica genre). That was done with a mixture of hardware synths, a few Gigastudio samples (routed out of a dedicated computer for Gigastudio and mixed through the console). The drums are a mixture of Gigastudio samples and both my drum machines. The MIDI for the keyboards and drums were recorded in Sonar then played back and recorded on the Akai DR-16 recorder. After those tracks were done I laid the vocal tracks. I mixed it all down back through the console to another computer dedicated to two track recording using Sound Forge. It was later mastered on yet another computer at the same time the rest of the CD was mastered.
Now find the track called “Telecommunicating” (old school electronica in odd 7/4 time). This was done entirely in Sonar using Gigastudio running on the same computer as the sound source. Almost all the sounds are home made samples of old drum machines and my Moog synth. The computer generated voice was made using text to speech software. The phrases were recorded as wav files. From there I cut the phrases unto syllables and created a Gigastudio sample of it. This allowed me to time the computer voices with the music as well as pitch them as they “sang”. Once the song was completed I mixed down in Sonar.
I know of some people who use software like Fruity Loops. This is entirely different than my recording methods. I play each and every note in my music. Fruity Loops uses small one or two measure recorded loops. These can be basslines, synth lines, drums. The simple way to create a track using software like this is to arrange pre-recorded drum lines and bass riffs into your own creation. I’ve never bothered using this software because just the idea of it sounds so limiting. I’m sure a Fruity Loop user will be in shortly to correct me on this.
When I’ve been the keyboard player in live electronic bands there are more synth lines than I can play at once. We’ll use a sequencer with a handful of pre-recorded MIDI performances. The sequencer is the heart of the track if we use it. The drummer is sent a click signal and will follow the tempo from that. Because I’m lazy on stage I’d program the more difficult phrases and only play the easier ones live.
The thing that really sucks about this route is more than a few times something goes wrong on stage. I’ve lost power to the sequencer and had to finish the rest of the song without half the keyboard lines. I’ve had the sequencer error and crash. I’ve had the drummer loose the click track and go out of time. It sucks. Sadly, to play some of these songs live we’d need 4-5 other keyboard players. Think about playing the song “Flatline” live without any pre-programming. Zoinks. Too many keyboard lines going at once.
**That studio page is a bit out of date. I’ve added a second mixing console, updated software and computers than those listed and haven’t even updated it to to include my saxophones and accordian. I also weeded out a few things I never used anymore (the RS-09, MG-1, and the syndrums).
, and DJ Von Der Spankmyass was spinning his latest Electronica tracks.