Music gear
well.. i have a page called Music gear. I just wanted to leverage a bit on what gear i am using, and how... why?? because i don't have anything else to write about 
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As you can see here on the photo. i am having an emu e6400 ultra, Korg M1r, Novation Nova, korg AM8000R and Line6 FilterPro.
I am also having a creamware card which i am using to pull some synths from (mostly Vectron, Modular III and U Know 007). I am also having a PreSonus TubePRE as a mic preamp.
Basses and stuff: i mostly uses my Nova.. which i sample down to the emu.
Drums: I have lots of singleshot drum samples on my computer which i record onto the sampler one by one (i dont have any interface for transfare samplesto the emu atm.). Then i might make a drum arrangement which i sample down to the emu and uses as a drum loop.. depends on what i am after .
Pads: I use what suits me on pads.. but after i got the Emu i have started to create base sounds on synths.. (creamware, nova, etc), then sample it down, and layer it on the emu. That works very well for me.. since the emu produces very much the sound i like. and the filters opens for much creativity.
Leads: again.. i use what works.. lately i have used much of the creamware U Know 007.. directly.. and the Modular III.
I dont use the Korg too much.. but i am seeing some possibility to sample it down to the emu now. The Korg AM8000R is used as a send FX directly in sonar.. which gives me the possibility to add sweet ambient reverb on any tracks/softsynth.
The Line6 FilterPro has been sick for a good amount of time.. until i opened it up to find out that a internal cable had just slipped out of its plug.. so after replugging.. it worked like a charm.. i am still trying to figure out how to include it in a good setup.. it can warp out some intressting sounds..
I have ditched my mixer, and are using an ADAT 8x8 interface which are right now connected to my creamware.. i have the RME card which can handle it.. and i am considering using it as a master mixer.. but i realy realy need another adat interface.. 8x8 is not enough .
I have done some E-mu sampler first-aid
Well.. i suddely found out that my 13 GB large ide disk that was installed in my sampler was almost filled to the brim... so i wanted to push the samples from the disk over to a new 40gb disk.. but i don't have a clue how to do that??!!! so i ended up an empty 40gb harddrive then formate it to fat. so now i am sampleless.. and my last project will not restore 
but it dosnt mean too much to me.. because i do my own sampling. but if someone told me how to move over the samples from the old disk i would be very happy .
Higen – Whats that Smell
Download here: http://www.higen.org/misc/Higen-Whats_that_Smell.mp3
New track done its my first track made with the emu.. and i had a killer time 
Genre: Drum & Bass
Drums: Emu drumkit (self sampled)
Bass: Emu, sampled from my Nova, layred and fixed in emu. Used RFX compressor.
Sweet & Pads: Emu, sampled from my Nova, layred and fixed. Used RFX reverb.
Rhodes: Premade emu sample (it was on my harddisk )
Other synth sound: Juno 106 emulator from my Creamware card.
Feedback are welcome. It was a blast making the track.. its not eq-ed on the bottom.. so don't play it too loud on crappy pc speakers..
So.. there is limitations!!!
Edit: I found a solution to my case 7 min after i wrote this blogg.. you will find the solution on the bottom of the blogg.
Well.. finaly it happend.. i found a limitation on the emu sampler. Well.. its not a big deal.. since i have ways of doing it off sampler... but it would have been sooo awesome to be able to do so. anyway.. here it comes.
My idea: Emu goes Waldorf.
I had an idea in my head of sampling down wavetables from the MicroWave II, and then store them as samples.. then having the emu playing x cycles of the sample by using the cords. Start and stop location of the sample and loop could be controlled in realtime (like its possible to do on a Waldorf Wave/MW). But after fideling around on the emu with a random sampleloop i found, i found out that looping is something that has to be set in sample edit mode, and can't be changed in realtime. Well you can change the startingposition of the sample. but thats not affecting the loop and is ofcourse not realtime. which means.. mission failed!.
Anyone know if its possible to do such on akai samples? (S5000/s6000).
Anyway. i havent given up totally. I might not get the same flexibility as there is in a waldorf xWave, but i might be able to recreate the sound and much of the feel by sampling down the wavetable, and more or less predefine the looping cycle then instead having multiple voices with diffrent filters to simluate the diffrent oscillators. After all.. the wavetable is much about recreating complex timbres that are made through advance filtering.. so.. i guess the z-plane filters can do me a favor here. I will post an example as soon as i have sampled down some wavetables. Anyway.. the point is that the instrument should get some of the ppg/wave feel.. cyncial and harz metal sound. I must admit that i have owned both Waldorf Qkeyb (love that synth), and Waldorf XTk (love that too).. but both of them are sold because of lack of space (and some economy). But i hope the emu will bring some of it back to me! .
Anyway.. the drum and bass track is taking form.. its not that long.. and i am not sure if i should use more time on getting it long "enough".. after all its more important to make much, to get the proper work training on the emu, then to make it long. So you might see an mp3 link here on the page in not so long time .
EDIT!!!
well 5 min after i wrote this post, i came across a man who was looking into doing the same as i described in this mail.. but he actually came up with an brilliant suggestion.. i will past in my answer and solution from emusonacid here
http://www.emusonacid.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9497
Hey.. you are searching for answer excatly on the same thing that i am wondering about. but lets elaborate around it.
I have also owned a mQ, Qkeyb and microwave XTk.. i realy love waldorf but at the moment i dont own any of them.. just because wife and space
But i have gotten an emu e6400 ultra.. and are fiddeling with the thoughts of getting some wavetable sound.
i wrote some thoughts about it here blogg.higen.org, but what you are suggesting is actually a idea i havent thought of yet. which gives me hope.
What we can do is that we could make like 8 single cycle samples (ie. sample down the main samples from a wavetalble from the microWave 2), then we could set it up to be layred with crossfade using the Voices Realtime Window. Here we can set up crossfade value for the diffrent voices, then distribute the 8 samples , which means sample each 16 value, and crossfade between that. (so that between value 1 and 16 are there two sample crossfading with 100% overlapp. which means sample 1 is silent at value 16, and at max on value 1, and sample 2 is silent on sample 1 and at max on value 16, and so on).
I teste the idea with a regular string sample.. and it works as i want it to.. i am able to sweep between the two samples (with diffrent filtersettings) by using controller (of my choice), and i can also get the lfo to do it.. The only thing i cant stand guarantee for is that the crossfade between the sample will sound like the aliasing used in the waldorf/ppg synths
You could ofcorse sample down all the 128 diffrent samples cycles and have the patch containing 1 sample for each value from 0-127. but i dont know if the efford will bring a better result
the next challenge is "how to emulate the two oscillator/wavetables model".
answer... dont know atm
I have access to the wavetables from MicroWave2 so i will be sample them down as mono into the sampler..
Got your answer?
Splicing drum loops! :D
Okay.. finaly i found a methode for splicing a drum-loop into singlehit shared out on each key.. i got it from the emusonacid forum.
http://www.emusonacid.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2006
"This chops up a single breakbeat accross 8 keys without you ever needing to cut up the sample!
Get a breakbeat sample (1 bar) and assign it to a preset.
Edit the voice and set non-transpose to on, and optionally set solo on.
Edit cords and set the first 5 Cords (00 to 04) to Gain4X > 'SStart +100%
Set Cord 05 to Key~ to Gain4X + ? (see below)
Now on your master keyboard hit D3 and adjust the Cord 05 amount until you find the first snare hit in the beat.
And thats it - you've now got a chopped breakeat mapped on keys C3 to G3 (including minors).
This works by using Key~ to adjust the sample start (with several Gain4xs to extend this). If you use key+ instead of key~ the range will be C-2 (lowest key) to G-3."
This made wonders.. What it does it takes a sample and set the starting position up in 8 equal parts.. shared out of 8 keys.
I took a housesample i made a week ago, it was a 110bpm sample. i made sure it was excatly 1 bar. applied the cords and tweaked it so it was fitting perfectly.
then i rearranged it into a new beat.. and applied som filters.. the new beat was now i 130bpm.. and i used the amen break pattern .
Listen to an example here E-mu Sampler splice
This made my day
Exploring the lost art of sampling
Listen to a short jam here: E-mu Oberheim patch
Well.. i guess i have made it pritty clear that i have fallen totaly in love with the sampling techniqe. So i thought i could share my progress in learning the lost art of sampling .
Few days ago, i needed a kind of a lead pad.. a pad that sticks a bit out. so i turned to my nova.. found a preset.. tweaked it a bit.. and made it fit for the track.. it sounded ok.. but too mellow and rnb'ish.. so.. i turned to my emu.. i sampled a 5 sec clip of the sample down.. copied it up and panned the two similar samples in each direction.. then i fine-detuned the one sample to around +6, found a very good looping point and made crossfade between the loopingpoint to avoid too fast transition, applied amplitude envelope, a 4-pole low-pass filter, with an filter envelope. I also did some dsp threatment on the sample like, normalizing. First the result was a bit flat.. but after working with the filter envelope.. and amp envelope i found the right curve.. and it made miracles..
the pad got a more edgy characteristic sound, and fitted my dnb track even more. and that emu-filter actually kicks the bottom of the nova filters.. i am almost sad to say.. but its a killer!!!
I am going to apply a slow lagged random lfo on the fine-tuning on both samples.. so they can drift to get a more analouge feel..
With a slow lagged random lfo, i mean a LFO that is feeding out random values, with a lagproessor smoothing out the transition between the values.. giving it a kind of smooth "sample and hold" modulation. Since its random, the two samples will not be modulated to the same value. Which will ensure it sounds more natural.
The emu have revealed it self as a superb padmachine. emu together with some va/analouge or softsynth turns out to be a killer combination!!
UO:KR beta.. wohoo!!
Well.. i admit it.. i have been super inefficient with music lately.. and i put all the blame on Ultima Online: Kingdom Reborn beta test.. its not because i have been playing.. no.. i have simply just been waiting on the beta invitation to arrive in my email box.. and today it did!! YAHOO!!..
New track in progress
Well.. the new drum and bass track i am working on, which have the creative name 211 at the moment, are progressing. Yesterday i worked on getting the beat right with the bass.. i am not sure if i am happy.. but its improving. I figure that i need some more skills in beat programming aswell I also added a layer of pad chords that was floating realy good with a bass pattern change. I was rather please with the outcome. And its a perfect spot where i can play with the filters on the drums.. creating a good mysterious break. .
I figured out that i wanted to sample down the pad, then play it from the emu. Even though i did not finish the patch before go to bed yesterday i was quiet pleased with the pad patch. BUT it still lacks of some of the energy when playing it from the Nova. but on the other side its much wider in the stereo image, because i layered it twice with diffrent panning.
I will try not to use too long time on this track.. when i am exploring new genre like this, its important to finish a couple of half good tracks in short time, instead of one good in long time...
Sampling my ass off.. (SMAO)
Well.. yesterday i sampled down all the singleshot drums i used in drum-loop as singleshot samples to the emu. And i must say that it was amazingly easy.. it all went out smooth.. i just had to push arm, play the sample, then click place.. then repeate the procedure foreach singleshot sample. Wahoo.. it was much much easier then first expected.
So now i have my first dnb kit . i added a cord from MidiD -> Glide.. that created some sick effects on the drum..
God 17. Mai, Hurra
About Higen
Higen is a hobby musician who have had a big thing for synths since his first meeting with a technics keyboard back in 1996.
Todays gear-list can you see on the music page
Recent Posts
- Dawn of the Scope!
- Studio on youtube
- Zoe OS working on OS X without SMDI support
- Higen – Emotional Blender
- Current progress (1005-01)
Tags
Various Links
- Emusonacid forum
- Musical Indolently
- Musikkweb.no (NO)
- Musikkweb.no Forum (NO)
- psy-works.net
- Reflekshun
- Sonicstate
- Vandetta
- Vintage Synth Explorer
- Vintage Synth Explorer Forum