Hi,
Some of you might be interested in this modern take on the Nocturnes.
It's a bit of an experiment but it has a unique effect if you know the
Nocturnes well.
https://youtu.be/7XO3GXupLqY
--
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd
In contrast to the previous recent pieces, this one is 'from the
archives', made quite a long time ago using only Open Source
instruments. It's an electronic ballad of sorts made of several
parts, with pseudo oboe, trumpet and cello leads. Was quickly
'masterized' today using the original stereo tracks of that time.
It was made perhaps some 8 years ago, if not more, using only QSynth,
Zynaddsubfx, and Hydrogen, all arranged using Seq24. The Ardour
session is lost.
Soundfonts were pretty much the ones given out with the Linux distro at
that time. Stock Zyn sounds. Since I totally forgot how Seq24 works,
and it would be rather out of the question to spend time in recreating
this (might as well redo it from scratch), I took the stereo output
that was made then and added some EQ, reverb, etc...
So this is a totally synthesized piece which has still perhaps a bit
of charm. We have in there an oboe at the beginning then going into a
trumpet solo, making place to a cello that segues to a Zyn thin Rhodes
piano sound. No acoustic guitar in sight. 100% synthesized.
Exported 'sans norm' :)
https://soundcloud.com/nominal6/c2016-c12c
Integrated Loudness : -19.6 LUFS
Loudness Range : 8.2 LU
Peak : -3.6 dBFS
True Peak : -3.6 dBTP
Twin Peaks : not even a sequel
This is also a laid back piece, this time mostly using synthesis, with
a bit of acoustic guitar. It's also one of those pieces that simply
happened, this one in a matter of perhaps an hour.
Comments welcomed.
https://soundcloud.com/nominal6/c2016-15
Cheers.
Hello !
This one basically 'happened'. Relaxed, acoustic light feeling.
The chords were found the evening before. The next evening a drum loop
was set, the chords were played, and from there the solo line and bass
just came to be. This is very close to a 'one shot', although not
one. I think I fiddled the solo line in parts 2 times. The bass
also. Keyboard is very close to an electric piano and has a
supportive role. Couldn't resist to add a bit of syntesized sound, so
there's a tiny bit, during the chorus.
Ah, and a backdrop of smooth rain from Freesound was laid across.
Mostly acoustic then. Two guitars, one acoustic bass guitar. Drums
are congas and bass drum, tiny bit of cymbal.
Not reworked, apart from mixing adjustments. Sometimes I fear to
reworked that kind of music. Not inclined to rework because of the
calculations that it would introduce to what basically has happened.
But then, the art is also about balancing gracefully inspiration and
technique, with the former always, hopefully, driving.
Comments welcomed.
Curiously I got a comment last week that it was too busy to be
relaxing. I was much surpised since for me it is smooth and nicely
flowing.
Robin's VU meter calibrated at -14dbFS hovers mostly between -3 and
+1. Exported 'sans norm' :) Export stats shows :
Integrated loudness: -17.1 LUFS
Loudness range: 2.7 LU
Peak: -1.6 dBFS
True Peak: -1.5 dBFS
https://soundcloud.com/nominal6/c2016-14
Cheers.
TL;DR: OMFG
The delay between announcement of this board and it finally making it out the door has caused a lot of griping on various forums. I pre-ordered this board back in September, and it's finally arrived. It sure seems worth the wait!
There's a lot to like about this board. dbx limiters, Ghost preamps, Lexicon effects, they all sound a lot better than I was expecting at this price point. As a live board, it's set up really nicely. The EQ section is interesting - it's asymmetrical, so in the mid-ranges, you've got a wide bandwidth when boosting, and a narrower bandwidth when cutting. The high and low frequency EQs give a tiny boost at the EQ frequency when cutting, and a tiny cut when boosting. It sounds counter-intuitive, but the end results on some electric and acoustic guitars and my voice were very nice.
The routing on this board is nice and intuitive. There are 5 AUX busses, 2 of which feed through the Lexicon effects. Each bus can select whether it's fed pre- or post-fader. Each AUX channel has a 1/4" TRS output. In addition to the AUX channels, there are also 4 group busses (from which I assume Soundcraft gets the GB Routing brand from). Each input channel can be routed to the master out, group busses 1 and 2 and group busses 3 and 4. Each group bus has its own 1/4" TRS output jack, and can be routed to the master bus. This gives a lot of options for monitoring.
The MTK in the name means multitrack. Where the standard Signature mixers have a 2-in/2-out USB interface, the MTKs send and receive each channel separately, as well as sending the master outputs. The MTKs support 44.1/48kHz sample rates at either 16 or 24 bits. JACK immediately recognized it and set it up at 24/48kHz.
The A/D converters sound very clean. I'm satisfied with the test recordings I did with it.
The really amazing thing about this is that each channel has a "USB return" switch. When engaged, it acts as an post-gain insert, only over USB. You can effect the channels and send them back to the mixer! I tried this with on a laptop running Arch Linux using Ardour as my DAW. I took in all 24 channels at 24/48kHz and recorded them. I routed each channels output in the DAW to the approriate input channel on the mixer, and threw a bunch of effects on the channels. Even with everything recording and various effects on all the channels, everything was rock solid and ran at 5.33ms round-trip latency! I ran the recording for over 8 hours without a single problem. I could have gotten 12.5 hours of all 24 tracks recorded onto my 240GB SSD, plenty of time for anything I'm going to do.
Besides the ability to add effects to a channel, routing through the DAW opens up the ability to mix a live performance via tablet, even though the 22MTK has no facilities for computer control. This relies on the stability of your DAW and its computer, but is definitely worth exploring.
There are a few cons to this board. There are no actual channel inserts so you can't patch in external gear. There's no power switch, so the board's live when you plug it in. There is a single global phantom power switch for all mic inputs. None of these are deal-breakers for me, just quirks of the machine.
I'm really looking forward to getting out to a gig with this!
--
======================================================================
Joe Hartley - UNIX/network Consultant - jh(a)brainiac.com
Without deviation from the norm, "progress" is not possible. - FZappa
On May 1, 2016 1:09 AM, "Patrick Shirkey" <pshirkey(a)boosthardware.com>
wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Some of you might be interested in this modern take on the Nocturnes.
> It's a bit of an experiment but it has a unique effect if you know the
> Nocturnes well.
>
> https://youtu.be/7XO3GXupLqY
---
Interesting version of Chopin Nocturnes.
I remember years ago hearing a 1970's disco version of Beethoven's fifth
symphony, entitled "A Fifth of Beethoven," by Walter Murphy and The Big
Apple Band. (There are quite a few YouTube videos of this disco piece, for
anyone who may be interested.)
I hated it, but it did make me think how great the music must be to be
borrowed and reused by others for different purposes or in different
versions. I have a recording of some of Bach's music transcribed for
marimba band with a drum set and other percussion, and it doesn't sound bad
(although I prefer Bach's original versions), and of course even Bach made
many transcriptions of his pieces for other instruments, jazz combos
regularly adapt Bach and other composers' works for their own use, and a
great melody by a great composer might still be recognizable as a great
melody even if played on a toy piano or ocarina.
Although of course there may sometimes exist uninspired people who merely
recycle great music for various reasons without adding any or much creative
work of their own, I think that whether a person likes the transcription or
adaptation or not, it might at least be considered a tribute to the
original music that inspired it. :-)
---
