Hello !
This piece marks the return of the acoustic guitar. This is a bright,
almost airy in its tones, rhytmic piece. Easy listening ? I do not
know, but it surely flows by nicely. Synths open and closes the piece
while the theme is played on xylophone and cimbalon (Pianoteq). No
mysteries here, no melancholy, just bright and open.
On the mixing side, 'Soca Philosophy' was mixed using Mixbus32C, the
commercial counterpart supporting Ardour development. Approx. 35 tracks
were used, 5 busses, and two VCAs. Not many plugins were used if you
put aside the x42 EQ used as subtractive EQ on each track, as well as
the x42 1/3 Octave Spectrum Display on each track, post fader. The new
addition was the use of u-he Uhbik Tremolo on some sequenced tracks to
give a stereo rhtythm. The acoustic guitar went trought the usual MPA2
and VLA2 stereo tube preamp and compressors, then through
OvertoneDSP's Pulltec emulations. There was a clear problem of
integrating the acoustic guitar into the synth layers. Hopefully it
turns out not too bad.
'Soca Philosophy' was created in Bitwig and refined and mixed in
Mixbus32C. All guitars were recorded in Mixbus32C. System in Linux
Mint 18, KDE.
And as always, for Pete's sake, I listen to the soundcloud upload and
find that it's not really reflecting what I was working on - alas,
that's how it goes for now !
https://soundcloud.com/nominal6/soca-philosophy
Cheers.