Sunday, January 20, 2019

I Can't Sing


My first post of 2019.
Sorry it's taken so long, I've been having trouble with my domain name supplier.

I've spent the last couple of weekends finalising my studio work flow. The forthcoming tracks will start life in Seq24. It's a simple MIDI sequencer but very useful for getting tracks off the ground in a very short amount of time. One advantage of Seq24 is that it exports the short patterns that make up a song individually. This is also useful for building styles on my Korg Liverpool.
The exported MIDI file gets loaded into Qtractor and the song is constructed there. I can then export the Qtractor MIDI file straight into the Korg and re-voice it ready to record into the R8. All good.
I want vocals on some of the tracks but I can't sing. There are auto-tuning options galore these days but the result wouldn't fit what I do anyway. I do like the sound of a Vocoder so I bought the Boss VO-1. It's rare that I don't rip something out of its packaging and play with it straight away but I'll wait until I'm recording vocals before messing with the Boss. I think I'll record special harmony tracks while I'm in Seq24 but they'll only be used with the VO-1.

I'm currently sequencing some D&B drums but I doubt I'll be recording much at 185bpm. They sound really good slowed right down. I'm also experimenting with chord sequences again, probably my favourite part of building tracks. It does take a long time because I constantly change the chord structures but I always end up with something I'm happy with so it's definitely worth the effort.
Due to the limited time I have don't expect a flurry of tracks soon but there should be a decent collection of work by 2020.
I want to get this right.