37mph Artists - This Is Africa

37mph Artists - This Is Africa

The Piano, MPC and Groove Box

Orientation: Fusion and Form

This is how I created and recorded a live version of the song "Orientation" on the album 37 Energy Levels. I will be performing this version live to a lot of audiences when I travel world.

After a long day, when I got home, I decided to record an 808 sequence on the MPC2000XL. Let me show you what time looks like..

<---- THE MPC2000XL !!!
For those who do not know what am MPC does, I will soon write a blog about it soon... Just know MPC stands for Midi Production Centre. It has 16 pads and 4 banks where you can save all your sounds. In this case I loaded the 808 drumz and some special kicks that belong to Reck Shoppe Tunes and 37mph.. :-)
I then created a basic drum pattern with these sounds and kept improving it. The MPC2000XL gives you the option of working in Song Mode. So you take different short drum patterns and turn them into one 80 bar song. It's awesome isn't it. Even the "click" sound at the beginning of the recording is a pattern on the MPC. You just program it to repeat the sequence.



Then I recorded some strings and synths on the Roland MC307.
To all who have got 37 Energy Levels or seen any of my articles in South Africa, this is The ROLAND MC-307 GrooveBox ------>
The MC307 is like an MPC except it doesn't give you the option of sampling sounds into it. It has a wide variety of sounds though most of which are cheesy. The sequencer is very simple and it also has song mode. To optimize the use of this device, I always connect is to my piano and then I can put my 10 fingers to good use and create the sounds I desire to. For the Orientation Freestyle I recorded the synth parts and some string parts and sequenced them and turned them with the use of Song Mode.



The String arrangement on the song was a little exercise in basic orchestration. I would like to perform this song with an 8 piece to 24 piece string section so I wrote the different parts in Cubase 4. For those who do not know Cubase is a product by Steinberg and is defined as an Advanced Music Production System. You can load many Audio Channels and Midi Channels depending on what you want to achieve. For this orchestration I loaded 2 low violins, 2 high violins, 2 viola's and 2 Cello's. I will find out from my Orchestration friends whether this is correct or not. But it sounds good.



I then loaded four audio channels to receive information from the Mackie 17 Channel Mixer in order to record the MPC, Groove Box and Piano Separately. I will briefly tell you how the MPC, Groove Box and Cubase played simultaneously. There is a system called MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) which allow me to connect multiple MIDI devices such as the MPC, Groove Box and a piano or any other. In this case I connected the MPC as the main slave which was connected to the Groove Box. So what that means, when I press "Play" on the MPC, the Groove Box plays it's sequence. And when I press "Play" on Cubase 4, it makes MPC "play" which in turn makes the GrooveBox start it's sequence.





Then to put it all together, I played an adapted version of the song "Orientation" on the piano. The song "Orientation" is the first track on 37 Energy Levels my debut album. The concept behind the song "Orientation" is to show the relationship between different musical genres. The introduction is classically inspired. Then a strong 808 hip-hop beat is introduced as a mid-section of the song. Then the finale is a jazzy inspired digression. And the drums finally build into a two step drum n bass pattern.







I hope it makes sence to you.. but if you wanna hear what it sounds like, pls log on to www.myspace.com/37mph or www.reverbnation.com/37mph and comment either on my facebook page 37mph or twitter @37mph.

Love,
37mph

PS: Only God the Almighty can take the credit for my talent and ideas. For that I thank You Heavenly Father. Amen!

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" - Philippians 4:13

37 Energy Levels

I've been watching the curser blink for about two straight weeks trying to figure out what to write as my first blog. I just remember the saying about seizing the day so there we are "Carpe-Diem-ing" So I'll start from the beginning.

I first touched the piano in 1991 and I immediately fell in love with music. I must admit that having a passion for music means that you must sacrifice normal sleeping hours amongst other things.

The first beat I ever recorded was a simple em-C-am-Bmaj7 progression. So I realised from a very young age that most songs are a variation of a simple chord progression. And there is no whack song, it's just the choice of instrument that can make a song whack.

For most people, music is just a beat that catches their ear. For people such as Amu, RJ Benjamin, Ishmael music is more than just a catchy beat. I mention these artists because I have had the pleasure of chilling with them and discussing and making loads of music with them.

So now, I can begin to share my own theories on how I interact with music. I began working on my album, 37 Energy Levels in 2004 when I moved to JHB. The purpose for creating my album was to keep my sanity and also express myself freely and maybe release it if it still made sense to me.

The first song that I worked on towards 37 Energy Levels was a track I heard by RJ Benjamin. The original was called The Storm. The concept of the album is to take one on a journey of music thru different moods using various genres of music.

1. Orientation featuring InCha: This track began with a simple gminor scale and I began to develop it and add Drum&Bass and hip-hop elements. In-Cha was quite a joy to work with because she is classically trained and is very professional.
   
2. Supsta is a track inspired by the 70's. If I could live in another period of time. I would choose the 70's. I featured Sam Mtukudzi to add Saxophone and Guitar to give it an African appeal.
   
3. A little Further is a track inspired by James Bond movies.
   
4. Take A Break is an old-school inspired song. I used a combination of classical violins with Jungle drums.
   
5. Sunday Afternoon featuring Sam Mtukudzi
6. Sunday Evening
7. Listen and Learn
8. For The DJ Featuring Caroline Borole
9. Time Stands Still featuring Fione
10. Goodbye Baby featuring RJ Benjamin
11. Rural Affair (interlude)
12. With You Featuring Nomsa Mazwai
13. Sunshine
14. Sunshine Break
15. Love For The Music
16. Journey of My Heart