Orientation: Fusion and Form
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
