"Crim Crimeny" - Dubby Copicat

If you need a dubby journey into the somewhat paranoid subconscious of Murray's Collingwood lair, look no further... You have found it here, complete with tape delay, piano, and yes, flute!


Listen to Crim Crimeny Dub...

or download Crim Crimeny Dub.mp3 (13mb)

I dusted off the Yamaha 4 Track recorder, and recorded this little piece, not really knowing where I was headed once again.  Started with 606 drum beat through my Copicat IC400 Varispeed, for a dubby beat.  Then added Piano through the Copicat delay, then Guitar with Foxx Fuzz Wah, then finally, Flute through Copicat.

A flute I bought from up the road for $90 on Smith St.

Empty Sea Disco

Listen to Empty Sea Disco...

or download Empty Sea Disco.mp3 (11mb)

You're my isotope

My last hope

My love dope

My dreamgirl

No joke.

I went up to Ruffy for a few days with dear and inspiring friends Jim Batt and Kim Boekbinder, between Christmas and New Years.  We ate amazing food, picked raspberries, relaxed, drank a bit, and I made some tunes.  Here's one of them!


I started with the Roland 606 drum machine, running through my Watkins Copicat tape echo, then through an overdrive, delay and reverb...

Then I played my Fender Precision Bass through my Ibanez SB7 Bass Synth pedal to get the main part of the song.  I also used the Behringer Reverb Machine (RV600) for the Space Echo, which always makes me think of some sort of strange angel choir, and the Line 6 Echo Park for it's nice Sweep Filter Delay.  I also used the Reverse Delay setting.

Then I used my Rocktron Talkbox with my Phantom Guitar to do some sort of vocals, that also stood as a guitar lead.  

Then I added some glockenspiel, and some normal bass, and slap bass parts, and edited it all into something more manageable once I got home!


Listen with your stereo set to phat.  
Good walking music.

Risco

I recorded this song at Ruffy homestead on our birthday weekend in June to try out my new Watkins Copicat Tape Delay!

Listen to Risco...

or download Risco.mp3 (9mb)

I bought the Copicat for a bargain price of about $120 on eBay, hoping that it might work!  Alas, it did not.  But the lovely Mario from Broadcast Workshop in North Melbourne went to work on it, and got it all working nicely!  Thanks Mario!  It cost me another $300 there including a big roll of tape for making my own tape loops.  I'm happy!  I just wish it was a Varispeed unit.  And I'd love to try a Valve model one day.

I like to make my own tape loops, then bash them up, thus producing a warbled fluttering sound on the echoes.


Everything went through the Copicat!  Bass, guitar, and the 606 drums (which also went through my QTron envelope follower, which I tweaked as it went down).

Contemplations (C64 eats Kenny G)

I created this song over Easter.


Listen to Contemplations

or download Contemplations.mp3 (5mb)

This song came out of a few things coming together...

• I wanted to do some palm muted guitar because I'd just started fiddling around with that technique, and I had a chord progression that I'd just come up with in the past few days, so I put them together.
• I wanted to try a bunch of VSTs (virtual instruments), using my new and beloved Novation SL37 ReMOTE controller keyboard.  Amongst these were a Commodore 64 sounding bleepy bloipy thing, and some strings that I wanted to use.
• The saxophone came out of nowhere!  That's a lie.  My mum used to listen to a Kenny G tape on repeat in the car, for many years.  I think he crept into my brain.

I recorded everything into the computer direct.  No mics or amps!
I put the 606 drum machine through a Vox Amplug AC30.

Then I played in the guitar (on Blue Meanie, a Teisco SG copy), also through the amplug.  The whole concept of the song was made up on the guitar, and I was using palm muting for the first time.  It's got that Ratatat sound, with layered palm muted guitars.

Then I got to work with the Novation ReMOTE, just opening up various VSTs and seeing how they sound in the song, and recording those that worked best.  I'm trying a whole bunch of free ones.  There's some gold out there.  


These are the ones I used in the song:

• DVS Saxophone for the sax.
• Basic64 for the chippy Commodore 64 sounds.
• Abakos for the big bassy sound in the choruses.
• Matnitron Strings for the background strings sounds.  Nice and simple, and sounds fairly realistic.

4Track: Miasm & Clavbassics

After stumbling upon Murgatroyd Humpadink's tape machine, I decided to investigate further.  Being a musician myself, I thought I'd try doing some four track recording myself.


Listen to Clavbassics (Solid BBoys)

or download Clavbassics.mp3 (5mb)

I made purchase of a Yamaha MT120 via the ever fruitful eBay...

...and laid down some Roland 606 drum beats, runnin' 'em in nice and hot.

...then added some Nord Electro clavichord, and Gonzales bass.

Once I was happy with the bass and clav, it was time to mix the song.  
I sent the AUX output to a Biyang Triverb and my Line 6 Echo Park.
I also messed with the tape speed on the fly.  I basically wanted to expose myself to the sorts of things you can do when you're using a totally analog bits of gear, instead of tapping and clicking away on a computer.


After spending a bit of time in the digital multitracking domain, it was really nice to use an analog desk with hands on all the faders, panners, and auxiliary sends.  


I did a bunch of mixes of each of the two songs, trying different tape speeds and effects during each mix.  Here's two versions of "Miasm" below...


Listen to Miasm (Monolith Burgers Eating Lounge)

or download Miasm (Monolith Burgers).mp3 (5mb)


Listen to Miasm (Welcome to my Echo Den)

or download Miasm (Echo Den).mp3 (5mb)