My First Ever Synth!
Aw yes, I have a total soft spot for the Yamaha PSS390 keyboard, which has built in synth controls!
It was my first ever synth, and in this video I
give the full story behind it,
a full demonstration,
and also a performance running it through some pedals
This is now the most watched video on the Whisky and Synths YouTube channel, so I hope you enjoy it too!
Want to become a Lord of Synths yourself?
Then you can Register below, to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook!
Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
Synthwave Music Production Tips
Want to learn about synthwave from someone who is a master of it?
Well, you’re in the right place. Memorex Memories has recently played huge synthwave festivals in America, and also is signed to one of the best synthwave labels out there.
In this interview, captured at the Edinburgh Festival of Sound, he tells us some of his secrets, and also does a 20 min live performance for us!
Want to become a Lord of Synths yourself?
Then you can Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook!
Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
How can your Bass Be Better?
The Edinburgh Festival of Sound is a huge celebration of all things sound and music in the Capital of Scotland, and our YouTube Channel Whisky & Synths has had a strong presence there since the first iteration!
In this interview, I get to chat with Simon Stokes, who is a well known artist and DJ, signed to Soma Records as Petrichor.
He also runs the SubSine Academy of Electronic music, which is an incredible facility that is also home to an array of studios and synth building workshops!
In this interview he answers the question, “how do you get better bass?”
Also, remember you can Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
How to Play Live Electronic Music -Rachel K Collier
The Edinburgh Festival of Sound is a huge celebration of all things sound and music in the Capital of Scotland, and our YouTube Channel Whisky & Synths has had a strong presence there since the first iteration!
As well as hosting our panel talk, I got to interview the now very famous synth YouTubber, Rachel K Collier.
It was a pleasure to meet her, and she had some amazing tips for playing live electronic music. Check out her advice here!
Also, remember you can Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
10 Ingredients You Need in Your Track
This free video tutorial is for beginners, just starting making tracks. Consider it like a checklist for the kind of things you would want to be putting into your tracks.
If your track is a meal, and you are the chef, consider this your receipie!
Also, remember to Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
How to make Ambient Techno / Electronica
I made this video late one evening when I was pretty tired out, but I knew I needed to make some ambient techno / electronica for an installation I was working on, and the deadline was looming.
I thought, hey, why not document the process? I didn’t think it would turn out well, but it’s become one of the most watched videos on my Whisky & Synths YouTube Channel and the track also became the closer for my Last of the Free album!
In the video you’ll learn:
how to get creative on low energy
sampling from unusual sources
synth sound design tricks
how to quickly get a beat together
tips on arrangement
Also, remember to Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
BBC radio feature!
The idea of having our School of Electronic Music studio launch party from a great podcast I listen to about entrepreneurship (shout out the Six Figure Creative! FKA the Six Figure Home Studio).
It tied in with a previous idea of a gallery style exhibition of all the art, photos, videos and installations that have been created in Tonic Note’s FIVE YEAR (!) history.
So, after doing a bit of organising and set up in April, I managed to get it all booked up., with that art gallery opening vibe - Celebrating five years as a music production community and year one as a full blown School of Electronic Music.
I’m pleased to say it was also featured on BBC radio! You can read more about how it came about below.
Enjoy the video & remember, if you like this, you can register below to get your FREE, Ultimate Guide to Synths eBook!
Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
Somehow, Dominic King at BBC radio heard about the event on Twitter (I don’t even use Twitter, so shout out whoever shared us!), and got in touch. I was chilling on the sofa, a random un-identified number called.
I thought it was a sales call. Especially when there was loads of background noise and no voice for a few seconds. I almost hung up then, but I’m glad I didn’t because the conversation we had led to a feature on his show!
I was so happy to get the chance not only to let people know about the new courses & classes, but also shout out four other producers who have been cornerstones of Tonic Note since day 1, playing clips of their best tracks.
If you like the idea of joining our music production community or taking one of our classes, you can book a free, 20 minute 121 call with me here to chat about what you’d like to do in music production!
How To Boards of Canada
In our latest Music Maker’s Social Club (which is kind of like a live podcast X tutorial X social club about music production, hosted on Zoom), we covered all things Boards of Canada.
I thought I’d post one of my favourite tracks of theirs here, and below that, the Show Notes for the Music Maker’s Social Club session. You might like the further reading links I have included.
Hopefully you can get useful tips and facts from the show notes, and if you’d like to join in the next session, click the button below! They are on the 1st Tuesday of every month, 7.30PM-8.45PM, UK time.
Also, we have our FREE Studio Launch Party on June 10th
with loads of interactive activities,
check it out with the button below
MMSC June 2022 Show Notes - Boards of Canada Case Study & Tutorial
7.30pm - Social Catch Up
7.45pm - Featured Artist: Boards of Canada
Background
A mysterious Scottish duo, Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, originally from Cullen, Moray.
Spent some time in Canada in their childhood, hence the name, which refers to a Canadian Govt TV company producing mainly documentaries; The National Film Board of Canada.
As children they played instruments, messing around with cassettes and tapes, but the band itself was born in 1986 with some of their friends .
By 1990 the band had been reduced back to the two brothers, who took the project in a more electronic sound.
All Music described them as “"evocative, mournful, sample-laden downtempo music often sounding as though produced on malfunctioning equipment excavated from the ruins of an early-'70s computer lab.”
Music Journalist Simon Reynolds described them as “aching with nostalgia”
Their studio in the UK is called Hexagon Sun - We should all name our own studios even if it is the corner of the living room!
Attitude & Quotes
Create lots of ideas and loops
Geogaddi allegedly involved the creation of 400 song fragments and 64 complete songs, of which 22 were selected (possibly 23, if the final track of complete silence is included).
Strong interest in the power of subliminal messaging and their work is full of cryptic messages including references to numerology and cult figures such as David Koresh of the Branch Davidians
("[We] do actually believe that there are powers in music that are almost supernatural. I think you actually manipulate people with music...").
Codes and Puzzles that reveal release details to launch EPs, albums etc
“As for our percussion, it's never just a drum machine or a sample, we put a lot of real live drumming or percussion in there, woven into the rhythm tracks, and it brings a bit of chaos into the sound that you just can't achieve any other way.”
Processing all different forms of audio through samplers is really important to them, almost more than the synths
Latest Release (& my favourite at the moment!)
Tomorrow’s Harvest
“there's a deliberate VHS video-nasty element throughout the record and to get there it wasn't just a case of processing sounds through old media, which is a given with us anyway, but we even went to the extent of timing changes in the music and the composition of the pieces, in really specific ways”
Possible Gear Used - No one knows for sure and they are quite secretive about it!
Roland 101
Akai Samplers (S1000)
Yamaha AN1x
Juno 60
Yamaha CS-70m (not CS-80)
Sequential Circuits Prophet 5
Moog Memory Moog
Roland Jupiter 8
Crumar Trilogy - A rare vintage polysynth
8.05PM - Lesson -
Concept of the piece - HOWEVER they do say “We often jam something down quickly and you tend to find those things are the ones with a great instant melody.”
Get out of your DAW and record all sorts of experiments using any recording equipment you have to hand, eg an old dictaphone, boombox with built in microphone, old cassette walkman, VHS player etc. This adds the real life degradation to your audio and gives that sense of nostalgia
Warbled Analogue bass and arps
Microsampling of archive sources and recordings of their own family
Mixture of drum machines & recorded live drums
Drive the gain staging
Almost everything recorded to tape or VHS
Play as much by hand as possible. Don’t quantize anything. If you need to, do a retake rather than quantizing
Saturation & Distortion
Pitch Drift & LFO
Memory Triggers - specific sounds from the past to trigger a memory
Decomplexing - Editing out notes, sounds and other elements to reduce the track to it’s best elements and give space
Way too much compression: “ — when you get that fine line where it’s just kicking in, but it’s right on the threshold of the sound so that the compressor ends up spreading what I call ‘powder’ over the part so it sounds like it’s crumbling.”
Create a track in another genre, make it sound vintage. Bounce it at a ridiculous low quality setting. Then sample a small loop from it. You are faking sampling an old tune, but it’s actually yours. This gives a mysterious and dislocated quality to it.
Music outdoors - Use very little reverb effects if you want it to sound natural and outdoors. For an echoey outdoors sound, it’s counter intuitive but you actually make the low frequencies echo!!!
Reverse full tracks and mix them together with your forward played tracks.
Sources
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jun/06/boards-of-canada-become-more-nihilistic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boards_of_Canada
https://larslentzaudio.wordpress.com/2019/01/03/synth-vst-plugins-that-sound-like-boards-of-canada/
https://flypaper.soundfly.com/produce/emulating-boards-of-canadas-classic-synth-sound-without-breaking-your-bank-or-brain/
Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
Music Maker’s Social Club
Normally these rewatch catch up’s are exclusive videos for our Music Maker’s Social Club members, but I wanted to extend the invite to watch this one to our entire clan!
Because the MMSC is in it’s early days in 2022, I thought this would be a great taster of how things run!
Next one is on Tuesday the 7th June, and you can sign up below.
Enjoy the video!
Also, we have our FREE Studio Launch Party on June 10th
with loads of interactive activities,
check it out with the button below
Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook