Roland Juno-106 Beyond Effective Range

Roland Juno-106 – “Beyond Effective Range” Vocal – Retro 80’s Groove.

Had a lot of fun working with the AKai S3000XL this evening. I used Propellerhead’s Recycle to slice up a vocal phrase and send it directly via SCSI to the S3000XL. I have an old Windows 98 computer that that is connected to the AKAI S3000XL which is also connected to an MO drive. The Roland Fantom XF is controlling the S3000XL which I’m playing on the lower part of they keyboard. Everything in the video is improvised including the sequenced parts and drums which were put together this evening.

In the video I’m playing live:
Roland Juno-106 – Synth Lead ( Right Hand )
AKAI S3000XL Sampler ( Left Hand )

Roland MC-909 Sequenced:
Synth 1 – Roland D-550
Synth 2 – Roland MKS-50
Synth 3 – Roland SH-101

Drums were loop recorded with the Boss RC-300 Loop Station.

Akai S3000XL Sampler

The Original Korg RK-100 in RED!

Jamming on the original Korg RK-100 in red. I bought this about a year ago and I love it. There is a new RK-100s out, but I actually like the original because of the three mod wheels. I am running the Korg RK-100 through a Korg EX-800 which originally was also paired with the RK-100 when released in the 80’s. They make a terrific analog synth combo and I think it sounds great. In this video I recorded some drums and EX-800 loops into the Boss RC-300 on the floor. I then created a custom EX-800 patch for the jam. The RK-100 size, weight, and shape are just perfect for me. Yes, some might think the RK-100 is heavy, but coming from working with a Gibson Les Paul Custom for some years, it’s definitely much lighter than a Les Paul. I don’t mind having a bit of weight on my shoulders anyway. I’ll upload more videos over the next couple of weeks with the original RK-100 from Korg. I’m still a tiny bit rusty with it.

Here is the Korg RK-100 and Korg EX-800 in my studio.

http://instagram.com/p/pm0IhCF932/

VooDoo in my Veins Guitar Jam

Picked up the guitar this evening and created a little jam with the Boss RC-300 running three drum tracks along with three guitar rhythm tracks I recorded. I then have a Boss RC-505 with a couple of vocal loops recorded using the Roland VT-3 Voice Transformer. I’m then playing the lead guitar over the top with ad-lib vocals singing a line “VooDoo in my Veins”. I actually started out as a guitar player when I was about 10 years old. I later got a Yamaha DX7 and that started my synthesizer journey. It can be a bit of a handful doing synths, guitars, and vocals all at once, but it’s fun and a challenge too trying to mix them all in live. By the way, the guitar is made by Ibanez. I usually play a Flying-V or some other Gibson, but I like the Ibanez quite a bit as well.

Korg Polysix Synth FX Patches

Today I ran through some Korg Polysix special FX patches that I’ve been working on and collecting for the past couple of months. I’m a huge fan of integrating synth FX into jams and compositions and have been greatly inspired by Patrick Cowley of the late 70’s and early 80’s. I only wish I had a Prophet 5 so I could replicate a lot of those classic sweeps and ray gun FX patches. With that said, I feel I’m coming along with emulating a lot of those cool classic FX on the Korg Polysix. I noticed that around Youtube there aren’t that many synth players utilizing FX sounds into their songs or jams like the old days. I’m not sure why that is other than it’s not always easy to acquire a particular analog synth or create a certain patch I know. It’s also not easy to use “sampled” FX. I once picked up some Prophet 5 FX samples and really had a hard time integrating them into songs. For me at least, it seems the best way is to get an old analog synth that is capable and just add FX from the synth itself. That seems to work best with my workflow at the moment.

I use both the Boss RC-300 and RC-505 to loop 80’s drums and sounds from both the Korg Polysix and the Novation Bass Station 2. I then add FX live from the Korg Polysix and one sweeping FX patch from the Bass Station 2. I believe I go through about 7 or 8 Korg Polysix patches in the video and everything is improvised. I’m also a big fan of imperfections and dissonance, so I like to just jump in there and play whatever comes to mind.

Korg Polysix, Bass Station 2 and the Boss RC-300

Recorded a fun little jam using the Boss RC-300 running three drum loops I recorded with different Novation Bass Station 2 bass lines on top. I then switched each one during various times of the jam. My left hand overdubs with a custom programmed punchy filter/noise sound from the Bass Station 2. I’m using three different custom patches on the Korg Polysix. The video was recorded in one take after about 5-10 minutes of playing around with RC-300. The Boss RC-300 works extremely well for switching verse, chorus, and bridge parts.