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WeeklyBeats.com / Music / zpeisman's music / Stairway to a Muted Star

Stairway to a Muted Star

By zpeisman on May 15, 2022 9:26 pm

Sixth Korg Gadget tune now (what happened to varying the approach to making music?), and the second one with the Microfreak in the mix. The freak is used all the way through, but for simplicity's sake: all the leads present between 0:33 - 1:06 are those patches.

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First a question: how do you go about using the Microfreak w/ multiple patches? Same song + program changes or do you record ASAP and then go about making the next one? One thing a friend and I agree on that MicroFreak is fun and sometimes makes us both wish we had a second one to kinda design some sounds on both at once.

About the track:

› Show Spoiler

ilzxc wrote:

First a question: how do you go about using the Microfreak w/ multiple patches? Same song + program changes or do you record ASAP and then go about making the next one? One thing a friend and I agree on that MicroFreak is fun and sometimes makes us both wish we had a second one to kinda design some sounds on both at once.

About the track:

› Show Spoiler

Thank you for the feedback, your words are always motivational and help keep the beat train chugging on from week to week. smile

The way I used the freak here, would be to sketch the parts directly into Zurich as I went along, then re-record the parts that needed to flow into eachother to eliminate abrupt transitions. With the robot voice I kept some of the sketch parts and replaced others as I made little variations to the main riff. Transitions weren't a problem since the notes are short (I make sure to save the patches I use and keep the interface gain constant to make it simple to blend recording sessions like that).

Multiple freaks would indeed be convenient, especially as it's so compact and they would stack nicely side by side.

Last week I used the Minibrute 2 to control the freak playing the ending lead (with pitch bends going on), but now I'm practicing to use the pitch strip for the re-recording. I wish it was placed on the left side of the unit, but I'm slowly getting used to how it is. Still in the early stages with the synth, but it's turning out to be a favourite.

Strong melody, well done
- Ebrit

What is it about the beat? Is it the time signature? Really super catchy with great sounds.  The bass is punchy with a satisfying growl. I like that wah effect on the melody.

Nice arrangement and sounds on this.  The drum beat adds a nice character to the track.  It’s nice to hear others who use Korg Gadget, I find the sounds very inspiring, although I’m still trying to wrap my head around gadget’s song arrangement interface.   I guess someone has worked with trackers, might find it more familiar.    Looking forward to listening to more of your music. 

Devieus wrote:

Strong melody, well done
- Ebrit

NWSPR wrote:

What is it about the beat? Is it the time signature? Really super catchy with great sounds.  The bass is punchy with a satisfying growl. I like that wah effect on the melody.

Monstrosus wrote:

Nice arrangement and sounds on this.  The drum beat adds a nice character to the track.  It’s nice to hear others who use Korg Gadget, I find the sounds very inspiring, although I’m still trying to wrap my head around gadget’s song arrangement interface.   I guess someone has worked with trackers, might find it more familiar.    Looking forward to listening to more of your music.

Thank yous!

I think coming from trackers is a big part of why Gadget feels natural to work with. I’m not too fond of linear piano rolls nor using a mouse to input notes (although I’ve done that a lot as well), but this is sort of the best of both worlds. It’s also quite oustanding with regards to time signatures compared to other sequencers I’ve used.

zpeisman wrote:

The way I used the freak here, would be to sketch the parts directly into Zurich as I went along, then re-record the parts that needed to flow into eachother to eliminate abrupt transitions. With the robot voice I kept some of the sketch parts and replaced others as I made little variations to the main riff. Transitions weren't a problem since the notes are short (I make sure to save the patches I use and keep the interface gain constant to make it simple to blend recording sessions like that).

Aha, that's a much better workflow than some of my "only works when MIDI cables are plugged into each other." Are the re-recorded parts from Zurich played by the same MIDI from the Zurich track? I should do this, but the last time I tried that w/ the M8 I was annoyed needing to switch all of the instruments to MIDIOUT, but I just realized I should have just used a reference instrument & changed that at the end...

zpeisman wrote:

Last week I used the Minibrute 2 to control the freak playing the ending lead (with pitch bends going on), but now I'm practicing to use the pitch strip for the re-recording. I wish it was placed on the left side of the unit, but I'm slowly getting used to how it is. Still in the early stages with the synth, but it's turning out to be a favourite.

I feel a lot of love for that thing, and it feels neglected thanks to your awesome work. (Been a very busy time w/ lots of plans falling through, but I'll try...)

ilzxc wrote:
zpeisman wrote:

The way I used the freak here, would be to sketch the parts directly into Zurich as I went along, then re-record the parts that needed to flow into eachother to eliminate abrupt transitions. With the robot voice I kept some of the sketch parts and replaced others as I made little variations to the main riff. Transitions weren't a problem since the notes are short (I make sure to save the patches I use and keep the interface gain constant to make it simple to blend recording sessions like that).

Aha, that's a much better workflow than some of my "only works when MIDI cables are plugged into each other." Are the re-recorded parts from Zurich played by the same MIDI from the Zurich track? I should do this, but the last time I tried that w/ the M8 I was annoyed needing to switch all of the instruments to MIDIOUT, but I just realized I should have just used a reference instrument & changed that at the end...

zpeisman wrote:

Last week I used the Minibrute 2 to control the freak playing the ending lead (with pitch bends going on), but now I'm practicing to use the pitch strip for the re-recording. I wish it was placed on the left side of the unit, but I'm slowly getting used to how it is. Still in the early stages with the synth, but it's turning out to be a favourite.

I feel a lot of love for that thing, and it feels neglected thanks to your awesome work. (Been a very busy time w/ lots of plans falling through, but I'll try...)


I use an audio interface (iRig HD 2) with no hardware monitoring, so I havent’t figured out how to use external gear with midi without resorting to AUM (which would break the carefree «simplicity» I like about Gadget), so I just play and replay the parts by hand. Seems once you go into the midi gadget you can’t monitor through Zurich. Using placeholder sounds when composing then change it to the midi gadget for monitoring/recording like you mention is a good energency solution though, so that’s a good tip I’ll keep in mind as it would be nice for tighter parts like basses, arpeggios etc. smile

I neglect synths for long periods of time, but it’s the more inspiring to sort of rediscover them from time to time.

Dope track! Now I wanna play with Korg Gadget! Based on your comment about the iRig, I assume you're using Gadget on iOS? I thought about picking it up for Nintendo Switch but I heard it wasn't a great experience. I'll have to do some investigating haha.

Great work!

Really good use of 9/8 sig!  Vibing little jam :-)  Love it

iHz wrote:

Dope track! Now I wanna play with Korg Gadget! Based on your comment about the iRig, I assume you're using Gadget on iOS? I thought about picking it up for Nintendo Switch but I heard it wasn't a great experience. I'll have to do some investigating haha.

Great work!

cTrix wrote:

Really good use of 9/8 sig!  Vibing little jam :-)  Love it

Thank you both!

Correct, I use it on the iPad. I haven't tested the Switch version, but nice things about iOS is that you can also use other Korg apps you have which turn up as dedicated gadgets, plus recording external audio. Heard good things about the Switch version though, and lots of flexibility already with the core gadgets.

A fun adventure, yeah 9/8? awesome!

miraclemiles wrote:

A fun adventure, yeah 9/8? awesome!

Thank you, 9/8 it is!

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