Retro midi machine!

[Nayrb]

(03-26-2020, 07:31 AM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: I overhauled my retrocomputing corner recently (not completely done yet though) and the RMM is now up and running again. I've been working on this tune the past days, again using the Yamaha TG100.

Yes! I love all those synth pads. They blend so well with the orchestral and world stuff. It must just be the "internal logic" of the TG100. Everything fits so well together.

Also happy to see what appears to be a copy of Unreal on the shelf.

[Mattias Westlund]

(03-26-2020, 02:19 PM)Chris Spyratos Wrote: Very nice! One could put aside the fact that he is listening to some old hardware and focus on the tasteful writing and harmonic richness of the track.

(03-26-2020, 10:48 PM)Nayrb Wrote: Yes! I love all those synth pads. They blend so well with the orchestral and world stuff. It must just be the "internal logic" of the TG100. Everything fits so well together.

Thanks guys! Well you need to pay closer attention to the actual musical content when you can't hide behind life-like samples. Not always easy. The TG100 has a lo-fi charm that reminds me of tracker music. And tracker music makes me think Age of Wonders, which is why I always end up writing stuff like this with it.

(03-26-2020, 10:48 PM)Nayrb Wrote: Also happy to see what appears to be a copy of Unreal on the shelf.

Yeah, well, always fun to find a copy of Unreal in the wild I guess. But the fact that the thrift shop in question probably threw the big game box in the trash before putting the cd itself out for sale... that just makes me sad.

[Samulis]

Loving it, Mattias! You got me at the pizzicato/spiccato break with the (pan pipes?) solo. I think the orchestration is what really sets this apart; every time I go to think 'you know what would be nice at this part?' you go and do it on me!

You're seriously guilting me into trying to write some orchestral music with all my hardware instead of just goofing around with silly 80's keyboard cliches.

[Mattias Westlund]

(03-27-2020, 09:06 AM)Samulis Wrote: You're seriously guilting me into trying to write some orchestral music with all my hardware instead of just goofing around with silly 80's keyboard cliches.

Funny thing is, there are relatively few orchestral instruments in this track. Just pizzicatos, sustain strings, horn and timpani. All the rest is just various synth sounds that I picked because they sounded cool. Which goes to show that getting an orchestral sound is more about the arrangement than the instruments used. I have tried setting up "orchestral templates" on my 90s hardware but it just ends up sounding pathetic. Counterintuitively, it's when you bring synthetic sounds into the equation that things start sounding big and symphonic.

[Mattias Westlund]

So how's that hardware VO thing coming along, Sam? xD

Here's something I did recently. And wow, trying to use GM/GS/XG hardware for orchestrations really drives home the point that dedicated orchestral sound modules and expansions existed for a reason. Making things sound even passable is a complete struggle.

For the curious, this features the Roland M-GS64, the Yamaha CS1x in MU50 XG mode, the Yamaha TG100, and a few instruments from the E-MU orchestral soundfont included with the APS sound card. My Lexicon Alex is used for reverb, although I admit it's a bit over the top. The Edirol micro monitors I use with this setup aren't really suitable for mixing.

[Samulis]

(07-24-2020, 06:12 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: So how's that hardware VO thing coming along, Sam? xD

Here's something I did recently. And wow, trying to use GM/GS/XG hardware for orchestrations really drives home the point that dedicated orchestral sound modules and expansions existed for a reason. Making things sound even passable is a complete struggle.

For the curious, this features the Roland M-GS64, the Yamaha CS1x in MU50 XG mode, the Yamaha TG100, and a few instruments from the E-MU orchestral soundfont included with the APS sound card. My Lexicon Alex is used for reverb, although I admit it's a bit over the top. The Edirol micro monitors I use with this setup aren't really suitable for mixing.

Niiiiice track! I was just (re-)watching an episode of The Orville and it actually fit in surprisingly well. 

I haven't gotten around to playing with my old hardware all that much since Mirage came out. Might do something within the next few weeks though.

[Chris Spyratos]

(07-24-2020, 06:12 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: Here's something I did recently. And wow, trying to use GM/GS/XG hardware for orchestrations really drives home the point that dedicated orchestral sound modules and expansions existed for a reason. Making things sound even passable is a complete struggle.

You mean something like the proteus orchestral?

The second part is so nice and calm that I don't want to bother myself with whether this is some outdated hardware I'm listening to!

[Mattias Westlund]

Long time, no post! I have added two new pieces of kit to my RMM setup lately, namely an E-MU Proteus/1 and a Korg X5DR. And with that, my rack case is full and I have no more MIDI ports to control things with.



Maybe it's high time I got busy making some music with all this stuff?

[Mattias Westlund]

Wow, looking through this thread I realized that:

1) I've been working on this setup for over five years now, which is crazy, and...

2) the Korg sound module I turned down for being too expensive a few years ago was actually an X5DR. I got a better deal on it now (~$130 instead of ~$230), which is largely thanks to the staff at my local music store being blissfully unaware of the retro nostalgia thing surrounding old romplers

[Mattias Westlund]

As for the Proteus/1, I got it for around $80. It works, but I'm getting only 64 presets out of it. Maybe it's me being unfamiliar with how the banks are set up, but from reading various old reviews it seems like there should be a whole lot more. Also, mine is such an early revision that it doesn't have a factory reset option. This was introduced in later versions. So I'm probably looking at having to restore everything through a SYSEX upload, which I haven't gotten around to yet. Running the onboard diagnostic the RAM and ROM and whatnot appear to be fine, so it's probably fixable but a little annoying.