Live electronica: Nostalgia for Infinity

Yet another in my series of live studio jams. It’s been a while since the last one as I’ve been busy sampling the Macbeth M5 which you can hear in action as the main melody in this piece.

Here’s a rundown of what’s doing what:

Mixed on a Soundtracs Topaz 24ch mixer.
MPC60 and Sequentix P3 sequencers.
Drums: MPC60 and Dave Smith Tempest.
Bass: Moog Little Phatty.
Melody: Akai S5000 loaded with Boxed Ear‘s Mighty M5 Macbeth M5 sample library.
Pads: Kurzweil PC3.
Sci-fi noises: Eurorack modular and Dave Smith Mono Evolver Keyboard.

Some minor mix tweaks after recording.

Kudos to anyone who can spot where the song title is from.

Sampling the Macbeth M5

Boxed Ear Mighty M5 Demos by Boxed Ear

I have been busy, super busy.. :)

Boxed Ear is a project I’ve been working on for some time. It’s a sample company and our first product is the Mighty M5, a Kontakt sample pack made entirely with the mighty Macbeth M5 synthesizer. The M5 is a huge synth, both physically and sonically. Sampling it has been no small feat, but I’m immensely proud of the results.

The M5′s sound is characterised by its full, rich bass, crystal high end and distinctly analog tone. Even the raw waveforms sound gorgeous with no filtering or modulation. Huge basses and leads, luscious pads, electric pianos, drums, one-shot effects, and crazy modular bleep and bloops are all included in the pack.

In short, this is an amazing sounding sample pack from an amazing sounding synth. Mr Ken Macbeth himself has endorsed the pack, something I’m immensely proud of.

Do please check it out and let me know what you think.

Spotify Playlist – The Most Sampled Breakbeats

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year, you can’t have escaped the rise of Spotify. Free, LEGAL music for all. Gotta love that right?

It gets better though. It seems Spotify have resurrected the compilations tape! OK, it’s no longer a tape, it’s a URL you share with your friends, and it’s not called a compilation, it’s called a playlist (of course). You just create a playlist inside Spotify and share it’s URL with your friends (or at the very least the girl you’re trying to impress – that’s what we did with compilation tapes 20 years ago!).

So here’s my first playlist: The Most Sampled Breakbeats

This is a collection of original songs that have been sampled many times for their amazing breakbeats. You’ll hear the samples in hip hop, pop, jungle, drum and bass, dance and a lot of other modern genres of music, but let’s not forget that they’re all amazing songs in their own right. Proper songs, played by proper musicians!

It’s by no means an exhaustive list. I hadn’t meant for it to be as long as it is, but my research unearthed classic after classic and I didn’t want to leave any of them out.

Notable by their absence are some all time greats. The Winston’s “Amen Brother” and Skull Snaps “It’s a new day” and The Honeydrippers “Impeach the president”. I’m sure there are many more. Let’s hope Spotify will eventually rectify this!

This playlist ought to appeal to anyone interested in making music by sampling. I hope you learn something listening to it. I did.

(Incidentally for more great musician orientated playlists, check out Failed Muso)