SUCCESS! Very happy with results - COMBI ready for livegigs

[Mahalo]

It has taken some time with many frustrations but finally today I completed a new milestone. The results are online here:

http://soundcloud.com/microkool/the-ama ... crostation

unlike the Chill out style I have been developing until now, this demo is a more traditional pop ballad accompaniment for a vocalist for a posh cocktail gig etc.

It finally dawned on the that all those 16 buttons on the right would be ideal to mute and unmute tracks, I had given up expecting the manuals to explain anything and also given up on how badly the editors mess up and delete work and so on. But there, a play/mute button, my prayers are answered.

One slight problem is that if that play/mute button has no red light, and you try to mute a track, it flips you to another Combi, mid performance. And deletes an hours editing if you are editing the Combi. Hence the need for pencil and paper notes. 2012, pencil and paper needed to edit computer software, well well well!

Never mind, this is the result - and I am sure I can ditch the arranger keyboard and just use the microSTATION for live gigs, once I have found a shuffle rhythm, any shuffle rhythm...

I decided to allocate 3 percussion tracks on 14 15 16 and two drum tracks on 7 and 8. There are several gridlines unused on most drumtracks, DR-LETS in this case, I used the top two lines for slow shaker or cymbal or hihat on the beat, and tambourine double time which is not used here. I also plan a bongo track and think there is enough room in a single ARP for all of this with a new user drummap and keyboard splits... exciting!

I thought I will always program Two drumtracks on 7 and 8 because I could use more or less cymbals for example, or in this case I switch from classic clean jazz drums to dirty modern drumkit mid song. Subtle but effective way to add interest to the drums.

Finally I have my trademark keyboard splits - just half an octave of bubbly synth solo on top, two choirs on the fourth octave, strings in the middle which are muted in this recording to leave some openness, bass on the low notes and the ARP triggered only on a narrow range of these bass notes. One of the mono synth solo sounds on top is a timekeeper with a pulse to give me the beat so then the percussion is in time when I trigger the ARP.

Very happy with this result today!

[Reesa]

Hi,

Nice job. I appreciate all the work you did. I use the MicroSTATION on live original music shows, and I will be using it on a studio recording later this year. But for cover gigs, I still kinda like my Yamaha Portatone. Less work, more fun.

[Mahalo]

Thanks!