With Juice, I’m trying to create a kind of retro funk groove complete with high brass stabs and wah wah FX on one or two of the instruments. The addition of the crowd was inspired by Gutterpump. The cheers and general mayhem is actually a recording from a volleyball match.

I wanted this track to contrast with the other three on the EP, whilst using several of the same instruments which ship with Cubase. My intention, having learned at least the fundamentals of recording and mixing with Cubase (out of the box) is to depart from this kind of music and begin on my quest to produce something much edgier. I need new sounds, FSU plug-ins and – to quote Maxi Jazz – “a fresh direction”.

Let’s see how I fare with that!

Update 26/03/09: Mastered version uploaded

Having completed all the parts, I think the challenge with this piece will be the arrangement and I also want to put some little breaks in. It’s a much “funkier” style than the other three from Disarray, but the bass line’s had it’s hooks in me for the best part of a month so it’s nice to progress it into something.

Hopefully tomorrow will be as productive as today, though I’ve got the usual Kids’ Taxi firm to manage and a long run to squeeze in.

I’ve reverted to the original voice for the melody line, a mellow jazz grand piano from the HALionOne VST instrument set in Cubase. I think this is much warmer than the synth voice from yesterday’s version and contrasts nicely with the overall electronic feel of the piece.

I’ve also added some arpeggios, done a little more work on the arrangement and begun to think about the overall direction. It’s getting closer but still needs some work yet.

Melody 1 [Solo]

I’m not sure if this piece will require more than one melody or whether soloing / featuring instruments such as the bass and percussion in the mix along with the introduction of the “haunted” pitch-bent voice from time to time will be enough. Anyway, here’s the work so far (still a way to go with arrangement etc):

All instruments and preliminary arrangement

The piece (still work in progress) starts with industrial and machine-like claves and guiro pattern, to which I slowly introduce other percussive sounds. The rhythm builds, but the 6/8 time signature (backbeat on the 4th), isn’t properly established until the synth pad enters at bar 21. At this point, the feel changes significantly and the “broken” percussion is resolved with the introduction of bass drum and snare. Then comes a gentle melodic bass line at bar 45 and a distant pitch bend at bar 59. (It was so much easier playing the bass line on the Axiom, though all the drums were still produced in the grid editor – the laptop screen is still my preferred input device for drum programming.)

Built around a classic Em 12 bar turnaround and far more “ambient” than its introduction would suggest, I’m pretty happy with the direction this one is taking – though I’m not convinced it fits the project brief any longer (will need to get the client’s view of that!). If it doesn’t, I don’t mind at all. I think this one is going somewhere.

This is my first mixdown using Cubase. Created five tracks (drums, percussion, bass, synth and grand piano) and a sixteen bar riff from 8 x 2 bar sequences. It could use a melody I guess! There are no FX channels and you’ll notice that the synth part is a simple copy and paste of the piano sequence with a different preset.

To listen to the whole arrangement, select “Full Mixdown” in the player below. To solo instruments used in each of the two bar sequences, select the instrument and click play.