FOUR, by Kieron James
A little like Alcmene, this track came together pretty quickly and, as I mentioned on Twitter, it’s the first one I’ve composed for a long time which has been built on a completely linear timeline (i.e. no use of the Cubase arranger track). This doesn’t happen very often and when it does, it feels like the track has almost written itself.
The idea kicked off with a couple of bars sequenced up using iPad App from Korg, iElectribe which I’m hugely impressed with. You’ll hear the iElectribe very clearly at around 1:57. I then exported the pattern into Cubase and started to build the rest of the piece around those four bars. Adding sub bass first and then building some of the other synth parts, drums (glitched using Automaton from Audio Damage) and finally adding Marcus Hutton’s fabulous delivery of the Edgard Varèse quote.
I’m handing over to Pure Tone for some quick analysis (to see if he can spot any howlers), stepping away for a couple of days to watch the Spain v Germany World Cup Semi Final tonight and concentrate an Bootslam’s kick drum and I’ll work on the mix at the weekend.
idea by Kieron James
I’ve been away from Cubase for a week or so, but picked this one up again today and put together a rough mix of something which may make it to FOUR – but I’m still unsure (so any feedback gratefully received). I quite like some bits of it – certain bass parts, the drums and brass – but I think I may have ended up with two tracks here which I’m trying to mix into one, linked by the percussion.
First full arrangement – 6th June 2010
I’ve added a couple of new sounds and put together an arrangement. Need to leave this for a couple of days, let the ears recover and work on the mix later in the week. Doesn’t seem like too much is out of place, but tired ears mean I may not be hearing everything. (Over to Pure Tone for analysis.)
Track #6 Arrangement #1 by Kieron James
With some revisions – 30 May 2010
Track #6-98-bars by kieronjames
First upload
The Burns We Earn
I spotted the @blocsonic remix competition on Twitter on 1st May and was intrigued at how I’d get on remixing a track which was “outside my genre comfort zone”. A couple of elements of the track – notably the bass and vocals – suggested one or two ideas and I started to play around with them.
I extracted midi from the bass line and worked with Rob Papen’s SubBoomBass to generate a couple of different sounds. I created a new (extremely simple) drum part in Battery and glitched the hats using Audio Damage’s Automaton. I created a sequence for one of the original synth parts using BigSeq2 and applied a few filters to the vocals. The guitar part was run through Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig as was an additional synth to create the siren sound.
First up is the original – 2 minute track from Friends or Whatever:
Friends or Whatever – The Burns We Earn by blocSonic
And here is my remix:
The Burns We Earn (Kieron James RMX) by kieronjames
You can download the single including six other remixes and a lovely eleven page PDF booklet from blocSonic’s website:
FOUR, by Kieron James
So here it is. The fruits of around three weeks work and the first track for the album FOUR. The track has been beautifully mastered by @pure_tone whose attention to detail and ability to make stuff sparkle is second to none.
My plan at this stage is to complete FOUR before moving on to the other three albums, two of which are collaborative. I’ll be posting four bars of some of the individual channels here too – to see which inspires the collaborators and me to write for Blue Omen, Half-BIT and Sómio.
“Organised Sound” is a phrase coined by the stratospheric colossus of sound, Edgard Varèse. I was switched on to Varèse’s life and work by Chris Randall’s Analog Industries blog. From time to time he produces limited run, sound-themed tee shirts. I missed his Delia Derbyshire edition (sold out), but managed to get hold of one of the fabulous Varèse shirts designed by Stefan Goodchild.
And that’s the story behind the first track for FOUR.
Organised Sound by kieronjames
