Hopefully delivered GENOS and a little help from Sampletank, and a zoom recorder

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi
I have been going through quite a learn curve and with all that i have learnt so far is here.
hope you approve

https://soundcloud.com/silver-machine/mrblue-sky
All the best
John

[Toril S]

WOW! DOUBLE WOW! That sounds fantastic!! Now we are talking pro playing and recording! Congrats!

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi Toril
Hope your not seeing the Northern Lights!!
Big thanks for your comments
I am trying hard to achieve my impossible dream.
If you have a computer go Ozone 9.
Also for streaming , i have found that Soundcloud do masters now ,and it does lift your music if you go pro for £10 a month.
Keep knocking out the songs and it will pay for itself even if you want to leave a legacy of what you have achieved.
It is great being able to play music.
Next year i am 70 and want to be like Ozzy Osbourne. Never say die!! " Rock and Roll"!!

All the best
john

[Genos!]

You know...  I believe your Father-In-Law would be very proud of you.

I believe it's a great tribute and a job well done, and something to remember.

It's also been said that imitating is the best form of flattery.


I like ELO, esp. Mister Blue Sky is one of my faves. Good job!

[Dromeus]

Nice one, John. Your effort and sometimes struggle was definetly worthwhile, congratulations. Keep on the good work!

PS: I find the autopan of the chorus guitar at 0:52 (and later) a bit to extreme. But hey, those were the seventies 

[terryB]

Wow John that is fantastic, I loved the voicing, you have produced a fine tribute to the ELO song, you must be very proud

Cheers
Terry

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Nice one, John. Your effort and sometimes struggle was definetly worthwhile, congratulations. Keep on the good work!

PS: I find the autopan of the chorus guitar at 0:52 (and later) a bit to extreme. But hey, those were the seventies 

Thanks for your comments Dromeus. Much appreciated.
The chorus guitar I put a Leslie sound on it and actually did some automation. With Instrumentals you have try keep the interest in there or things can drag on.
I also tried to keep that 70s warm sound going.
I myself find analog feel better than screechy digital for old songs.
Still great to get constructive criticism. It is the only way to learn.
I did see a video about panning and you have to be careful not to disorientate the listener too much
Do not worry ,i get that with a few whiskies.


All the best
John

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

You know...  I believe your Father-In-Law would be very proud of you.

I believe it's a great tribute and a job well done, and something to remember.

It's also been said that imitating is the best form of flattery.


I like ELO, esp. Mister Blue Sky is one of my faves. Good job!

Hi Genos

Another big thanks for your comments.
Hope the spirit of father in Law lives on and also sunny days ahead for everyone.
I am trying to get a few more cover songs made before i embark on the next part  and that is to do my own music
I have got ideas and a manic brain. I hope that helps!!! 70 next march . "I'd better get a move on"

All the best
John

[RoyB]

Hello John

Well that was really well done, it sounds great, and there is no doubt the time and trouble (and perserverance and patience!) you took to get there was worth it. It takes a lot of time, effort and skill to produce an arrangement like that.

You mentioned SampleTank - did you mean SampleTank (for VST voices) or SampleRobot as you have previously mentioned that you used SampleRobot for the vocal samples.

I think this is a great example for those home keyboard players who want to stretch their ambitions and are prepared to put in the time and effort to achieve them.

Best regards

Roy

[TyrosTempest]

Dear john
                I didn't like it.............

                    I LOVED IT. 😀


                     Ernie.

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi Roy

Thank you very much for your comments.
The whole song was played on the Genos live into the sequencer on the Genos
I made up all registrations for this, so all lead lines are on track 1.
Once completed ,i put it into Cubase 10.5 and split all lead tracks into separate ones.
Also done the same with the drums
Cubase has a nice feature called disolve tracks and at a press of a button bingo it separates the midi into drum parts.
So now we have 20 tracks or more.
after mixing with Neutron it is over to Ozone 9 for the mastering.

So everything except the choirs and fire hydrant was done entirely with the Genos.
The choirs from Olympus  which you can buy goes into Halion in Cubase or Native instruments like Kontact.
So I used the high parts from Olympus and Ik Multimedia's Sampletank 4 mixed choirs.
It does take a lot of juggling to get the ELO type blend which is pretty raw and upfront to me.
The ending choirs are again a mixture of Olympus and Sampletank 4
Genos choirs are mainly all doooo dooo da da  da Doo be doo. I find them pretty naf. They are like Mike Samms Singers  which i remember before Pick of the pops on Sunday afternoons in the 60's,  "Sing something simple"!! when iwas 16 or 17 years old. So Boring. Could not wait for Radio Luxemborg at night and Kid Jensons Prog rock show.
Yes we had the transister radio under our pillows at night. Also not to mention my first Crystal radio set with a cheap pair of headphones.
Yes we all know where the theremin came from and the Beach Boys did it proud.
The Crystal radio, was fantastic then and i always remember dad shooting the aerial lead over the tv aerial with my old toy William Tell crossbow.
Took several attempts though.
Lastly the fire hydrant sound was me tapping my metal speaker stand and recording that with my Zoom recorder. Put a few effects on it and there you have it
I am also going to sample vst sounds with Sample Robot soon and make some packs to play on the Genos.
Well Roy that is about that for now.

all the best
John

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi Earnie
Big thanks for your comment . You had me worried for a split second!!
Luv Yer Really!!

Did that come from a 10cc record .
"I dont like cricket "oh no"!!
"I love it! ah Yeah!!


All the Best
John

[karl28]

Hi,
That was excellent! Can you tell me please how you created the vocoder sound?

Thanks,

Karl

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi Karl

I am not a vocoder expert, but i figured it out with a lot of trial and error

I went to the Vocal harmony section on the Genos.
After that press synth vocoder. and chose Pulse Wave 10 .
I had the                 Effect----- Tempo Cross delay setting on Depth, reverb on 12. Chorus 0
                                Harmony on--- Vocoder  Attack 10ms and release 230ms
Everything in the Formant section on 0. Not sure what that does yet!! . So much to get your head around.
Once i had all that, the difficult bit for me was singing out of tune and playing the right chords.
A little disorientaing to me at first.
I got there with perseverence.
I must have had about 50 goes at it to master the vocoder.
After that a little Eq  In Neutron which goes with Ozone 9.
I also find Frequency in Cubase 10.5 very good especially getting those horrible resonances out of the mix quickly.
The mix side for me is the hard part, but gradually getting there the more i try.
I am now mixing another song and it is going better now than it was, almost ready for Ozone 9 to finish it.
I say finish as i am not an expert yet at mastering, but have a good ear for music, I think!!!
That is about that Karl, hope it makes sense.


All the best
John

[karl28]

Thanks very much John for describing the process. I was really impressed with how it sounded. I've hardly touched the surface with my Genos.
Thanks again,

Karl 😀

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi Karl
Believe me there is a gold mine inside that Genos.
If you had Sample Robot you could play any vst on the Genos. Pads, padmaker it's all there
If you go Cubase with the Genos, learn the control room , then sky is the limit.
All depends where you want to go inside your head
We never stop learning.
I bet someone will come up with Sparky the piano now!!


All the best
John

[Mjm]

Fantastic job John. That sounded very professional-studio quality. 👍

Mark

[keyplayer]

wow John that's really good, sounds excellent through my stagepas 600 speakers. Well done
Pam

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi Mark and Pam
Massive thanks for your comments
I am glad to hear the song translates to other systems.
This is my goal  and will write my own music starting next March from my birthday.
The time now is to get some more songs done and hopefully a little quicker each time.
It is not an easy task mixing and mastering as it is believing your ears which sometimes gets confused.
Stay well both of you and keep Covid free 


All the Best
John

[alans]

Hi John

As a big ELO fan all I can say is WOW what a fantastic job you did with this great song,never did I think anyone would ever attempt this
Just one teeny weeny niggle,you forgot the 'please turn me over' at the end,now I've done it 🤣🤣 AGH AGH I can feel the brickbats already.

Anymore ELO songs you are doing ? How about 'Concert for a Rainy Day ' good tune for the time of year ?

Thanks a lot John ,that was a lot of work gone into this

ATB Alan

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi Alan
I thought people forgot that now.
That was my big effort to get the mix right .
The song is not too difficult to play.
I practiced the song in small sections until happy and then went for the whole piece except the ending.
I had to play that part afterwards . I am not Jorden Rudess or Rick Wakeman yet.
Now all registrations are in place ,i now can go straight through.
To keep that song up to scratch , it has to be practiced often, but as you know we all move on.
Even jeff Lynn has to practice hard before gigs. I do like to get the feel and realism in music, so practice is the key to get the human feel.
I have to practice every day and it sometimes gets frustrating for me . Walk away and come back and progress has been made.
What i do in Cubase is just tidy up minor boo,boo's and then use Izotope for the final mixing now. Fantastic mix and master tools and understandable.
The problem is the ears sometimes. Again walk away and come back later and things look different.
Why is it that fingers have a mind of their own??

All the Best
John

How's about     Donald Trump  -- Just Biden My Time 

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi Mark and Pam

Thankyou for your comments.
It is pleasing to know that the song translates well through other systems.
I want to do my own music soon. If i get the Inspiration and time.

All the Best
John

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Also big thnks to Terry , Michael and Genos

All the Best
John

[Genos!]

Well, I don't do covers, but oh well... ummmmm.

I'm almost thinking about releasing Al Stewart, "The Year of the Cat". 🙀

So far I have it arranged through the following ports: Genos :1 & :2 with a number of S.Art2! voices, and the FA-08 :3 SuperNatural (SN) Voices. I have 4 more ports I want to fire up and mix everything. And then I'm looking at doing something kind of special -- using an AI Mastering plugin just for grins.

You did such a great job on (ELO) - Mr. Blue, 🤔 ..."figured I might try it too!".


I have the following 4 ports to add: Korg TritonLE, Casio WK-3700, Axon Mk-II, and the JV-1010.

I will fire everything up and audio record everything in "one swell-foop" and then AI Master.


This is just an experiment, and lots of midi to lay yet; I'm going to give it a go! Thanks for the inspiration.

P.S. I haven't done ANYTHING since my Brother-in-law passed.  :BIG-LONG-SIGH:

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi Genos
I do think doing covers helps to gain more experience and learn how songs work.
I also have had my other halves father pass away and that brings tons of paperwork to do--Another sigh.
Mother has to be looked after and loads of family headaches which happens..
I have just got back to having another go at songs.

All the Best
John

[Genos!]

I kinda figured something else was going on in your life, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. Well, perhaps we can bounce back and forth a bit between us and get our feet back under us without getting our heads too high in the sky.

What song are you working on next, if it's not too much trouble to ask?

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi Genos

Hope all is well with you and things are starting to smooth out a little now. We all get these little knock backs in life.
I have Going Loco in Acapulco ready to finalize in Izotope.
Also had  a go at the the Sutherland Brothers and Quivers song , Arms of mary.
This sort of song is quite simple to play and effective sounding for the keyboard, but it is the drum breaks that are hard to get used to as you have to hit the pedal the same time as you play the chorus and to make thing interesting getting the bends of the guitar right. The ending takes a little practice. especially using two foot pedals and fingers. The poor old brain tends to get tied up in knots sometimes. Left/right ,up or down!! . I find playing ok until involving the feet!!
I always get the song ready to where i perceive it and practice it over and over from music sheet, so as to remember in my head.
I do not know whether it is me, but i will not record anything until i can play it through and get used to it and that keeps the human feel in the song. This way  only need minor editing.
The thing with music sheets is that the best bits like guitar breaks, proper intro's and endings  are always missing.
I go to You tube and listen to the songs, but they are 10/10 in a different key and it is a devil trying to put the missing pieces in. Eventually get there. .
The songs in the pipeline for me doing is  --Rainy night in Georgia  hopefully in the style of Tony Jo White and that to me is low sax. Albatros i can get right now.
War of the Worlds/ Horsell Common is the big next one for me as i love that. I love Baker Street, and Free's My Brother Jake which comes out nice with piano and steel giutar.
There are loads of challenges and i have to get on and write some music which would be my next big challenge.

All The Best
John

[Genos!]

I have iZotope elements: Ozone, Neutron, & Nectar. I also have Waves Analog Summing Mixer (Mike, Spike, & Nevo). I really don't like the "cloud" that covers my sound. The VST plugins just don't do it for me; for trained ears there is a noticeable loss of clarity. Perhaps this digital "analog warmth" is intentional !?

I prefer using my analog outboard gear for everything, which probably explains why I have a MOTU midi timepiece MTP/AV (8 port midi i/o) unit and an 896mk3 (32-channel i/o) interface. I need all of it to route my computer midi to my keyboards and sound modules, and route L/R audio outputs into my VS-2480 DVD studio mixer/recorder, then mix/master everything back into my PC for recording.

I don't know... I seem to find this complicated setup sounds the best to me. I have tried a lot of different plugins and set-ups over the years and I have a lot of VST plugins and instruments that I really like. However, I have never "warmed-up" to the digital vs. the "analog warmth" I am getting with analog outboard gear.

I had a bit of moisture get into my audio interface and I had to dry it out for about 1-1/2 hours with another 1/2 hour of cool-down. It didn't power up and I thought I was out a grand (£760). Luckily the very mild "heat treatment" worked. I bought a 25,000 BTU A/C w/Heat for the Studio and ended up moving everything around to accommodate the 137 lb (62.27 kg) beast.

Things are pretty good and coming together, but it's taking me longer than I would like it to. But I'm taking my time so that when everything is done everything will be where I want it to be. That's my latest setback.

In regards to beginnings, endings, and breaks I have to whole-heartedly agree with you. Even what's written doesn't fully capture the solos of the artists. And isn't it funny to find certain pieces in odd keys on GoogTube? I don't find it to be any sort of challenge, just very, very odd!

I think after this "my first ever" cover I will have to get back to work. Too many songs written with lyrics and melodies in the wings that need the whole-shebang until they hit hard plastic in CD form. We only sell CDs as there is something tangible to feel and look at (similar to vinyl).

I don't see the point in giving iTunes or anybody else my hard-earned cash for something that they had nothing to do with. Question. I guess, once you do start, in what format do you plan to market your wares? We started producing and marketing CDs in 2012 and we haven't looked back.

The Studio we bought back in 2004/2005, so it was about 7 years before we felt comfortable with our new equipment and capabilities.

I did lay some tracks recently for a guy in Tennessee, US. He first wanted drums and piano. He added bass later, as his bass player backed out on him. He also found a guy on Fiverr, and oh, boy! Was that fun!! I don't recommend it -- or as the saying goes, "You get what you pay for!". Well, sometimes

I do like "Baker Street".

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi Genos

Well, With software and Izotpe you can analog things up a little with the new version to bring warmth
I love the sound of the Arturia synths and the Korg Collection, but have to get serious wth them sooner or later.
I do tend to get carried away with doing covers.
Each day I go through videos on mixing and going over and over Izotope Ozone 9 and Neutron. It is all gradually sinking in.
I had a good deal on mix box from ik and i also have to knuckle on down to learning that.
I am 69 at the moment and still like the challenges to come, but will have to get a move on before the train comes puffing down the track to come and get me .!!
Analog does sound better than digital and 100% agree with that. Vinyl is is far superior to Cd.
I heard one of thes girl bands miming to a digital backround . It makes you want to reach for earplugs as it sounds so tinny.
You cannot beat the 60's 70's bands for live feel and it also translates to vinyl perfectly.
I heard some Robin Trower songs from Bridge of sighs and the recording quality is superb and ahead of it's time in my view.
The same i found with Starcastle form the USA  Fountains of Light. A group a little similar to Yes.
I just love good music, but today i would go for Ozric Tentacles. Great improvisions and of course Rick Wakeman's Red Planet ah ha!! "Just like that"!!
Great chatting to you Genos

All the best
John

[kbrkr]

Wow...One of the best recordings I've ever heard out of an arranger keyboard!   I would of never figured this was out of a GENOS.

Very well done!!  One of my favorite songs of all time; great choice!