So much for keeping a regular Studio Diary… where did the time go?

In my defense I will say that the 2019 brought a long-awaited, real-world landscaping project into being, and that has taken a lot of attention.

On the other hand, since the last update I have completed two new tracks:

“The Toks Invade Bogland” was finished up last year and sounds pretty good. I’ve moved on to the song sequence titled “The God Program” and just finished up the first piece in the sequence, a solo piano overture of sorts, called “The Cathedral of Hosts”.

I really wanted to be able to perform the piano part right through from beginning to end, and to record a complete single take, and I almost did it. The truth is that I did end up tweaking a few bum notes (bad velocity). This took a lot of practice!

This quiet, contemplative track contains many musical themes and motifs that are expanded on in later sections of the song sequence:

The first sound you hear is the Roland VK8 keyboard, a “virtual clonewheel” that emulates a hammond organ. I’m using a shimmery patch as a background pad.

The piano is Modartt’s Pianoteq 4, using the “D4” model. The latest version of Pianoteq is actually 6, but they’ve tweaked the piano model and replaced it with a Steinway-endorsed “Steinway D” model. I tried using the more recent versions and ended up going back to version 4, which for some reason has a nicer character for this track.

At about 1:30 you can hear the FingerFiddle IOS app with which I perform the strings (violin and cello). This is a very cool app that requires a fair amount of practice to sound decent, almost like a “real” instrument.

At 1:55 there are some “Ahhh” vocals padding out the sound, and shortly after that a Marimba that is actually a combination of another instance of Modartt Pianoteq (version 6 this time) doubled with Native Instruments’ FM8 for extra DX7-ish bite.

The new DAW is running well. Cakewalk by Bandlab, the re-branded Digital Audio Workstation software formerly known as “SONAR” is probably the most stable it has ever been, with regular updates that focus on bug fixes rather than new features, although there are some of those as well.

Recommended, as ever.

Next: taking the demo of “Enlightenment”, the second part of God Program, and turning it into a finished track.

Onward!