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Author: Tiger Mendoza

  • Vangelis tribute – technical breakdown

    Vangelis tribute – technical breakdown

    I posted my little tribute to Vangelis on the blog the other day and someone asked if I could share the Arminator 2 patches I used for the synths. I thought I could do slightly better than that so here’s some info on how I put the track together and the fx and vsts I used.

    Recording and Mixing

    The goal was to record and mix the whole track very quickly between other things so the track was recorded in about an hour and then mixed in a couple of hours the same night. Normally I’d spend much longer on both but to quote Kenny Beats “Don’t Over Think Shit“.

    Everything was recorded and mixed in Ableton Live 11. The drums, pads and bass were programmed using my Arturia MiniLab Mk II and midi for the leads was recorded using a Fishman Tripleplay Connect midi pick up fitted to my Epiphone SG. I then used my Ableton Push to trigger the bass, drum and pad clips live while I recorded the lead synths over the top, pretty much in 1 take.

    If you just want to know what my Arminator 2 patches were, here you go (8k zip file)

    Arminator2 TM VangelisDownload

    Drums

    Although most of Vangelis’ tracks have rhythmic elements they don’t really have drums but in the interest of artistic license and creativity I thought I would add some to my track. I used Ableton’s 808 Core soundpack for the actual drum samples which is my default for most projects and seemed to fit the vibe of the track.

    808 Drum Pattern

    Processing on the drums was done on in 2 stages. Here’s the EQ and compressor settings I used. Again, nothing crazy.

    Drum FX 1

    To add a bit more grit and slap back to the drums I used Waves Kramer Master Tape on the main drum bus. Here’s the settings I used.

    Kramer Bus settings

    Bass

    I’ve never really used Armintor 2 for bass before but after doing this little track, I think I will again. It has a great synthy grit to it. I used one of the arpeggiated presets that came with the plugin as the basis but I didn’t like the pattern the plugin’s built in arpeggiator created and the built in echo didn’t work for me either so I got rid them and used an external arpeggiator Max 4 Live midi plugin called Probability Arp from a Cm chord.

    Arminator 2 – Arpeggiated Bass

    And here are the midi fx settings

    Midi FX

    As you can see I used Ableton’s utility plugin to reduce the width and reduce the stereo spread of the synth and then fed the lot in to my bass bass which is just a bit more EQ and a bit of side chain compression to duck the bass when the kick hits

    Bass Bus Fx

    Pads

    In a way the Pads were the most straightforward bit. They were created using more Arminator 2 goodness with a bit of EQ. I think I tweaked the attack a bit so that they didn’t fade in quite as slowly but apart from that I played in a Cm chord on my midi controller then duplicated it and moved the bass note to a B for a bit of variation.

    Arminator 2 Pads
    Arminator 2 pads fx

    As you can see I used Ableton’s built in EQ in L/R mode with slightly different profiles on the left and right to add a bit of stereo separation and width. The channel EQ just had a slight bump in the mids to give them a small boost.

    Lead

    The lead line was Arminator 2 in mono synth mode with midi coming from my guitar via the midi pickup.

    Arminator 2 – lead

    Again a bit of EQ add but nothing to shout about really. I sometimes add a bit of saturation to lead lines to help them cut through a mix but as this wasn’t really a dense mix I didn’t need to here.

    Noise / FX

    In a nod to the pulsing crashing wave noise in Chariots of Fire I add my own pulsing white noise bed under the track. I have no idea how Vangelis did it when he recorded Chariots of Fire but I used Ableton’s Analog Synth with the noise on and the oscillators off to generate the noise. I then used auto EQ and auto pan to create the pulsing effect (which I believe was created by someone manually moving the volume fader up and down in the original). I then added some stock Ableton reverb at the end for a bit more space and bumped up the width a bit in the utilty.

    Noise synth and effects
    More noise effects

    Master channel and sends

    I used the Native Instruments Raum effect which is one of personal fave reverb VSTs.

    As you can see the mix was set to 100% and I adjusted the sends on the bus channel until I got the vibe I wanted.

    On the master channel I added another tape based effect called Tape Cassette 2 from Caelum Audio which adds nice bit of grit and warble to the whole mix in a tape-y way and ups the retro-ness.

    Normally I would stop there, check the levels on the master and try to make sure the track peaks at less than 3db then bounce the whole lot down to master separately but in the spirit of seeing what I could do quickly, I just added a copy of Waves’ Infected Mushroom Pusher to the end of the master channel and used the Gentle Giant preset to do a quick and dirty master.

    Infected Mushroom Pusher on Master

    Wrap up

    That’s it. I hope you found it useful. I have never claimed to be an expert in any of this stuff but I hope it inspires some of you do see what you can do. If there are any questions or comments, leave a comment below or feel free to message me on twitter or instagram.

  • Vangelis – A Tribute

    Vangelis – A Tribute

    I first discovered Blade Runner via my dad. He’s a massive fan of the film and the incredible score that accompanied it. It’s fair enough really – the powerful combination of the imagery of the film and Vangelis’ synth driven score is still mind bending today let alone when the film was released in 1982. Add to that the mystery around the film and the soundtrack itself (which wasn’t released until 1994) make it something very special to music and film lovers and geeks like me.

    When I found out that Vangelis died it hit pretty hard but I’m not really sure why. I don’t really own much of his music to be honest. He was 79, a fair age. He did many other film score like Chariots of Fire (which I think I have a 7inch of somwehere) and 1492: Conquest of Paradise, and released many solo albums and albums with Jon and Vangelis and Aphrodite’s Child but really for me it all comes back to Blade Runner.

    The video below is my little tribute to Vangelis’s Blade Runner score; recorded quickly using Ableton live, the drums are 808 samples and all of the synths and bass are care of the amazing Arminator 2 plugin, arguably the best Yamaha CS80 emulator you’re likely the use. There’s a small nod to the pulsing noise from Chariots of Fire too if you listen closely. The lead synth was recorded using the midi pickup fitted to my SG which worked pretty nicely.

    You can download the audio below too.

    RIP Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou aka Vangelis. Thank you for everything you did.

  • Plugins, samples and stuff – a few suggestions

    Plugins, samples and stuff – a few suggestions

    Recently some friends looking to get in to music production asked me about what sites / samples I use when producing music so I thought I’d put together a post with some links to some of my fave sites and plugins for creating and producing music. Please note I am not affiliated with any of the sites and services below and I am not responsible for any damage caused to you or your computer by any of the sites and software I have linked to below. Hopefully they might help though

    One general word of advice to new comers – before going down the plugin rabbit hole, use the plugins / fx that come with your DAW and get used to the workflow / layout. I’m a big fan of Ableton’s Wavetable, Analog and Operator synths and Reverb, Echo, Saturator, Glue Compressor and Drum Buss fx and I often prefer them to external plugins but plugins do give you more options.

    General sites / software

    Ableton Live – I’ve been using Ableton Live as my DAW of choice for years so I know my way around it pretty well for both track creation and live performances. I upgraded to the Suite version a little while back which comes with a bunch of extra instruments and fx and max 4 live built in and if you can afford I would suggest you do to.

    Bedroom Producers Blog – Arguably the best resource for free / low cost links to sample packs, fx and instruments.

    Piano Book – Some really lovely instrument samples for NI Kontakt and Decent Sampler for pianos, strings, choirs and loads of other instruments.

    Spitfire Audio Labs – Amazing FREE virtual instruments covering choirs, guitars and various atmospheric sounds. Also worth picking up the BBC Orchestra instrument while you’re there, especially if you can still get it for free.

    Synths / Instruments

    Vital Audio (Free) – A relative newcomer, this wavetable synth is effectively a free version of the amazing Serum. Great for gritty synth sounds and bass lines.

    Surge (Free) – A powerful free and open source synth

    Massive (Paid) – Almost a cliché in electronic music circles but it’s a very powerful synth and especially good for pads and lead sounds. I haven’t bothered upgrading to Massive X yet though especially as it’s not backwards compatible.

    Xfer Serum (Paid) – As per Massive, almost clichéd but great for basslines, leads and sample mangling.

    Tyrell N6 (Free) – A great sounding Juno-ish synth great for all sorts of sounds especially electro stuff.

    Dexed (Free) – It may look a little intimidating but if you like Mega Drive / Genesis FM style synth sounds, this is the plugin you need.

    Redtron (Free) – One of my favourite mellotron emulator plugins. Like Beatles style string and choir sounds? Get this. Note: Available as a 32-bit only plugin so you’ll need to use it with a 32 to 64 bit plugin adapter with most modern DAWs. I’ve been using jBridge for years to do this with Ableton live and generally it works well.

    Zampler (Free) – a sample based instrument with a straightforward interface, I’ve found some great bass and pad sound packs.

    Arminator 2 (Free) An emulation of the Yamaha CS80, the author says that it’s not a “faithful” reproduction but trust me it is perfect for Vangelis style synth patches. 32-bit only though I’m afraid.

    JuiceOPL (Free) – Basically the adlib sound emulator from DosBox / ZDoom in a plugin. The interface is a little quirky but great for late 80s / early 90s style game sounds.

    FX

    Fracture (Free) – weird glitchy goodness.

    DevilLoc (Paid) – Great distortion effect especially on drums.

    LittleAlterBoy (Paid) – Formant and pitch shifting effect for vocals (although I’ve used it on guitar and other things as well in the past)

    CamelCrusher (Free) – Still one of my favourite effects for loud, distorted drums (especially 808s and Acoustic / studio kits). The Brit Clean pre-set is a great starting point.

    Sausage Fattener (Paid) – Another plugin so overused it’s practically clichéd but for thick bass sounds on 808 kicks and bass synths it’s great and doesn’t cost much. Pick it up as a pack with Endless Smile for quick and easy EDM style drops that make you smile.

    Mishby / Backmask (Paid / “steal”) – Both from Freakshow industries, crazy interfaces, amazing sounds.

    Izotope Vinyl (Free) – One of the best lofi / vinyl reproduction plugins available

    Waves plugins (Paid) – I’ve acquired many Waves plugins over the years but here are a few that are go to’s in most of my projects. Note: DO NOT pay full price! Waves plugins are almost always on some kind of sale / offer especially around holidays so get them then if you can.
    Kramer Master Tape – One of my favourite tape machine emulator plugins. Great slapback delay sound too.
    Infected Mushroom Pusher – Want to do a quick and dirty master on a new edit you’ve just created or want to make your drums wide and loud? Get this.
    Sibilance – A great easy to use de-esser plugin particularly good on vocals.

    So there you go. I hope that’s useful. I may come back and update this from time to time when I think of new things I think it would be good to mention but this is a good start.

  • A (belated!) Happy 1st Birthday to TMSk8!!!

    A (belated!) Happy 1st Birthday to TMSk8!!!

    Amongst all of the excitement around the upcoming “ONETWOTHREE” project in 2022, I totally forgot that it’s 1 year since TMSk8 was released!

    I’m really proud of the whole TMSk8 project and in what was an…interesting year for me and many other people it was a lovely thing to focus on and create with some amazing people – mostly remotely – and to put together the kind of THPS mixtape soundtrack I would love to hear! When the lock down measures started to ease it’s been just as amazing to be able to get out and play songs from it in front of actual people and see the reaction in person. Here’s to hoping that can continue.

    Thank you to all of you that have already picked up a copy either digitally or in person it genuinely means a lot and a big thank you to the following people that contributed to the whole project:
    > The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band
    > Restructure (RIP)
    > Dan Clear (cheers for the live guitar skills too!!!!)
    > Just Emma (aka Emma Coombs)
    > Sinister Sound Gallery and Mike from The Deadbeat Apostles
    > Octavia Freud
    > Phi Project
    > Kate Herridge from Ocean Ruins
    > Mila Todd (who also created the excellent artwork!)
    Do yourself a favour and look them all up – They’re great!

    Also a big thank you to everyone that I played rough mixes to and gave feedback throughout the whole thing.

    If you haven’t picked up TMSk8 yet, you may want to do so by Sunday 5th December as the full digital deluxe version is available as a special price for the next few days.
    tigermendoza.bandcamp.com/album/tmsk8-the-mixtape-deluxe-edition

    Take care and stay safe,
    TM

  • New Playlist: Tiger Tracks #2

    New Playlist: Tiger Tracks #2

    Ok here we go, the second Tiger Tunes playlist! Very happy with this little selection and yes it features one of my tracks and no I don’t care.
    A small note: Un-surprisingly Harry Nilson isn’t on Bandcamp so the Bandcamp version has 1 less track. Also UNKLE’s Psyence Fiction isn’t on Bandcamp so I had to sub that for a different track as well.

  • New Playlist: Tiger Tracks #1

    New Playlist: Tiger Tracks #1

    Hello! New TM music is on the way in 2022 but before we get to that I thought I would share some of the tracks that influenced the new project and some just generally great stuff you should go check out. I’ve got a few playlists lined up and I’m hoping to share 1 a over the next few weeks but let’s start at number 1.

    A quick note: Where I can I will link to the official Bandcamp pages for each track where I can because GO SUPPORT ARTISTS ON BANDCAMP!!!! but as not everything is on Bandcamp there’s a Spotify version below as well.