I think I’m getting arthritis in my hands:
The drums on here are sampled from record with the sp1200, run through the Flesh Modulation effect, recorded onto PC, and then loaded into the MPC. The drums are not quantized (except the ride). All the synth sounds are the Meeblip run the the OTO Biscuit.
Scratch drums on this one:
Once again, all recorded onto the 2880.
Another loop using the 2880:
This one is using the MPC for drums (sampled into the SP1200 and filtered with the FM filter first), the Meeblip for the lead and counter lead (ran through the OTO Bisquit), and the little phatty for the drone bass/midrange sound. Everything is played live into the 2880 looper (except the drums). The 2880 was the MIDI master, and the MPC was the MIDI slave.
A couple more scratch beats using the 2880 looper:
3rd Loop:
4th Loop:
A couple experimental beats:
5th Loop:
6th Loop:
These loops were both performed live using the Electro Harmonix 2880 looper. The drums were scratched live (one loop for the kick and snare, one loop for the ride). The synth sounds are all played live with the Meeblip synth. No edits and no effects.
This was an album I released in 2008. It’s a bunch of loops made with a lot of different tools and such. There’s some LSDJ Game Boy stuff on there, Roland PMA-5, SP1200, MPC2000xl, straight Fruity Loops, etc.. A bunch of different stuff…
Here’s a preview of a few beats:
8_bit_ch:
Hs_60_95_2:
Still_Love_1:
Mozart2:
The entire album is here:
Thirdy – Flesh O.N.E.
A while back, I teamed up with David Yeh and worked on a software model of the SP12. The model was intended to emulate the sampling engine and low pass filter in the SP12. We had no intention of modeling the SP12’s sequencer. The goal was to build a software model that could input an audio file, modify the file so that it sounds exactly like it was sampled by the SP12, and then save the affected file in wav format. The user would have the option of detuning the sample (which creates the classic ringing sound of the SP12), and turning on/off the SP12’s low pass filter. The tuning would exactly match the 32 tuning steps available in the SP12. The project was very successful. David’s paper on the subject is available
More recently, I took some time out and rebuilt the tuning of the algorithm to model my SP1200. I thought it was perfect, so I had the new tunings tested side by side with the SP1200 by an industry leading golden ears plug-in developer. We tested several sample sets by sampling into the SP1200 and running the same sample at the same tuning through our modeling algorithm. The two output files are indistinguishable.
The algorithm was coded in Matlab by David. This made it difficult (i.e. expensive) to port to a platform that could be easily run on Windows and Mac. I think I found a way to create a simple GUI that can be used on any machine without the need for Matlab. It won’t be pretty, but it will sound very pretty. I’ll post the program if I work it out.
One important thing to take away from this project: The low sample rate causes a digital sampling error called aliasing. This is what causes the classic SP12 ringing sound. When aliasing occurs, frequencies appear in the output sound that were not present in the original sound. From a mixing/mastering point of view, this is particularly useful for drums. When the drums contain a wide range of frequencies, the can be heard on any speaker system. It doesn’t matter if your system has no bass, because the presence of the kick can still be heard in higher frequency ranges due to the aliasing errors. This concept is the basis for the Flesh Modulation effect (it adds clean analog broadband noise to drum samples by using FM radio). The drums can be heard on any system.
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The LSDJMC2 was originally designed by Firestarter. More information about the functionality of the LSDJMC2 can be found on his site. LSDJMC2 stands for Little Sound DJ MIDI Converter (version 2). It’s a MIDI add-on for LSDJ and Nanoloop.
LSDJ and Nanoloop are Gamboy “games” that let you play the original gameboy like an 8-bit instrument. The LSDJMC2 adds MIDI capability to LSDJ and Nanoloop. The song “8_bit_ch_Audio8” on the “Thirdy” album was made entirely with LSDJ.
Connect a MIDI keyboard (piano) to the LSDJMC2, then connect the LSDJMC2 to a Gameboy (with the LSDJ game), and then the Gameboy sounds can be played by pressing the keys on the MIDI keyboard (piano).
For this custom LSDJMC2, Firestarter’s circuit schematic was used to design a printed circuit board (pcb). The pcb’s are white with black silkscreen. The case is clear so that the user can see the words on the silkscreen through the case. The names of the buttons and LEDs are on the pcb (silkscreen) instead of the case.
The blue version has 4 blue LED’s for the function indicators, and one red LED for the data indicator:
The red version has all red LED’s:
I don’t sell these. I made a few of each color, which were sold immediately after they were finished.
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I’m gonna kick of the beats section with this fella. Let me know if you have any problems with the player on any devices.
FM Crunch Time:
All sounds were run through Flesh Modulation effect (FM). After running through FM, the drums were sampled into the mpc2000xl and sequenced. The “melody” was sequenced in fruity loops. Fruity loops and the mpc were synced via MIDI. The sound at the intro is scratching through FM.