Tea Bee Three

So this time round, it is a series of sessions developed with a Korg TB3 bass line - and a few other instruments devices and sound sources dropped into the mix here and there for a bit of gusto...





And now, a few extra details about each of the tracks:


TB3 vs Bass Station

What started off life as a jam session working through the fantastic sounds and convolutions of a Roland TB-3, soon developed into further edits from my vintage bass station rack and a kind of space bass war, with both sets of tracks weaving in and out of other in the final mix through different effects and different speeds. The result of what you get is the result of what you get!

TB3 and MC303 edit

...this time, the mighty TB3 bassline takes on the MC303 sequencer in a no holds barred taggy team contest, taking us into some off kilter beats and bad for your bits bass riffs. Enjoy!

TB3 and MC303 Part One Edit

...Here we have an edit culled down from a longer jam session made with the TB3 bassline running in tandem with a MC303 sequencer. Loopy lysergic madness in abundance here, with very little extra added and the live jam session that brought it to life, apart from a few fades and corrections to levels...

TB3 and MC303 Part Two Edit

...taken from the second half of a longer jam session made with the TB3 bassline running in cahoots with an MC3030 sequencer. This was a live jam session with only minimal editing made afterwards and believe it or not, is taken from the second half of the jam session that spawned TB3 and MC303 Part One Edit.  The middle session of the original jam session lost its way a little, but what we have here are two rather excellent sonic bookends!

TB3 and MC303 number 2

...from a series of different sessions made with using a TB3 bass line. I fell in love with the TB3 sound straight away. However, it wasn't quite as easy when syncing it up with my MC303 sequencer - using midi is all well and good, but it involved quite a bit of extra tweaking of the outer flanges to avoid an automatically synced up, electronic, robotic sound. After all, we all need a bit of the old chaos and bizarro quality in our lives, don't we?

TB3 and Crowd

...more from the TB3 seres - this time from a solo TB3 session, this time lovingly garnished with a field recording made from a crowd outside of shopping centre, looped and partially reversed and sewn back into the mix to give some unsettling bad ambience overtones.

Inside the Astral Overdose

While working on a recent series of mixes under the Astral Overdose theme, I was left with a big backing track that had been used from the MYDISYD mixes. This backing track was a mix and remix of various samples broadcast from outer space and made available via NASA. However, I thought this mix was a great piece to upload just by itself, without the MYDISYD bass riffs and sequencers mixed in. So here you go!

More Astral Overdose Vicar

This time round it's another mix of everyone's favourite space themed jam by PFC, this time with an even odder twist...



Here we have a full on mix based originally around the same PFC riff as used in the earlier mix for Astral Overdose, but this time based on a home made riff played through midi, chopped and looped, then played first through a Novation Bass Rack, and again through the rather excellent Ultrabass VST from G-Sonique. However, although the mix worked really well, the sound was still very cold and mechanical. So the backing track is based on a recording of magnetic particles from Neptune, lopped, chopped and timestretched - a fitting theme methinks considering the theme and content from the original riff. So there we have it - all happily mixed together. Enjoy folks!

Astral Overdose

A bit of an epic mix project here - taking the idea of a riff by the PFC and reworking it int, into multiple mixes and versions of itself. Sorry about having to be vague about the source of the original riff, but them that bothers to listen will suss it out, and keeping it all mysterious like will stop the killjoy copyright sniffers. The idea came from hearing a whole series of this track from the rather excellent blog, Isle Full Of Noises and then it all started falling into place after a dream where I even knew the finished length of the mix.


So here we are, with astral overdose mix one - this time taking through Ableton and numerous processors, backwards, forwards, inside out..enjoy!

...and here we are with mix two in this strange Astral Overdose series - this time taking the main riff from a series of sessions and mixes fed through my vintage Powertran digital delay and then ten cut and spliced backwards and forwards at different speeds. I would not recommend doing brain surgery while listening to this on headphones...

Volka Polka

It has been a busy and madly creative time again here at the house of Quaquaversity. This time working on a series of sessions using the Korg Volca looper and sequencer, edited down and brought into play and conflict with a series of different devices. The sessions started at the end of February with all final mixing done at Easter.

All images here are taken by myself from a family holiday up in the wilds of Northumbria:




...and to further your delight and delectation, here are extra details on each of the tracks from this album:

Volca Session 1
 This is the first in a series of sessions made using a Korg Volca as a multi loop sequencing device, firstly on its own as a series of jam sessions - as with this first piece - and later with other devices. So here is a nude Korg Volca - very little added except some minimal editing and reverb and EQ afterwards.


Volca Session 2
The second in a series of sessions using the Korg Volca looper and sequencer. This time based on a jam session made with the Volca, edited down, EQ and reverb added, and then mixed into an earlier recording based on a assembled loop of church bells from Durham Cathedral. This field recording was prepared by being fed through delays and timestretched.


Volca Session 3 (Part 1)
The third in the series of sessions using the Korg Volca sequencer and definitely one of the strangest. This was a an edit from the third session, and this time the up tempo in yer face no nonsense beat has been tempered with a saxophone solo produced with my own cherry read lips and slowed down through the Paulstretch app to create something altogether discordant and ethereal. Er, right.


Volca Session 3 (Part 2)
The second edit from the third series of sessions using the Korg Volca sequencer - now moving into noisy and chaotic territory, held together by a decidedly off kilter beat. This was edited down from a longer session and mixed with a field recording of rain paulstretched and looped to give just the right level of irritating white noise fuzz.


Volca Session 3 (Part 3)
The third part of the third part - the third edit taken from the third session using the Korg Volca sequencer - now firmly entrenched into over the top multi layered noise and chaos, on the edge of total aural collapse but still taking your head somewhere else. Just the Korg Volca on this one - no overdubs or additional effects apart from a little EQ and tidying up heads and tails.


Volca Session 4 (Part 1)
From the fourth in a series of sessions exploring the possibilities of the Korg Volca sequencer - this one split up into two parts, called rather imaginatively, Part 1 and Part 2. This now sees the Korg Volca synced up with MIDI to my MC 3030 and flying off into decidedly different sonic territory. A little alien gnome treated samples have been added in the final mix just to give it a little extra gusto.


Volca Session 4 (Part 2)
The second half from session four in the Korg Volca Exploration sessions - Mr Volca now teams up with Mr MC 303 over a glass of midi and really cuts the lettuce. Nothing else added apart from a little treated synth intro to get us into the mood.


Volca Session 5
Session 5 in this Korg Volca exploration series continues the team up of Volca and MC-303 sequencer moving into areas of dischord and multi layered aural damaging. Nothing else added here folks. Have fun!


Volca Session 6
The sixth and final edit from these series of sessions exploring the ins, outs and sideways of the Korg Volca sequencer - Volca synced up with the MC303 sequencer and then edited with a field recording - it is a Paulstretched reversed and delayed loop of a drain emptying of course. Off into oblivion!


Volca Session 7
..and there's always one more. After the main series of sessions with the Korg Volca were completed, there were a series of samples, loops, and generally leftover oddments that were mixed together into a much longer piece. The full length mix ended up on Mixcloud as well as on the Quaquaversity blog.

However, while preparing these leftovers for the Mixcloud session, this particular loops started developing into a life of its own, becoming a longer, almost ambient piece, that seemed to be the perfect ending to this series of sessions on the Korg Volca.

A little longer but no less stranger

...Although these mixes were produced a while back, I have finally got round to uploading them onto Mixcloud. A little longer than usual!

 

This is a mix using various loops and audio oddments leftover from a series of jam sessions using MC 303 sequencers and Bass Sation racks, with the sessions then chopped and edited with layers of effects through Kaoss Pads and Ableton. The backing track is a loop from Oskar Sala's piece from Hitchcocks "The Birds", to take us all just that little bit further out of our comfort zone.

Leftover Loops Mix

After the mammoth sessions on Korg Volca, I was left with a series of loops and various sonic oddments. These were then fed through Ableton and bound down to a backing track made up of a drone timestretched using an old Transcendent 2000 synth. This is the first real long one from my Mixcloud sites!

A Mix made from various loops and audio oddments left over from a series of music sessions using a Korg Volca in conjunction with field recordings, Roland MC 303 and Transcendent 2000synth, fed and mixed through banks of real time effects in Ableton.