georgeinar - May 08 - Cyberpunks

georgeinar · Post by **georgeinar** » Thu May 01, 2008 11:05 am

This one was really fun. I began with a bunch of hiphop drum loops and cranked them to 170 beats per minute, then sampled them and played them on the keyboard and sequenced around what came out. This was my attempt to create a grenre that combines drum-n-bass with spaceglam lyrics. There are 2 bass lines through most parts panned left and right.

http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplaye ... 07504&q=hi

Cyberpunks

Web masters listen closely
The cyber punks are here
Some say we’re quack insurgents
Some say we’re queer
At last we start the march
And boldly true to form
A thousand punks arising
In silver uniforms

Within this cyber peep show
A penny flesh arcade
The popping hiss of flash bulbs
Where dirty deals are made
Above the temple ruins
A priest with eagle claws
Bestows on us his blessing
To thunderous applause

We are the cyber punks
In matching uniforms
Some human comedy
Where anarchy is born

Machines are mocking us
In idiot holograms
We dance among the wreckage
May all your gears be damned
On broken slabs of pavement
We make our final stand
Against your moral virus
And your metallic hand

Diego · Post by **Diego** » Thu May 01, 2008 12:05 pm

George, how couldn't you live just with your music?!
You're great, I love your stuff!
This kind of sounds are very good, I like the way you compose/produce, and the final result sound so "natural" and "unprocessed", though you use some subtle effects.

Once again you captured me, great!

JonSolo · Post by **JonSolo** » Thu May 01, 2008 1:58 pm

Another great track here George. This is so good there is little to say. Great lyrics, fantastic rhythms, and great arps throughout. I hear that subtle vocoder effect in use there again, yes?

Cool freaky breakdown!!! Solos abound in this highly accessible four minute track.

One small thing. I hear some musical things happening through the verses that I wish were a little louder...but that is a preference.

I love the ending mimicking the beginning.

A whole lot went into this piece and it shows.

Keep it up bro!

Solo

DrWho · Post by **DrWho** » Fri May 02, 2008 3:13 am

Hi George,

Nice Cyber punk march sound efx

The audio quality is right up there with your previous tunes. Nice compressed perc., and you can easily hear all the voices in there.

Wild lyrics - I would've never thought of cyber punks having uniforms - LOL I like the wacky solo section - cool "walk on up" move.

The chorus sticks on ones head - ahhhh I can't get it out of my head ...

I am a cyber punk, I am a cyber punk ....

georgeinar · Post by **georgeinar** » Sat May 03, 2008 12:50 am

Diego, so I will capture you and leave you on a desert island with nothing but my music and see how you survive.
You mention subtle unprocessed, actually the synth sync solo parts are almost just dry right out of the Triton without any effects except maybe chorus or something simple, compression maybe, but nothing unusual. I wanted the percussion to stand out a bit more so I brought in the drum loops from the sampler and after I remastered the rest of the song, I mixed the drum track totally dry and left it like that. Still the drums were not what I hoped, but they do seem to carry the song well enough. I guess I was after some sort of scratchy record effect or bad phone line effect on some of the loops, but I ended up leaving them as is.

Jonsolo, I wonder if what you're hearing in the verse is just remnants of the hip hop samples I used for the percussion. Or its the strange effects I applied to the double bass programs that are fighting each other for dominance. I do think there's a potential to bring out what those basses are doing, like an exciter just on the high ends to showcase what they're doing, but to be honest I've been taking the easy way out and simply mixing straight out of the Triton and doing very little else to the sounds themselves on the PC like I was doing on my last cd. I'm only taking those 'voices' that really need further processing separtely to the pc for effects and taking the majority of the tracks and bringing them in as one big wav. This one had a wav for the basses and synths, one for vocals, one for vocoder, and then a dry drum track and that was it. It is simpler to mix in audacity that way and saves bunch of time vs bringing in all 16 tracks separately and then mixing them on the pc.

Drwho, thank you for mentioning the marching sound. It's footsteps in the general midi sounds, I just played them with a bit of a delay and a ton of reverb and excitation. I had to have marching in there to showcase the theme of a march of cyber punks. Also, I hope it doesn't stick in your head at night so you dream about being a cyberpunk and taking over the world. This initiall began as an idea, hey, can I write a song called Cyberpunk? And this is the result.

jazlover · Post by **jazlover** » Sat May 03, 2008 5:08 pm

George you are always very creative. When I think of Chicago, I think of a creative town. Lots of arts and music (in my experience). You are leading the OSAM pack as usual. I particularly look forward to what you are going to do next month to the song.This group has begun to step farther and farther out of their comfort zones. That is probably a tribute to your leading. You are very innovative. Your dual bass lines. Lorenzo idea for his piece..I don't even think in such terms. My thinking is changing slowly (I am an old dog) towards more detail of the songs structure and direction. Awesome production, fine musicanship. I understand Diego comments and agree.

Your work is excellent! Thank you again!

georgeinar · Post by **georgeinar** » Sun May 04, 2008 1:32 am

Jazlover, if my own creative juices are contributing to the excellent production levels and experiments in this OSAM then it is totally worth it and truly my pleasure. What a nice thing to say. Actually, I'm doing actual challenges now, sonically, structurally, technically. The piece I'm experimenting on right now is to combine an 80's electro funk drum beat with clavinette for added rhythm, to sample industrial synth loops and use them as stabs, then I want to sample my own voice as if I'm making speeches or as if I've sampled some archaic saying from the 40's and used them in a manner such as Ministry was doing in the 80s, or even their last stuff where they have Bush talking about fighting evil and it's part of the song. So I begin my challenge this way and then try to achieve as good as a piece as I can incorporating these ideas, some may not work, but usually the piece ends up very interesting and not at all like the pieces that inspired me originally. And it forces me to think outside the box of writing up some rhymes and then figuring out some chords that go with them and throwing it all together with conventional instrumentation. But that's just my thing I guess.

Stephen · Post by **Stephen** » Sun May 04, 2008 12:58 pm

I barely know what to say George.

The talents displayed here, not only in performance, but creativity, song structure, and crafting, and instrument selection, are just unbelievably good!
You've really raised the bar with this.
Well done, master georgeinar!
Regards,

georgeinar · Post by **georgeinar** » Sun May 04, 2008 1:05 pm

Stephen, you better stop flattering me so much, or I'll have to come up with something even better, sort of like the dangling carrot concept. Anyway, thanks. And happy composing.

chordial · Post by **chordial** » Sun May 04, 2008 11:16 pm

Every new song seems to travel to a new place George.
Although this might be your style, they are all individual.
The mix is dry, it seems right in your face, which is what you had in mind.
Love the lyrics, and all the flourishes that you include.

Pecca · Post by **Pecca** » Wed May 07, 2008 9:25 pm

Splendid production.

I love the way you painted my headphones with background "noices".
Very cool song

Admittadetly i think the singing could be done differently.
Yet the song is very nicely done with extremely "fine" variations.
Great job !

ellll · Post by **ellll** » Fri May 09, 2008 1:58 am

Hi George,

Love this cool sound...and its pretty long too!! for a chance to really develop the feel!!!

I would like just an edge more of pitch determination but in fact you would be better as it is...I just have the pressure in my head to be perhaps too pitch conscious.

I agree with Stephen here....You continue to bring new and interesting things to us, as several others have done as well...It just seems to me that the level of improvement here is a real "happening" for many, perhaps all of us...and makes the whole process again a success...with thanks due Sharp for the chance!!!

GREAT Job George...This was real fun, yet has a kind of serious side as well...Thanks!!!

Johnny (ellll)

georgeinar · Post by **georgeinar** » Sun May 11, 2008 12:49 pm

chordial: thanks, it is dry, I was a bit worried how to do electronica such as this and yet with the 'punk' vibe going on it needed to be somewhat in your face so I left it dry, it's actually not as 'in your face' as I wanted it, yet I thought is was cool anyway the way it is

pecca: I'm glad you liked this overall. Curious when you say "different" vocals. I guess I would like suggestions here, because my vocals are the part I always hate on my songs so whatever you were thinking here might help me for future considerations. I usually go over my songs before I release a full cd and if I get a good idea for a re-take on vocals, it's not unusual to re-record there.

elll: Long? it's 4:17 and for me it's rather on the short side. Actually, I've been trying to shave off time on my pieces as I tended to extend into 6 and 7 minutes so there's 2 choruses and a bridge, 4 verses. This one has 2 verses, twice thru the chorus and an instrumental part, so it was a short as I could make it and still develop it fully. As far as pitch, I was trying to sing/rap over sound effects, actually the lead sync sound and the bass tracks are the only pitched instruments as the rest is percussive sound effects. And as 'real' punk music is pitchy on purpose I gave this really no thought. However, you will get to rip me a new one on my next piece which is another smooth ballad where I'm, gulp, singing. I bought melodyne to fix and do pitch correction on my voice, but it's still quite lacking there. This one though has to be sung, rather than spoken word so you'll hear what you hear I guess. I hope you make it over the learning curve on your new pc, i had some trouble when i got mine earlier this year.

Daz · Post by **Daz** » Sun May 11, 2008 3:51 pm

Web masters listen closely
The cyber punks are here

LOL ... not here on KF I hope !!

Absolutely brilliant mate. Because arrangement is such a hot topic for me at the moment, I listened closely to how you arranged this piece and I think you balanced it perfectly. There were a bunch of verses/choruses and then just when I felt I'd enjoyed hearing those being repeated but now fancied something else, it changed up to a whole bunch of really cool and interesting parts. Very cool indeed. You have a dab hand at running these things into one another and managing the energy level overall.

Daz.

Pecca · Post by **Pecca** » Sun May 11, 2008 5:40 pm

George. The input regarding the way you sung it is just a matter of my taste. For me a more "sung" melody rather than an almost spoken one, would add to it greatly.
That´s just my 2 cents and i haven´t got that many left *LOL*