MuTools

Reincke · Post by **Reincke** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 1:52 pm

Hi everybody,
if you like music that sounds "analogue" you possibly may like my newest plant at:
https://soundcloud.com/reincke/enduring-radio-silence/

Of course made with MuLab. Cheers
JR

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 2:32 pm

Chapeau!! Really enjoy listening it

Is "Sunflower Lap Orchestra" a band or a solo project? Are you doing all composing and mixing yourself?

Edit: Ok read your soundcloud profile. Wow man that's really very nice creative work!!

sbj · Post by **sbj** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 4:41 pm

Way to go

Especially your guitar which "gently weeps"

And that's a compliment

Reincke · Post by **Reincke** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 5:09 pm

Thanks a lot. Yes, it's a solo project. All is done in trains with my netbook on my lap ...
More than 30 years ago I was playing guitar in a band, dreaming of arranging and mixing more complex songs. I bought a tape recorder which allowed ping pong recordings. But at every new take the noise grew more and more. I made and bought some effect boxes for my guitar, tried to program drum loops on a C64, but it all sounded rather bad. I dreamed of working in a real studio ...
Now (four years ago) I got it! It fits in a small case and is called "MuLab".

Even the guitar can be played "virtual". I really like it.

JR

bibz1st · Post by **bibz1st** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 8:25 pm

Liked it, have you put any lyrics to it ?

tatanka · Post by **tatanka** » Sun Jan 18, 2015 10:35 pm

I too love the guitar, would you reveal some secrets and tell how and with what software/effects you have done this great guitar sound ? I would have been sure that you have played it live with a nice guitar, but on train with a notebook

.

Would really appreciate an answer cause I really love mulab but was not been able to do anything with the inbuild instruments, especially when it come to some sort of guitar/pluck sounds.

It is really a lovely song, I could imagine too doing it twenty years ago though the "brain" with the complex songs was another guy and I (as mainly the singer) had lots of problems following him with the changes in his complex song arrangements.....

Now I am trying to do the same on the pc, from blues to "chips"

,

Kind regards,

Richard

Reincke · Post by **Reincke** » Mon Jan 19, 2015 8:37 am

bibz1st wrote:Liked it, have you put any lyrics to it ?

No, I'm not able to write good lyrics. But I thought it would be nice if Paul McCartney or Jeff Lynne would contribute some lyrics and sings it ...

Or would you?
JR

Reincke · Post by **Reincke** » Mon Jan 19, 2015 8:41 am

tatanka wrote:I too love the guitar, would you reveal some secrets and tell how and with what software/effects you have done this great guitar sound ? I would have been sure that you have played it live with a nice guitar, but on train with a notebook .

Would really appreciate an answer cause I really love mulab but was not been able to do anything with the inbuild instruments, especially when it come to some sort of guitar/pluck sounds.

It is really a lovely song, I could imagine too doing it twenty years ago though the "brain" with the complex songs was another guy and I (as mainly the singer) had lots of problems following him with the changes in his complex song arrangements.....

Now I am trying to do the same on the pc, from blues to "chips" ,

Kind regards,

Richard

Thank you for your interest. Please give me a while for writing some details. And if you are interested in the session file I could submit it here. But you would need some additional VSTs and soundfonts.
JR

tatanka · Post by **tatanka** » Mon Jan 19, 2015 9:44 am

Hello Reincke,

that would be really great of course to have the session as a starting point in Mulab

I am really curious to see whats in the "black box".

But take your time,

Kind regards,

Richard

bibz1st · Post by **bibz1st** » Mon Jan 19, 2015 2:07 pm

Reincke wrote:
bibz1st wrote:Liked it, have you put any lyrics to it ?
No, I'm not able to write good lyrics. But I thought it would be nice if Paul McCartney or Jeff Lynne would contribute some lyrics and sings it ...
Or would you?
JR

Funny you say that, as I thought it sounded a bit Beatles..ish, and I would love to be able to pen some lyrics for it, I say "would" because that is definitely a dark art, sadly one that I am not very skilled at.

Reincke · Post by **Reincke** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 7:41 am

Here is a ZIP-file with a (consolidated) session of my song.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/odf08hrjfnve ... 7Mf7a?dl=0

No witchcraft involved. But if you open it, you will have to click "ignore all" and "OK" for the non-existant samples and VSTs. Subsequently you will hear just the bass and sometimes a bit of noise. There a bunch of neccessary VSTs (cfr ZIP-file), soundfonts and samples, that are not included (too large).

And here some details about the instruments.

Drums and percussions:
MuX assembled from various free samples. Samples not included. You can replace it by any GM-like drum set.

Bass:
My own "Rickenbacker"-MuX. Sounds horrible when played solo. But you won't hear that in the final mix.

Piano:
It's the vst mda piano with some effects.

Guitar:
The guitar sound is "shaped" by pretty good samples, some effects in the guitar rack and a lot of modulation.
First of all I used the soundfont "FS Gibson Les Paul Electric Guitar Neck Pickup Direct In.sf2" from the "FS Collection".
I also used the sf2-player "KXSF2-ST", hidden in a new MuX, which allows a lot of modulation. There are 3 modulation tracks: boost (simply amplifying), overtone (amplifying the triple of the basic frequency) and vibrato (amount of pitch bend by LFO). A lot of compression, light distortion, EQ, Chorus and roomy mix rounded up the sound.

Choir:
The wonderful "Choir Vowel Ensemble Pack" designed by Mihai Soranho and Richard Osborn. I automated pitch bend and sometimes a change from "aaaahh" to "uuuuhh". Automation is great.

Strings:
Strings soundfonts (sfz) from "Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra" (viola and cello; solo, sustain and pizzicato). I used the soundfont player "sfz.vst".

Mellotron:
It's vst "tapeworm" (flute bank) by Tobybear.

Speech "See-lonce":
Recorded with the mic of my netbook and post procecced.

"Tape Hiss" (or radio noise, as you please):
Airwaves-like sound; a patch on my own, very simple.

Some intruments are routed into a "telephone rack" for an occasional "AM sound", also automated. Some instruments are "humanized" by Tobybears VST-plugin.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
JR

Reincke · Post by **Reincke** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 8:27 am

OK, I have added a second ZIP-file with the audio files INCLUDED:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7x8vzi3llzxh3 ... 9.zip?dl=0

So besides the bass you will hear atleast the drums and the voices. But it sounds no good without the other instruments (soundfonts and VSTs).
JR

tatanka · Post by **tatanka** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 9:10 am

WOW !!!

Hello Reincke, thank you very much for this impressive stuff and description

So many new approaches, I will be busy for weaks trying to reproduce all this !

For example I have never done modulation tracks. Now I understand why this guitar sounds so great opposed to my tryouts until now. I only used a (mostly free) guitar vst/sf2/kontakt patch, even tried out the soundfont you used, but only with additional vst amp/effect.

And all this additional VST and utilities, really great Post

Thank you again and thanks for the possibility to ask some question. I think I will need some days trying to reproduce this but I am sure there will be lot of questions.

I am sure this will give me a great boost in working with mulab and in music "production" (I am only a hobby musician with spare time and mostly looking for fun in th whole thing). At the moment I have a great "plan" for some songs dealing with a trip long ago to Ireland (just came to my mind in some relaxing time over christmas), I am sure your work will help me a lot with this.

Kind regards,

Richard

tatanka · Post by **tatanka** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 9:47 am

Just had a sneak peak (I am at work, so really only a quick look, thanks to the mulab portability possibilities

at the session and WOW again....

I must admit that for my simple compositions until now I used automation only for some track/master volume things, so it is very impressive to see how a "real" composition might look.

Better then a hundred tutorials

Only thing: kind of makes me some fear if I ever will be able to handle such complex composition for myself. But lets see, I will try...

Kind regards,

Richard

bibz1st · Post by **bibz1st** » Tue Jan 20, 2015 10:19 am

tatanka wrote:(I am only a hobby musician with spare time and mostly looking for fun in th whole thing)

I am too but I think the only fundamental difference between a hobby musician and a pro is the pro's do it for a living. Please bear in mind I did say fundamental

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