Korg DS-10 Track 38

This is track 38, a new beginning (nah, not really).

After the disappointments of the past 2 or 3 tracks (those tracks seemed alright on the DS but they actually kinda suck in real life), I think this one, albeit shorter, is more on target. Instead of having patterns being played twice one after the other, which gets a tad boring and predictable after a while, I went with the "let's string a bunch of patterns together" and repeat the whole phrase. This tune has phrase one being repeated and then phrase two ... which is repeated as well. Upon a few re-listens, it looks like a lot of care went into the first phrase and the second one was kind of an afterthought (too bad one can't have 30 seconds songs). Anyways, with only 16 patterns at your disposal, it's a bit hard to make "long" songs without repeating something at some point, so this explains why this track is under 2 minutes. Not that repetition is bad at all but playing a pattern and then playing it again is probably not the greatest thing to do (it's easy though).

It's in C major with a bass line mostly at C but sometimes veering to D, F and G in groups of 4 steps (gotta love those basic "chord" progressions even if they're a bit overused). The lead is between C5 and C7 but there's some grounding here and there with notes hitting way down at C4 (and mixing with the bass line). Of course, it's all relative but I do like putting bass notes in the lead voice track. For the effects, it's just chorus on absolutely everything (love that stuff). If I remember correctly, both voices have the two oscillators slightly out of tune, which gives that nice pitch modulation everybody likes, me included.

And now, about the drums. Gotta admit that drums are a bit of an enigma for me since, if sound too fake, they are usually all I can hear, especially the cymbals. Was listening this morning to Alan Parsons' "I wouldn't want to be like you" and I just can't get past the cymbals (or open hi-hats, whatever that may be in there). Same thing for pretty much any Giorgio Moroder track (love that "From here to eternity" tune though). So, I really try to stay away from them. In any case, what I usually do is the kick on 1,5,9 and 13 and the accent (snare) on 5 and 13 ... all the way through. Yeah, lame, I know, but I kinda like it. Anyways, it's either that or no drums at all or drums that don't sound quite right.

The above is just filler since I usually don't know what to say beside the usual "This is track XX". Also, it's kinda hard to describe a track unless you disassemble the whole thing, showing each voice on its own (but then, you'll need another vid to show that and who cares anyways). This time, I've tried to describe the inner workings of the tune instead of babbling about something that's got nothing to do with it. You got to mix things up, I guess.