tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90019489111111653352012-01-07T10:20:15.382-08:00The Korg DS-10 is a synthesizer/step sequencer for the Nintendo DS. Ugo Capeto, this blog's author, composes melodic electronica, chillout, downtempo tracks on the Korg DS-10.Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.comBlogger1281100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-15286912079986545462011-12-26T10:41:00.000-08:002012-01-07T10:20:15.394-08:00

Yeah, my Nintendo Korg DS-10 tune output has a bit suffered from my more elaborate music production with FL Studio and VST plugins (see Ugo Capeto music). Nevertheless, I still enjoy the Korg DS-10 because I can lay down an unpretentious tune in no time.Let me try to describe the (tune) creation process: created 1 drum channel, then 2, then 3, then 4. When the 2 synthesizers came online, I kinda

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-78155013532041048022011-12-10T12:04:00.000-08:002011-12-10T12:20:24.673-08:00

I've just been informed that Decktonic has dropped a new Korg DS-10 album. It's a bit different from my usual fare as Deck's stuff is beat driven to the core. So, expect a lot of drums and bass with leads hovering on top.Check it out: Dark Mode by Decktonic. The best part is that it's free to download.By the way, it's good to see those Korg DS-10 albums (still) being released.

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-57650148332502450122011-10-09T07:39:00.000-07:002011-10-09T07:51:39.541-07:00

This 71st track kinda marks the return to my roots, musically speaking: the happy go lucky tune, downtempo style. Yes, I had strayed a bit from that kind of tuneage recently. One more track and the next album is gonna be ready for release on Ugo Capeto Records.I had reserved a pattern (the last one) to end the song but ended up not using it, opting for the not very creative fading out repeated (

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-24577814547917474132011-09-30T19:02:00.000-07:002011-10-05T05:40:02.464-07:00

The more I make tunes on the Nintendo Korg DS-10, the less I have to say about them. I think I may have overused the bass line a bit on this one. Also, I didn't really know how to end the song so I just used a blank pattern as the last pattern to get the tune to fade out nicely (waste of a pattern though).A song usually takes about one week to write, working on it one to two hours most nights,

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-18828302956582522322011-09-24T11:53:00.000-07:002011-09-24T12:06:42.166-07:00

A lot of LFO action (acting upon of the cutoff frequency) in this track. Kinda had to because most of the patterns are repeated 4 times before going on to the next. The tune started out in the key of G major and, at some point, switched to F major. It's pretty rare my tunes have modulation (key change) so it's worth mentioning. The tune is actually two relatively different tunes all bundled into

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-49294703254189371792011-09-03T12:30:00.000-07:002011-09-03T12:50:51.483-07:00

Well, I had so much fun writing Korg DS-10 Track 67 during "hurricane" Irene power outage that I went for the double with this mellow track. This tune is really on the slower side - 42 bpm - but it has some delay to make it "less" slow. The two main synth voices are both saw wave pairs. The first one makes use of the third kaoss pad to modulate the cutoff and peak (makes things a little bit

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-34797130839072930422011-09-02T20:07:00.000-07:002011-09-03T13:10:29.891-07:00

This track marks my return to the Korg ds-10 after a bit of a break which has been spent (in part) working on my non ds-10 tunes (see Ugo Capeto Music on Bandcamp). The reason I came back to the ds-10 is "hurricane" Irene which caused a power outage last Sunday. The beginning of the tune has just the two synthesizer voices going, each of which being a combination of saw and square waves (one

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-13082609221029818932011-08-24T06:37:00.000-07:002011-08-24T06:59:55.169-07:00

DS10Forum.com - The Haunted Mansion by www.ds10forum.com Lots of sound effects in this haunted mansion themed compilation. All tracks were made 100% on the Korg DS-10 with just enough post-processing to guarantee that they all are at the same average audio level. I like those compilations, it's too bad there's not that much promotion around them though (huge buildup and then, poof). They

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-11959017629716661082011-07-21T13:15:00.000-07:002011-07-22T08:12:42.389-07:00

Both HarleyLikesMusic (Harley Raine) and DS-10 Dominator (Rutger Muller) make music a little differently, all they use are Nintendo DS consoles which they create electronic music on and use them to perform LIVE! Do no under estimate the power of the music these guys can create on such a small piece of equipment. Prepare yourself for some mind blowing, raw, heavy, dirty and powerful electronic

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-90639585027740969362011-04-15T04:59:00.000-07:002011-04-15T11:34:04.657-07:00

Slowly but surely, I am getting some Korg DS-10 tracks in the bag. Here's "Track 66" in honor of "Route 66". Again, no drumming (well, at least, not the usual kick, snare, hat, tom combo) on this track since I kinda need the 6 layers for my synth sounds.It took me quite a bit of time to get the patterns to flow (relatively) well together once I had them down but I guess that's part of the game.I

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-22131237758456175742011-03-28T04:53:00.000-07:002011-03-28T04:59:18.145-07:00

After a little bit of slacking off, I, Ugo Capeto, am back with "Track 65". Started working on the tune late Friday night and finished Saturday morning (had to finish it asap for some reason). There's no drums on this one as I wanted to have all 6 channels available for sounds. There are 16 patterns and each pattern is repeated once (couldn't be bothered with arranging the patterns in some clever

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-91605139856855411912011-02-04T19:04:00.000-08:002011-02-04T19:21:59.206-08:00

Track 64 on the Nintendo Korg DS-10. This is a short one (1:42) that starts with just the two synthesizer voices (tuned square waves on synth 1 and detuned saw waves on synth 2) and continues with pretty much all I could muster from the tiny machine (the 2 synths and the 4 drum channels used as synths). So, the tune has a chip tune feel at the beginning but it quickly morphs into something else,

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-52512174901817575822011-02-01T12:13:00.000-08:002011-02-01T12:50:26.438-08:00

My good friend Harley (aka HarleyLikesMusic) over at the DS-10 forum put together a space-themed DS-10 compilation called:A Journey Through SpaceIt's worth checking out, me thinks. It's hosted at "the (friendly) archive", meaning, you can stream and/or download the 22 tunes on the album for free and quite painlessly.There's one track of mine in there, called "Milky Way". As it is now and for

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-77537272689465606612011-01-29T08:17:00.000-08:002011-02-01T12:13:05.835-08:00

This is my 63rd track on the Nintendo Korg DS-10 (the original on NDS lite). I started this tunette (little tune) by selecting a bpm of 33 and putting some delay fx on everything. Now, when you have delay, it's really difficult to get a "complex" melody going so I opted for very simple motifs, maybe, too simple. Indeed, it was actually more like: Let's see what sounds good as the next, don't put

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-45795242699115813022010-12-12T11:34:00.000-08:002010-12-15T14:36:15.462-08:00

This is my 62nd Korg DS-10 track which I named "Track 62". Here, I wanted to use all 16 patterns but without any repeats. In order to last for more than 30 seconds, the bpm had to be lowered quite a bit. I chose 33 bpm for no reason whatsoever, it's just a good number.At first, I wanted to do chords with 3 drum channels loaded with the same sound (some kind of distorted guitar sound) but then I

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-63626247643979581052010-12-06T10:32:00.000-08:002011-01-23T18:05:56.014-08:00

This is the 1st track of what's gonna be my 6th Korg DS-10 album (hopefully). The goal here was to make a chiptune-like track with some chords (major, minor, diminished, augmented, in other words, whatever sounded alright). For some reason, I also wanted to end the tune with some kind of build-up.For the chords, I used three drum channels all loaded with the same sound. The chiptune feel comes

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-7724931508019132532010-11-28T08:33:00.000-08:002011-08-30T10:08:34.168-07:00

My 5th Korg DS-10 album "Pizza" (yeah, got tired of fancy fruits) is available to purchase at: Ugo Capeto - Pizza at Ugo Capeto Records Here's a youtube playlist with all the tracks in the album CD:

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-59274168534147290852010-10-24T07:36:00.000-07:002010-11-28T11:43:42.428-08:00

This is my 60th track (aptly named "Track 60") and it's made (as usual) entirely on the Nintendo Korg DS-10 (original on NDS Lite). No extra effects except fade-in, fade-out and normalization at -6db.All tracks from "Track 49" to "Track 60" (that's 12 of them) are gonna go into my new album CD (the 5th), which should be available pretty soon.I seriously hope that you like the melodies in that one

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-32632739558162123702010-10-23T07:01:00.001-07:002010-10-23T07:49:48.065-07:00

This is Track 59, a 100% Nintendo Korg DS-10 tune. One more track (which is actually already done) and my 5th album is ready to be released to the world.About the song, the first version didn't have the harpsichord sound that you can hear at 0:57 (it was meant to be a bell but it didn't work out) and it kinda felt it was missing a thing or two. Added the extra patch (as a drum) and voila. Don't

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-33958246502172982982010-10-19T05:34:00.000-07:002010-10-19T13:55:04.074-07:00

No, it's not Lady Gaga, it's Gabby La La.This is Gabby La La performing at the 2010 loopfest in Santa Cruz, California. I don't usually show other people's work on this blog but I'll make an exception because this video shows what I've been waiting to see for quite some time: somebody using the Korg DS-10 alongside "real" instruments (that don't have chips). Yep, if I had to play live, I would

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-16974341507093377032010-10-17T11:02:00.000-07:002010-10-18T10:37:02.015-07:00

This is Track 58, a rather "happy go lucky" track on the Nintendo Korg DS-10. Before you say it's a repetitive and simplistic, well, I'm gonna say that it was meant to be that way, eheh (yeah, right).This little tune celebrates the return of the swing in my compositions.How do I write my tunes? I am asking myself this question here because otherwise the article would be real short so here it goes

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-45815666903239940602010-10-16T06:25:00.000-07:002010-10-17T11:09:12.154-07:00

This is Track 57. It kinda came to life as I was finishing Track 56 and discovered a cool patch that I had to use for a new tune (doesn't take much).Percussions on this one are rather simple as it's pretty much all sorts of claves. What are claves? you may ask. Well, it's basically two sticks that you bang together.For the two synthesizer voices, there's really not that much to say except that I

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-17332739878744254922010-10-14T07:44:00.000-07:002010-10-19T10:35:31.485-07:00

Yeah, I am saying "my music" in the title but it could be yours, really.I used to offer all my tracks totally free of charge (like many other "amateur" musicians) at the internet archive under the Creative Commons licensing umbrella but not anymore. Back then, I chose the "ok to use non-commercially with proper attribution" for everything I made. It's not that I thought my tracks were gonna be

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-86805976271797996342010-10-11T16:37:00.000-07:002010-10-14T07:19:00.928-07:00

This is "Track 56", my latest tune on the Nintendo Korg DS-10. If I can still count correctly, this is going to be the 8th track of my 5th Korg DS-10 album (no name yet), which means there are still 4 to do. Actually, the next 4 are done and the next album release is therefore pretty imminent.These days, I am doing a lot of automation using the kaoss x and y grids. Nothing too fancy as I mostly

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-12301922141316089882010-09-16T17:43:00.000-07:002010-09-22T13:06:54.223-07:00

Here's Track 55, my latest track on the Nintendo Korg DS-10.For this track, I wanted to use some delay because, in general, everything sounds better with some mighty echo. So, the 2 main synthesizer voices are both delayed. They make up the bass lines. The drum channels which actually have almost nothing to do with percussion are effects free (you have to be careful with delay because it's pretty

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-84427135384937503992010-09-04T14:13:00.000-07:002010-09-15T11:31:19.857-07:00

This is my 54th track on the Nintendo Korg DS-10.This time, I wanted to do a fast paced tune with a lot of drums. Basically the opposite of what I usually end up doing. Started with the rhythm and then the bass line. After that, it was pretty easy and the song didn't take long to make. It's a bit short though.The beginning is quite reminiscent of the Visage "Fade to Grey" tune. There's also some

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-91417006362946698672010-08-29T08:36:00.000-07:002010-09-15T11:38:44.699-07:00

This is "Track 53", a tune made on the Nintendo Korg ds-10. With a bpm of 36 and without delay, it's quite downtempo.The song is made up of three parts. The first few patterns establish a melodic line in F major (till 0:54). Those patterns are then repeated with 2 or 3 additional voices (till 1:41). Then, the song evolves into something slightly different starting at 2:15 which coincides with the

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-13599826287374392782010-08-15T10:54:00.000-07:002010-08-16T06:17:42.716-07:00

This is "Track 52", another 100% pure Nintendo Korg DS-10 (the original) tune. This one is in D minor.When writing a new song, I always start from scratch, that is, I don't re-use patches from previous sessions and that includes the drums. That doesn't mean I never load the (original) presets from the cart and tweak them. Oh no, I do that sometimes (always a good starting point especially when

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-30251720949720113502010-08-06T10:20:00.000-07:002010-08-06T12:19:07.292-07:00

There are actually two of them available, one that only works on pc windows, the other that should work on any platform that supports java.Let's talk about the first one, written by KidQuaalude. This one works on pc windows only (from windows 95 to 7, I assume). Program loads up a .sav file and shows you the songs and the instruments that are in the .sav file. You can save any of the songs and

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-63144239384330852082010-08-06T10:07:00.000-07:002010-08-06T11:00:00.027-07:00

This little marvel enables you to extract the .sav file (saved data) from any Nintendo DS cart and save it on your computer (has to be pc windows). It is basically a USB stick with a slot for the NDS cart. The interface is quite straightforward as you can either save (from the cart to the pc) or load (from the pc to the cart). The "Plus" means that it can handle newer NDS carts when compared to

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-75677919956301936552010-08-01T07:09:00.000-07:002010-08-04T06:42:38.436-07:00

This is "Track 51". For this one, drumming is limited to the snare as the 3 other drum channels are used as regular synth voices just like the main 2. The bass is all Gs (song is in G major) with a lot of modulation and - best part - it doesn't change throughout the tune.I've decided (on a whim) to offer all my compilation albums as real (you can touch) CDs. There's no middle-man so you can buy

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-8553160206155460602010-07-24T07:27:00.000-07:002010-07-25T06:40:06.318-07:00

This is "Track 50" which is gonna be the 2nd track of my 5th pure Korg DS-10 album (hopefully, there will be an album).It's a really basic tune with delay everywhere. Usually, I try to stay away from any effects but, once in a while, it's fun to do.My ds-10 tune production has slowed down a bit because I am also writing tunes with FL Studio (and probably other DAWs in the near future) on the pc.

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-66302049052211269632010-05-30T11:47:00.000-07:002010-07-30T17:46:20.350-07:00

This is Track 49, the first track of my new album on the DS-10. Hopefully, I'll be able to find a good name for it.After some fiddling around with FL Studio's step sequencer on the pc, it's time to get back to work on the DS-10. I like working with FL Studio but the portability of the DS-10 makes it hard to resist (even if the sound really sucks some times - no complaint, just saying).Another DAW

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-19572768761684956582010-05-19T08:56:00.000-07:002010-06-10T13:05:11.613-07:00

You want to create some tunes but don't know where to start? Well, you don't really need any book to make music if you have a good ear but it certainly doesn't hurt to know one or two things about music theory and composition.So, let me recommend you a couple of books.First one (music theory) is:Music Theory: A Practical Guide for All Musicians (Music Instruction) by Barrett Tagliarino.Second one

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-21236857852357781382010-05-14T11:25:00.000-07:002010-05-14T15:42:54.804-07:00

Yeah, you know, Fruity Loops. ImageLine had to change the name some time ago because the folks at Kellog's thought it was too close a name to "froot loops".Well, I am now the proud owner of FL Studio "fruity" edition, which is basically the step sequencer, piano roll style. Korg DS-10, the original one of course, is cool and all but you've got to mix it up a bit and explore other things. Well,

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-33984711813392146472010-05-08T09:53:00.000-07:002011-08-30T10:07:38.629-07:00

My album "Raspberries" is available to purchase at: Ugo Capeto - Raspberries at Ugo Capeto Records Here's a youtube playlist with all the tracks in the album CD:

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-58262648188768280262010-05-01T15:47:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:56:56.057-07:00

Eheh, that's Track 48. That means that my 4th album "Raspberries" is finished.For this track, I went back to my favorite bpm setting: 20. In some of the patches, I've used the LFO's square wave to modulate the 2nd oscillator's pitch. I am pretty sure I have the 2nd oscillator (slightly) modulate the cutoff frequency here and there.Sometimes, when you reduce the volume of a sound in the step

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-72477452941001432002010-04-24T10:05:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:37:09.120-07:00

Looks like it's Track 47. One more and the new album is done.In this mini tune, the 1st pattern is repeated and then it's all free flowing with no repetition until ... patterns 8 to 16 get an encore. Had to do it otherwise the song would have been a tad on the short side.And now, for something completely different ... I've noticed that when someone on youtube clicks on the "like" button (thumbs

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-31570655508280364312010-04-20T06:23:00.000-07:002010-04-20T08:44:18.530-07:00

Among the many music sharing/selling websites out there, there is one that really sticks out for me. It's magnatune. There's some really good stuff in there and I've made getting into magnatune my (long term) goal. They apparently accept 5% (I think it's even less than that) of submissions. That's actually a good thing, I mean, why bother with a net label that accepts everything, right?So, it

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-74196906802503173392010-04-17T17:11:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:36:24.571-07:00

After Track 45, we have the aptly named Track 46. Another D minor tune but, this time, I've done it, the BPM is 10 (the minimum on the DS-10) and the number of patterns used is exactly 16 and none of them is repeated. Isn't that grand?No drums. Only 4 tracks were used: the 2 synths and 2 of the drum tracks. Maybe I should have used the 2 remaining drum tracks but not sure it would have brought

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-63196071474236569852010-04-11T18:56:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:36:08.872-07:00

Track 45 is here. Not sure if it matters but it's in D minor.For some reason, I wanted to get a BPM as low as possible as it seems it's the only way a track of mine can last more than 3 minutes (not really true: I just love slow moving tunes). Couldn't get anything going at that low a BPM so upped it up to 20 and went from there.I also wanted not to repeat any pattern. Well, only the last pattern

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-46432907363517350832010-04-04T18:27:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:35:35.219-07:00

My 4th album is going along smoothly with the addition of my latest track, which I quite creatively named "Track 44".What can be said about this mini tune? Well, it's in G minor, the BPM is 120 and it takes a little while to warm up. Hope you like it.The more I use the DS-10, the happier I am. It's perfect ... at least for me. Not sure I'd change anything. Oh, wait ... there's the DS-10+ now for

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-37971580176113458692010-03-27T20:24:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:34:59.940-07:00

This is Track 43.Well, this one starts with some rather upbeat patterns but I kinda got tired of that kind of stuff pretty quick. So here comes the slower stuff but it was a bit of a problem to go from fast to low tempo.I think I went a little bit crazy with the drums on this one. Notice the explosion at the end to finish the song, always wanted to do that. Probably the first and last time

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-24146769684362651342010-03-20T07:28:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:34:14.352-07:00

This is track 42, the 6th track of my upcoming 4th album called "Raspberries".Ok, this is very short (1:27). There's a phrase that gets repeated a lot, it starts (faintly) at 0:17 or thereabout. Really liked that little "riff" and couldn't resist doing variations on it throughout most of the rest of this mini-tune.About the drums, we all (Korg DS-10 users) know by now that each drum sound is

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-11879588715011023532010-03-16T07:05:00.000-07:002010-03-16T12:15:18.017-07:00

Maybe I should have titled this article: How to reproduce a tune on the DS-10? but it doesn't sound as good.Reproducing a song can be pretty overwhelming especially if you are not too good at isolating tracks within a song and, most importantly, if you are unable to figure out the notes within a voice.Well, don't despair, because there's a way to do it rather painlessly.First, you need to find

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-64261912579309957132010-03-13T06:52:00.000-08:002010-07-29T12:33:55.447-07:00

Seems my tracks are getting shorter and shorter. For the better, I hope. Anyways, this is track 41 of the upcoming "Raspberries" album.For this track, I paid a little bit more attention to the drum bit that's neither the kick nor the snare, I am talking about the hi-hat, eheh. Basically, just changed the volume on some of the hits to create a rhythm that's not the usual (for me, at least) "let's

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-89667137541221474802010-03-06T08:02:00.000-08:002010-07-29T12:33:30.405-07:00

This is the (very short) track 40, a tune in the scale of D minor.This time, I've tried to repeat as few patterns as possible. With the bpm being relatively low, the tune is still able to last for more than 30 seconds, 1 mn and 40 seconds to be exact.It seems I am really a minimalist regarding bass lines. Once again, it's limited to all D4's or D3's. The sound is made up of the two slightly out

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-13373334155764146042010-02-27T07:55:00.000-08:002010-07-29T12:33:03.749-07:00

Here we are with the highly anticipated track 39.The lead voice is based on the following phrase: C4, D4 sharp, D4 and A3 sharp. There are some variations, of course, but that phrase comes back all the time. Well, kinda, because at about 2:25, the track is clearly veering towards a pretty different phrase and that's when I ran out of patterns. So, finishing the song was becoming a bit of a

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-35833913038481275362010-02-19T19:49:00.000-08:002011-08-30T10:07:07.277-07:00

My album "Lychees" is available to purchase at: Ugo Capeto - Lychees at Ugo Capeto Records Here's a youtube playlist with all the tracks contained in the album CD:

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-29350237054350724222010-02-19T05:01:00.000-08:002010-07-29T12:32:38.988-07:00

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

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-44783451164511624072010-02-13T17:16:00.000-08:002010-07-29T12:32:19.440-07:00

Here's track 37 which is the 1st track of what should be my 4th album "Raspberries". Again, it's not a very good track. What's happening to me? Where's my Muse? Oh well, here's to hoping for better inspiration next time around.Hmmm, after letting the good times roll and a few re-listens, it doesn't sound too bad so I take back what I said earlier (above).The following is just me babbling around

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-40134404872040973002010-02-06T13:09:00.000-08:002010-07-29T12:31:58.537-07:00

This is track 36, the 12th and last track of my 3rd album "Lychees" (the tasty fruits, not to be confused with leeches).This short track gave me a few headaches as it just wouldn't come together quite right. I am not sure it's exactly what I wanted to do but, at the end and after a few (re)listens days later, it's a bit disappointing. Maybe it's time to move on and do something else? Ok, after

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-73280654271240474042010-01-29T05:18:00.000-08:002010-07-29T12:31:39.972-07:00

One more track and it's a done deal regarding the 3rd album ("Lychees" is the chosen name). The youtube version got a little bit clipped at the end (not as smooth as it was supposed to be) but I really don't want to delete and re-upload. The embedded mp3 above is all good, so it doesn't really matter after all.For this track, I kinda went back to my roots with each pattern being played twice. You

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-49384436177215375442010-01-23T08:40:00.000-08:002010-07-29T12:31:24.281-07:00

Track 34 has arrived, double yeah !I have finally discovered that one could change the swing setting on this wonderful piece of software. Just kidding, I knew it was there, just always kept it at 50. For this little piece, it is set at 62 and it gives the tune a little bit of ... swing.What does the swing setting do? Well, it changes the duration of the odd-numbered steps or maybe it's the

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-6446968423083204412010-01-09T14:13:00.000-08:002010-07-29T12:31:06.055-07:00

Track 33 is here, yeah !Ok, I think I am getting lazy here because the sounds in the tune are pretty much the same as for Track 32.Even lazier because the drums and the bass line are pretty much unchanged all through the song. A shame, I know. Sometimes I wonder if I should bother with drums. Note that one of the drum tracks is used for that bell sound that shows up pretty much all through the

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-55390723880221428812009-12-25T08:51:00.000-08:002010-07-29T12:30:39.134-07:00

A milestone has been reached with this 32nd Korg DS-10 song.As you can hear, I am quite fond of glockenspiel types of sounds. Anyways, the song started in the C major key and ended in D minor. Difference between C major and D minor, one might ask? Well, not much really, except that you have a B flat instead of a B when you climb up the scale. Proud to announce that absolutely no delay effect was

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-79740507023759283852009-12-21T17:00:00.000-08:002010-07-29T12:30:17.148-07:00

The long awaited track 31 is here!The song's existence started on my Casio keyboard (SK-1, to be precise, although any keyboard could have been used for this task). Once transferred onto the Nintendo Korg DS-10, well, it kinda evolved into something else. There's a slow tempo at the beginning (the Casio part) and a faster beat after a while (the Nintendo part).Didn't really know how to end the

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-62638757671321828632009-11-21T15:16:00.000-08:002010-07-29T12:30:02.507-07:00

This is track 30 already. Time really flies.Not that much to talk about the song. On the other hand, I would like to talk about editing drums on the Korg DS-10.Here it goes ... Well, I find it very hard to edit the drums because what you hear in the drum editing panel never ever sounds the same as what you hear when you are in pattern mode. It's quite annoying (bah, not really). Is there

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-5161761858443323382009-11-14T11:32:00.000-08:002009-11-16T05:51:14.039-08:00

Here's the patch for the lead voice on track 28, as requested by my good friend Claude.As usual, I was fiddling around with all the knobs without much of a purpose and that's how it came about.To be honest, I am not sure if that's how an overly distorted or saturated electric guitar is supposed to sound, so please don't sue me if that's not the case.

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-7385614049939632992009-11-14T07:47:00.000-08:002010-07-29T12:29:47.101-07:00

Here's my latest track. I have a pretty cool name for it: Track 29.In this track, I use the 2nd synthesizer channel for a clap patch with variable volume. That's right, no bass line on this one.The lead voice melody is quite minimalist as it employs just a very limited number of notes from the C major scale, the most popular scale in the history of music. Also, the rhythm is very monotonous, but

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-57424392687956874952009-11-08T07:33:00.001-08:002010-07-29T12:29:30.843-07:00

A little song I made, called "Track 28".For some reason, the track ended up with a distorted/saturated electric guitar sound (I think). It came about pretty much by pure luck as I usually have no idea what sound I am looking for when I start (in other words, no idea what I am doing).The bass line is very rudimentary as are the drum tracks. It's just plain easier that way. I should really go into

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-22875455451341489962009-10-24T11:01:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:29:15.311-07:00

This is track 27. Yep, time flies.Due to some concerns regarding the sharpness of my videos, I've upped the ante by capturing a window that's twice as big as before and reducing the frame rate of winamp's milkdrop visualization soft. Hopefully, this will work out. Success! The video has the HQ button ... finally.Anyways, another C major scale tune, with some percussion beside the usual bass drum

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-38684153466783043872009-10-20T18:34:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:28:56.580-07:00

This is track 26 of my upcoming 3rd album, called lychees (it's currently just 10 songs short).The first pattern was created at random using the KAOSS pad and a rather lucky use of the stylus. Got me started and surprisingly enough, that's the only pattern where I made use of randomization.As you have probably noticed, I am very fond of the C major scale, as most of us are.Not sure why but my

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-87603502030130131182009-10-17T14:04:00.000-07:002009-10-20T12:16:16.719-07:00

Have you ever tried to write a song picking notes at random? Of course, most of the time, it's gonna sound like crap as is but if you keep at it and add some delay when all is said and almost done, it may end up sounding decent and worth saving (for youtube at least).Practically, one would do the random thing on one pattern and then copy/paste/modify that pattern in sequencer mode to build up a

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-64385453958433993142009-10-10T09:35:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:28:39.069-07:00

This is the long awaited track 25, first track of my 3rd album, which will probably be called lychees, assuming it can be finished.It's just a concatenation of 3 little phrases I had in store. Kinda went loco with this one putting echo on absolutely everything.korg ds-10 track 25Uploaded by korgds10. - Watch more music videos, in HD!The same exact track with a different visualization on

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-11849723320756792632009-09-30T08:37:00.001-07:002009-10-01T11:40:25.363-07:00

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to (instantly) recognize intervals when a song is played on the radio? If you have been playing music for years, it's probably easy but for the rest of us, mortals, it might be a tad difficult.A good way to recognize intervals is to match what you hear with the beginning of a well-known song. If you have a browser (who doesn't?), there's this free web application

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-57041033824328814102009-09-25T17:53:00.000-07:002011-08-30T10:06:33.928-07:00

My album "Kiwis" is available to purchase at: Ugo Capeto - Kiwis at Ugo Capeto Records Here's a youtube playlist with all the tracks in the album CD (some of them have been reworked just for the CD release):

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-3358102524519178282009-09-20T11:32:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:28:17.866-07:00

This is track 24, which (finally) completes my 2nd compilation album of 12 mini-tunes.For this track (in C major), I decided to create 4 melodic (I hope) phrases which get repeated 2 times during the song. The 1st repeat is a straight repeat with no changes, the 2nd repeat gets a full drum combo. I kinda feel I had to do that to somehow make the melodies stick. In between the repeats, there's a

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-37648928074861969062009-09-13T17:27:00.001-07:002010-07-29T12:27:57.065-07:00

Track 23 has arrived! One more and my 2nd album, (already) called "kiwis", will be released.It is in the key of B♭ major and that's about all I can write about it.Actually no, out of the 6 tracks that are available on the Nintendo DS-10, I used 5 of them: the 2 synths of course and 3 drum channels (one for a bass drum, one for a snare drum and one for a closed hi-hat). For some reason, I didn't

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-79608562598963700812009-09-03T08:43:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:27:32.885-07:00

Track 22 has arrived! It's the true sequel to track 21.Don't really know what to say when posting tracks so let me share something with you that's not directly related to the Korg DS-10, but close enough. Well, here we go, I have a soft spot for tiny 80's CASIO keyboards, in particular the CASIO VL-1 (VL-TONE) and similar ones. Feel blessed since I already have a CASIO VL-1. It's a nice little

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-89890298819091289672009-08-29T19:37:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:26:52.281-07:00

Track 21 on the Nintendo Korg DS-10.F major is the key signature of this mini tune. As usual, I fiddled around on my Casio keyboard to create a couple of melodic (hopefully) phrases, which I then transcribed onto the Korg DS-10 as patterns. Once on the DS-10, I just play around with those few patterns to make up the rest of the song.For the sounds part, I just load up presets and turn knobs here

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-2029389893449002862009-07-26T08:28:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:26:37.066-07:00

This is track 20.Was listening to MGMT's Kids song (which I find really good because of the simplicity of the melody) and kinda wanted to do a cover as my 20th song. Well, let's just say that I kept the A major scale and dropped the rest. Doing covers is not that interesting, in my opinion (it's another way of saying I was not able to pull it off, eheh).I did end up making a cover of "Kids" by

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-69898391873425426962009-07-20T19:12:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:26:18.948-07:00

Track 19 is done (finally)!What I have learned doing this track is that it's probably a good idea to listen to a song a bunch of times before publishing it. Indeed, a pattern sequence that may sound good one day might not be so pleasing the next (usually the day after the song was uploaded to youtube).For the next track, I will probably dive feet first into the wonderful world of covers, since

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-10909942908321285752009-07-11T07:58:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:26:00.797-07:00

Slowly but surely, we're getting near the 20 tune mark. Here's track 18 that will be featured in my upcoming 2nd compilation CD, called kiwis.On a related note, I received the following question:Is there a way to clear a pattern in one step, or two steps, so that DS-10 patterns returns to the initial 4/4 boom-boom and a blip-tone?Since I couldn't answer directly (invalid e-mail, it seems), here's

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-71783578197616970622009-07-01T14:36:00.000-07:002009-07-11T07:58:23.467-07:00

Video shows the setting for 5 drums: kick, snare, closed hi-hat, open hi-hat (those 4 are in the drum section) and distorted tom (loaded into the 2nd synth of pattern 6).This is the work of ChrisLody who was nice enough to let me embed his video here. Thanks Chris.I wish he had recorded each drum separately though, one after the other. He probably could not resist making cool drum patterns with

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-32750552135931145942009-06-27T17:21:00.001-07:002009-06-27T17:34:17.963-07:00

Settings for a vibraphone (vibes) patch.Not to be confused with the xylophone that's played on wooden bars, the vibraphone, or vibes, is played on metallic (aluminum) bars.This patch uses 2 triangle wave VCOs, the 2nd VCO pitched much higher than the 1st one. The envelope is all decay and release, there's neither attack nor sustain.There is a cord from a triangle LFO wave to the amplitude (VCA IN

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-59465864473064616252009-06-21T15:07:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:25:03.183-07:00

This is an A minor tune, the most used key in the musical world after C major.The lead is some kind of brass instrument, a modified version of the trumpet patch. The bass line is a modified BASS4 default patch with some delay added (C4-E4 are the notes, if I recall correctly).The drums are the clap patch and the default hi-hat. That's two, which leaves two additional channels for lead or bass

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-91537385512074968572009-06-18T17:40:00.000-07:002009-06-19T09:31:37.630-07:00

Trumpet patch for the Nintendo Korg DS-10.Actually harder than it sounds, the trumpet. Just one Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) is used and it's a sawtooth waveform. Still wondering if there should be a 2nd oscillator though. Couldn't make it work any better with two.The pitch has been raised one octave. I guess you could leave it at C4 and play higher notes.The amplitude is modulated with a

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-76644279039858573202009-06-16T17:04:00.000-07:002009-06-16T17:16:58.372-07:00

Video showing the settings for my version of the clarinet sound.Two oscillators are needed for the clarinet patch to sound alright: one is a square wave, the other a sawtooth wave. The tricky part is to find the right balance between the filter cutoff frequency (low-pass filter) and the amount of filter cutoff envelope. Well, at least, that's what surfaced from my fiddling around.The envelope is

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-27139269882150073882009-06-14T17:02:00.000-07:002009-07-14T18:07:46.077-07:00

Settings (synth edit and patch cords) for flute patch.This patch makes use of a single oscillator generating a triangle wave (a sawtooth wave should work equally well).Could not get a good flute sound with the pitch at the 4th octave, so it is up 2 octaves. Maybe you can get a good flute sound at C4 but it just didn't want to work for me.There is a patch cord from a low frequency triangle wave to

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-59526635864840150282009-06-10T16:57:00.000-07:002009-06-10T17:16:52.322-07:00

Video shows the synth settings for a clap patch.A pretty easy patch to do since it's all noise on VCO1 with nothing on VCO2. As usual for percussion sounds, the Envelope Generator (EG) is just some decay. Filtering wise, the low-pass filter takes out the higher harmonics.Didn't really spend much time on the other knob settings. So it's very likely this clap patch could be improved.Speaking of

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-59611782434170143542009-06-08T17:18:00.000-07:002009-06-26T20:43:56.046-07:00

Video showing the drum settings for my version of the cowbell.To be honest, it's a bit tricky and I had to get some help from synth secrets to get it kinda right.The first Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) is a triangle wave. The second VCO is also a triangle wave about 2 octaves higher and not synced.The Voltage Controlled Filter (VCF) is of the band-pass kind.The Envelope Generator is just a

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-79959993295654903792009-06-07T11:59:00.001-07:002009-06-08T12:45:37.953-07:00

My attempt at an organ (any kind of organ) patch. Far from the real thing but what can you do?Oscillators 1 and 2 are triangle waves. The 2nd Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) is tuned down and it is not synced.The tune is of course the first few bars of "Take me out to the ball game". As you can hear, this organ patch is quite far from what you would get at the seventh inning stretch in any

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-32159224267263654052009-06-07T08:06:00.000-07:002009-07-14T18:07:08.836-07:00

Electric piano patch for the Nintendo Korg DS-10. Well, at least, my version of it.Obviously quite similar to the piano patch shown earlier. The electric piano's second oscillator is higher in pitch (compared to the piano patch). Don't think you need to sync the 2nd oscillator by the way.

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-30303067053066169792009-06-06T13:35:00.000-07:002009-07-14T18:06:40.001-07:00

This video shows the settings for a piano patch. The audio is C4 on the main beat (80 beats per minute). The first still shows the synthesizer settings and the second still shows the patch cords. Each still stays on for about 10 seconds.Oscillator 1 is a sawtooth wave. Oscillator 2 is also a sawtooth wave but set at a higher pitch. It is in sync with oscillator 1. The envelope has no attack.Patch

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-2259096148838287752009-05-30T07:30:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:24:39.167-07:00

Can't say I've been too creative with this short composition. It seems you can get addicted to the delay effect. Yes, it's gonna be time to get away from echoing everything since it has a tendency to make you a tad sloppy on the melodic front.I am thinking of inviting guest Korg DS-10 musicians on this blog by embedding their youtube videos here. Wouldn't do it without their express permission of

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-8510082029872196622009-05-24T18:46:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:24:24.322-07:00

In this 15th track, I have tried to develop the melody across several patterns. Didn't really mean to do that but after putting the echo on the lead voice and reducing the number of notes to about 8 per measure, it seemed quite natural to have the melody go across the patterns. I usually repeat each pattern once but not this time.The bass line is again all C4s on the first 8 beats of the patterns

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-34429764586272831432009-05-22T20:57:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:24:08.918-07:00

Few notes but a lot of modulation for the lead voice on this 14th track. Turned the LFO (Modulation Generator frequency in Korg lingo) to the max to modulate both Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCOs). The Envelope Generator (EG) to which I gave a rather long Release is also modulating the Voltage Controlled Amplifier (VCA). This gives you a quite dynamic lead voice which makes it easier on the

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-79004490353615414522009-05-21T19:04:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:23:54.506-07:00

It was about time to start a new CD! Have already found a name for the follow-up to coconuts. Indeed, it's gonna be called kiwis (unless there's something better out there).Don't know about you but I am kinda always troubled by the snare drum. After a while, that's all I can hear in a song and this explains why it isn't much featured on this blog's compositions.As usual, the bass line is all C4s:

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-50284254643451842152009-04-23T08:25:00.000-07:002011-08-30T10:06:08.369-07:00

My album "Coconuts" is available to purchase at: Ugo Capeto - Coconuts at Ugo Capeto Records Here's a youtube playlist containing all the tracks in the album CD (some of them have been reworked just for the CD release):

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-10566157156255178922009-04-22T18:11:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:23:24.396-07:00

It has finally arrived! The slow haunting tune that seems to last forever. It is indeed slow (20 bpm) and goes on for what seems an eternity (over 4 minutes). The tracks are delayed to create that reverb effect. The lead voices are predefined bass patches (BASS2 and BASS7). Oh, almost forgot, it is the first time (on this blog) that a track ends on a fade out.

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-16057409945968928872009-04-21T17:06:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:23:10.218-07:00

This little number (the 11th already) which lasts for more than 2 minutes (a first on this blog) features a (sophisticated) switch between two lead voices (another first). Well, that's about all there is to say about it.It would be nice to have a little library of classic instrument patches. Gonna try to help the cause in upcoming posts. "Try" is of course the key word here since sound synthesis,

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-53475631088485042552009-04-17T18:27:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:22:56.750-07:00

Back to the C major scale for this 10th track.Question of the day: do you think the Korg DS-10 "fad" will have staying power?The Korg DS-10 is in my opinion close to being perfect. You can synthesize sounds to your heart's content with the most advanced analog synthesizer technology (granted, it's from the 80s but it may not be such a bad thing after all) and create songs with either the keyboard

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-46039473931629663912009-04-16T17:14:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:22:37.559-07:00

This 9th track is written in the key of D minor. The bass line is all BASS2 16th D notes. For some reason, I kinda like the bass playing that fast monotonous beat. The drum track is just a kick on the main beat and a hi-hat on the down beat later on. There is some delay on the lead and bass lines, just a tad.Still trying to figure out the best way to upload the mp3s corresponding to the videos.

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-20461636142374502802009-04-14T17:13:00.000-07:002009-04-14T19:02:35.861-07:00

To calibrate the LFO (Modulation Generator in KORG's jargon), some audio editing software is needed to measure the period of the modulated signal.The process is quite simple: you route the LFO (square waveform) to the Voltage Controlled Amplifier (VCA) or simply amplitude, turn the LFO amount to the maximum setting and play/record a note on the keyboard.Looking at the recorded signal, the time in

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-59883177042832025422009-04-13T17:46:00.000-07:002009-04-14T19:02:35.861-07:00

As you know, the 2nd oscillator of the Korg DS-10 (VCO 2) can be tuned relative to the 1st oscillator (VCO 1) for each synthesizer. It does not hurt to have an idea of how the tuning knob is calibrated for patching purposes. This is what we're gonna look at right now.You can raise the pitch of the 2nd oscillator by turning the knob to the right and lower it by turning to the left. Now that the

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-28397650412295467462009-04-12T15:43:00.000-07:002009-04-14T19:02:35.862-07:00

To calibrate attack, you set the decay, sustain and release to zero, press a key on the keyboard (keep it pressed) and measure how long it takes for the note to go from zero to the maximum amplitude (it will drop to zero after the maximum is reached since there's no sustain).To calibrate decay, you set the attack, sustain and release to zero, press a key (keep it pressed) and measure how long it

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-22557423233043056262009-04-12T08:14:00.000-07:002009-05-11T04:29:03.916-07:00

Time to calibrate that filter cutoff frequency knob! To do that, you use a noise source on oscillator 1 and crank the resonance (peak) all the way up. Since resonance occurs at the cutoff frequency, when you push the resonance to the max, the cutoff frequency will peak and it's quite easy to see/hear.With an audio editing software that has harmonic analysis capability, as you turn the knob, you

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-24073275229585414912009-04-11T13:01:00.000-07:002009-04-14T19:02:35.862-07:00

The slope of a low-pass filter refers to how much attenuation you get as you go up one octave on the frequency scale. Usually, synthesizers have two filter slopes available: 12 db and 24 db. If we look at a 12 db low-pass filter and a given (harmonic) frequency past the cutoff, the frequency one octave higher is attenuated by 12 db. Same idea for the 24 db filter. The 24 db filter has more slope

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9001948911111165335.post-65593068641582887052009-04-09T19:47:00.000-07:002010-07-29T12:22:03.370-07:00

For some reason, I went with a 120 bpm beat for this 8th track of my upcoming debut CD. The bass line is C4 all the way, no variation at all in the "groove". The drum line is just a drum kick on the main beat until you get to the main motive where sophistication slightly prevails. There is some delay in the 2nd synth, that is the bass.

Ugo Capetohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03097869670866371792noreply@blogger.com0