Chas Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 Hi all, I finally got round to uploading another of my XW demo tracks. This also uses both my XW-P1 and G1. Enjoy! https://soundcloud.com/twilight_dissidenthero/satellite 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Saucier Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 I like it. Sort of an 80's vibe to me. Those first 3 notes had me thinking Star Trek opening but then went another direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chas Posted May 27, 2016 Author Share Posted May 27, 2016 Cheers Brad! Yes, a very definite 80's vibe to that track. Suffice to say that you can hear which era I grew up in (1979 - 85), in particular synth pop artists of that era. Most noticeably Gary Numan and Ultravox, with the use of a Moog sounding bass line, retro drum machine sound and lead strings. Shows how the P1 and G1 are equally able to do both modern and vintage sounds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Hooper Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 Nice! It reminded me of late 70s/early 80s Tangerine Dream. Good stuff. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlenK Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 Okay, I don’t usually necropost, but I gotta ask Chas a question about the pad sound in this _great_ track, which somehow I missed back in 2016. Did the Hex Layer tone use a DSP effect and if so, was it the phaser or a flanger? Whatever was used, it sounds really good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XW-Addict Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Fondly remember when the forum was hot on these keyboards 🙂 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlenK Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 Great times, right? It’s been almost 12 years since the P1 and G1 were released and more than 10 years since I got my own P1. I can’t say I have done a lot with it beyond research and write a certain infamous document related to it. And of late, I haven’t had a lot of time to spend with it. But every time I sit down at it, I am reminded of how much it can do that I really like and how well I think it still holds up to more recent offerings I have seen. I sometimes get GAS about newer synths but then I realize I haven’t even really tapped the potential of the few synths I already own (P1, PX-560, Roland D-10). I will grant that It can take a lot of work to drag decent tones out of the P1, depending on what “decent” means to you, but “decent” it most certainly can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chas Posted January 30 Author Share Posted January 30 On 1/27/2024 at 11:36 PM, AlenK said: Okay, I don’t usually necropost, but I gotta ask Chas a question about the pad sound in this _great_ track, which somehow I missed back in 2016. Did the Hex Layer tone use a DSP effect and if so, was it the phaser or a flanger? Whatever was used, it sounds really good. Wow! I'm kind of chuffed that a track I wrote/ recorded years ago (very roughly I might add) still manages to generate interest! Maybe there's hope for me as a songwriter after all! 😄 To answer your question, I'm 99% certain that the pad sound used in that track is a stock Hex Layer preset called "Sleep State", and looking at page 3 of the XW-P1 Appendix, it's in the Hex Layer Bank P2-2 (Program Change = 22, Bank Select MSB = 97). It is indeed a really good sound and I was using it a lot. I did look into its settings once and there is indeed a Phaser involved, possibly some other DSPs. However, it sounded so good stock I just left it as it was. The Bass tone was, I'm pretty certain, a custom patch made to sound like an old Moog, and the solo lead sound was most likely a stock Solo Synth MiniMoog style patch. I forget which one exactly, I'd have to fire up my P1 to find out for sure. I can also remember that the drums were an electro style set being played by my XW-G1's step sequencer, which also played the bass line via the arpeggiator. The XW-P1 played the Sleep State pad sound, and also the MiniMoog style solo in the middle of the song (I switched between the two sounds while recording). It was interesting for me to revisit the track again, and I can really hear which of my influences were coming through. I'd say it was most heavily inspired by the Rage in Eden era Ultravox, especially with the pulsing Moog bass and the strings. Definitely some Numan and Jarre with the string sound also, though overall it sounds most to me in the style of one of the Rage in Eden album tracks. As some of use have recently rediscovered when revisiting the XW-P1 (check out Mike Martin's demo I posted a few months back), it's still a powerful and great sounding synthesizer all these years later. I might have to dust mine down and get inspired all over again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlenK Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 Great influences and it sounds like we have similar musical tastes. Ultravox (Midge Ure era) is one of my favorite bands. I used to buy all their albums in the eighties (on vinyl, of course). Rage in Eden is one of their best. “The Voice” is a classic song from it. And of course, Numan and Jarre were great in their day too, although I was a little more selective with them when it came to spending money on albums. Numan is still going strong and seems like a hell of a nice guy to boot, as well as disarmingly modest for a musician with his discography. Re your composition, I was recently trawling through SoundCloud to see what XW-P1/G1 material I could find. Your song stood out as one of the best tracks, and certainly in my mind the best original composition I could find using the XW synths. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chas Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 (edited) On 1/30/2024 at 7:56 PM, AlenK said: Great influences and it sounds like we have similar musical tastes. Ultravox (Midge Ure era) is one of my favorite bands. I used to buy all their albums in the eighties (on vinyl, of course). Rage in Eden is one of their best. “The Voice” is a classic song from it. And of course, Numan and Jarre were great in their day too, although I was a little more selective with them when it came to spending money on albums. Numan is still going strong and seems like a hell of a nice guy to boot, as well as disarmingly modest for a musician with his discography. Re your composition, I was recently trawling through SoundCloud to see what XW-P1/G1 material I could find. Your song stood out as one of the best tracks, and certainly in my mind the best original composition I could find using the XW synths. We have very similar tastes, and I'm guessing we are probably similar in age going by the music we grew up with! In the first half of the 80s, Ultravox were my favourite band and I was buying all their albums and singles on vinyl (I still have them all). However, they lost me with their 1986 U-Vox album, which going by Midge's biography, even the band realised was a mistake (Midge himself stated that they should've called it "U-Bend" as that's where it belonged!) Luckily they did make amends decades later when they reformed for their "Return to Eden" tours, and though it's not quite at the level of their best work, their final "Brilliant" album was a better way to close the book than "U-Vox"! I saw them quite a few times for the three reunion tours, which in hindsight was a good thing as it looks like they are finished for good now. I also like the John Foxx era Ultravox, with Systems of Romance being one of my all time favourite albums, along with with the Midge era Rage in Eden. I can never understand some of the fans that act as if you can only like one version or the other, and that blame Midge for continuing the band when asked to join by Billy, Chris and Warren. I also felt that if anything it was John's fault, because if he hadn't left the band high and dry then Midge would never have been able to join! I was similar to you with Numan and Jarre. I love Numan's "Machine Music" period, but wasn't so keen on what he was doing from the mid 80s onwards. I saw him in 1985 on his "The Fury" tour where he'd gone all slick funk and dressing up like Robert Palmer. Thankfully he continued to evolve and re-invent himself, gaining new respect and acclaim from the mid 90s onwards and he is now recognised as a true pioneer and major influence on many artists and bands. I also follow him on Social Media, and he really does come across as a genuine, down to earth family man who dotes on his family and friends. We definitely need more Numans in this world, and maybe that will happen now that one of his daughters has made the jump into the professional music world. As for Jarre, like many, I loved his Oxygene and Equinoxe albums, and some of the Magnetic Fields album, but I didn't gel so much with his subsequent work. I still respect him though, and admire him for his longevity and also those massive concerts that he performed! Thanks again for the compliment regarding my "Satellite" track on SoundCloud, though it's pretty rough. I feel that my "Sky Path" track also using my XW-P1 and G1 is the better composition, and that's why I chose that track to make my first ever Music Promo Video! If you haven't heard the slightly tweaked version on my YouTube channel, feel free to check it out 🙂 Edited February 15 by Chas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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