Ukulele used in song "The Magic Stone"

I managed to use the ukulele in this song. It's a song about love and finding a stone on a lakeside many years ago (hence the pic below...any excuse to get a photo in!!) and keeping safe waiting to give it to someone amazing. That's something I did recently!

I think the uke adds a really interesting colour. In the middle it sounds like a harp. It's still a strange instrument to play though, keeping hold of it as you change chord seems to be quite an issue for me.

I also used it in a session for one of my clients which showed up my lack of mastery of this little green thing quite nicely.

Here's my tweet with a link

https://twitter.com/SimonPainterPrd/status/449176603671552000

Watch the video for "Singularity"

See the video to "Singularity" http://youtu.be/iwvZkGWWO9Q
Find out more about it on my photography blog http://simephotograph.blogspot.co.uk/

Video for "Singularity"

As well as music I am into photography and create abstract images by moving the camera whilst shooting. Over the past week I have been experimenting with this technique to create a series of images like a time-lapse so that I can create a video for "Singularity". It's looking strange but interesting...a bit like "Singularity".
I will be putting on Youtube when it's finished so check back here if you want to see the finished thing.
See my photography website here and get an insight into what the video may look like.
Here's one I did earlier!

Singularity. A track using one guitar note and Melodyne software.

I've been amazed at Celemony's Melodyne software for years and try and use it in creative ways and not just as a pitch correction tool. It's so much more than that. It gives things a weird and interesting texture when you stretch notes for crazy amounts. I've used this to create pads before by slowing done tracks by 10 times and using the new strange but wonderful sound as the basis of something new.
I wanted to push this a bit further so I decided to create a piece using just one note from an acoustic guitar. In the end I recorded an open A string and a fretted A on the bottom E string and panned them so I had a stereo A.
I then put this into Melodyne and pitched it through a couple of octaves giving me 20 or so notes to play with.
Using Melodyne editor in it's standalone form I then set to work moving stretching and chopping notes up to create my piece. Here's what it looked like when I was finished.

As you can see I've used many different forms of my one note. I've played around with the formant of different notes to change the tone and also altered the levels of different notes with the gain tool.

As you can see here you can manipulate the notes in any way you like.

When I was done in Melodyne I exported a WAV file and brought it into Cubase for a bit of ambience and some level smoothing. There are some raw edges but I kind of like them and it adds to the atmosphere.

I think the finished piece has an interesting weird quality to it and will definitely be exploring this technique in the future.

Listen to the track here

Let me know what you think.

Simon

Using the Ukele

I'm working on a song in which I've used the ukele. There is a section in the middle where it sounds almost harp like. I've also been experimenting with Melodyne to create a pad sound from acoustic guitar chords. I used it to stretch out the notes of the chord so they took on a strange quality. I doubled and panned this with the original to give the sound some width.  I will post the finished song here shortly when I've whipped it into shape!
I've also just downloaded Steinberg's new Android remote controller app and will be investigating whether it will be of use, especially when I'm recording my own vocals.

It's a New Year

It's a new year and I hope it's going to be a good one for all of us. I was given a ukele so I'll be working out how to play it and I'll post some examples when I've got to grips with it a bit more. I've changed some of my studio pics on the website so you will get a better idea of what it's all about.

Simon