NOTION Music Forum

Who would have guessed that Justin Bieber would retire?

I know!

But he did, and this creates a new career opportunity in the teen idol arena, which I am planning to fill with my new persona and pretend musical group, Señor Ramón Habanero (a.k.a., "El Petardo") & The Maglitos™, where this is the basic rhythm section for the first of many exciting Cuban songs, and it now features a surreal interlude, which is fabulous . . .

[NOTE: Everything is done with music notation and virtual instruments in two synchronized NOTION 4 scores, and the NOTION 4 generated audio is recorded as soundbites in Digital Performer 8 (MOTU) in a ReWire 2 session. The producing, mixing, and mastering is done in Digital Performer 8, which among other things makes it possible to have more "heavy" VSTi virtual instruments in the NOTION 4 scores, since there are no VST effects plug-ins in the NOTION 4 scores, all of them having been moved to the Digital Performer 8 project . . . ]

"The Cock-A-Doodle-Oodle Dance" (El Petardo & The Maglitos) ~ Basic Rhythm Section ~ Sassy Salsa Version ~ YouTube music video

Fabulous!

The horn section is making a bit more sense now . . .

[NOTE: The CueMix FX (MOTU) FFT Analysis shows the volume levels for the various frequencies where the frequencies run from 10-Hz to 22,050-Hz, where "Hz" is the abbreviation of "Hertz" and represents "cycles per second". Both axes are logarithmic, and the horizontal axis (x-axis) is divided into three logarithmic sections, where one way to explain this is that it maps to big steps for small stuff and small steps for big stuff, so the section from 10-Hz to 100-Hz is big, even though there are just a few frequencies, while 100-Hz to 1000-Hz is the same width but has 10 times as many frequencies. The vertical axis is linear, but it represents volume, which is logarithmic, so you can consider it either way (linear or logarithmic). All the information is useful, but it is particularly important to observe what happens in the 10-Hz to 100-Hz section, since this is the subsonic bass and deep bass section, and most of it is not heard with standard commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) studio monitors, which makes it difficult do anything if you cannot hear it. However, if you do not have a calibrated full-range studio monitor system, then you can hear it when listening with SONY MDR-7506 headphones (a personal favorite) . . ]

"The Cock-A-Doodle-Oodle Dance" (El Petardo & The Maglitos) ~ Basic Rhythm Section ~ Sassy Salsa Version ~ January 3, 2014 ~ YouTube music video

This version has Cyclop (Sugar Bytes) subsonic and deep bass consistently, and this augments and enhances the pair of MachFive 3 (MOTU) Fender Jazz Bass guitars at far-left and far-right . . .

The trombone was an octave too high, so I dropped it an octave and moved some of the notes even lower (two octaves), which is where trombone texture happens. The Kontakt Factory Library trombone has a falsetto voice, which I did not realize until I added a baritone saxophone and then listened to the trombone, but it is correct now, which is what matters . . .

The horn section needed a baritone saxophone, so I used one of the baritone saxophones from MachFive 3, and I had a bit of FUN with what I am presuming is a type of counterpoint or perhaps counter-melody, because horn sections work better when some of the horn players are doing different stuff every so often from what the other horn players are doing, which makes it more realistic, since horn players tend to be musical anarchists, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

I did a bit more work on the sassy trumpet solo in the interlude and added a second Cyclop (Sugar Bytes) Dubstep bass synthesizer to the fast part to give it a rocking back-and-forth (left-to-right) beat . . .

There now is a horn section in the fast part, but it sounds more like syrupy ice slices, which is an interesting texture; and I used different echo styles on the tenor saxophone and trombone to give them a bit of delay and realism, which I think is working nicely, because the rhythm section sounds tighter . . .

"The Cock-A-Doodle-Oodle Dance" (El Petardo & The Maglitos) ~ Basic Rhythm Section ~ Sassy Salsa Version ~ January 5, 2014 ~ YouTube music video

Lots of FUN!

This version has two trumpets and an added sub bass kick drum, where the "sassy" trumpet from the Cuba Discovery Series (Native Instruments) is augmented with a solo trumpet from the Kontakt 5 Factory Library (Native Instruments) . . .

The kick drum is the large 24" by 18 Sonor Designer kick drum from Addictive Drums (XLN Audio) and is enhanced with the MOTU SubKick plug-in . . .

There now are 22 tracks, and the instruments are spread over two NOTION 4 scores, where everything is 64-bits . . .

Two NOTION 4 scores are required because most of the instruments are "heavy", which at present with the Mac Pro here in the sound isolation studio maps to a maximum of 12 instruments per NOTION 4 score, which is fine with me, because it works . . .

The NOTION 4 generated audio is recorded in Digital Performer 8.05 (MOTU) in ReWire 2 sessions (separately for each of the NOTION 4 scores but in the same ReWire 2 session), and at this stage I work in NOTION 4 when it is a ReWire 2 slave to Digital Performer, which is the ReWire 2 host controller . . .

[NOTE: Two NOTION 4 scores can be open at the same time in a ReWire 2 session for copying, pasting, and modifying the overall structure, but only one NOTION 4 score can be open when doing playback and recording . . . ]

The overall structure of the song is "ABC-ABC-AB", and "B" is the fast part, which is beginning to become clear with respect to its direction, where the key is to count to five and to listen to the buzz at five, which provides the clue to where a rhythm guitar chord will fit nicely. The "buzz" might be the trombone, but it could be the baritone saxophone or Cyclop (Sugar Bytes) Dubstep bass synthesizer. The sub bass kick drum is playing a different pattern in the fast part, which also provides a clue . . .

The "A" and "B" parts generally are defined, at least for purposes the basic rhythm section, and there are echoes on the "sassy" trumpet, but the second trump is mostly dry, which is fabulous . . .

"The Cock-A-Doodle-Oodle Dance" (El Petardo & The Maglitos) -- Basic Rhythm Section ~ January 12, 2014 ~ YouTube music video

Fabulous!

The aliens from outer space beamed me another part, which this time is a pair of Twin 2 synthesizers (FabFilter Software Instruments) panned far-left and far-right doing a 1950's Rock and Roll phrase in the fast section but then switching to doing a simple two-note trill at the end of the fast section, which works nicely as a transition to a similar two-note droning trill in the interlude which is positioned at top-center . . .





At present, the far-left Twin 2 synthesizer sounds louder than the far-right Twin 2 synthesizer, even though both of them actually are the same volume level, so this provides a clue where one of the real electric guitar parts will fit nicely, which is fabulous . . .

"The Cock-A-Doodle-Oodle Dance" (El Petardo & The Maglitos) ~ Basic Rhythm Section ~ January 16, 2014 ~ YouTube music video

Fabulous!