Fun with Synths

Here’s a new clip I’ve just finished.  I thought I’d give a bit of a visual demonstration of how fun it is to make music on synths, but taking a sort of “old school” approach (although with a few mod cons I have to admit).  If you’re a fan of Flight of The Conchords, then you’ll know where I have taken my inspiration from here (particularly at the end).

Animated Clip

Well we’re still working on this album thing.  It’s going to be so nice to have it out of my system, so I can finally move on from all this 8 bit, pixelated, fast paced, arpeggiated stuff. .  Here’s a little clip that I did for one of the album’s tunes, Powerup Happiness.  My kids helped with the colouring in.

Paul totally brings it

Here’s the tune with all the tracking done.  Sounding disjointed, computer-game-like, confused, and all those things I like.

Paul (guitarist) fully rocked out last night, so I feel that I have to share this.  Man he can play.  There’s a fair bit of editing left, plus the mix isn’t really finalised.  So feel free to comment on the mix hey!

Wanna hear Clint sight-reading the cr*p out of somfin??

Clint came over to record one of the album songs last night. It was the first time he’d seen the music . Anyway, this goes to show how the guy can read…

Okay, sure, I edited bits and pieces. But still… pretty neat. You might have also noticed Sam has done his bit in this one – also sounding pretty good. So all that’s left is Paul to do the guitar (it’s still just a mock-up in this recording). There’s still a fair bit of mixing to do yet too.  (This is just an excerpt by the way).

EP… (or Album)

The Praxis Axis recording is coming along nicely. Originally it was intended to be released as four tracks, featuring real instruments mixed up with synths and signal processing. As time has gone by, it seems it will be comprised of at least eight – an additional four purely synthesised tunes. We will be streaming these four synth tunes before we release the album.

Indeed, here’s another one right now. This is one kinda silly. I think I’m going to call it “Dysfunctional Organ.” I based this on samples I took from an old Yamaha electric organ which I found on the footpath awaiting a council clean-up two weeks ago. You know those ones with the faux wood veneer? Those old organs have a really cool sound which I’ve only relatively recognised. They’re a little undervalued these days. Everybody seems to be into the analogue synth sound, yet these old things, which in many respects are analogue synths, get thrown away or sent off to lifeline . However, I can’t complain because I have a very cheap (or non-priced) source of rich warm analogue goodness. The only trouble is they’re not really portable. And they break down all the time.

Another interesting thing about this track is that, apart from micing of the analogue organ, there are no acoustic sound sources – all the sounds in the music originate from purely synthesised wave forms (including all the sounds generated by synth – there are no sampled sound sources) – thus the only acoustic remnants are the reverberations in my garage where the organ was sampled.

This version of the tune has not been professionally mastered, and is streaming at a reduced bit-rate, which affects the audio quality. It is free to stream here, but the full-quality fully-mastered version will be available for purchase upon the release of upcoming Praxis Axis Album. I’ll keep you posted about that here.

Dysfunctional Organ by PraxisAxis

Welcome.

The Praxis Axis was formed in 2010. We’re a musical group specialising in what I like to call “Adventure Music.” This is music especially created for or inspired by imaginary things – fantasy worlds, fictional people, computer game concepts, mythical places or anything like that.

We’re in the middle of making our debut EP.  This one takes inspiration from computer games made in the early 1990s.  It is comprised of acoustic instrumental tunes and purely synthesised music.  I’ll talk more about it later.

In the mean time, here’s a demo of one of the synth tracks I’m in the middle of working on.  It is to represent a secret level in the game!