Nick Blanc

I really messed up the cameras this time. I accidentally permanently deleted this footage from my phone and I set one of the Lumix cameras way too dark. Beyond my colour grading skills. The jam itself went ok, lost count somewhere but overall not bad. I like the rolling / thundering sound of the kick. And luckily there was Inge who had some time the next day to lay down some vocals and save this one.

I was experimenting with a new arp plugin, it did...ok. Maybe I picked the wrong sound. Something pluckier would have been better. Anyway, very happy with the kick and overall kinda industrial vibe overlayed with lots of synths. Oh and I somehow forgot to play the Sub 37 after those first couple of notes 😶. So the later parts are MIDI (played in to keep the feel, but recorded afterwards).

Not entirely different, but a clear cut melody line (or hook) is not something I do a lot. It came out really nice if I may say so myself. Layering the synths gives this huge sound that I like. Cool one.

One of our best ones yet. The track kicks, sounds and melody are pretty on point and Inge is on fire! Had fun creating this one and recording Inge afterwards. Yeah I know, not entirely live but hey there's always next time.

Thanks for the extensive comment. The mixer is a midi mixer which basically can do unlimited channels. It has a forward button so I could 'scroll' through all the channels. But it has no feedback on which channel it is, so when you do that, you quickly lose track of what channel is on what fader. So I tend to just use the 8 channels. And if I want to control other devices, I use the volume or filter knob on those devices. As for live, as you said, I'm not hauling this equipment around. You could do a setup with just the Pulsar 23 and a synth or 2 and a laptop with pre recorded stuff, but I'm not interested in that. For the camera thing, yeah that would be cool. It could be done. Right now I'm filming in 1080p. If I switch to 4K I could zoom in without losing quality. I might experiment with that. Cool idea.

I'm playing some more with the Pulsar 23 and it's feedback capabilities. I'm still struggling with the looper but the fun never stops. The main kick is from the Edge.

Thanks! It's always a balance between 'what do/can I do live' and 'what is better left sequenced'. For excample, yesterday I was recording and I was so focused on the sequencing of the track I forgot to play one the synths I had picked out for live playing. Ands I have been asked to do some live stuff (not Tomorowland haha), but I'm not that interested. It's a hassle. But perhaps in the future with a small setup.

I decided to leave an unquantized loop in the Pulsar-23 as it was for some weird texture. Not sure about the outcome, but hey, here it is!

I don't know, it sounds a bit lighter and more mellow. So I'm calling it spring vibes. Really no special idea behind that, it's just how it came out.

It could have been heavier if I had added the MS-20 as a third melodic layer, but it was on bass duty. The melody can be a bit hard to follow. I was playing both synths with the Push 2, just noodling away without a metronome or counting and suddenly this melody popped out. So I recorded it and there it was.

Well, all the sources are analog. Of course there's fx and mixing/mastering. It came out fine. Not the greatest, but still fun to do and play.

Thanks, she is indeed. I'm lucky to have someone like that in my friends circle.

"Vrij" means Free. We thought it would be cool to record something in Dutch, so we did. And honestly I think it's one of our best ones. Enjoy!

Suddenly I'm getting all kinds of errors in the plugins. Missing content, etc. Relaunching the plugin a couple of times is the trick. Great design.

I'm continuing on the more clear cut melody path. This time a bit more call & response. A couple of riffs and melodies and a beautiful Prophet 6 with what I can only describe as a sea of pads. But, but most fun thing are the drum and chant samples. I recorded it on my phone a couple of week ago during an evening of heavy drinking with some friends. Got a text this week: "hey you promised to put the recording in your jams, where is it?" I completely forgot 😅. Well, here it is!