Well, well so we are back again with the nothing to something from everything to anything pt2 & still on the ‘how to be an electronic musician’. This time i will discuss about sequencers & samplers. Let’s talk about the hardware stuff now. Let’s start with samplers. my very 1st sampler was a CASIO(thanks Adam for the CASIO)…. I forgot the series but the CASIO i was using before could sample only 3 seconds & i could not save it so every gig i have to sample every now & then. Troublesome…..yes i know. then after couple of well paid gigs finally i bought a boss dr. sample SP-202. It has 6 built in effects, bpm function,4 selectable sampling gradess,8 big sample pads, time stretch function, built in microphone, tap tempo button & powerful mixing capabilities which allows you to mix variety of input sounds -external mic or line in- with your samples(i.e, guitar, voice, etc.) you can even route these sounds through the onboard filters & the ring modulator effect.

It may sound sophisticated but it has loads of flaws too & you can’t store much sample in it. Then a couple of years later, someone gave me a Roland SP-808EX (Thanks Nin for the SP-808EX….& i still love you.)….now i call that a sampler. The SP-808EX has 16 big pads with 64 banks, tons of effects, 4 track where you record your sample to a song, a d-beam & you can store it all into built in zip drive. & never drop your zip card cause all the data inside will go to the electronic heaven. They do have a sotware for it but it only work on Windows 98….talk about old school…When i use the SP-808EX,i never even midi it to any other equipment. I simply sample a perfect loop & as my other sequencers or drum machines running on pattern loop, i press the sample pads at the beginning of the 1st bar put it on hold & shaaaazaam jam wham bam thank you ma’am…the sample loop is running side by side with my sequencer but as long as it’s a perfect loop sample. (If the loop tempo…let’s say it’s 130 bpm & your sequencer is 130 bpm then you can’t go wrong unless you press the sample pads too quickly or to late.) In fact all of my samplers i never midi to any other equipment, i don’t know why i do that but maybe it’s just the feeling of playing it live just like playing guitars or piano. Til now i’m using akai MPC-4000 upgraded & SP-303(the new version of the SP-202 but with 26 killer effects without killing other human being!!!) i still play like that.

Soooooooo let’s us talk about sequencers… Ok my 1st sequencer was the MC-303 (Thanks for helping me out dad!!!), aaaah the 303,sigh (Damned it i miss her so much)……i think it was made in the very early 90’s & actually it’s more of a toy than a sequencer to me. Even if you can programme it, there is a certain way that makes you look cool by how you play it. Unlike software where you can see on the monitor screens on whatever you are doing & wherever you are going, hardware sequencer, you got to use your hearing, instinct & feelings…..oh & of course patience, a whole lot of it. To me hardware sequencers are like women & why sequencers are like women cause a certain touch & caress & a twist of her knobs makes her moan differently, she can climax into an orgasmic sounds of tranquility & it’s so fun to be with them….just like sex…..hhhhmmm or maybe it’s just me.

I try to understand MC-303 on how it works & sometimes when you programmed drum beats, it sounded thin on the MC-303 but i found a way to make the MC-303 sound louder, just go to the flanger or chorus effects (typical of Roland fx, flanger, chorus & reverb) switch off the time & feedback then crank the level up, boom you got it. Always remember to save it cause if you have a power failure, people from outside your room could hear you swear “YOU FUCKIN’*^$%SON OF A MOTHERLESS CORDLESS DISCONNECTED PENTIUM 1 DONKEY…WWWWHHHHYYYYYYYY?!?!?!??!?!??!??!?” Believe me cause it happens to me except i use the word PENTIUM 2. It’s so frustrating, imagine after hours of long concentrations on programming & when you got it right, power failure!!! Well there are always a prevention if you could afford it & that is ‘U.P.S’, noooo not United Pot Smokers(Unintentinal Power Shutdown,…i think), you know the 1 if a power failure occurs you still have a couple of minutes of power to save your work. (If you use MC-307 & if the power trips too much, the LCD will be dead & you will take a trip to your nearest repair shop & that is if they have the spare parts or you’ll be dead like the MC-307’s LCD)

When some people use presets, for me i programmed patterns by myself just to be more original especially drum beats because they are your backbone of your music. It’s ok to copy or mimic drum patterns from other music when you are learning cause I try to learn to create that intro Prodigy drums,the 1 call “Voodoo People” from “The Jilted Generations” album, fuuuuuck it is soooooooooooo complicating on a drum machine. But after trying so many times, at last i got it. So try to listen songs from other bands (analogue or digital) then create the drum beats as almosts the same as the song. This is just to make you learn better in programming drums. I even tried Metallica’s “Master of Puppets”, it took awhile for me to get it right plus a couple of power failure but i got it at last. Just imagine “Master of Puppets” with a TR-808 or TR-909 drum sounds… woooohoooohoooo…. But i don’t want Lars Ulrich to know cause he might sue me. As long as it’s not publish it’s ok i guess but what matters is that you are learning something….right??? Drum arrangement could take awhile to master, especially big beats or chemical beats or breakbeats that is if you are learning by yourself like i did & the easiest to learn are house beats or techno beats but the basics of drum programming are really simple.

(Note,user patterns on the MC groovebox series is where you lay your magic & then you can arrange it in the user songs)

Every roland MC groovebox or KORG Electribe series have 1 octave pad & 1 octave have 16 pads & 16 pads is equivalent to 1 bar. a normal basic simple drum beat is when you put the main snares on 5th & 13th pad(velocity level 110) & the main bass drums falls on the 1st & the 11th pad(velocity level is 127)but this is up to you to change the level, & this is for the 1st bar & if you programmed a 4 bar drum pattern, it is better to put extra snares on the last 4th bar. for instance the last bar put extra snares on the 2nd & 8th & 10th & 15th or 16th pads & always remember to play with velocity cause on the extra snares the velocities is always lower than the main snares (velocity level is around 90 or maybe below for extra snares)the simplest drum beat from a legendary band to me is New Order & the song is “Blue Monday”. They play 8 bar pattern where the main bass drums are on the 1st & 5th & 9th & 13th pads, continue till the 8th bar you do the same to but put bass drums on the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th,1 3th, 14th, 15th & 16th pads.(Hope you get my point if not raise your hands)Do it on step recording so you can do it 1 at a time. Real-time recording can be a real time pain in the butt especially if you are using MC-303, MC-307 & of course the butt driller MC-505 cause you can’t re-edit your mistakes. Now i’m using the MC-909(Thanks Yoda for the 909) one of the most friendliest MC grooveboxes series i ever use cause you can edit & re-edit it if you make mistakes even after saving it. They also have the MC-909 Editor software where you can use a MIDI/USB interface & save your work or edit in your computer so you can have extra memory capacity for your other works & they also have 3.3v smart media where you can save into the card but the only thing that is not smart is that they don’t make a lot of smart media cards. I’ve been searching it everywhere from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Singapore, errr Singapore. NIHIL!!!

(Still you can do a midi dump via MIDI/USB & midi dumping are quite commonly use on any equipments as long as it have midi connections but sometimes i feel a bit skeptical with this because sometimes i might dump it wrongly & all the work done is lost…But human makes mistakes not machine & machines only makes mistakes when a human command them to make one.)

But nevertheless there’s always another alternative way to save it or what you could do is get a piece of paper or a book, draw 16 adjacent boxes and pretend that’s the pads, write each note on whatever shit you have programmed onto the boxes created by you. Whether its beats or notes of basslines, synth or strings, you could store it on a piece of paper. So far that’s my solutions on how to remember whatever i have programmed. Well it’s kind of like a tablature for grooveboxes even on the KORG Electribe series or any drum machines cause all sequencers & drum-machines have 16 pads that represent 1 bar. Basically the lay outs are similar…. Then you can share with other programmers but make sure it’s original. To copyright it in an old fuckin’ school way is to mail it to your own address by post & when it is posted to you back,do not open it, keep it in a safe. A date is always stamp on the stamps itself. So that is your prove that you made the patterns. This is always been ELECTROFUX’s way for copyright stuff cause i can’t afford a lawyer.

Ok so i let some of my secret out for you to explore & for you to understand the basic needs on hardware sequencing & for you to learn the basics drum programming & 909 zillion thanks to Mr Ikutaro Kakeshi the founder of Roland & Tsutomu Katoh founder of KORG. Without them digital music will be less fun & for me it’s unimaginable to live without them ……I’ll write to you more about nothing to something from everything to anything later……..so be ready & steady but do not be greedy.

PS:

(Ironically Mr Ikutaro Kakeshi & his parents have the same sickness as i’m suffering now & that is TBC a.k.a tuberculosis & thank god i’m working in SURFER GIRL in BALI cause i get health insurance!!)