Piano Electric

My new EP Piano Electric is now available to stream or purchase over at Bandcamp. For my previous releases I've done a post for each song but have decided to just do a single post for this one. 

After working with synth and organ on the last 2 projects I wanted to strip things down a bit and see what I could do with electric piano as the main focus. As I got started I set up a simple rule for myself: All songs would be arranged for only 5 players (Electric Piano, Electric Guitar, Kee Bass, Drums and a utility player). My workflow didn't change though. I wrote and worked up every idea on my guitar and modified it for each instrument as necessary. I still used LMMS as I've got a handle on it and really haven't seen a reason to move on from it yet.

For the electric piano and electric guitar parts I used the Lounge Lizard Session and Strum Session VSTs from AAS. Both sound great and had enough settings to dial in the sound I was looking for. That said, I was able to use presets for all of the electric piano parts.

The bass parts were executed via the excellent and free Martinic Kee Bass. The Kee Bass is a faithful recreation of the monophonic string bass simulator the Rheem Kee Bass and it sounds great! To really hear it work listen to the break in track 3 "Moonlight".

The drums sound a bit different on this release and that is because I was using a whole new collection of samples in the sequencer. I'd used the excellent Synare From Mars on Six Feet Under The Underground (used here as well on the closing track "Dance Your Death") and I was thrilled to be able to use their Wendel From Mars for my kick drum, snare and tom sounds. I rounded out those sounds with a variety of cymbals courtesy of Drum Werks. 

I also utilized a few other VSTs : You'll hear bongos on track 1 "3 O'clock in the Morning" and Xylophone and Cloudrum on "Moonlight". 

Effects use was limited to the Acon Digital Verberate Basic reverb, (listen for it most effectively on the snare in the section just before the break in track 2 "Hot Ham & Cheese") and the Blindfold EQ.

The only effect on the mix bus this time was the LoudMax  which I used to keep things consistent.

Final edits and output to FLAC were done in Audacity.

I hope you enjoy the EP and if you have a favorite track please let me know!