Chordboard STAC Music: Meso Kingmann © 2011

YouTube Uploaded by chordboard on Feb 23, 2011

"http://www.chordboard.com for details on Chordboard STAC
"I created this song on the Chordboard beginning by starting with a performance preset on the Yamaha Motif CX8 keyboard, just trying to get some ideas, and the tempo was 103 bpm. I went to the Chordboard STAC and tried the Key of C and started to play the minor chords on the right side of the STAC. I went back and forth between several chords but gravitated to the D minor and A minor chords because for some reason they just sounded like the mood I wanted to be in, and then also bridging with the E minor chord for even more tension. After a couple of rounds with those chords, it was time to resolve from the minors in this key, and so I branched over to the left side of the chordboard playing the major chords and experimenting with that, and settling on going from A minor to F major, introducing a positive feel to it, and down to the C major and up to the G major, and finally to a B diminished to return to the original minor chord progression of ii, vi, iii.
Near the end of the song I brought all track volumes down and emphasized a sound called ELFIN DREAMS on the Yamaha, and just loved the way it took the song into a new dimension. I played the same chord progressions on these new harmonies (and melodies) but played them in a more fanciful way playing single notes (as shown on the vid) and taking advantage of what the sound had to offer. Some sounds sound WAY better played through the Chordboard STAC than they do on the regular keyboard, they just do, and vice versa as well. Some sounds sound ineffective on the STAC because they were not designed to be played that way (ie arpeggiated sounds, since the STAC already does that).
Overall, this song production is about 18 tracks of music and percussion, with a few of these tracks played on a regular keyboard (the Yamaha) and the remainder played on the Chordboard STAC. It took about 2 hours of music time, and 6 hours of mixing and engineering time. The Chordboard STAC significantly shortened the time to come up with 18 tracks.
One of the reasons I use the piano keyboard for parts of the song is that the piano keyboard is a different musical instrument and you can get the different sounds (playing styles) from using it. I use both the piano and the Chordboard. Some sound timbres are similar to those used by Daft Punk in Tron, but that is a coincidence, as I just love those saw wave sounds in the first place :)"
Grant Johnson"