Roman Bayou's Cinq: SE80 Beats 'n Band in a Boom* Box, in 5 (or so) Movements

Published on Jul 15, 2014 StudioElectronics

"Studio Electronics' SoundCloud (http://tinyurl.com/oq6c5sd) Copy:

What happens when one disappears into the wilderness road of one's mind (and mighty-mighty DP8) with a Boomstar SE80, a little help from its friends: Boom*s 4075, 5089, SEM, 3003, no fixed deadlines, the power and elegance of Kontakt, and a desire to inspire and be inspired? This piece "right there"—my two and a half year old daughters' go to phrase.

The Boomstar SE80 got the party started early with its remarkable capacity to generate very warm, acoustic sounding drum sounds, in addition to the emblematic, voltage-flavored fare. Hundreds of samples later—some put through "Waves" paces—I dragged my favs into a new sequence window at bar 1, with a fixed tempo, sans bar lines, and no particular key signature in mind.

Very non-random, if avant garde sounding patterns and melodies emerged, preparing me for an immersion headlong into West African rhythms, and demanding an extended vacay to the Isle of Dub. Once those pillars were in place all of the Stevie, Gino, Duke, Cameo, Zap, Monte Moir, and St. Regis (the band yo) chords, leads, and turns—produced by both the 4075 and SE80 Boomstars—colored and kept pushing until the Roger "vocalisms" of the dual resonant SE80 filters sat atop the throne, playing the solo diva, wowing the key Dub backbeats, and hitting the combo-organy voicing stretches. It was with great difficulty that I backed away the '80s knobs and switches, because of that intoxicating "vocality and warmth."

The drums, excepting one distorted fill which I enjoyed complimenting and co-opting with synthiness, the triangle (Drew Nuemann's brilliant 3003 creation recorded at 3% of unity—it's true Drew!), a crisp D. Neumann tom design (4075), a very Mike Neuble-ish 16th note triplet figure (SEM), an open hi hat (SEM), the crash cymbal (SEM), and the "Bonham" room mic kick drum from "Boomstar the Beguine" (SEM), were generated by the SE80; I made far more samples than I could press into service, but it was most enjoyable slipping and sliding them in whenever I could.

All of the leads are single sample stretches in Kontakt, or sampled performances (some of which went under the knife and tune); the chords are a mix of the same and individually tracked single note performances, which were in turn repurposed/retuned in various places spectrally in DP. The more percussive and filter driven polys represent the latter. It was amazing how good the "stretches" sounded—kind of reminded me of working with valve instruments and their gradually lower register, longer and slower envelopes ramps.

A bit of Boomstar 5089 begins supporting the last half of the Dub groove with a bass double, figure, and slide or two, snapping once in the 1st Movement (a pull from the "Shootout at the Boomstar Corral" YouTube vid for those still awake). The B* Moog filter also supplies the sub in the rejected "Simon Says" soundtrack moodiness in Movement 5. The piano and synth patches are from GarageBand, ported in via that .aiff stripping trick.

Boomstar 4075 gets its Gary Wright/Rene and Angela 2600 bass groove on, above the 5089 sub fray, yet under it's own classic lead sound; a bony redux of Movement 3's "Moir-ish" charm brings the effort to a conclusion.

Boomstar 5089 boomed both the intro bass and 1:53 breakdown.

Lest I forget, the SE80 freeform synth jazz dance of the 4th Movement (3:03), grinds into "that perfect machine voice like ELP's, "I am perfect are you!" Directly following it is my friend Dan's "kind of atmospheric, distorted, Tomita-esque mood till 4:51 whence come the mysterious morse code signals from the nether reaches of outer space." All of which follows the sub movement (small m) of the SE80 Beat/Glitch Boxing: the punctuation for the preceding micro Glam Synth beatdown.

Final Note: The ambient, "spooky sound starting at 0:43 which weaves underneath awhile," following the 1st Movement (really another sub movement...), is an SEM lead subjected to generous Paulstretching in Audacity.

And do c.f. tinyurl.com/nmk7rfx for your purest listening pleasure!

Special Thanks to David Bowie whose fascinating, multimbral life and entertainment genius distracted and reinvigorated me near project's end; throw Gino Vannelli into that motivational kettle as well—THAT VOICE! Well, as my beloved mother Maria Therezia was wont to say without undue emphasis: "He's an Italian."

Enjoy near responsibly, preferably over some worthy Genelecs or Audix speaks,
Marc Alexandre Theriot St. Regis 6-24-14

(Quoted commentary by Peri O'Meri)"