VIVALDI - Autumn Part 2 on SIX Korg ARP Odysseys

video upload by Richard Payne

"He knocked it out the park did Vivaldi, with Autumn Part 2. I had it programmed and up on the ARPs for a couple of weeks before I filmed it this afternoon. Was a one take wonder this time, but I had been fiddling with it for a fortnight. And it's very hard to mess up this one.

The Odyssey FS keyboard (on it's side) is taking place of Odyssey #3 (still at the repair place ...) and is handling the 'not needing to be filldled with' bass. Top left (#1) is playing the PWM'd arpeggio. #2, #4 & #5 are playing the 'string' parts and #6 is on sub bass and white noise duties. It's being modulated by it's LFO on the lowest rate.

There's no EQ or mixing going on but I did lean into Ableton's Delay on the Arpeggio and Sub Bass / Wind synths and everything was fed through Arturia's lovely LX-24 Reverb.

Thanks again for watching!"

VIVALDI - Autumn Part 1 on SIX (5) ARP Odysseys

video upload by Richard Payne

"Been having a pop at Autumn Part 1 these last few days and this take I recorded (take 111!) has come out slightly 'dystopian' sounding and synthy. Have pushed the filters a bit more. There’s a bit of overdrive in places and some wobbly 'pitchy' stuff happening. But lots going on and lots of things to remember to do. Or not to do. This take here was only the 4th time I’d made it to the end, and the first and only without completely ballsing it up.

Odyssey #3 was briefly back in the fold last week and was ably handling the sub bass part all on it’s own, but it started going wrong again and has been taken back to the repair shop. So to cover that part here, I’m bringing in and out oscillator 2 on Odyssey #6, which is set to a square wave an octave down. I’d say a good 80 of those earlier takes that I mucked up were ruined by me forgetting to do this, or doing it badly, or at completely the wrong time. There’s a 'high jeopardy' patch change happening on Odyssey #1 too which I liked to get wrong, transitioning from a short filtery harmony part at the beginning to a long square wave lead line for the slow bit towards the end.

As before, I got the Midi parts online and processed them in Ableton Live. I combined and reduced them down from the 24 orchestral parts to the 5 here. Fixed up a few dodgy notes. Probably added a few of my own. Then I tempo matched to an orchestral performance of the piece, which is probably the fiddliest and most time consuming bit. There were a few more evenings messing with note lengths and refining the tempos further. So, I’ve been using Korg’s Odyssey plugins up to this point in the process, slouching on the sofa on my laptop, but the next step is to move into my little music room and to practice on the actual ones. Spent a couple more evenings working things out there and then a couple of days trying to film a good run through.

It’s certainly tricky trying to adjust each part as dynamically as I’d like when they’re all coming at me in one big terrifying lump. I’m not mixing or even EQ’ing afterwards so I’m battling to keep a good audible balance between the synths as I go. If I get too involved or too “two-handy” on a synth for too long, I’m neglecting the other four and I’ve missed 5 other things I wanted to do. So I’m relying quite a lot on the Decay slider in the envelope section, as it seems to offer a one-stop dynamic shop that I can adjust on two synths at the same time. I’ve modded all of the Odysseys to have a free-running LFOs also, so I can introduce a slow LFO to the filters to keep them shifting about on their own whilst I adjust something else elsewhere.

I have started re-recording these pieces 'properly', one Odyssey at a time, with view to putting them up somewhere for streaming or perhaps even pressing them onto vinyl. Would sound good on record I reckon. You reckon? And I have a whole shelf full of peculiar synthesizer albums from the 60’s and 70’s that it would be an honour to mingle with.

But hey, thank you so much, everyone who showed up and watched the last video. For all the views and subscriptions and above all, the kind and encouraging comments. That was nuts. I didn’t know you lot were coming! Absoutely amazing and thank you sincerely again.

Oh, to wrap up, here the Odysseys are going balanced out into a Behringer ADA-8200 Interface, which is optically connected into the Adat In of my UAD Apollo. They get their 5 channels of Midi note on, note off information down USB from Ableton Live which is in turn recording the audio coming back. I added some Hall Reverb from Arturia’s LX-24 but nothing has been EQ’d. It’s all how it comes out of the lovely boxes. I did however have a Limiter on the main channel, to put a bit of a lid on some of the more feisty bits.

Toodles!"

VIVALDI - Summer Part 3 on SIX (5) Arp ODYSSEYS

video upload by Richard Payne

"Vivaldi's Summer Part 3.

Pretty hectic, this last chapter from Summer! Lots of 16th notes rattling along at the same time. Took a bit of programming to whittle it all down to these 5 monophonic parts. Then I slowed the tempo quite a lot compared to most of the recorded versions I've listened to.

Pretty chuffed with how it turned out though. I added a bit of Reverb from Arturia's LX-24 but other than that there was no EQ or processing.

Odyssey #3 should be home from the repair shop before too long so I can finally retire that colour photocopy ..."

A search on Richard Payne Vivaldi will bring up all parts.

VIVALDI - Autumn Part 1 (excerpt) on SIX (5) Korg Arp Odysseys

video upload by Richard Payne

"Was programming in the MIDI notes for Part 3 of Summer (it’s coming …) when I got sidetracked by this lovely bit of Autumn.

Vivaldi’s accompanying sonnet describes this moment as “the drunkards have fallen asleep” which, 10 days into my sobriety I’m enjoying a lot. Vicariously.

One of my favourite things on the Odyssey is the ability to have the White Noise from the S&H section modulating the Filter. Giving it a sort of grainy, crackly sound. I do this a lot and you can hear it on Odyssey #1 and #4 at the very start, each playing single notes panned slightly left and right.

There’s some Reverb from UAD’s Lexicon 224 but other than that, absolutely no other processing or EQ.

Oh, as I mentioned before, Odyssey #3 got damaged on the boat to Australia from the UK and while it's waiting to be repaired is being (well) represented here by a colour photocopy, sellotaped onto some cardboard."

You can find additional VIVALDI performances by Richard Payne here.

VIVALDI - Summer Part 2 on SIX Arp ODYSSEYS

video upload by Richard Payne

Part 1 here

"Summer Part 2 (side B?) is great. Lovely melody. Nice and slow. There's a musical term for that tempo. Al Dente I think.

Added a little more filth from the Odysseys here. There's a nice fuzzy / crackly sound you can get from sending white noise from the sample & hold section to the filter. I chucked some of that on and a bit more white noise on the noisey bits.

As before. I grabbed hold of the score, whittled it down into 6 tracks for the Odysseys and programmed the MIDI into Ableton. Well, 5 tracks really. The Odyssey FS on it's side is doing the Doof.

Ableton is spitting out MIDI to the six Odysseys here over USB and I'm fidgeting around with them and recording the audio back into Ableton. I added a bit of Reverb and EQ from Ableton and there you have it. Filmed on my iPhone.

Boom! So Part 3 is up next and that's a flippin' doozie! Giddyup!!"

VIVALDI - Summer Part 1 on SIX Arp ODYSSEYS

video upload by Richard Payne

"It's Summer! And I DO flipping love an Arp Odyssey ...

I ended up buying a couple after I sold my modular synth in 2020 and since then have been picking them up as and when I can afford them. Or when there has been a little space on a credit card for one.

I played the 3 that I rackmounted at a friends wedding a little while ago, under the guise of Richard Payne: Wedding Synthesist! I did half an hour of classical followed by the 'Here Comes The Bride' and the 'There Goes The Bride" classics. Sort of like what a church organist would do. But sounding a bit more like the Clockwork Orange soundtrack.

Anyway, it was a huge amount of fun and so when I'm not using them to make bleepy beats I've been fiddling with the classical stuff for my own amusement. Who knows, maybe the Wedding Synthesist will ride again!

So, to make these 'pieces' I downloaded a few different scores from t'interwebs and programmed the midi into Ableton. Had to compile and correct a few things and also choose my favourite handful of parts so I could cover the 24 or so instruments with my 6 Odysseys. I matched the tempo changes against a couple of recorded versions of the piece and then added a 'donk' on a spare Odyssey for good measure.

The synths are being controlled by Ableton but for the wedding gig I recorded the midi onto an old Yamaha MDF2 so I didn't have to use my laptop.

I'll get onto Part 2 next and sling it up on here ..." Update: you can find Part 2 here.