What do you use to make the music in Gate 88

I get a lot of questions/emails about what I use to write my music, so I thought I'd answer it here once and for all

If you're not sure what any of this stuff does, you can read my ultra brief descriptions in the ()'s.

Oh and I know I know... software is the future and it's cheaper, but seriously, I HATE computers!!!

Anyway....



Except for "Somewhere East", all the songs in Gate 88 were written on the following hardware:


(Sequencer: It arranges all the notes in a song and tells all the other units what to play and when to play it)
This is my main sequencer. Actually, it also has a built in tone-generator (preset sounds), and for awhile it was the only piece of gear I had! "rux9" was written entirely on this unit. I still sometimes use its drum sounds.



(Synthesizer: Makes sounds starting from simple waveforms)
All synth sounds (except on "Somewhere East" and "rux9") come from this baby. I also used this to synthesize all the sounds you hear in Gate 88. The short opening musical bit was me playing my guitar connected to this unit acting as a vocoder.



(Groovebox: it's got pre-made sounds, and a quick-to-use sequencer. Think of it like a scratchpad for musicians)
A lot of songs use the drum sounds from this unit.



(Sampler: samples [ie. records] sounds and mangles them)
I actually only use this to sample my guitar.



(Guitar: umm. it's got six strings. and they're all sexy)
Not much to say except that this is my first and only electric guitar. When I went to buy it, I basically just walked up to the sales guy and said "listen, I want your cheapest, beginner guitar." He showed me this one (squier strat by fender).



(Effects pedal: plug stuff into it and it mangles the sound)
I normally use this during practice but I used it on "Old Spark Fizzes" since I didn't have my sampler then.



(Mixer: takes all the audio from the different units and mixes it into one signal)



(Audio card: most consumer sound cards are very noisy when it comes to recording. To get a clean recording you need to use a higher quality sound card. It also reduces latency when doing music on computer, but I don't do much of that)



My dinky keyboard I used to have a bigger one but it... uhh... retired.


Finally, "Somewhere East" was written on my Pentium 200 using an extremely old program called "Fast Tracker 2." It looks like this:

It really brings back memories.

-j

Holy crud that's alot of equipment

Aaaah, Fasttracker


Hey Queasy, do you need some more Synth music for Gate88, or do you plan to keep the current amount of songs? I ask because I could contribute, if needed. I'll email you some examples *if* you're interested.

Chibi: yea it is quite a bit but I bought it all second hand for a HUGE discount (I love ebay!). I just have this love-hate relationship with the computer and so I had to move away from computer-music-making for awhile.

Werewolf: There are actually more songs that I haven't recorded yet. In fact the g88 "album" has already been set. I wouldn't mind hearing some of your tunes though, so feel free to hit me up with a URL.

-j

on the subject of music, i think a nice addition to that game would be (as well as more tracks) a new option under the pause menu that basically acts like the C&C sound options screen (music volume, track select, repeat, shuffle etc)

whoa, man. thats a lot of equipment. how much did the guitar and all the equipment cost?

The guitar was the cheapest one I could find in the store. It was 299 (canadian dollars! and that was when the dollar was worth even less, heh) for the guitar + a small practice amp.

The rest of the stuff was bought second hand or at an insane discount from various places... I don't remember the price, but the virus was a LOT (i don't even wanna think about it).

-j

Bah! Screamtracker 3 > Fasttracker!

That's some nice hardware, though... But why couldn't you settle with PC emulation of said hardware?

Hey,

Damnit, I thought I included that in the first post.. oops. Anyway, I added the following line:

"Oh and I know I know... software is the future and it's cheaper, but seriously, I HATE computers!!!"

-j

Thats cool queasy plays guitar. I'm learning to jam on guitar and bass and keyboard. Anyone else like playing music?

heh, don't give up on software! trackers aren't the only music software out there.. well most is based on it but there are still more flexable prog's. You probably know abou this app already: Jeskola Buzzmachines - http://www.buzzmachines.com

not sure. but i beleive it acts sort of like a mix between gear,tracker software, and advanced music making software... might want to check it out if you've never heard of it before

as for me... i need something of the likes of that for linux, because i just gave up windows. still haven't got around to making any music lately.. other than with this new beta-tracker called skale. meh

Yea, I've heard of buzz and such. But I mean, trackers or even stuff like sonar, cubase, or whatever... I dunno. I just can't deal with computers!... wait I think I should reprhase that: I can't deal with anything running a generalized OS --- the OS should do one thing: allow me to write music

Btw, skale's pretty old ain't it? Are they still in development?

-j

Is it possible to acquire the Somewhere East module? Could you perhaps post it here? I'd love to examine how it is constructed.
Isn't it harder to use a hardware sequencer than a software one? Mouse and screen are great for doing that, I can't imagine how it's possible to make complex patterns with hardware sequencers.

Hey drooble,

It's true, it is a bit harder, but the rm1x has an event-edit screen which is almost like a tracker. In the end though it's good. It's forced me to improve my keyboarding skills and puts the emphasis away from just sequencing (ie. have more of a live touch).

I'm thinking about going back into tracking soon once I finish the songs for g88.

As for the module, there's good news and there's bad news. Good: yes! I do intend to release the module. but because that mod is part of an "album" I did, I wouldn't want to release it until I release the whole shibang.

I'm planning on doing it in maybe a month?

-j

Ahh, that's great. Your music sounds very unique, great job.