FAWM: "Saturday Night - July 4, 1987 (Tape 11)"

Saturday Night - July 4, 1987 (Tape 11)

4 days ago by @zecoopMod · @burrMod · @guatecoop · @betoMod · @fourtracktape

Saturday Night - July 4, 1987 (Tape 11)

zecoop +4

00:00

Liner Notes

This is Tape 11 from the Annual 4-Track Cassette Challenge - The tape was planned with a click on track 4 to be used by the first three people as a MIDI sync to coordinate whatever midi instruments they wanted to use.

@beto - Korg NTS-1 and 3
@guatecoop - Korg Minilogue XD
@burr - modular synth for drums
@zecoop - Korg Volca Bass (recorded over the sync)

We've done a midi sync tape for a number of years now, with the original idea coming from Beto. (GREAT idea, even if I struggle to remember how to do anything MIDI every year) I was supposed to be third on this one, but I could not get my instruments to play nice - My Volca Beats died suddenly and the Model D I borrowed from Rob wouldn't give me any sound. Plus, I was leaving for Rob's to meet him and Burr over the weekend, so I didn't have time to mess with it. Beto and Rob had set the song up VERY nicely.

Burr ended up taking Track 3 and did a fantastic job using approximately 2439 cables to connect the modular synth setup into something that worked. It's all voodoo to me! When I got home, I added a bass synth part to the song which now had clear sections with the addition of drums.

As it is all synths, it reminded me of times long ago (were the 80’s that long ago?) and some of the drum sounds reminded me of the 4th of July. Some good things happened on 4July1987 so I went with that. An actual Nazi got sent to prison (we can only hope!) and Martina Navratilova won Wimbledon. :)

#analog #cassette #4track #fourtrack #midisync #synth #synthpop #synthwave

beto’s setup (track 1):

burr's setup (track 3):

Comments

@nancyrostMod 46m

A lot of interesting and satisfying sounds here, and they complement each other well. It's warm and twinkly and swirly. I like the way it's mixed, with the percussive elements solidly in there but not dominating. I could imagine this in a Japanese anime soundtrack.

@harryklippton 11h

I love the way the different layers rub against one another, and the bass synth(??) kind of keeps a consistent melody line going. This sounds like a dream I can't remember as soon as I wake up

@cathreu 13h

I'm trying to pick out which synth did what, but alas, I don't know my synths well enough yet. Which one was the Minilogue? Those modular drums are VERY pleasing, as are all the sounds here. My heart is warmed with analog. Those shimmering bells are soaring and seem almost to be leading the warm main lead line to a hopeful future. I wish I knew what to compare this to, but I've just not heard anything like it. More please!

@betoMod 13h

The Minilogue is doing the sparse notes more on the right channel, the notes sounds bit like bells. The Volca Bass is the line doing glides from one note to another, and the NTS-1 is a rich synth that sounds like an arcade or 8-bit video game (you can here it when the song starts).

Thanks for the comment and for listening! :)

@lucky 2d

This is amazing! You guys killed it, the jam is captivating the whole way.. I especially dig the 2nd section how it drops out and builds up again. What's the name of your group? 🤘

@eargoggle 3d

Amazing....if all synth dance music/EDM were like this I would listen to more EDM. This is all voodoo to me too and I'm amazed at how you guys pull this together!

@whispermouse 3d

Killer sounds! The technical problems seem to have been advantages instead, since this came out great

@peccary 3d

This is really fun. I love the kind of 80's videogame feeling with the more shimmery sounds coming through it all. I can see my 6-year-old self playing my Atari in front of the TV in the summer of 1987 with this soundtrack for sure.

@nahlej381 3d

Great collab y’all! Some really wild and wonderful sounds bouncing around.

@burrMod 4d

this actually came out way better than i was expecting… i was afraid the modular drums would kind of ruin it, since i struggled so much to get a good take that wasn’t too busy and was actually in time, particularly all the accidental chaos at the end. (i added a photo of the rainbow spaghetti to the liner notes 👆). but the first two tracks were a firm foundation, and that final bass part is great!

@zecoopMod 3d

I’m so glad you took a picture of that! I was bummed that I forgot to because it is an impressive array of color and visual randomness.

@nadine 4d

Absolutely no idea what sorcery you did here. Just when I imagine all these cables on synthesizers, I'm in awe! So how does MIDI sync actually work with tape?! Musically these are very nice oldschool sounds. And it's so cool that you even have some modern elements like the dub step part and a break

@zecoopMod 4d

The synths have a headphone jack that is an input signal to set the tempo. The click (with some EQ and volume changes) is registered by the synth as the bpm so anything you program will, ahem, SHOULD play at the tempo of the click. Each of the people use the same click so their synths play at the same tempo. Since it is tape, however, the signal isn’t always completely reliable so there are usually glitches in the plan but that also makes it fun.

@betoMod 4d

There is a standard called MIDI timecode (MTC) for encoding MIDI clock on tape, but we use a much simpler sync protocol. We tried using MTC in the past and it didn't work; the click sync is harder to get a lock, but it's simpler and works better.

@nadine 3d

Oh cool, learned something new!

@nancycunning 4d

Makes me think about time passing and the rivers of music that have flowed since July 4, 1987 - Watching fireflies then fireworks from a truck inner-tube in the middle of the water.