Battery Kit (Vol.1)



Nigerians know jollof rice, Nigerians know humor, Nigerians also know the grief that comes with power outages. This issue has plagued us for so many years and no lasting solution seems to be in sight.

So what's the proactive thing to do? Go back to the stone age of bonfires and bare-chested women? I mean those were the days but in this information age,  there are usually ways around problems that seemed impossible to overcome back in the days.

This post talks about a kit that can help you make music without mains power. In other words, production gears that can run solely on battery.

Groove Box - Zoom RT-223

Nothing like a good ole drum machine to get the groove going before melodies come  in. The Zoom RT-223 is replete with drum and bass sounds, different kits, user presets and mind blowing effects.

Features at a glance
Zoom RT-223
  • 13 velocity-sensitive & self lit pads.
  • 213 drum samples. 
  • 70 onboard drum kits with 39 PCM samples per kit.
  • 12 bass sounds (electric, acoustic and synth).
  • Create and store up to 127 user drum kits, 550 user rhythm patterns and 40 effect patches.
  • Onboard DSP effects such as multiband compression, EQ, Filter, resonance and reverb.
  • Real time and step entry programming.
  • Groove play mode for DJ-style pattern triggering.
  • 18 voice polyphony. 
  • MIDI in (standard MIDI connector)
  • Line input:  ¼" stereo phone jack.
  • Line output: (L/Mono, R)¼" phone jacks.
  • Battery operation. 


Midi Keyboards - Yamaha Reface series
Yamaha is a household name when it comes to musical instruments and in their repertoire are a cute set of keyboards that aren't only eye candy but are packed with features the travelling musician, songwriter and producer will find useful.

At just 22 inches in length and 2kg in weight, the Reface Series by Yamaha consists of four battery powered mini keyboards. These 3 octave keyboards are named the Reface CS, DX, CP and YC.

Features at a glance
Yamaha Reface Series
  • Analogue and FM sythesizer (CS & DX models).
  • Electric pianos and organs (CP & YC models).
  • Phrase looper for synthesizers (up to 2000 midi notes).
  • Velocity sensitive HQ Mini Keys.
  • 8-key polyphony for synthesizers.
  • 128-key polyphony for piano & organ.
  • Midi via mini-DIN(in/out) or USB.
  • Output : L/mono, R (6.3mm TS phone Jack).
  • Headphone Jack (6.3mm stereo)
  • Aux in : 3.5mm stereo phone jack. 
  • All come with inbuilt effects.
  • Internal Speakers.
  • Battery Operation.
  • Store and share presets using the soundmondo iOS app.


A Laptop and a bus powered soundcard - For recording.

A mobile phone with latest Google Chrome and internet connection.


A way to use this kit
  1. I'd suggest you keep your laptop off until you're ready to record.
  2. Lay your drums exactly the way you want them.
  3. Make drum patterns for intro, chorus, verse, rolls and any other part of interest.
  4. Bear in mind that the Zoom RT-223 has no midi out port so any recording done will be audio.
  5. Save drum kits and patterns. Arrange as song if necessary.
  6. Craft your tones to taste using the Yamaha Reface as the beat plays from the groove box.
  7. iOS users can store patches of interest on their mobile devices through the soundmondo app and windows users can do same through the soundmondo website on their mobiles.
  8. Using the phrase looper, various patterns can be played and recorded. Make sure patches of interest are stored for recall.
  9. Turn on your system. Open your DAW and connect your soundcard and the Reface keyboard to separate USB ports.
  10. Connect audio out of the RT-223, into your soundcard using Jack cables and record your drum patterns. Later when there's power you can record each drum sound separate for better mixing.
  11. Make sure your DAW is set to the same tempo as the groove box.
  12. Record the audio of your looped phrase from the Reface.
  13. There! You have a rough sketch of your song.
  14. When there's power you can now replay those saved patches one by one via midi out (from the reface), quantize and clean up the performance and then tweak the sounds on the reface even more via midi in from the DAW. Then record back the final sound for mixing.

A bit complicated though, but a good way not just get an idea out of your head when "NEPA" strikes but to also kick start the production process while the power is out.
Written by,
Chidi "Tite" Nnadi

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Control Room - Setting Up In Cubase 5

Image
Our last post covered the relevance of a control room mixer in a small studio and how it can impede the wearing out of physical knobs and faders. This post takes a look on how to set up a simple monitor and headphone control room mixer on Steinberg's Cubase 5. We'll also explore a more manual way of achieving this on just about any DAW even though most already have a set up for it. Setting Up a Monitor and Headphone Control Room Mixer in Cubase 5  1. Open the Devices tab on the menu bar 2. Click on VST Connections . 3. On the Outputs page, ensure your master out ports are not connected .  4. On the Studio page of the same VST connections window, enable the control room.  5. Click the Add Channel button and select Add Monitor from the drop down. 6. Name this channel as you please. 7. Click the Add Channel button again, only this time click Add Headphone  from the drop down 8. On ...
Read more

An Evening With Swaps

Image
When it comes to accolades, this young man definitely deserves some. Swaps is the mastermind behind the mix of many hit songs of this era. From Yemi Alade to Kcee to Kiss Daniel, to Timaya and many more; Swaps has come a long way in proving he is indeed one of Africa's leading mix and mastering engineers. The Audiophile Naija team spent an evening with this talent to know him better and hopefully get insight on some pertinent issues our readers would love to know about. Though elusive and somewhat camera shy in person, his work is the direct opposite - dynamic, bold and loud. This exposé will no doubt get you acquainted with Swaps in no time. A-9ja : Mr. Swaps, it's a pleasure having you on our platform.  Swaps : Thank you for having me here. I appreciate it. A-9ja : Before we jump into technical questions, can you tell us something personal about yourself, like your favorite soup?  Swaps : My favourite soup is Afang because my wife makes it so well...
Read more

Compression For Mixing - What The Pro's Don't Tell You

Image
The internet is already replete with so many resources on compressors and what they do. So pardon me if I skip to the chase and talk about the compressor from an application point of view. This post aims at helping you know what to expect sonically when you turn those dials on your compressor plugins and how to apply this musically to a mix. Important note!   For teaching purposes, we are going to assume a fixed gain reduction ratio of 3:1 and the threshold set to a level where the compressor begins to work. For more information on compressor parameters - threshold, ratio, attack and release please visit link Uses of compressors in a mix There are two basic uses of compressors in a mix: 1. Dynamics Control. 2. Depth placement. 1. Dynamics Control As history tells us, this is the trigger that inspired what we know today as a Compressor. Man wanted a way of averaging the loud and more quiet portions of a conversation, so they created a device that a...
Read more