Post #122948 by Urban Tiki on Mon, Nov 1, 2004 12:37 PM

On 2004-10-30 12:03, congatiki wrote:
nice job...like the other tunes on your
website too....could be inside secret..
but did you do the percussion on Quiet
Village or is it a drum track? Sounds
good!

Thanks. All of the sounds, including the percussion are samples played out on the keyboard (not loops or sequenced tracks). For the congas, I have a sample set that lays out all possible articulations on the keyboard- open strikes, palm mutes, slaps, finger taps, etc. and I play the keyboard using the appropriate articualtion. I've gone out and bought instructional books for the various instruments so I can learn to play like someone playing the actual instrument. I do the various exercises in the book on the keyboard to get the technique down, so I can approach the track the way a real instrumentalist would.

For some things, though, I use the actual instrument rather than samples. For example one of the slow jazz piano tunes has brushed drums. I have a nice Pearl maple shell snare and the snare brush "swirls" are played ont the snare and miked. I have never foud samples that sounded right for those. I also play guitar and saxophone- two other instruments that don't work in the sample world.

One of these days I need to pick up some real congas, though- I bet they would be more fun to play.