the duke explains a lot things... click to
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the current role of the qy70
what about the qy100?
gear over the years
recording
letters to yamaha
the yamaha qy-70 is the centerpiece of freezepop's songs. when we started out, i had been using it for a few months as a song writing tool and soon realized that it was exceptionally well oriented for synthpop music. i thought it would be an interesting challenge to restrict the production of the songs to the qy-70 format and see how much it could really do for a general midi sequencer. it also makes playing shows a breeze since it's hyper portable and runs on batteries. |
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the current role of the qy70
hello fellow gear-heads and qy70 afficionados,
i have gotten a lot of emails over the past few months about the qy70
and its role in freezepop, and i wanted to write something up to describe
how its influence on our music has been changing over time and the future
of it helping us create music in the future. for those who are new to
freezepop, when i first got a qy70 back in 1998 and realized its potential
in making synthpop tunes, i came up with the idea to try and have it be
the only piece of gear used to make our music, along sides a vocoder,
of course. it was an admirable goal and the concept of working within
a confined system that has limitations proved to be inspiration and headache
all at once. the early freezepop recordings were very simple, with the
qy70 music dumped out as a stereo file and the we recorded vocals and
vocoder on top, mixed it all, and had a song. no muss, no fuss. by the
time "freezepop forever" was getting wrapped up, i was recording
the drums out as its own stereo file, and the rest of the music out as
a stereo file. this let me adjust the drum EQ/Compression/Level separately
from the rest of the music. and for "freezepop forever" this
method worked great for the minimalistic approach of the songs and mixes.
once we started recording the songs for the FIF EP, i was starting to
dump the drums, bass, and synths out as groups and the mixes of those
songs started getting a bit more complicated as well. this gave me greater
control over the qy70 tracks during the mix process. the real issue with
the qy70 for me are the sounds. there are just not enough of them. i found
myself gravitating to the same sounds over and over because there were
so few and i was starting to get irked that each song wasn't attaining
it's own unique identity. so last winter when i began recording tracks
for our upcoming album, i started bouncing out all 8 tracks from the qy70
individually as stereo bounces. or in some cases, i would record the snare
and kick separately from the rest of the drum programming. this let me
have much greater control over the qy70 tracks and i began manipulating
the sounds coming out during the mix process with plug-ins. all the songs
were written solely on the qy70 with no additional gear and all the sounds
you'll hear on the cd will have been programmed on the qy70. BUT with
a huge amount of post-production processing on the sounds. there are many
tracks that if i played you them straight from the qy and then in the
manipulated in the mix, they would sound drastically different. so obviously
you can see the line is getting blurred here a bit.this also means that
we have crossed another threshold as
well. the playing our shows live with the qy70 problem. many of you who
have been to our recent shows, know that we have been playing almost all
new, unreleased material. songs like bike thief and stakeout all came
from the qy70 but since there was so much post-production in the mix process,
i can't play the tracks right from the qy70 at our shows since the songs
won't sound right. so this means that we have been forced to rely on playback
for some of these new songs, tibook/ipod seems to be the current method
of choice right
now. one side effect of this that is good is that it gives me a chance
to play my portable synth and add extra vocoder parts live which is great
fun. i kind of missed playing my keyboard back in my splashdown days,
so now in our shows we mix it up a bit and i get to use the qy70 on some
songs and play synths on other songs. so i think it works out in the end.
the synths that the other sean uses for our live shows don't get used
for the recordings often, except for the vp330 vocoder. the synth parts
he plays sometimes never even get recorded and i think they add an extra
fresh element to the songs that you can only hear when you see us play
a concert.
so i'm proud that 2 full albums and an EP and several remixes came solely
from the qy70 but i think you see where this is leading. once this new
album is wrapped up (soon), the qy70's role in the band is going to change
a bit. i will still do a lot of song-writing on the box, which i really
enjoy due to its ease of use and portability, but the majority of the
sounds will probably be replaced with other sounds. i'm excited to explore
the sounds, both drum and synth, of the nord modular and various other
synth and drum machines that i have collected or can borrow from friends.
this will most undoubtedly bring new flavors and shades to the freezepop
sound that i hope will only make the experience of listening to our
music,
and seeing us live, be an enhanced and wonderful adventure. and trust
me, i would never let my 4 qy70's be lonely. even if it means just spooning
with them. i will be the back spoon. remember, the back spoon is the
cheatin' spoon.
gear over the years
Studio Setup:
2000 - Freezepop starts with one QY70 and a MAM vocoder. Freezepop Forever
was recorded and mixed using MotU Digital Performer with a 2408 mk1,
a yamaha 03D digital mixer, lexicon mpx and mpx G2 fx, and genelec 1030
active monitors.
2001 - The MAM vocoder is ditched in favor of a 1979 Roland VP-330 analog
vocoder. Another QY70 is acquired.
2002 - A 3rd QY70 enters the mix, and the addition of a Nord Modular
for vocoding as well as the VP-330
2003 - Songs for Fancy Ultra*Fresh are now recorded using DP3.11 and
an 828. The 03D is ditched in favor of a 24bit/96K yamaha 01v digital
mixer. All production being done on a 15" TiBook laptop.
2004 - New songs are being produced on a dual 2.5 G5 running DP4.1 and
using a 2408 mk3. same mixer, fx, and speakers.
2006 - have updated
the studio a bit while the new album is underway. here's what i'm currently
using: dual 2.5 G5 with
a MOTU 2408 mk3 interface and a midi express 128 midi interface. i'm
using a yamaha 01v96 digital mixer and powered ADAM P33-A nearfield monitors.
For synths i still use the qy70, microkorg, roland vp330 analog vocoder,
nord lead1, nord modular, and the newest addition, an alesis andromeda
analog synth! i've also been borrowing various synths like the sidstation
which has been really fun (and noisy) to play with. for software, i'm
running motu dp4.6 and reason 3, along with recycle 2.1, hyperprism gold,
absynth2, soundhack, etc. software plugins range from waves to pluggo
to the amazing destroyFX audio units plugins. i still have the same outboard
fx units, both lexicon and eventide.
Current Live Setup:
We've streamlined our live gear setup to accommodate tours and not being
able to bring a lot of gear with us. Sean and the Duke each use a microkorg
for synths and vocoder controlled by roland ax7 strapon synths. The
Duke also uses the qy70 live for many of the older songs as well as
a boss dr.rhythm drum machine which he plays live for the upcoming
son "brainpower." He runs all this through a small behringer
analog mixer. Freezepop are big fans of audix mics and use the OM5
and OM7 for vocals and vocoder. Look for the addition of the homebrew
drum machine app pspkick running on a psp to be used live for a song
or 2!
i've been getting asked quite a bit about my thoughts
on the "new and improved" yamaha qy100, so i want to share
my experience with it. first off i must say that since the qy70 is the
intrinsic foundation of freezepop that
i would be very critical of changing gear, even if it is nearly the same in
all respects and would offer more possibilities, and expand what i could do
with freezepop's overall sound. before i got the qy100, my expectations were
that i was going to get a box that was basically exactly the same as my qy70
but would offer me one huge improvement, that being the smart media slot. i
cannot fit more than 10-14 songs* into my qy70 [*songs being groups of patterns,
nothing i do is in song mode but solely in pattern mode]. having a smart media
slot would mean that i could have access to all the freezepop songs at any
given moment which would help out immensely at shows. seems like a lot of money
to spend for one extra feature, but it was worth
it to me.
so, i got the qy100 and tore open the packaging [not really] and looked down
open my new toy with glee. then the glee faded and within days it was on ebay
and in the hand of a more loving parent. the reasons, you ask for this bittersweet
end? remember what i said about being critical about even the slightest changes?
well those tiny minor bitsy changes drove me to madness. what are they? they
are these:
1. it was way too big. they made it much wider and heavier. my delicate bones
could not support such a weight for an entire 45 minute show. actually, my
main issue with the size change is that with the qy70 when i
hold the box with 2 hands, my 2 thumbs can reach the entire mini-keyboard and
i can play little melodies while the songs are going. with the qy100 there
was a big gap and many keys in the center i could not reach with my thumbs,
and i have long piano player fingers. i find this very frustrating.
2. it eats through batteries even faster. even with my qy70 i can't really
get more than a single hour out of it and with the 100 that time drops down
to 45 minutes. now maybe if i was feeding it the more expensive ultra
batteries it would last longer. i run the qy off batteries for all shows and
i cant have the battery drain time be any longer than it already is. and speaking
of batteries, they changed the battery compartment size from having all 6 AA's
slide in snug and tight in a single group, to having a little slot for each
battery. this eats up much more real estate which contributes to the qy100
being larger. why make this change? i have no clue who would swap out only
1 battery and leave the rest. it drains them all at the same rate so you would
want to change them all at the same time anyways.
3. i know you're going to laugh at how finicky and picky this next comment
is, but it's a big deal to me. on the back of the box, instead of using a flush
dial to change the screen's contrast which the qy70 uses, they turned
it into a mini-knob that sticks out from the back of the box. i made a neat
little velcro attachment on the back of my qy70 to stick on a modified reading
lamp so that i could use the box in the darkest of live situations, but i cannot
do this on the qy100 because this little protruding knob is in the way. that
spells a big deal in the land of the duke's sanity.
4. and last but not least, the worst offense that the qy100 violates is the
one that threw me into a madman's fit. THEY CHANGED THE "CLAP" SOUND
IN ALL THE DRUM KITS!!!! folks, this is general midi box. that means no matter
what brand of general midi synth you get, you know you'll get the same familiar
and comforting sounds. but the nice chaps at yamaha took out the nice 909 sounding
electronic clap sound and replaced it with a pseudo-realistic clap sound. so
all you hardcore freezepop fanatix can count up all times that nice clap sound
shows up in our songs and then know that it would be a major endeavor to find
a new sound to map the old clap sounds to. i tried modifying the clap to sound
like the old to no avail.
so, what's a boy to do? that's right!! i sold it
and bought another qy70! twins! they really are happy together though
i'm worried about megan picking on abby. but abby's a fighter so one
of these days megan will get a rude surprise. but they do get along fantastically!
so now i have everything i need. i can have all our songs loaded into
the 2 boxes and we're good to
go.
so in end, the qy100, i'm sure it's a great box. but its minor changes really
irked me so i had to move on. i can't really comment on the other features
like the guitar/mic input, since that is something i don't think i would ever
use. for the money i don't think you get enough compared to the qy70. if they
killed all the sucky demos and put in more RAM for a larger sequencer and put
in say 200 more sounds and 10 more drum kits, and a backlit LCD screen, than
it would have rokked my little world. also a way to record a couple of channels
of compressed audio in the box would be great as well so that you could bring
in a drum loop or record a scratch vocal track. maybe that'll be in the qy200.
so there you have it.
after some cajoling and prodding by some fpop devotees, i have decided to go into how we capture that classic freezepop sound and bring it to you with such crystal clear quality. all recording and mixing and mastering occurs in the digital realm. the first D/A conversion happens at your cd player!
after the song has been written and we're ready to commit it to millions of ones and zeros, i plug my qy70's mini 1/8" stereo output converted to 2 mono 1/4" cables into my yamaha 01v digital mixer. i add a bit of compression and send that on to a Mark of the Unicorn [MOTU from now on] 2408mk3 hard disk I/O box via SPDIF at 24 bits/44.1KHz. this passes the audio on to my Dual G5 running MOTU Digital Performer (DP) 4.1 software.
i slave my qy70 via MIDI clock to DP4.1 and record a stereo tracks of the drums, synth sounds, and bass synth. this is so i can later adjust the levels/EQ of the drums and synths and bass. it also lets me add different degrees of compression while laying the qy70 tracks to the computer.
next comes the recording of liz. after coaxing her away from swedie for a few minutes, we set up an Audio Technica condenser mic plugged into the 01v, which also gives the mic its needed phantom power. this mic is incredibly bright and sibilant so i roll off a lot of 8K+ and add some compression before sending it on to the computer. i don't isolate the mic in a special room at all. liz is just singing in the same room as me with headphones on. i keep noise down by keeping my computer and hard drives in a isolated closet and mute all spaces between vocal audio tracks when she isn't singing.
all the main vocal melody lines are doubled or sometimes tripled and then we lay down harmony tracks. After this the vocoder parts are recorded. sometimes the main vocal is used for the carrier wave and other times the vocoder part is sung and played in real time.
and lastly, extra keyboard parts are laid down from the qy70, usually playing them live while recording them. Sean and I have been experimenting with using his various synths from clavia, roland, and moog.
now all the tracks i need are in Digital Performer and i can begin cleaning them up and adding effects to them. i use several different FX sources. most of the time i add delays and filter fx using plugins in the computer. reverb and more delays are added also using the 01v's built in 4 FX processors, and for specialized fx, i use a lexicon mpx1 and mpx g2, and an eventide dps4000 which can make some amazing fx that dynamically change based on internal modulators or audio sources. sometimes i bring tracks into reason to process them through some of reason's fx.
all the tracks
are sent back to the 01v digitally via a lightpipe cable to keep everything
in the digital realm. most level changes and fx/pan
rides of the 01v are automated in DP so that during the final laydown
of the mix i can sit back with my arms behind my head in complete assurance
that everything is going to sound great!
the final mix goes back from the 01v mixer to a stereo track in DP
via SPDIF. the clean up of the final mix along with fades is also done
right
here.
For the original version of Freezepop Forever and for the Fashion Impression Function EP, the mastering process also was done in Digital Performer as well. i monitor the mixes through my pair of Genelec 1030A active monitors. these are amazing speakers and i highly recommend them! the mastering was done first via a plugin that comes standard with Digital Performer, Masterworks Limiter and Multiband compressor, along with the PSP vintage warmer.
i first check out all the songs through the limiter to see what the peak value and RMS [root mean squared] value is for each track. the RMS value lets me know the apparent overall loudness of the entire track. after mixing the songs [pre-mastering], most of them come out around -17 to -14dB RMS. i then bring each track into the multiband compressor and finesse each up to about -11dB RMS and adjust the EQ curve using this plugin as well. and voila! you got yourself a doozie of a song.
for Fancy Ultra*Fresh, and the re-master of Forever,
I went to good friend, and amazing mastering engineer Dave Locke to do
the mastering. I
just didn't have the right equipment to do this well, and having his
ears on the
mixes was really great as well. For Fancy Ultra*Fresh, we wanted to add
an analog element to the mixes. They were just so digital that an analog
pass proved to really warm everything up, and provide a bit of saturation that
helped with bass response, and the compression/limiting that was added. we
ran the mixes from protools @ 24 bit/44.1 through apogee dacs to his studur
1/2" 2 track reel-to-reel with some good quantigy tape on it at 30ips.
we recorded the songs with the tape machine in record mode, pulled the audio
right off the playhead and reconverted back to 24 bits into a sonic solutions
system. Then we added EQ, compression, and limiting (L2) in the digital
domain and downsampled to 16 bit. to remove some of the tape noise, we
mastered some small bits digitally and then spliced the sections back together. that
way we got the best of both worlds. in the pics section on our site are
some pictures of fancy ultra*fresh getting mastered. you can see dave in the
background hard at work!
so there you have it.... did i put you to sleep? hope so!
>duke@freezepop.net 01/15/00 04:53PM >>>
>Request Type: Technical Support
>the duke of candied apples
>duke@freezepop.net
>Model: qy70
>Serial#: 0X02236
>the qy70 is the best piece of gear i own!
i have a suggestion. the memory really gets
>amazingly eaten up by all the demos included
in ROM. is there a way to make a
>version that kills all these useless demos and frees up a great deal
of room in
>memory? i use the qy70 as the only piece of gear in my band and it's
hard to get all the
>songs loaded in for the show when it runs out of room. just a question.
let me know
>what you guys think. if people want demos of klezmer songs than they
are really
>wierd! let them get a psr keyboard and let the qy70 be for serious songwriting!!
keep
>up the good work. my band is freezepop and all the songs are done on
the qy-70
>http://freezepop.net
>thanx,
>the duke
Subject: Re: YCA Customer Request
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 10:28:29 -0800
From: YCASupport
To: duke@freezepop.net
Hi,
Thanks for your e-mail. Your suggestion will be forwarded to the Product
Manager.
Yamaha Tech Support
MA
>duke@freezepop.net 01/25/00 05:31PM >>>
>Request Type: Technical Support
>the duke of candied apples
>duke@freezepop.net
>Model: qy-70 >Serial#: 0X02236
>hi yamaha folks, it's me again.
>so thought of something that would make the next version of the qy70
even more
>amazing than it is. what about the ability to add mpeg audio recording
into the qy-70?
>imagine a mini 1/8" jack for audio input and the ability to record 1-4
tracks of mpeg
>audio into the unit. it could be a long linear track like a scratch vocal
or gtr line. or you
>could edit and loop it like a drum loop or quick sample. once you have
purged all the
>ROM demo sequences to make more room and installed one of the great mini
storage
>devices like pcm-cia or flash ram or those ram sticks that sony uses.
than it would be
>the most amazing, versatile and portable piece of gear out there. let
me know what
>you think... have you checked out my band freezepop yet? all the songs
are done on
>the qy-70... keep up the good work.
>http://freezepop.net
>thanx,
>the duke
1/26/00
Greetings: Thank you for visiting our web site.
A specialist will be contacting you as soon as possible.
Regards, Yamaha Customer Support
714-522-9000
cr
> >duke@freezepop.net 02/06/00 09:03PM >>>
> >Request Type: Technical Support
> >the duke of candied apples
> >duke@freezepop.net
> >Model: qy-70
> >Serial#: 0X02236
> > >hi friends at yamaha, it's me again. i've been hard at work on my
freezepop songs
>and thought of a nice but minor improvement to the already astounding
qy-70. for the
>Drum Set 3 you can actually get in and edit parameters of some of the
drum sounds
>like the kicks and snares. the ability to get at the pan/pitch/and fx
parameters of each
>of these is great. perfect for tweaking the drum kit into something weird.
my
>suggestion is this. why not give us access to editing all the drum sounds
in this
>bank? or even better, why not give us complete control over all the drum
sounds in
>all the drum banks this way. then you could
take the "normal" general MIDI drum
>sounds and really tweak them into something unique. what do you think
of this
>idea?? anyway, more to come i'm sure. if you get a moment, swing
by
>http://freezepop.net
>this is my band and all of the songs are programmed solely on the qy-70
and it's the
>only main piece of gear at our live shows. rock on!!!
>the duke of candied apples
Hi,
Thanks for your e-mail. I will pass your suggestion on to the product
manager.
Martin A.
Yamaha Tech Support
>duke@freezepop.net 02/21/00 10:21PM >>>
>Request Type: Technical Support
>the duke of candied apples
>duke@freezepop.net
>Model: qy70
>Serial#: 0X02236
>hey crazy yamaha folks! it's the qy70 master at your service once again.
>so here's the problem i'm having.Ê i'm programming all these songs but
sometimes i
>end up putting choruses in the Main B section and verses in the Fill
A section and in
>each song i kind of don't really follow the same placement method of
my song
>sections.Ê a neat thing you could put into the software would be the
ability to name
>the different sections of each pattern just like you can name the pattern.Ê
at the
>bottom of the menu next to pattern name could be a section name category.Ê
there
>you could name Main A Verse1 or you could name Fill B the chorus or something
so
>that when you are playing back the pattern you can see what section you
are about
>to load.Ê this would be greatly helpful since i use the qy70 live and
it's hard to
>remember which section is which.
>have you checked out my band's website yet.Ê all the songs were programmed
and
>written completely on the qy70!
>http://freezepop.net
>talk to you soon and remember to keep your batteries fresh!
>the Duke
>ps - for fun i have been adding these emails and your responses to them
to the
>freezepop website.Ê there people can read about my great ideas and your
seeming
>lack of interest in them.Ê this isn't true is it? you care, right?Ê i
mean, even big
>corporations like yamaha care...Ê right? Martin A cares. i know he does.
Hi Duke,
Again, thanks for your e-mail (suggestions). I have forwarded it to the
Product Manager of the Digital Musical Instruments.
Martin A. Yamaha Tech Support
Hi
I received your CD. Thanks.
Martin Arroyo
Yamaha Tech Support
>>> duke@freezepop.net 03/27/00 09:08PM
>>> >> Request Type: Technical Support
>> the duke of candied apples
>> duke@freezepop.net
>> Model: qy70
>> Serial#: 0X02236
>>
>> Hi Martin and all,
>> sorry that it's been awhile since my last writing. glad you got the
>>package i sent you and hoped you found the music nice/amusing?
>> so a problem that i have been coming up against time and time again
is
>>one of switching patterns and having a glitch in the timing. some
>>glitches are exceptable and others not so much.
>> i'll take a pattern and copy it to the next pattern up so that my song
>>can have more variations in it. i'll be playing one pattern and then
>>switch to the other and there is an audible glitch while the fx settles.
>>it's the same bpm with all the same sounds and settings. in pattern
mode
>>is there a way to do this switching on the fly and not have the glitches.
>>this is becoming a problem when playing these songs back live. i read
on
>>the qy70 onelist email group that there is this "backwards expanding"
you
>>can do on a song but it eats up a lot of memory. maybe some kind of
look
>>ahead type functionality would work in pattern mode as well. when i
go
>>from a pattern that is a different bpm like 90 to 180 there doesn't
seem
>>to that much of a glitch. is this related to the fx i'm using and itf
>>it's delays or reverb with long tails the fx are harder to load or init?
>> anyway, keep in touch...
>> duke
>> http://freezepop.net
>> Duke,
>> >> Martin is on vacation until Monday. But I can answer your questions.
>>There is a function called expand backing. What this does is takes your
>>pattern tracks and places them on your song tracks. This allows for
>>smoother transtions. The problem is that when you go from pattern to
>>pattern the unit needs to change its settings causing this noticable
>>pause in the music. If possible leave the same instruments on the same
>>tracks and you wont have this problem, but if you must change insturment
>>on a track you will get this pause.
>> >> Thank You
>> >> Doyle M
>> Yamaha Tech Support