Tarzan's Walkin' Down 5th Avenue

[kensuguro]

I had a song with Friend's Mens (my current band) called "Tarzan's Goes Shopping", and people liked the title, so I decided to blow out the story a little more. So I'm writing one with Tarzan going shopping on 5th, starting around Saks and Rockefeller center, Cole Haan, Kenneth Cole.. going up to Armani Exchange, checking out Harry Winston.. all the way up to Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc..

It's going to be a vocal piece, but I still need to write lyrics. Tarzan's wild, but he's got a personal shopper just like the upper east side rich folks. I also want to touch on how NY is rough like the wild jungle.. so Tarzan will comment, "well, the amenities aren't much better than the jungle".. anyway, there's a whole story evolving around this.

The last part, I want him to hop on the subway and head home.. the only question is, does he head down town, towards brooklyn? Or does he hop on the 7 at grand central and head to queens / flushing? Or does he hop on the 4,5,6 and head up town possibly to bronx?

production notes:
Live live live! I wanted lots of life in the parts so most of them aren't quantized at all, and played very loosely. Most tracks are going through a normal verb (long) and also a short ambience verb to pull them one step back from the speakers. The lead synth esp was way too close.

I didn't really have the right samples to do a full on samba, but I pieced together what I could. I can never find good tamborines or repinique samples.. Sampletank 2xl had some but I don't have it installed on this notebook.

One thing I realized with the marimba "strummed" chords is that I pretty much can just "roll" the 1 and 7th, or 3 and 7th. Which is a welcome simplification since "roll"ing all 1357 could be a pain to do fast. How do they do it in real life? I don't even know. Maybe they use the triple fingered head like for vibraphones?

Also, the style is a mix of samba, calypso, and ska because I wanted a caribbean feel, but also the "moving" feel of samba. No disrespect for any of the individual genres and cultures. Just know the mix up is by choice and not ignorance. I did play in a samba once though.. I played repinique.

[yish313]

Okay Im curious, as I dont often hear this kinda production being played here, what all did you use to make this song, instruments(samplers,synths), mixers, DAW recorder/sequencer?

[dawman]

Dammit...
I was wondering what you had cookin' lately.
I just took my DAW in for a new install on an SSD and replacement of the SATA RAID Cage.
Rush order prices to have it back by Thursday, so no tunes till then...

[kensuguro]

I used Ableton Live, and a bunch of its built in stuff.
Drums: Free proteus vsti
Tympani: Proteus
Bass: Live's Analogue synth
Lead: Live's Analogue synth
Cheap organ sound for last chorus: Live's Analogue synth
Percussion: Live's percussion rack
Piano: Pianoteq
Samba snares: Live's snare preset tuned way up
Surdo: Live's tom preset

I recently started to use lots of Blue Tube stuff from Nomad Factory. That stuff is addicting. I used their eq and track chain all over the place, and also their Reverb. One for long reverb, and once for short ambience verb.

I think what's cool with tunes like this is that the same "effect" can probably be achieved with almost any sound, as long as the progression is in tact, and the groove is in tact. It can be built from more minimal parts, or blown out to a more full arrangement. But the base melody and progression is sweet and classical.

Basically, it's just a bunch of Live's bundled stuff, with bits and pieces of free proteus. Ya, that makes me very cheap. lol. But Blue Tube justifies I guess. I can't use Scope stuff anymore since my desktop broke down.