Going Home

After spending so long to make the last song (Spark) I decided I wanted to make a really simple tune and make it piano based. The title 'Going Home' is really from meditation on the world at the time of writing this and also losing people in my private life. So it's a sad but yet hopeful little ditty.

I wrote the initial chords on acoustic guitar and then transferred it to keyboards. I had my wooden headed companion to help me out.

I can play basic keyboard but find keeping in time difficult, as don't have a great sense of time, so I write on to a piano roll in LMMS and then tidy it up. I rarely quantise music, even though I use a midi keyboard to computer, as I don't want it to sound too perfect. I prefer to try and keep the original feeling, even if there are minor mistakes.

Even though the tune is simple, it still took a lot of work to try and get it tight and sounding 'right' to my ear as you can see from some of the files:

Some of the piano roll, using LMMS DAW:

And the final mixing together, as usual, I used Sonar LE:

Some of the VSTs used: 

Wooden Man says 'hello' to you and thanks for reading this ;-)

 

'Spark', the making of

 Spark

'Spark' actually took about six months to write. I had an initial idea for a purely electronic, computer built tune but I over layered it too many times and by the end had a complete cacophony of  sound. I had backed myself into a musical corner and needed to get out again.

If you look at the original chords, they sounded good, but I'm really a simple tune writer with a pop sense and I had bitten off more than I could chew. 

I also tried different instrument sounds and I'd go off on tangents and then lose the way.

Here are just a few of the WAV files and different program files out of many more I had:

So, I decided to go back to the beginning and start from scratch, ditching the purely electronic idea and bring in the guitars. Once I had brought in the guitars, then it started to focus itself again.  Here is a live solo I did (recorded on webcam) which became part of the tune:

Once it started to get a clearer direction, then it was a matter of tidying it up, re-inserting some electronic music I had made, but this time, it was more of a background orchestration with the guitars as the lead instrument. 

Here are some screenshots of FX and Guitar tones (Line 6) I used in it, including the piano roll I wrote on Sonar and also the synth sounds I wrote using LMMS

So the tune could have gone in many directions but I'm happy enough to leave it as it is now. When you start a song, what you end up with is sometimes a lot different than what you first envisaged, that's part of the joy of making music and I'm always grateful to have the opportunity.

 

Slow Beach Walking, the making of

 Slow Beach Walking, the making of

Slow Beach Walking was really a nod to the first wave Californian and Australian Surf Guitar sound.  I hadn't written 'Surf' for a while and thought it was due time.

I had been playing around with a guitar I had received and this tune really came out of the sound the guitar was giving; the twangy, bright sound.

The background music I put together as sparsely using keyboards, 2nd guitar, bass and drum samples (I don't play drums). I mixed it to try and give that 60's tinny/ treble sound.

The name is what I could picture while playing it.

Fire Dove ...making of...

This tune started out from messing around with a step sequencer (below) and ended up being really a basic rock instrumental by the time it went through a few transformations.

I also wanted to do a more punchy tune after the last few ambient offerings. The drums were from a collection of loops (from either Looperman site or other legitimate offerings). I depend on them a lot, as I don't play drums. I did start out with just programming the kicks.

Because I made this over four months ago (and I've been very busy), I can't actually remember everything I did to make it, however, I know I was aiming for a simple rock based tune with a dash of experimentation to keep it interesting.

I know I was looking for a Midnight Oil sound on the guitars and didn't really get it but the process came up with something that worked to my ears at least. Tremolo is in there if you listen carefully to the backing guitar.

For lead guitar, I pushed it through an unnatural source which was what I was after 'mini moog synth' for keyboards. I often like to go around the traditional electric guitar sounds.

As usual, I play all the other instruments besides drums, so it's live bass guitar on here through a 'power pop' modeler.I also used a 'saw synth' way in the background and also another Square bass synth. 

Bouncing and laying tracks is normal because my computers never have enough CPU or Memory. So this is the end result of all the tracks but there are probably a few hidden before this, lost in the layering. I multitrack to try and give a bigger sound, otherwise it sounds very dry and limp and insipid.Theres a piano synth in there somewhere too, I just discovered...

The video clip was partly done in front of my old trusty green screen 

I'm always grateful to those who share their short clips, so those of us who do this on a budget can make budget clips :-)

I've put 'Fire Dove' on my latest offering on  Bandcamp Page as a name your price so if you aren't cashed up, help yourself.

Join in for conversation or feedback on my Tim Oestmann Music page

'Broken' the making of...

'Broken' was put together in 2019. The guitar parts were actually internally recorded in the 1980's and I had them floating around for years. They came together when I had a mixture of medieval music I had been listening to and U2's beautiful song 'Tomorrow'  somehow give me the idea to bring all the parts together in a spontaneous way. It is not as tight as initially planned because I was quite busy and decided to finish the sucker off quickly.

 

The title 'Broken' came about from where I was at the time of writing and so it was sort of therapeutic as well; as is a lot of the music I write. I could have used the title "I feel like crap" or 'Why don't you just shoot me now" but "Broken" seemed portrays the music which is most important to me in the long run.

This tune is a bit of an excursion for me in that I use the main theme but then run off in (gasp) not pop. Before you get worried, it's just an experiment in where I could repeat the theme but stretch it out in a more classical way, in repeating a theme and playing with it in different ways.

Here's a short visual explanation of how I put it together. Hope you music nerds enjoy it!  Blessings. Tim Oestmann

Always with us making of

Always With Us The tune I actually started in the 80's but thought it might be time to finish it off. Call it procrastination; fermentation's a better word... Here' the clip:


Here's how it started:




Here's some of the in between bits:

VSTi's

The original chords and preliminary notes

Way in the background I used piano in LMMS

 

Would you believe the lead guitar was partly inspired by pan pipes? I like the vibrato sound, so I tried to find something that emulated that sort of sound.

Blessings

Tim O

Radio Waves -some of the making of

Radio Waves - mainly 'spy surf' but with some Eastern instrumentation for a bit of spice.



 I needed to occupy my mind (waiting on reports of a relative in hospital), so I finished off this half baked idea over a few nights.

Basically it is a 140 bpm surf guitar tune but i wanted to contrast an Eastern sound with a Western sound in one tune.

Besides playing my trusty old AXL strat copy (which I still like the sound for the surfy stuff), I played real live bass but I thought a Nay, Oud and Tabla sound would make it kind of interesting, though they are instruments from different areas.  The only loops I used were the Western drum
loops otherwise I attempted to play (via midi keyboard) these VSTi's:

The mixed down tracks:

Tabla percussion I programmed

A short clip playing around with the Eastern and Middle Eastern instruments via midi keyboard: