A quick play with one of my favourite Matrix 1000 Patches (Number 969).
I really love playing arpeggios on this sound as I always seem to get some inspiration out of it.

Other sounds used:
Spitfire Albion NEO - Strings A Super Sul Tasto
Spitfire Albion NEO - Woodwinds Long
Spitfire BDT - Bass Calrinet
Scarbee Rhodes

To find out more about the Pianobook project, how you can get involved and to download 'One After 969' as well as many more free pianos please visit:

www.pianobook.co.uk

For further information and updates please visit:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhjHU_TKGO2vOGKyjA7uvVnIDayerm1zl

60 after 909

A quick play around with the Northern Film Orchestra's Orchestral Swells. Some truely beautiful woodwinds which were the inception of this piece, even if the Flute is at times rather potent.

Pianobook Instruments Used:
NFO: Orchestral Swells (duh)
Closet Harp

Other Sounds Used;
Spectrasonics Symphony of Voices Boys Choir Ooh

To find out more about the Pianobook project, how you can get involved and to download 'NFO: Orchestral Swells' as well as many more free instruments please visit:

www.pianobook.co.uk

For further information and updates please visit:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh…jA7uvVnIDayerm1zl

Swells of Inspiration

I was playing around with a triplet from hell (or at least somerhwere around that post code) courtsey of Dreadbox: Erebus V3, Erebus DIY 22, Hades DIY 22.
After pleny of noodling I decided to have them all play a nice unison sound and eventually ended up with this lovely background drone and plinks.
The next day I decided to add a bit of the Weasel on top, but had trouble restraining myself, always wanting to do too much that destroyed the beautiful simplicity.

Overall this reminds me very much of something that could have been on one of Alessandro Cortini's last few albums and I hope I am not too close to be infringing.

Weasel of Darkness

An accidental mash up of Crystal Lake and some pieces from Optical Race during a few hours of jamming on that sequence.
I hope neither Klaus Schulze nor Edgar Froese are rolling in their respective graves too much.

Using Following equipment:
MU Modular
Simmons SDS-5
Yamaha RX-8
Beatstep Pro
Roland SDE3000
Bricasti M-7
Lexicon 300L
Studer 902
RME Babyface
Cubase Pro 9.5
FM8

Crystal Race - The Mirage of Marakesh

Music composed for the play 'The Last Days of Judas Iscariot' performed at the RADA in october 2018, directed by Matthew Xia (DJ Excalibah), Sound Design & Composition by Robert Shüssler.
As of the nature of a theatrical performance dictates, some of the music contains vamps, longer loops or crossfades through various layers; these have been consolidated to a shorter version more suitable to listen to standalone.
Some alternate versions and outtakes can be found at the end of the playlist. A lot of the elements of the outtakes were actually used in the show, however I think that the full versions are better suited to this medium.

All Music Copyright by Robert Shüssler, 2018.

TLDOJI Butch Honeywell Monologue & Ending

TLDOJI Jesus & Judas

TLDOJI Sigmund Freud Entrance

TLDOJI Act 2 Opener

TLDOJI End Act 1

TLDOJI Bar

TLDOJI Satan

TLDOJI Mother Theresa

TLDOJI St. Peter

TLDOJI Trumpets & Dancing Camels

TLDOJI Opening & MainTitles

Following this series of live Improvisations, I wanted to try 6 different Felt Pianos; there happen to be six Felt Pianos available at www.pianobook.co.uk so it seemed like a good enough idea to try.
Whilst I enjoyed the music I came up with the sound of these six characteristic Felt Pianos together was not to my likeing.
However I decided to start trying out other Pianos and the MVP Prototype did something that just fitted with the Music.
I am using six instances triggered by the six voice assigned arpeggiators; these are then all panned and processed slightly differently into a Lanois inspired Reverb Chain.

Study for Polyphonic Arpeggiator 6 - Pianobook MVP Prototype

A quick play with some prototype patches from an accordion sampling session. Available on Pianobook soon™.
Other sounds used:
Spitfire Felt Piano (slightly reprogrammed in Kontakt)
Fairlight SARARR
Waldorf PPG Wave 3.v for all Drums
OMI Liquid Stacks layered with The Giant

R296 - ESC Weltmeister Demo

Quick inspiration from the Glistening Rhapsody Patches.

Starring:
Glistening Rhapsody - Main melody & 'Guitar' sound
Olafur Arnalds Evos - High String drone throughout
Olafur Arnalds Toolkit - Mellow Synths
Modular Piano - Layered melody
Glass & Steel - Bowed Glass texture in latter part
Time Macro - Low to Mid Strings
Too much reverb and not enough music.

R302 - Glistening Rhapsody

Due to Pianoday approaching I decided to work again with my polyphonic arpeggio set up, using some www.pianobook.co.uk instruments.
Again, the voice splitter is feeding 6 instances of ArpacheSX in sequence mode; this time I'm using more wave like sequences (in terms of velocity) which gives a nice delay like feel.

Using the following Pianos:
The English Felt (Odd arps - Panned Left)
Tatak - Felt Piano  (Even arps - Panned Right)
Olafur Arnalds Felt Piano (Played MIDI - Panned Centre)

I am surprisingly pleased with the result considering the limited/lack of round robins for the very repetitive nature and overlapping notes.

To find out more about the Pianobook project, how you can get involved and to download 'The English Felt' and 'Tatak - Felt Piano' as well as many more free pianos please visit:

www.pianobook.co.uk

For further information and updates please visit:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh…jA7uvVnIDayerm1zl

Study for Polyphonic Arpeggiator 8 - Pianobook English Felt, Tatak Felt & Olafur Felt

A quick morninng noodle on Pianoday with the English Felt. Sadly this shows a lot of the problems of this piano (mainly the samples need fading out) however I find the sound very inspirational to play with. 

To find out more about the Pianobook project, how you can get involved and to download 'The English Felt' as well as many more free pianos please visit:

www.pianobook.co.uk

For further information and updates please visit:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh…jA7uvVnIDayerm1zl

Pianoday Improv - The English Felt Demo

Being stuck inside on such a lovely spring day I've tried to channel my inner HGW and see what happens. Apparently this; using the following instruments:
Piano: The Emperor & King (https://www.pianobook.co.uk/library/the-emperor-king/)
Solo Strings: Spitfire British Drama Toolkit
Ensemble Strings: Spitfire Albion NEO
Harps & Vibes: Orchestral Tools Time Macro
Alto Flute: Spitfire Symphonic Woodwinds

To find out more about the Pianobook project, how you can get involved and to download 'The Emperor and King' as well as many more free pianos please visit:

www.pianobook.co.uk

For further information and updates please visit:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh…jA7uvVnIDayerm1zl

R324 - Pianobook The Emperor & King

I've had a quick play with the Marimba by Liam MacLean (https://www.pianobook.co.uk/library/marimba/).
I hope this isn't too close to anything by Steve Reich or John Luther Adams...

This is using 2 instances of both types of beater each panned and running through TVerbs and bx_console_Focusrite with a bit of VSS3 gluing it all together.

To find out more about the Pianobook project, how you can get involved and to download 'Marimba' as well as many more free pianos please visit:

www.pianobook.co.uk

For further information and updates please visit:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh…jA7uvVnIDayerm1zl

Marimba Quartet

My entry for said competition; video to be found here: https://youtu.be/M5Ix4gbWizI

Whilst failing at copying 70s Tangerine Dream I was somewhat more succesful trying to copy one of my favourite John Barry Score; it seems however to have evolved into something else.

Spitfire Audio Westworld Scoring Competition

More experimentation with my polyphonic arpeggiator system.
As usual, the voice splitter is feeding 8 instances of ArpacheSX in sequence mode; there are some more syncopated sequences this time on top of some left overs from last time.

Using the following Pianos:
The Emperor and King (Odd arps - Panned Left)
The Bjarma Grand (Even arps - Panned Right)

As usual, some EQ on the pianos and an Olafur inspired Reverb/Delays chain.

To find out more about the Pianobook project, how you can get involved and to download 'The Emperor and King' and 'The Bjarma Grand' as well as many more free pianos please visit:

www.pianobook.co.uk

For further information and updates please visit:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh…jA7uvVnIDayerm1zl

Study for Polyphonic Arpeggiator No 12 - The Bjarma Grand & The Emperor and King

A quick noodle with the CS-700 Brass patch (available at a Pianobook near you).
This reminded me very much of something that could be on Vangelis' See You Later, hence the title.

Brass: CS-700 Brass (of course)
Strings: CS-700 Brass (using just the looped sections of the samples)
Bleeps: Waldorf Largo
Reverb: Softube/NI RC24

To find out more about the Pianobook project, how you can get involved and to download 'CS-700 Brass' as well as many more free instruments please visit:

www.pianobook.co.uk

For further information and updates please visit:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh…jA7uvVnIDayerm1zl

See You Soon - CS-700 Brass

Something slightly different this time.
This is a recreation of a DAW-less jam I've had up on the desk for a few days and finally wanted to move on, so did a quick arrangement and live mix.
This was very much inspired by Passport/Doldinger and Garbarek, but sadly I don't happen to have a Soprano Sax so an Alto sample had to do the job.

Passing through the Port

Technically just another study/improv for polyphonic arpeggiators (No 13), however as it reminded me harmonically very much of the great Penguin Cafe I decided to quickly sketch some string parts on top reminiscent of said group.

Using the following Instruments:
The Emperor and King (Chords - Panned Left)
College Kemble (Arpeggios - Panned Right)
Spitfire British Drama Toolkit (Viola)
Spitfire Aperture Strings (Flaut Ens)

To find out more about the Pianobook project, how you can get involved and to download 'The Emperor and King' and 'College Kemble' as well as many more free pianos please visit:

www.pianobook.co.uk

For further information and updates please visit:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh…jA7uvVnIDayerm1zl

Study for Arpeggiating Penguins - College Kemble & The Emperor and King

More fun has been had with voice split arpeggiators, but this time I switched over to using BlueARP rather than my dodgy voice splitter and ArpacheSX; technically this would be Study for Polyphonic Arpeggiator No15, but who cares about these numbers anymore.

Using following sounds:
Straight Piano - Pianobook Emperor & King
Arpeggiated Pianos - Pianobook College Kemble
String Swells - Spitfire Olafur Chamber Evolutions
Strings - Spitfire Olafur Evolutions
Woodwinds - Spitfire British Drama Toolkit
Horns - Spitfire Orchestral Swarm
Horns and Euphoniums - Spitfire Albion 2 Loegria
Choir - Orchestral Tools Time Macro

Blue Arpeggiated Pianos

It seems all the Buchla music I've been listening to recently has taken over my brain.
This is a live improvisation using a modest MU Modular set up through a pair of Delays and Reverb.

R357

A quick demo for this great Pianobook community project. 
Due to the evolving nature of Winter Voices I tried to do something more slow moving (well, tried at least).
As usual, the influences of Steve Reich and John Luther Adams seem to stick out.

Using the following Pianobook instruments:
- Winter Voices (Beta)
- Modular FM Bell
- Space Island Toy Steel Drum
- The Emperor & King
- MVP Prototype
- Notes Productions Felt Piano

To find out more about the Pianobook project, how you can get involved and to download 'Winter Voices' as well as many more free instruments please visit:

www.pianobook.co.uk

For further information and updates please visit:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh…jA7uvVnIDayerm1zl

Vocal Winter - Pianobook Winter Voices

A bit of fun on the modular using West and East coast philosophies in tandem.

Features following modules:
Stroh 258J and Corsynth C104 Oscillators
Dove Audio NJM2069 and STG Post Lawsuit Lowpass Filters
STG Soundlabs Mixer
Synthesizers.com Q157 SH++
RYK M185 Sequencer

Additional Equipment:
Roland SDE 3000 pair
Studer 902 Console
RME Babyface

nativeVS

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