Beat making from Japanese vinyl w/ the Yamaha SU700 + Akai Force

[@StephenMcLeod]

7 inch, not 45 inch. I blame the jet lag.

[@franciscomolina8970]

The way that the sample completely changed is amazing, her voice became a wailing steam whistle the driving beat behind it suited it well.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks so much! I really appreciate you listening and commenting. :)

[@EleniEliades_]

😮Wicked !!! At one point the way you sampled and chopped her vocals it sounds like she's yodeling "...you-oo..." Love IT - I can't wait to hear more of your Sounds ~💥🎶🎛🥁🎹👏🏽❗️

[@StephenMcLeod]

Yas! Glad you like it. I was happy with how the vocals turned out in this too :)

[@vvveenn]

I liked it when the seal came in 🦭👍

[@StephenMcLeod]

What seal!? Timestamp me!!

[@vvveenn]

8:00 …warning, you can’t un-hear it 😄

[@StephenMcLeod]

@@vvveenn pahahahah thanks. You've ruined this track for me (or improved it?!)

[@vvveenn]

You’re welcome 😁

[@kek23k]

Excellent, really enjoyed this one. Looking forward to hearing more Korean soundscapades!

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks! Got a pile to work through so I'll be boring people with these for ages...

[@TotallyFictional]

Great! Looking forward to more. I’d love to try this sort of thing.

[@StephenMcLeod]

If I can do it, anybody can!

[@LabRatWarfare]

💥Always enjoy getting to see a bit of your process, definitely looking forward to more of that as you mentioned! I love how this track turned out too man, the samples were perfect, sound soooo frickin' good, AMFAS bringin' the mad chops!!! ✂ I can't wait to sink my teeth and claws into some of these sample packs you're about to post!!! 🙌🎹🐀

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks man!! Got so much of them to work through it will take me yonks. Keep an eye out for the sample pack uploading soooon

[@stefangieck2914]

This turned out absolutely marvellous! A very pleasant surprise. Please do more vinyl digging in the wild, this and your previous videos were good fun.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks Stefan! Got more to come...

[@jboulderct]

I really enjoyed this peek behind the process and the resulting track was really tight and fun. Bravo

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks Jason! Appreciate the listen and the comment.

[@n97223]

That was awesome! Listening to the final product, you would never know where the original sound came from. Sounded very fresh! I love my Akai Force, had the MPC ONE for a while, it just took way too much set up for me, I find the force much easier to compose with. Sold the MPC to buy the Force. Nice work!

[@StephenMcLeod]

Hell yeah. I've not owned an MPC One but my friend had one, and I prefer having the arranger and extra pads of the force. Even if it can be flakey at times...

[@saysomestuff]

Yay! Been waiting for this!!

[@StephenMcLeod]

I hope it lived up to your hopes and dreams!

[@indigosnow_]

so dope, I can't wait to be able to do this. Badass

[@StephenMcLeod]

That'll be awesome!

[@dankeplace]

That Yamaha device looks daf, it has old skool keys which I love. I love older devices that just seem to have a great work flow, as for the song, mang oh mang you really do go out there. I have been asking Akai to get a proper sequencer in their work flow, so you select next clips but they only play when the longest clip finishes on the old selected. It's generally how sequencers work, I hate that it's an instant change, means you have to be too hands on, where with what I am asking for, allows you to set up for changes and then you are hands on your synths, tweaking. Keep em coming Steve, loven the approaches.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks a lot!! I have to admit that I bought the Yamaha purely on how it looked, and was pleasantly surprised with how it sounded ha. I am a sucker for old school devices as well. I get why the Force has the clip launch the way it does - I think you can change it a bit - but it's tied to Ableton for all of that kind of integration. It took me a while to get used to as well, as like you said, you need to be pretty on top of the changes - but I'm getting there! Thanks for listening and commenting!

[@Yesternow]

Great stuff!

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks Hugh!!

[@Zen_Mox]

I feel the force pain.... It should be amazing af... but then something stupid always happens... On the other hand, as usual, great work with the tune!

[@StephenMcLeod]

It's ridiculous. Just when I am getting into it... overall it's pretty great, but there are definitely frustrations. Thanks for listening!

[@synkuk]

@@StephenMcLeod Find the Force awesome .. still discovering more of this device evern 3yrs after buying it .. tbh any issues I've had with it .. always seem to be me in the end ( once I find the solution ) .. admittedly I do a lot of midid with it as well as usual sampler n arrangement duties ... btw how you find the SU700 ? I've been interested in that for a while .. but recently they seem to have dissapeared off the market.. ( as with most other old samplers either gone OR jacked to the moon for price )

[@Noise-Conductor]

@@synkuk Had the Force for 2yrs & feel the way, especially about the having "issues" with it.😉. Making Project templates is key to using the real power of the Force. They take time setting up once, but helps to speed up every new projects with all the tracks named, FXs, Macros, MIDI & Track parameters settings setup the way you like. This is a on going process. As you use the Force more you'll find more things to change or reasons to make other templates, but each new self-made OS update makes the Force easier for "you" to use.

[@Noise-Conductor]

@@synkuk I got a RS7000 which is the later model, but think don't know too much about the SU to know how close they OS wise. The RS7k is what I got to upgrade from the MPC2500 with JJOS 2XL, I love the MPC as a sampler but its seq is clunky AF, if you like to come up with a lot of ideas, move them around, rename...etc, & worse was that I used over 10 seqs, so any edits on 1 track would have to be copied & pasted to any other tracks in other seqs. A Workflow-Hell No! The RS with its 256 clips or as they call it "Phrases" that can play on any 1 or more of the 16 tracks. Then there's 16 Sections, each have 16 track for any of the 256 clips. The mute states are not saved per section,so if you don't want a track to play leave the clip slot empty on that section. This is dope because the mutes turns on/off the live audio, so you can use the 16 Track/Mute buttons as a performance tool. But the Force can be set up with the macros to do that to which just touching a knob which is better for playing melodically IMO. I know both SU/RS come with many FXs. So maybe you can use for old-school FXs. I'm currently in the process of transferring beats from the RS to Force that will be be finish with the other synths & stuff. I don't really need now because I also have a Squarp Pyramid is like a modern version of its sequencer, & the drums sound good but sampled them on the Force. The Synth is very basic, but not in a bad way, but if there's any patch you like its better to sample it on the Force, so now I just want move it from the main space since it a huge box, but it make the perfect music sketch-box. If there's more you want to know let me know.

[@alanbg2278]

OK, i'M Dancin' !

[@StephenMcLeod]

Mission accomplished.

[@CNTRRNDM]

Oh, how I'd love to flip this sample with my PO-33😁 great vid, man! Enjoyed it a lot!!!

[@StephenMcLeod]

Flip that beast!!

[@CNTRRNDM]

@@StephenMcLeod 😁😁😁

[@jennoscura2381]

Groovy! I like that you used something different for your samples. The drum break from The Funky Drummer is great; but it's overdone. People back in the day sampled their parents soul and R&B records because it's what they had access to. In this day in age we have access to so much more to sample. There is so much random music to be found in thrift shops. Next time I visit one I think I am going to pick up some random things to sample. That Yamaha sampler looks really interesting. I have been wanting a hardware sampler for a while. So I may have to check that one out. Ideally I would want one where I could trigger samples with midi notes. I have a midi controller with pads. It would be fun to have a beat and baseline going and just trigger samples on top of it.

[@stephenmarsh6746]

Sweet!

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks fellow Stephen!

[@richard-mtl]

My kid (who is now 16, if you can believe it), says that this is very very cool.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Yeahhh!! I appreciate that though it also makes me feel very very old hahaha

[@budgetkeyboardist]

That is definitely cool!

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks a lot!!

[@wiggesobk]

Great video and nice record!

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks a lot!!

[@DetroitMicroSound]

👍 I bought the SU700 new, when it came out. Used it a few years. Wore a bunch of the small encoders out. The SU is notorious for encoders that begin jumping eventually.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Yeah, it seems like the Yamahas of that era are particularly bad for that. The ones in this unit have been replaced... allegedly.

[@DetroitMicroSound]

@@StephenMcLeod That's good! Hopefully they used tough ones.

[@DetroitMicroSound]

@@StephenMcLeod To describe the SU700 accurately, you would more call it a mega-looper with sequencer, and a lot of effects. I had most of a banana box full of 3.5's. I seem to remember a bunch of projects that had 14 disks.... 😆 Wonder how many hours I spent loading and saving disks to the sound of it's noisy floppy drive.... I bet you can swap out the OG FD, for a microSD.

[@DetroitMicroSound]

@@StephenMcLeod I sold mine to DJ Kero over in Ontario, years ago. The first thing he did was replace all the encoders. He still plays it, I think. Wait til you understand how it works. You'll probably love physically jamming on it. It'll do some powerful stuff. And how can anybody not love the highly detailed VFD display? That's the kind of display that would make Teenage Engineering VERY jealous....

[@DetroitMicroSound]

@@StephenMcLeod One more thing! If yours has good paint, and labeling, you'll want to strongly consider taking the face/cover off, and spraying the entire thing with clear polyurethane, or other durable coating. The paint, and lettering, wears off easily, from the factory. It never received a protective coating, before assembly. A satin clearcoat, will keep it looking great, forever. You'll find yourself being a bit hard on it (like any MPC) It's built pretty tough for being plastic on top, but the finish/printing and encoders, not so much.

[@Colesey]

Sounds great. I think a nice bass track would tie it together really nice too! Are you a fan of The Avalanches, btw?

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks!! I only really know the one track (Frontier Psychiatrist), but I should probably explore them more...

[@Colesey]

@@StephenMcLeod I only ask because the Avalanches are sampling masters. Your song had a bit of an Avalanches feel. Their music is great (if a bit melancholy at times)

[@StephenMcLeod]

@@Colesey thanks a lot!! That's huge praise. Thank you!

[@leewightman8619]

I wish all my friends where synths....my friends are only romplers

[@StephenMcLeod]

It's been a while since I had a look at a synth actually...

[@robertsyrett1992]

Isn't that a zip drive?

[@StephenMcLeod]

On the SU700? Nah it's definitely a floppy drive. I have an external zip drive on the way though...

[@vaughnwalker1840]

SKY RESTAURANT

[@StephenMcLeod]

Where?!

[@JackstandJohnny]

45 doesnt mean 45 inch. It means 45 RPM. Its in reference to the speed, not the size. Cool stuff though!

[@StephenMcLeod]

a shameful slip of the tongue! I meant 7inch. I blame the jet lag.

[@scottcolt4283]

What genre is this? Who cares!!! Delicious.

[@StephenMcLeod]