I like to create my own music, using Synthesizers. It's a bit of a challenge since I have no musical education; I can't read notes.

I use Cubase to record the tracks I play, and use the quantitize function very often to correct my mistakes :-)

See the photographs section for a gallery from my studio.

Had some technical challenges while creating this track.

I bought a new synthesizer, I really like the Waldorf Blofeld (have 2), so when the new Kyra came out I had to have it. It is a real beast, not only in sound but also in size, it is a desktop module, but it is big...

Most of the sounds in this track come from the Kyra, but you will also hear the Prophet P12, an arpeggiator patch which was the inspiration / starting point of the song.

Other instruments are Korg Radias, Blofeld, Roland D-05 (under using it, just a FX patch) and Reason including some samples from freesound.org.

About the technical challenges; my collection of synths has gotten so big that I have trouble keeping it all in sync; especially when using lots of arpeggiated sounds.

I have always used Cubase as clock source, but that one is really not stable. When I set tempo to 120 it will fluctuate between 119 and 121.

Most synths can handle that but I noticed that some of my synths start producing strange sounds (the internal effect engine gets 'lost').

So how did I fix this? Well I already had this little thing:

I was never able to use it; I have an 8-in/8-out MIDI interface, but was not able to get the MIDI clock signal on each out port.

I thought I could let Cubase do this, but Cubase cannot slave to a MIDI clock.

But then I found a great free software tool called CopperLan.

With this tool you can create virtual MIDI ports (available anywhere on your network) and configure for each port what its input and output is. This way you can hook them up to your physical MIDI devices.

Also it has a nice feature that it can take a MIDI clock source and route it to multiple destinations, exactly what I need.

So my problem is solved; I don't use Cubase internal clock anymore and all my synths are happy.

Back to the song; original idea was to make a 20 minute, 'Waiting for Cousteau' like track, but that was a lot of work and would probably resulted in a clone.

So I turned it into a track which I kind of expected WFC to morph into when I first heard it.

Initially I was very disappointed with that song; 46 minute and nothing happens... Now I consider it the best ambient track ever created.

Any way this is my 'short' version/remix of it, Enjoy!

Bought a soundset for my Waldorf Blofeld; called Analog Voltage. It has some great sounds, so I made a track with it.

Most of the sounds are from the new soundset, but you can also hear the DSI Tetr4, DSI Prophet 12, Korg Radias, Akai Miniak and Roland JU-06.

A swell of frequencies and noises.

Influenced by a lot of other Electronic Music, but as you can hear I am a great admirer of Jean Michel Jarre, the master of harmonies.

"I wanted to create a groove with the melodic part on its own and to also create the real feel of a spacey trip - which is what Oxygene is all about - and with minimalist drums. What made and makes Oxygene different, is probably that an important part of the sound is made of white noise creating a hazy atmosphere. It is ironic to think back in time when everybody was obsessed by improving the signal to noise ratio, that I used so much noise as part of my music…" - Jean Michel Jarre about Oxygene part 17

I guess I am trying to do the same...

This 16 minute EP contains 3 parts. First part is a more rhythmic track, whereas the second part is an ambient track (no beats). The last part is a kind of 'Rumba / Closing' track like Jarre does it on his albums :-)

The beat in the first part is done using Reason, part of the beat goes through a phaser. The bassline from the Juno-2 sounds a bit like Autechre (Incunabula album I think). You also hear the Akai Miniak, Korg Radias, DSI Prophet'08, DSI Tetr4 and the Waldorf Blofeld.

The end of the track has some soundscapes; samples are used and effects from Korg Radias and Waldorf Blofeld. It serves as a transition to the next part.

On the second part you mostly hear the Waldorf Blofeld, what a great synth!, I used it for all the effects and the arpeggios.

I also used the Juno, Tetr4, Radias and some ambiance samples.

The 3rd part is pretty basic. It contains a beautiful pad sound from Reason (Substractor) and a sequencer sound from the Blofeld. The beat (a modified loop) is also from Reason (Dr.OctoRex).

The samples are from Freesound.org and YouTube. The sample at around 50 seconds is rather interesting; the rumor is that this is a recording of a female russian cosmonaut in trouble, recorded by the Judica-Cordiglia brothers in the early 60's.

All tracks are mixed with Behringer X32 technology and mastered with iZotope Ozone.

Here 3 videos (assembled from YouTube clips) for each part.

This was a quick one... Started with the Juno-2; just playing around looking for some nice patches. Didn't expect it would result in a complete track, I am getting good at this!

First I had the title 'Running' in mind, but that changed when I found the Roswell sample. While watching the classic movie 'Contact' I found the closing sample/speech by Jodie.

This is the first track which I mastered (using iZotope Ozone 5), which really makes a difference.

Track started with the bassline using the Roland MKS-80, a real fat analogue sound.

Drums are from Reason, loops from Korg Radias, strings from DSI Prophet'08. There is also some Waldorf Blofeld and DSI Tetr4.

Yes, Inspiration has come, I have finished the track!

The intro part has been enriched by some Icy wind and I have added some samples to smoothen the transition to the action part.

The action part has been extended so that it makes a transition to the end.

An ending has been added, by 'closing' the bassline, in line with the final notes using the classic Eminent sound (thank you Jean Michel).

I am very happy with the result, it's not a perfect track but it has structure, which I was not able to do up until now.

My latest composition.

Track was made when I bought the Waldorf Blofeld. This incredible sound module contains a patch called 'IceFields', which was the inspiration for the song.

Besides the Blofeld you can also hear the Kawai K4, Korg MS2000R, Nord Modular G2 and lots of Reason.

The eminent sound (which Jarre uses on Oxygene) comes from Reason. I found the sample on the internet and some instructions on how to set the phaser effect, which adds the Jarre touch to it.

The drums you hear are also from Reason, they actually consist out of 3 preset patterns which I combined and tweaked a bit. Reusing stuff, is easier then creating it from scratch :-)

This is my best track so far, but its far from finished; I like the intro (ambient part), but I need to work on the middle (action) part and a 'cooldown' part needs to be added.

I need more inspiration!!

A more recent experiment.

Most of the patches come from the Nord Modular G2 (another great synth, but hard to create patches for), but also a Korg MS2000R is present (the bassline).

Track is inspired by the movie 2010: The Year We Made Contact (sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey). For those who have seen the movie, the audio samples should sound familiar, except for one... No no no no!

This track is created after playing around with the vocoder part from the Korg MS2000R.

I also used the Kawai K4, Boss Dr-770 (Drums) and the Korg Electribe-A. And you can here a famous sample from the movie Tron.

Hmm, I need a better title for this one.

This is one of the first tracks I made (around '90), it consists out of a single patch on my very first Synthesizer, the Kawai K4.

It's a very minimal track, two chords which are repeated, and an improvised 'solo' on top of it. But I am still fascinated by it, somehow the notes are connected...

Unfortunately I don't have the original song file anymore, it was created on an Amiga (KCS Sequencer) which I longer have.

Consists out of 2 parts connected by Oxygene / Wind.

It's a weak experiment; sounds too Jarre ?? But I still like the first part, which has a layered melody. Listen carefully!

Entire track is done with Kawai K4.

My very first track which is created with the Kawai K4 only.

The title Stars relates to the patch which I created; the twinkeling bells you hear. The random effect in the sound is - I think - caused by a bug in the K4, a certain sound parameter causes it.