Favourite Keyboard Sound

I don’t know why I love the sound of an electric piano. I have never actually played one - just software emulations, which I don’t think really sound or feel the same. I suppose one of the reasons is that you don’t have to be a great player to luxuriate in the sound - just hold down a weird chord. I am no more a music historian than a player, but I first became aware of ‘that sound’ through Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book album. I got to know the sound of a rhodes piano at a time when it probably was about as trendy as my liking The Visitors by Abba, which by the way I still love immeasurably. Likewise, admiting a fondness for Trip Hop might make me seem stuck in the nineties but that’s where I probably got the urge to stick a Rhodes sound up against a drum machine to see what happens.

I’m constantly reaching for the sounds that got me interested in making music in the first place, and Portishead and Stevie Wonder are probably as good examples as any.

My preference is for a Fender Rhodes over a Wurlitzer any day. I like the chimey bell-like sound rather than Supertramp bark. Riders on the Storm, not the Logical Song.

If you still don’t know what sound I’m talking about here is a quick sample.

Electric Piano Sample Thing (192 kbps, 5MB Mp3)

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(Have a look at the Fender Rhodes Supersite for more information.)

Get What I Want

Get What I Want (192 kbps, 5MB Mp3)

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Little Obsessions

I have done a little bit of cleaning up with this song so I think it is probably worth including with the rest of what I have done. It’s supposed to try and describe how I feel a lot of the time but I’m not sure it does justice to what it’s like. I am continually trying to scrape the best out of my voice, but it’s a tough job as there is only so much that can be done with it.

Little Obsessions (192 kbps, 5.9MB Mp3)

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in my room

Try

I have been working on this song through different versions over a long time. This is another of my best efforts to make it sound like a song. You can get lost in changing tiny little details until nothing means anything any more, so I’m calling this finished for the moment.

Try (192 kbps, 5.4MB Mp3)

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Pointless Exercises

Here is the full version of the song, now mixed as well as I can. Hope you like it. After a few listens I will be able to pick out what needs changed next but for the moment it counts as finished and can go onto the music page. Yey!

Pointless Exercises (192 kbps, 5MB Mp3)

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Pointless Exercises Verse 1

Here is verse 1 of this song. I have tried to mix it a bit different from how it started out (too loud and grating) and take out some of the stuff that was getting in the way. I wanted the splashy drums and the vocal to be the most noticable. I got problems balancing the drums and voice and it won’t go away, but for the moment it is sounding better. Working on the chorus now.

Pointless Exercises (192 kbps, 1MB Mp3)

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what slowworm.net is for

I have decided to re-start and clean out all the old junk to make way for new junk to take its place. I am also reminding myself why I have this page at all. The intention I have is to let every idea I come up with have somewhere to go - every idea that I can be bothered converting to an mp3 file anyway. I want to make random notes to myself here to help sort out what I need to do next. I will try to keep the Music page just for things that I think are more or less finished. This page will be the tip for everything else.

All major changes are like death. You can’t see what is on the other side until you get there.

And we’ll see what is on the other side soon.

Shut Your Eyes

Shut Your Eyes (192 kbps, 5.7MB Mp3)

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