My real instruments

Hi everyone !

This article completes the one about the virtual instruments that I use.

Here are my real instruments.
I didn't buy all this gear at once. I have several of them for more than 20 years. Time made my collection bigger.
Come people always want to have the last instrument released. If my instrument still sounds great, I keep it ! Most of them are quite old, and selling them wouldn't allow me to buy another one, so I prefer to keep them.

Let's start with my main instruments: keyboards.

The Kurzweil SP2XS isn't my main keyboard, but it's the one with which I did the most of my concerts (something like 150 gigs with it). I now use it in my studio, to give piano lessons. It's the only 88 keys keyboard I have, and it's the one I use every time in the show "Ce soir j'attends Madeleine".

On the left here, there's a Virus Indigo 2, by Access Music, used for synth sounds, monophonic or polyphonic. I used it a lot in the compositions for the music of the Visitor from the Future, season 3 and 4, specially for the "bal" music in the 4th season.

Usually, I use it with the small white expander you can see on the keyboard: a Shruthi 4 pole mission, by Mutable Instruments. It's a monophonic digital synth, with analog filter.

My main keyboard, the one I use on stage when I don't use the SP2XS, is another Kurzweil, the  PC3, a 76 keys keyboard. My opinion is that this keyboard is the most powerful synth nowadays. The Indigo and the Shruthi also are good synths, but the PC3 goes further in terms of effects, polyphony, modularity and realistic sounds.

Above the PC3, there's a Xylosynth, by Wernick Musical Instruments. It's a midi xylophone, that I use as master keyboard for the PC3 or other virtual instruments. I used it a lot when playing with David Keler, but I now use it very rarely. I will probably have the opportunity to use it on stage when playing the songs of my album "Shadows".

Under the PC3, you should see a blue flightcase, it's Beryl, a master keyboard I made, based on a midibox project and doepfer electronics. I don't use it for now, but I wish I have a project to use it again !


That's all for keyboards, I have some others not on picture, mostly master keyboards, that I use on stage, depending of the projects...I also have a toy piano, used on my song "Remembering children's games" from my upcoming album.

Let's talk about my second instrument, the instrument I really love: the bass.

On the left, there's a Ray34CA, by Sterling by Musicman. It's my main bass, the one you'll hear on all the songs of "Shadows", except one.
Next to it, it's a Fretless Jazz bass vintage modified by Squier. I use it when I need a fretless sound, or when the musicman sounds doesn't suit my requirements.
On the right is a Ibanez AEB10 electro acoustic. I used it a lot, but now I often play the musicman. I take it when I go on hollidays or if i go playing with friends who play acoustic guitar. You can hear it on the song "Le visiteur groove" from the 1st season of The Visitor from the Futur.

Guitars:

That's not my main instruments, neither the one I like the most. I have them because sometimes, it's faster and cheaper to record it by myself rather than having a guitar player.
The electric one is a Fender Stratocaster Black top, with 2 humbuckers, and some intermediate positions that I use to have a stratocaster or telecaster sound.
The acoustic is a Taylor Mini SG. I love the sound of that guitar.
If you heard some guitars in my songs, its one of them, except if I don't play it. The electric guitar is used in the songs "Octave" and "Richard" from the season 4 of the VftF. The acoustic guitar has been played by Florent Dorin when we recorded his song "Inside my Heart" for the final episode of the 3rd season.

My drums is Roland HD1. I never used the internal sounds. I use it to control my virtual instruments. I played all the drums part for my album with it. I also have a cajon, and a tambourine. You can see the cajon used in a cover of the Monkey Island theme.

Wind instruments:

There was a podcast about me that Jul released last week. You may now know that I started music by playing the clarinet. Since that, even if I love playing keyboards or bass, I love wind instruments, specially flutes.
Next to my clarinet, you can see a melodica that I don't use as it is very out of tune. Next to it, there are several tin whistles, plastic or metal. There is one in Bb, one in C, three in D, one in Eb. I kept my two recorders from school. You can hear the plastic D one at the end of the fake Frenchball movie trailer !
 I have a Honner chromatic harmonica that I don't really use, because I don't really know how to play it.
Above it are two ocarinas from STL Ocarinas, one is a purple clay simple alto ocarina, the blue one is a plastic triple ocarina.

You now know everything about my instruments !
My next post here will be monday, I will tell you about the release of the digital album for the 2 first seasons of the musics from The Visitor from the Future !

"Shadows" looking for its singer

Hello everyone!

As you know, all the instruments are recorded on the album, except one: vocals. Today, I tell you why I don't have a singer yet.

First, from the beginning, I don't want a French singer for several reasons, including the accent, and then the way of singing. I know that some people don't agree with me, but with the same technique, and similar voices, two singers from different countries will not sing in the same way. It turns out that I don't like the way French singers sing, at least for my album.

I spend a lot of time on Youtube listening to singers. I'm not looking for a specific voice, I just want that voice to make me feel the emotions of the song. I saw some very good singers, some very bad, and others that fit perfectly with what I wanted.

From there, I contact the singer and I expect her to reply me. If she doesn't reply, I usually contact her again a week later, by all means at my disposal (facebook, official sites, managers, etc). None of them answered me yet (I sent my first email in June).
For those of you who bought the EP, and who are dreaming about listening to the full album, you have to know that these singers have access to the whole album. No reasons to be jealous though, none of them listened to it!

So in these cases, I have to question myself and don't think all singers are rude.
In my emails, I think I'm respectful to the singers I contacted, but again, without any reply, no way to be sure.
I remain convinced that if people don't read my email or don't answer me, that is because I don't interest them (because of the double handicap cited below).

After a moment, I decide to contact someone else. That means I'm gonna spend several weeks to find another singer. I usually look for someone with a different voice from the previous singer, not to have any point of comparison.
It is a very exhausting process, since I have to find a voice that will suit my songs, although I already found one. And it's even more exhausting because I usually don't have any reply from the previous singer, so I still hope that she accepts ...

I know I have a double handicap: I'm not known, and I'm French. French music is generally associated with the accordion, you just have to watch a foreign film whose action takes place in France... However, I have nothing against accordionists, who also have to fight against this cliché. For those of you, not french, who read this blog, be aware that french music is not musette !

For now, I contacted 3 singers.
I first contacted a German singer, who never replied me, although I'm sure she got my emails.
I then contacted a Russian singer, with whom I chatted, but she never told me yes or no.
Three weeks ago, I contacted an English singer, Hannah Trigwell, I have no reply yet.

With the Russian singer, I did a video cover of one of her songs, which allowed me to strike up a conversation.

Today, I go further, I cover Rectify, a Hannah Trigwell's song, to try to have her attention and ask her if she is interested to sing on my album.

I'm pretty sure she will see at this video, and I hope she'll reply me.

Warning for you who read this blog, I'm sure Hannah will see this video, so no need to spam her about it or ask her to reply me. This is my personal initiative, I don't know if she'll like it, she can delete this video, she is allowed not to reply, or even refuse to sing on my abum or any reason.
But in the state where things are, "thank you for your interest, but I'm not interested" would be a short, yet polite reply, and that's all I ask.

Here's the video. Everything is performed and looped live:

Let's hope we'll have news about that soon, and of course, you'll know it !
I will surely do a video tutorial about the keyboard programming for this video.
See you next week !

The virtual instruments that I use

Hi everyone!

Today, I want to talk about the virtual instruments I use in my compositions.

First, although it's not an instrument, my sequencer is Protools 9 (not HD). Although I am currently testing the demo of Reaper, I am quite attached to Protools. This version comes with a few virtual instruments that I use quite often.

Now, let's talk about the instruments:

First, for all general sounds, I use Xpand2, included with Protools. It has a lot of sounds. I use it a lot for synth pads or lead synths, some percussions or ethnic (koto, mandolin ...) I can also use it for bass, before recording a real one.

SYNTHS

If I quickly need a lead synth sound, I also use an instrument included with Protools: Vacuum. It has its own personality, with a very high volume, and it can do some really nice bass synth sounds.

For pads, I use the UVI Workstation with the String Machines bank. I discovered UVI this summer, and I'm now using 2 of their sound banks, I find them very usefull.
I use String Machines for these old polyphonic synths sounds. The sound bank is very complete, and editing functionalities are also great. Almost all pads of my upcoming album "Shadows" were made with this instrument.


PIANOS

For pianos, I use two instruments:
Until very recently, I used almost exclusively MiniGrand, included with Protools. Its doesn't really have any particular personality, but is very good. It is simple to use and quick to load.

A few weeks ago, I bought the bank "Grand Piano Collection" from UVI. That is the piano sound that I use since. The sound bank offers 5 pianos, quite uneven. I mostly use the "Acoustic piano," a sampled Steinway, and the "Upright Grand Piano".

All my EP that I released last week uses the "Acoustic Piano" sound.


ORCHESTRA

For all orchestral instruments, including strings, brass, woodwinds, orchestral percussions, I use Eastwest Symphonic Orchestra, Gold version.

It is this instrument that you can hear in all the orchestral musics of "The Visitor from the Future".
I also widely used taikos from this instrument.

PERCUSSIONS / DRUMS

This is surely where I use most of different instruments.
First, as previously stated, I love the taikos of Symphonic Orchestra and the bass drums.
For the 4th Season of "The Visitor from the Future," and some musics for "Frenchball", I used Stormdrum 3, from Eastwest, mainly for large percussions (such as those that can be heard in the teaser of the 4th season). I also used some small gongs and originals percussions, like the clocks. I love the sound and the visual interface of this instrument.

For electronic drums, I use two instruments:
Boom, included in Protools, allows me to quickly have sounds from old drum machines. It is easy to use and sounds good. I used it a lot each time I needed that kind of sounds (like in the track "Here We Go" from the 1st Season of VftF, "Dancing Future", the famous music of the ball in the 4th season...)

I also use Geist, from Fxpansion. It comes with a library of interesting sounds rather hip-hop and electro. I have not much used it as a drum machine, but I often use it as a sampler.

For acoustic drums, I use Superior Drummer 2.
I have all the sound banks. I mostly use the "Allaire" or "Avatar" banks, but on my album "Shadows", I exclusively use the "Music City" bank. The sound and dynamics are great, the settings are complete, there is everything you need to make great sounding drums!


So long for the virtual instruments, in a future article, I will tell you about the real instruments that I use!

Shadows on Keys - EP release

Hello everyone!

Today is the release of my EP «Shadows on Keys».

First, let me play to you a short medley of the songs from this EP, I hope you enjoy it!

You can buy it on my bandcamp page 

Id like to let yo know that, despite the reasons that led me to do this EP, it is by no means an EP done fast. It is not either of the piano parts of the album that I extracted to make the EP.

I spent four days recording the five songs of this EP. It then took one day to mix, add some effects on 2 tracks and master the EP. The total length is about 18mn.

The musical themes are really the ones you’ll find on the album Shadows, but in different versions arranged for this EP. The structures are mostly identical to the original songs, but sometimes I had to slow the tempo down to suit the atmosphere of the piano.

If you read the history of this album, you know that all the songs have a very melodic section, usually played by the strings, and a rhythm section that contrasts with the mood of the strings. This rhythm section is absent on the EP, so the songs are much more melancholic than the same ones on the album.

Price:

I sell this EP 5 €.

For now, it’s only a digital version. I will certainly edit physical copies when I release the album.

As you know, the money from this EP will help me to move forward on the album. Be aware that if you buy this EP, you can buy the album at a price of 10€ in its physical version, including mailing costs, instead of 13 € for people who didn’t buy the EP. Make sure to correctly fill in your name and email address when you order the EP.

Why I chose Bandcamp and not iTunes...?

First, Bandcamp is a platform for musicians. I ‘m the only one to manage my page. When you buy the EP, you pay me directly and instantly, which is not the case with iTunes, where you have to wait at least one month before a statement of sales which can never be sure ... It is then necessary to ask his money, and you know it annoys me a lot.

On Bandcamp, you can listen to the entire songs, not just 30s of random extracts. I do not make money on these streams. I much prefer this system to a platform like Deezer, which pays the artists ridiculously low, when they want,...

You also have the option, and I advise you to do it, to download the files in their original format, uncompressed WAV.

There was a time when iTunes was interesting, but now there is everything and anything on it. There was a time when you could discover some artists on iTunes. Now, if you want to find me, you’ll have to search for me.

Financially, at the end, the income generated by the two platforms are identical, but in terms of operation and services, Bandcamp is better to my way of thinking about listening and buying music. So if you have to search for me, do it on Bandcamp !

What if you want to support me, but you don’t have money?

Well, we need this EP and the upcoming album to find their audience. If you can not or do not want to buy this EP, but you still want to help me, then share the info!

To share, simply send the link to the Bandcamp page to your contacts, your friends, your enemies ... everyone, no matter how old they are and where they live, telling them to share.

Feel free to invent chains such as "if you do not share to 10 people, that's what will happen ..."

I also want to add that there is actually a "loudness war" in the music industry. Very often, the dynamic range of the songs is really small and the songs are loud from the beginning to the end.

If I played nuances on the piano, I want you to hear them.

If there are volume buttons on the devices used to listen to music, they are made to be used, so do not expect to hear this piano with the sound level of a hard rock band ...

Thanks for your help !

Shadows on Keys - The EP - The origins

Hi everyone!

You may have seen this picture on facebook monday. Shadows on Keys is an EP. You'll find some songs from the upcoming ablbum Shadows, in their easiest version: only with a piano

I will tell you everything about it saturday, but for now, I'd like to tell you about its origins.

At first, there was a nice reason:

I was a bit worried for the live (I always think about the live when I'm recording or doing anything with this album, and I can tell you that it will be great), specially for the money I'd need to organize a concert. I was wondering if I was able to play the songs alone (I'm not interested at all to play them alone, but if I don't have any other choice...)
After a few tries and arrangements, I managed to play the songs. I kept that in my head for some weeks.

Then I had a small problem. This blog is about my work, and I think it's important to tell you about the things when they don't go right.

These last years, I always had to claim my money each time I worked as a composer. I had contracts, invoices, but none of the payments was paid in time. Most people don't have to claim their money at the end of the month, and I think it's totally not normal for me to ask for it.
In that mix of bad luck and bad faith, I had to face parental leaves, people who simply forgot...several times, people who dismissed their job or were fired, and replaced by people who didn't ever contacted me...

The problem is that when I have to ask, it takes time. Sometimes, I had to wait for over 6 months to have my money.

Actually, I'm waiting for money, a lot of small amount which make a big one.

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I produce the album on my own, I planned it from the beginning, and I knew I was able to do it because of that money I'm waiting for, since september.

You know that I spend a lot of time trying to contact singers. But I have to slow down a bit, because if I find her, today, I can't pay her. Once the recordings done, I need one month for mixing and mastering, then I'll have to make the cds...with the money I'm waiting.

Nothing here is really serious, that money isn't lost, and I will earn it one day, but I need it now.

I release the EP to raise money while I'm waiting.

I could have used a crowdfunding plateform, but I didn't want to sell something not really appropriate, or an album which isn't finished. I decided to record some of the songs from the album in other versions, so that you can have an idea of what the themes are, and this is something directly related to the album.

You now know everything about the origins of that EP, you'll know everything about the EP saturday !

Shadows - Recording the strings - Episode 4

Hi everyone!

The recordings are finished (except for vocals), but you didn't have samples from all the songs...
Today, here are some samples of the strings.
The strings players are: Louise Leverd (cello), Jasmine Collet (viola) et Pauline Denize (violin).

First, cello and viola on "Remembering Children's Games".



Here is a sample of the strings, together on "Shadows"

Une vidéo publiée par Jimmy Tillier (@jimmytillier) le Nov. 11, 2014 at 7:48 PDT

That's all for today. I will post something during next week to tell you about a surprise next saturday !

See you next week !