This is my new remix of Gotye’s SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW

Here is a preview of the new Solemn Assembly CD cover. This may not be the final version but take a look!

This is the music video I directed for my song “Oontz Oontz Oontz 4 UR Boom Boom Boom”

Shot entirely at Klüb Oontz night The ChURcH in Dallas on November 17th 2011.

I play in a few local DFW bands and one of them is called SINSECT, my friend James Ashley’s “Noise-N-Bass” project. He writes and records all his own tracks (with the exception of a few collaborations with myself and others) and is on the border between Drum N Bass, Powernoise, and EBM….Very harsh stuff.

Well, we are performing in Austin on February 26th as part of the TERRORBYTE festival (Solemn Assembly, my band, is also playing the event as well as over 30 other industrial/electronic artists)…So I have been playing with a busted up DX-7, which will be completely destroyed at the show, but the programming on it is half working, so I thought maybe I could run it through my Korg Monotron and filter the crap out of it…It didn’t work out too well, the sounds from the DX-7 were dying and nothing would make it better. I even ran the output into my iPhone using an iRig connector and using Amplitude to tweak and distort it, but crap in is always gonna be crap out…

So I gave up for a day or two and looked through my studio to try and find a solution. I decided to MIDI the DX-7 into my Clavia Nord Rack and try to create sounds that would work for the show. It was the best idea so far. 

Now I loved my Nord Rack back in 1998 when I got it, but I had gotten into softsynths by 2000 and pretty much left the thing alone after 2002. I pulled it from the studio rack and set it on top of the DX-7 and went to town programming noisy percussive sounds and thick analog sounding stabs. This thing is a monster!! I forgot how fun it was to tweak the crap out of it and discover new sounds with every turn of the knobs! I personally think it sounds better than the later models and I can definitely see using it in a live setting. I’ve saved all the patches I use for the show in sequential order so I can easily get to them during the performance. It is also very easy to map out controls to the keyboard’s mod and pitch wheels. I have the pitch wheel working the pitch and the mod wheel is tweaking the FM Amount, making the Nord screech and squeal out some massive noise! I use the unison function on the bass sounds to get that fat analog industrial bass sound, and the LFO is controlling the Low Pass Filter.

I freaking love this synth and I feel bad for not using it as often as it needs to be! I can’t wait to get down to Austin and rock this show down those cyberpunks throats!! Ears will bleed and minds will blow!! Long Live The Nord Rack!!

This is a song I just made using the KORG Monotron. I added effects in my DAW, but every sound is made and played on the KORG Monotron. I also recorded my voice through the aux input of the Monotron and tweaked it using the onboard LFO and VCF…

Enjoy!

I just bought two KORG MonoTrons! They are these little ribbon controlled synths and they are awesome. Korg claims that they use the same filters as their old flagship analog synth, the KORG MS-20…I believe it after hearing the noises and basslines I was making today!! These little guys are pocket sized, fit in the palm of my hands and are a fun addition to my studio! I am going to buy a couple of iPhone stands to use for these guys in the studio. They are battery operated, using 2 AAA alkaline batteries. I opened one up on the way home from Guitar Center and Lara (Mrs. Virus) was playing it the whole way home…it sounded like a mini DOWNLOAD/cEvin Key concert in my passenger seat!! And her tweaked out rendition of Mary Had a Litlle Lamb was funny too!

The KORG Monotron has an 1/8inch mono input and 1/8inch stereo output, and it also has an onboard speaker so you can play it right out of the box, or plug it into your car’s aux input!!

It has three operation modes: Standby (off), Pitch, and Cutoff. It also has a VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) with a pitch knob, an LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) with a rate knob and an INT. (?) knob, and a VCF (Votage Controlled Filter) with a cutoff knob and peak knob!! 5 KNOBS on this little guy!

Today I was making some NINE INCH NAILS sounding distorted bass synths and harsh PRODIGY sounding lead synths and stabs. Being a ribbon controller, you can slide between notes by running your finger up and down the ribbon!

I am going to go now so I can record these sounds. 

JOE VIRUS’s Tweakability Rating (on a scale from one to ten):  11!!!! This little thing is packing a big analog punch!! Watch your speakers!!

I remember looking out a door at my grandmother’s house and seeing a big storm coming towrds us. I remember the rain and lightning and everyone was panicking. I was 6 months old.

New Song: Re:Fracted…instrumental version

I used FLSTUDIO 8 as a sequencer and sampler.

The opening synth line was played on my Oberheim OB-8 and sent thrrough my Lexicon Vortex to get the chorus and reverb effects.

The repetitive percussive sound is a sound I made on my Nord Rack and sampled into FLSTUDIO to sequence.

The fat analog sweep sound was a sweep from the OB-8 that I sampled and effected in FLSTUDIO.

I made the punchy synth “stab” sound that carries the song along in a software synth called SUPERWAVE P8.

The drums sounds are samples I have made with various drum synthesizers and drum machines that were then sequenced in FLSTUDIO.

The glitched out percussion and noises in the breakdown are drumloops I have made and then thrown into a program called GLITCH and tweaked by the presets I created.

I hope you enjoy the track as much as I do!

Those of you out there who know me personally know that I love making all kinds of electronic music and that I have a decent studio I work out of. I am going to use this blog to talk about different techniques, ideas and equipment I use on a daily basis. Feel free to chime in and give me ideas or teach me new tricks as well!

Studio Blog #1: My Favorite ANALOG SYNTHS and FX techniques for them…

I have had several digital and analog synths in my studio for over 20 years now and I have to say my favorite two are my Sequential Circuits Pro One and my Oberheim OB-8, both are analog synths. They are just so raw. I have a Kenton CV/gate to MIDI converter so I can use my sequencing software to trigger the notes on the Pro One while I tweak the knobs as I record! The OB-8 isn’t cv/Gate or MIDI so I am stuck playing it all on my own. I think there is a Oberheim sequencer that is compatible. I just want to free my hands up to tweak knobs and wheels!

I have an old MXR Stereo Chorus pedal that I hook up to the Pro One sometimes to give it a stereo punch and some thickness to the sound. I also have a DOD Distortion pedal that I hook up to the synth. Sometimes when I want to get really distorted and fat sounds from my analog gear, I take the output of the synth through an old guitar amp and mic the amp. I get FAT basses out of the Pro One and OB-8 that way!! I also have a Lexicon Vortex effects unit that I made a preset for auto panning my synths. It has a tap tempo control so you can make the sound pan back and forth to the beat!!

Sometimes I use my Roland MC-303 as a drum machine running through the pedals and getting hardcore distorted drumloops and basslines! 

I have a Clavia Nord Rack which is a virtual analog synth and it is great, but it doesn’t have the warmth and raw attitude of my analog gear….

I am always looking to buy older analog gear, so if you know of some good deals, you know where to find me.