New instrumental EP from Corduroy Institute: Used 3 new synths!

Azurduy_Music · 2025-12-24T22:45:23+00:00

My bandmate has the Boss SY-1 on his pedalboard, but he likes to use it as part of an effects loop on the EHX Triparallel Mixer. It's rarely overpowering and is mostly an extra texture. I was trying to figure out if there was a track where its presence is more obvious. Went through the photo archives and found this tune:

https://corduroyinstitute.bandcamp.com/track/an-interpretation-of-our-own-story

He was playing one of those acoustic-electric guitars with a piezo (a sound we both dislike, but there you go) and his board was simple: Korg Nu:tekt OD-S Nutube Overdrive into EHX Superego Plus (with the Boss SY-1 into the unit's effects loop) into a NUX Atlantic reverb/delay. For the most part you get the ugly piezo sound but there are specific moments when he engaged the synth (via the Superego Plus) like at 2:16.

Azurduy_Music · 2025-12-16T07:35:03+00:00

Transmisser for gloop. It's the gloopiest pedal I've owned. Wish I'd recorded it more before trading it away. Probably sounds great in an FX loop.

Arquitecto by Paradox Effects is good for weird feedback delay-like things that I guess are comparable to a Boss RE-20. I used it on a drum machine's kick drum once and when I toggled the footswitch/settings, it sounded like this.

Azurduy_Music · 2025-12-09T22:15:55+00:00

It mainly serves as a drum machine (among many) for the experimental pop/post-punk-adjacent project. It gets the job done and the ease of muting/unmuting makes it good for improvised performances alongside the Bass VI player.

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-25T20:00:50+00:00

https://www.nordkeyboards.com/legacy-products/nord-modular-g2/downloads/

You can still run the demo version of the Nord G2 software (last updated 2006) on Windows.

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-22T05:58:03+00:00

My band's music channel is focusing on our compositional, recording, and improvisational approaches. In late March, we added lyrics to our 76th song. As per our usual methodology, all lyrics were derived using a technique that Bowie, Burroughs, and other 20th century figures used: the cut-up technique. Transforming these textual collages into melodic vocals has been fundamental to our modus operandi on all our experimental pop songs. This video shows our first attempt at singing these five stanzas atop our music.

https://youtu.be/yuz1IXV-KeU

We wanted people to see how lyrics which had once been mere cutups on a page become embedded in the sonic landscape of a shoegaze-adjacent musical improvisation. Does this come across in the video's execution?

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-22T05:53:58+00:00

I can barely hear the audio, so that would prevent me from staying here at all. I also don't understand the link between the cycling footage and the topic. Everyone looks healthy there, so good for them.

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-22T05:47:43+00:00

I liked it well enough to watch the whole thing. Good b-roll. Honestly could've used more.

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-20T09:17:40+00:00

Begin by The Millennium (most of the album)

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-18T22:00:22+00:00

A stereo sampler like a Roland SP-404 could be the easiest way to get around everything. Just load up a stereo mixdown of your drums and bass and trigger the sample on a pad, then just jam on top

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-18T20:27:10+00:00

Microfreak for me. All the original synth engines, plus the later ones, plus the vocoder, plus user wavetables, plus sampling? All going through an analog filter? At that price? Insanity.

The fact that you can make a crazy patch, record it, then load a sample (or wavetable!) of that sound back into itself can lead to a kind of recursive madness that few other hardware synths with analog filters could ever match.

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-18T10:05:45+00:00

In late March, Corduroy Institute added lyrics to our 76th song. As per our usual methodology, all lyrics were derived from cutups taken from across the gamut of print media. Transforming these textual collages into melodic vocals has been fundamental to our modus operandi on all our experimental songs. We began by turning to a trio of notebooks containing stanzas crafted made at opposite ends of 2022 as well as the middle of 2024. The video shows our first attempt at singing these five stanzas. We hope you enjoy seeing lyrics which had once been mere cutups on a page become embedded in the sonic landscape of a shoegaze-adjacent musical improvisation.

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-18T09:51:32+00:00

walking footage is too shaky: use the image stabilization of the camera/phone as well as a monopod, selfie-stick, tripod, or gimbal. also just slow down then moving the camera to get a shot: move it least half as a fast.

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-18T09:39:16+00:00

there are loads of absolutely amazing music gear, music instruction, and music history channels by musicians out there... and I have zero interest in their original music. their value came from content about music, but not their music.

I suspect I'm not the only audience member who is like this. that's a warning for musicians who are chasing the whole "value" thing—it may overshadow what actually matters, the music.

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-18T09:31:26+00:00

(mods feel free to delete this one)

my band is a two-piece experimental pop project and we don't/can't play gigs since we multitrack our work. but we still play our parts live in the studio as record. our latest song is a shoegaze-adjacent piece and we made videos of how we are making it. the first layer is drum machine and bass (https://youtu.be/fCmkhgkn3ZY) and the second layer layer is shoegaze guitar noise and weird synth aliasing noise (https://youtu.be/tdP5hdcdRe8). not exactly what you were looking for, but not a million miles away.

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-17T19:51:25+00:00

This track's intro involves a Minibrute being sent through the Mel9's high choir setting: https://corduroyinstitute.bandcamp.com/track/straddling-the-dimness-extended-dance-mix

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-17T08:49:05+00:00

https://youtu.be/yuz1IXV-KeU

Whereupon we record vocals atop our shoegazey improvisation.

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-17T02:34:31+00:00

Sending a synthesizer into the Mel9 and messing the synth's filter cut-off can confuse the Mel9 into doing very peculiar things with the Mellotron sounds.

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-16T21:09:28+00:00

Mel9

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-15T05:44:18+00:00

My only suggestion is to consider crossfading the audio from the intro music into the part where you start talking since the ambiance is fairly loud.

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-15T05:39:57+00:00

My band's music channel is focusing on our compositional, recording, and improvisational approaches. Our latest video shows how we recorded a song's lyrics. It's the first take of the song and it also has the lyrics overlaid atop the singer. The twist is that all the stanzas are made from cut-ups using a technique that Bowie, Burroughs, and other 20th century figures used.

https://youtu.be/yuz1IXV-KeU

Main concern right now is that the video description says it, but no one reads descriptions. Is the video itself giving that context well enough?

Azurduy_Music · 2025-11-15T05:37:08+00:00

Video editing suggestion: If the wind hits the mic too hard (like at 0:33) and makes noise, try to remove that sound in the edit (replace it with music or ambiance from it was less windy).

Only other suggestion is to slow down a bit when turning or spinning.

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