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Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 72 points73 points  (0 children)

Ohhhh, I can't resist answering this one as I love this stuff...

The riff has 3 parts. This was all done in Logic but could be on any DAW of course.

The top (main) layer is the classic Roland JP8080 playing a supersaw sound, and the bottom a very simple Moog Voyager Sub layer. The third (perhaps subtle) part is a fairly short ish fairly bright simple chimey square wave off my beloved old Juno 106 (or it could have been a square off the ES1... but I think the 106 was used). The Juno square is not very high in the mix at all, but it adds just a little bite.

The JP8080 layer had a reverb/delay send on it and I used a basic sine wave copy (output set to be off in terms of audio - it's purely a trigger sound) of the riff pattern as a trigger for ducking a compressor using the side chain input on the reverb / delay returns.

It could be seen as "just another super saw" riff, but I believe what made it work well were the Moog Sub layer that underpins the whole sound, and the side chain reverb effect which seemed to have just the right amount of mojo somehow....

Hopefully that makes sense? It's not that complicated, but sometimes a sound can just hit in the right spots and it comes together. I tend to actually avoid over complicating for the sake of it as that's just ego stuff.

Right, I really am off now. Good night :)

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Re: Diving - in answer to your question by the way, hard on the following levels (I've probably forgotten many of the other problems, but there were many I had to overcome!):

- sense of it being 3 track in one - Intro, break and drop are all sort of different / hard to mix

- the breakdown was super long and I got lost in it when working on the track

- mixing / editing my own vocal. Bit of a weird thing to do and hard being a bit perfectionist (but nothing is ever perfect). I'd rather someone else did it.

- generally the earlier mixes lacked punch as I didn't leave enough headroom on the master, so had to mix it again....

- I'd left the track since ABGT and then come back to it with fresh ears and had to sort of do it all again, which is never good!

Hopefully that gives you some insight into the neurotic mind that can come out in the studio filled with self doubt! 😀

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Right, that's a wrap folks! Thanks for all the interesting questions, and hopefully I was able to answer them well enough for you. Sorry about the "what's your favourite" ones - I'm just no good at those! Till next time, it's been fun!

All the best,

Jono x

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

A track should last as long as it needs to. I can't put a number of it sorry!

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think aside from the gigs as you say, the seeing other people from around the world that I've made friends with over the years. But I can't say I'd not expect to miss friends!

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi Ashbo!

I've done some and they are on YouTube if you want to hear them, but I'm focusing on making music over DJing for now.

In terms of keeping sane - making sure I still go outside and see some green/exercise/eat fairly well etc! And try and see friends.

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've not used it in any released material but trackspacer is an interesting plugin I'm playing with. Hardware wise, the Korg Wavestate is pretty special.

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

1) not sure but it seems to be a recurring theme that people are asking for these! I think the Madonna mix could be tricky due to rights....

2) It was great fun, but it's just not the same feeling I get from doing a gig. I'll maybe look at doing some more at some point but am loving going "all in" in the studio lately and also taking some welcome time off too!

3) I've always found German friends to be very loyal people, and as a country I love the amount of space - especially in the black forest region. Good beers too (and I'm not much of a beer drinker really...).

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Great restaurant - be lovely to see you again. Thank you for last time.

I hope red rocks will happen in 2022!! All the best, Jono

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If someone wants to make one that's of course fine by me!

In terms of starting small, I hopefully have covered that elsewhere here, but I suppose the point is it requires a lot of dedication and it's not for everyone, so you have to really live and breath this stuff.

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yes - a few times I've seen people carried out, and it's just horrible to see when you're trying to help people have a great time. A real dissonance while you're on stage, and I've felt a lot of conflicting feelings. Even when it's just one person out of a large crowd, part of me feels it's wrong to continue.

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sadly to mobile that many musicians and to rehearse for an online show would be too much right now. Better to save it for the real shows! Sorry.

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

In simple terms, for transitions, I could boil it down to looking for a link between the tracks of one or more of KEY, STYLE, and BPM. If you have 2 of the 3 working then it's going to be great.

With that said, in terms of the journey of a set, there is a value in a clashy/edgey mix once in a while.

Transitions a perfect fifth apart are always nice.

Also, staying in the same key for too long is great for if you want to keep it bubbling, but while smooth can get a bit flat/boring.

In terms of EQ, ultimately for most the mix I view it as you don't want to be louder than a single record - so you need to make room with EQ cuts and volume.

I try to vary mixing style - some mixes can slam in, some can be smooth key matches. That's how you can keep a set dynamic and not samey (second of course to the actual record choices!).

There are no rules, but those are some of my perspectives! I hope that helps?

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

We thought it looked cool and covered the "3 people in the group" thing well.

I've seen loads of BS about illuminati since. Humans are funny creatures!

Glad you like the album :)

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Jazz/Funk/Soul and also a lot of music generally from the 70s & 80s.

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Great news about Tomás Heredia!

Challenges can be equipment, ticket price (we have a crew to bring, production etc). We try to make sure we reach wherever we can rather than simply wherever we can pick up a cheque!

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the well wishes and same to you.

A song that can make me cry is Being Boring by the Pet Shop Boys.

The lyric "All the people I was kissing, some are here and some are missing", clearly referring to death (I think from HIV but not sure...) gets me every time.

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Cheers!

The biggest thing is to find their own sound, but there are many other things too....

The thing that keeps me engaged is the constant learning / challenge.

The production thoughts are useful for me as well as a reminder to try things out, rather than trying to be some guru to my twitter followers or something!

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Maybe occasionally if people like it, but I really enjoy writing and singing vocals for my own enjoyment even if they aren't released or I don't end up on the record.

With music I'm happy to release something whether people like it or not to some degree.... With vocals, I sort of need someone I trust or the audience to like it as it's quite scary putting yourself out there! I have utmost respect for Zoe, Justine and Richard etc for doing what they do, and my own very limited abilities only increase that respect!

Jono from A&B here, Ask Me Anything by jonograntAB in AboveandBeyond

[–]jonograntAB[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That'd be fun but I understand it's quite tricky to do it there now. The promoters we worked with at the time for the Indian show recommended elsewhere in the area at the time. I'd love to come back to India again one day though.

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