Steelband Karaoke: This Is My Life

IN SWEDISH FIRST. ENGLISH TEXT BELOW.

Det här är ett steelbandarrangemang på "This Is My Life", låten som vann Melodifestivalen och som Anna Bergendahl tävlade med i Schlager-EM i Oslo.

Arrangemanget är gjort för den äldre typen av steelband, "traditional band", där varje instrument består av bara ett oljefat. För basens del så innebär det tex. att man bara har tillgång till fem toner, eftersom tonerna är så stora att det bara får plats så många i ett fat.

Utrustning: Atari 1040STFM med 1MB internminne kör Cubase och skickar midi till min Yamaha MU80 ljudmodul. Texten överförs med System Exclusive-meddelanden.


IN ENGLISH

This is a steelband arrangement of the song "This Is My Life" that won the swedish Melodifestivalen ("The Melody Festival") competition. Anna Bergendahl competed with the song at the Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo.

The arrangement is made for traditional steelband ("single pan band", "pan 'round the neck"), which means that every instrument consists of only one steeldrum. For this reason the instruments have some limitations. For the bass, for instance, it means that there are only five notes to chooose from, since only that many notes fit in a single drum.

Equipment: Atari 1040STFM with 1MB running Cubase sends midi to the Yamaha MU80 sound module. Text is transmitted with midi sysex messages.

* * * INQUIRY * * *
Does anyone know if there is something like a "steel pan sound library" or "steel drum sound library" that would include different sounds/samples/patches for the different instruments of the steel pan family? I.e. different samples for tenor pan, double tenor, double second, double guitar, triple cello, four cello, bass pans etc.?

(Just as saxophone players have access to different sounds for soprano, alto, tenor and baritone sax.)

updated 19/6 2010

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Steelband
• Karaoke
• This
• Is
• My
• Life
• with
• lyrics
• Anna
• Bergendahl
• Yamaha
• MU80
• MU50
• MU90
• MU100
• midi
• Roland
• Sound
• Canvas
• module
• Eurovision
• Song
• Contest
• 2010
• Sweden
• melodifestivalen
• instrumental
• single
• pan
• arrangement
• for
• traditional
• steel
• band
• steelpans
• steelpan
• steeldrums
• steeldrum
• pans
• drums
• drum
• 'round
• the
• neck
• de
• calypso
• esc
• music
• musik

[sixpanbass]

* * * INQUIRY * * *

Does anyone know if there is something like a "steel pan sound library" or "steel drum sound library" that would include different sounds/samples/patches for the different instruments of the steel pan family? I.e. different samples for tenor pan, double tenor, double second, double guitar, triple cello, four cello, bass pans etc.?

(Just as saxophone players have access to different sounds for soprano, alto, tenor and baritone sax.)

[Penguindog55]

Roland Sound Canvas has a better steel drum sound, this steel drum sound is crap.

[sixpanbass]

@Penguindog55 I teach and arrange for steelpans and I don't think it's THAT bad. I think a problem is that on sound modules there is usually only one steelpan sound. That single sound has to serve as tenor pan, double tenor, double second, guitar, cello, bass etc., although all these have different timbres. I try to recreate some of the differencies by using different filter settings. I haven't tested the steelpan sound of the Sound Canvas. Is it the same for all models: sc-55, sc-88Pro etc.?

[Penguindog55]

@sixpanbass The sound canvas steel drums sound more industry standard, I have an SC-88pro. The SC-88 pro has 3 sound banks, SC-88pro, SC-88 and also all the SC-55 sounds. I also have a Yamaha PSR-295 with XG sounds, I just find quite a few of the XG sounds harsh, the orchestral sounds are bad because there's lack of texture, and there are some sounds that only Sound Canvas is capable of.

[sixpanbass]

@Penguindog55 There is (oops, WAS) a SC-88Pro for sale for 1.600 Swedish Crowns at a Swedish second hand site. That corresponds to about €167 or $200. The MU80 has an A/D input so it would even be possible to mix one stereo part or two mono parts from the Sound Canvas with the sounds of the MU80 and letting them all share the same room effects (reverb and EQ). However, nowadays I think people use softsynths instead of sound modules.

[lb395]

how do u hook the sound module up to a roland ketboard

[kylexwiel]

I LOVEE THISSS

[Penguindog55]

I can't understand all these people who use vst instruments to replace hardware synths and sound modules, at least the gm sound modules give you a fall back, and emulation of hardware synths are nothing like as good as the hardware, but software synths are good if there original, theres room for both hardware and vst instruments.

[Penguindog55]

But over the last 3 or 4 years I started using a program called Adobe Audition to record audio and use virtual FX, I then bought a Yamaha PSR-295 and Yamaha PSS-280, then a couple of years ago I got a copy of Cubase SX3 and I aquired a Roland groovebox and virtual sound canvas's and and I then got introduced into the world of VSTfx, I now also have a Roland JV 1080 and a real SC-88pro, I think thing there's for both hardware and software synths and sound modules.

[Penguindog55]

@sixpanbass I have always done all my recording with computer based sequencing and a karaoke system, when I first started recording music I relied on the fx that came with the keyboard or sound module ( Yamaha PSS-790 has built in reverb but it only works with certain sounds, SC-55 has FX processing including reverb, I also used a couple of toy keyboards such as a Casio LK-35 and a Yamaha PSR-18 or a PSS-16, the sound was just dry.