Studio tracks

All compositions and arrangements by Kalle Nemvalts. Some of these tracks are also on my SoundCloud page. This page serves as an ongoing journal of studio recording projects.

These are more recent tracks recorded in my current studio environment based on Ableton Live 10 Suite, Reason Studios Reason 11, MOTU Digital Performer 10, and various software instruments and plugins. I'm also starting to use iZotope Ozone 9 for mastering. Comments are welcome, especially suggestions on arrangements and mixes. Most recent mixes are at the top. Kalle Nemvalts: trumpet, cornet, fluegelhorn, synths and synth programming, samplers, drum machines, percussion, audio engineering, mixing, mastering.

Ambient/generative pieces:

• February 24, 2020 (m4a), February 24, 2020 (mp3), 11'02, aka Random Bossa 02: first Ableton Live project using randomized clip launch. Short, random, kick drum and snare snippets strung together in random order. Same approach for bass. A looping drone sound. Then improvised electric piano and trumpet. Finished February 24, 2020.
• February 11, 2019, 05'24: based on a 5/4 snare drum loop (20 16th-note pulses in a Euclidian rhythm) playing against a 7/8 kick drum loop (14 16th-note pulses in a Euclidian rhythm). The two drums randomly mask each other, so that when the hits are simultaneous, one or the other will play, but which one dominates is randomly decided. Bass, keys, and trumpet were overdubbed with no specific meter in mind, just the ongoing pulse. This project was recorded and mixed in Propellerhead Reason 10, and mastered in iZotope Ozone 8.
• July 10, 2016 (m4a), July 10, 2016 (mp3), 01'40: uses a tempo map that ramps down from 72 bpm to 36 bpm over one minute, multiple copies of DP's real-time MIDI Echo plugin, Yamaha S80 sampled guitar, and Native Instruments FM8.
• July 3, 2016 (m4a), July 3, 2016 (mp3), 04:23: uses a kind of barberpole tempo map that ramps from 60 bpm to 120 bpm every 4 bars, multiple copies of DP's real-time MIDI Arpeggiator plugin, several overdubs using Yamaha's PLG150-VL virtual acoustic modeling synthesizer, Yamaha S80 piano, and Native Instruments FM8 and Battery.
• July 2, 2016 (m4a), July 2, 2016 (mp3), 04:57: uses a fixed tempo map, live one-pass recording using multiple copies of DP's real-time MIDI Echo plugin, plus Yamaha S80 piano, and Native Instruments FM8.

The following tracks were composed — the structure of the piece was worked out before recording — and are finished studio recordings:

• Baby-M (m4a), Baby-M (mp3), 04'00, trumpet recorded January 27, 2010, remixed September 18, 2023.
• Do I Know You II (m4a), Do I Know You II (mp3), (lost in the village of the DX-7's), 04'17, trumpet recorded March 20, 2010, mixed August 14, 2015. Earlier mix December 17, 2010.
• Summer Nights (m4a), Summer Nights (mp3), 03'30, trumpet recorded September 24, 2006, mixed May 4, 2015. Previous mix, March 19, 2011.

The following tracks began with a recorded improvisation, followed by overdubbing and remixing:

• Bipolar I (m4a), Bipolar I (mp3), 02'10, keyboard improvisation originally recorded in Reason on January 14, 2014. A MIDI recording of the Korg Poly 6 RE was played back through the Polar RE, using the Lock Buffer feature to freeze and pitch-shift segments of audio. The audio and MIDI were copied over to Digital Performer for the final mix, which uses Native Instruments synths and sampled drums.
• Mezzopiano I (m4a), Mezzopiano I (mp3), 03'36, piano improvisation recorded September 6, 2012, mixed February 10-12, 2015. The piano is Reason Pianos. The synth pad is Native Instruments Absynth 5.
• Wednesday, December 11 (m4a), Wednesday, December 11 (mp3), 05'20. Recorded and mixed on a single day in 2013, this ambient track was made using Reason 7 with an acoustic overdub. I'm looking for ways to make music on the computer without it sounding robotic. This piece uses a continual, drastic variation in the tempo track to get it to breathe. There is also some synth programming that responds to the tempo changes. The tempo track was recorded earlier in Digital Performer (which has more flexibility in manipulating tempos) and exported as a Standard MIDI File for use in Reason.
• Loop One (m4a), Loop One (mp3), 03'37, based on a Celso Alberti percussion loop. Produced entirely within Reason. Trumpet recorded May 25, 2012. Mixed June 23, 2012.
• So Wet (m4a), So Wet (mp3), 04'18, based on a familiar modal jazz tune, recorded May 14, 2012, entirely in Reason 6.
• Breathe (5ths) (m4a), Breathe (5ths) (mp3), 02'23, based on an improvised MIDI recording from the 1980s, mixed March 16, 2011.

The following tracks were improvised and recorded live in the studio, with later overdubs:

• Unexamined Life (m4a), Unexamined Life (mp3), 06'05, remixed June 14, 2015, recorded October 22, 2000. Earlier mix, April 26-27, 2011.
• Live IIIb Remix (m4a), Live IIIb Remix (mp3), 25'53, recorded direct to cassette August 12, 1988, overdubbed with synths February 14, 2011, overdubbed with trumpet February 28, 2011.
• Live IV Edit (m4a), Live IV Edit (mp3), 27'40, a "trance"-type track recorded direct to cassette August 15, 1988, edited January 29, 2011. The original track was made with a drum machine loop (reprogrammed on the fly) that also triggered an analog synth playing a rhyhmic pulse, various other synths played manually (growly bass and FM sounds), echo effects synced to the tempo, harmon-muted trumpet and shakers and cowbells played into a microphone, and everything mixed direct to stereo. No computers were involved, and the whole thing was improvised with no advance structuring except programming of the drum machine and synths. The track was later edited to cut out the parts where nothing much was happening.
• Live IV Remix (m4a), Live IV Remix (mp3), 31'15, version of Live IV overdubbed January 26, 2011. This revision did involve a computer. First I overlaid an accurate tempo map on the original recording to guide the addition of drum tracks and throbbing synths. Then I added an improvised bass part (the cleaner bass part, as opposed to the growly bass on the original track), and improvised electric piano and organ parts. There are harmonic or modal changes at different points but they were improvised, not preplanned.

Work in progress. The following are not so much finished pieces but demos for material to be played by live bands:

• Cascade, 02'57: fluegelhorn recorded May 1, 2016, mixed May 7, 2016. This track is more of a demo for a future live recording than a finished piece in itself.
• Untitled, 1963 (triplet feel), 02'25, a piece I wrote in 1963, this version recorded and mixed February 18, 2015. The lead sound is a Yamaha PLG-150VL "virtual acoustic" synthesizer, which models the physical properties (exciters, resonators) of acoustic instruments.
• Waterbird, 03'04, composed 1989, trumpet recorded October 29, 2007, mixed February 7, 2015. Just for archival purposes, composite take 5 and take 8 are alternative trumpet takes over the same backing tracks. Sheet music (PDF).
• Three-Day Rain (slow version), 03'01, trumpet recorded April 21, 2011, mixed January 29, 2015.
• What Is, 02'35, trumpet recorded June 18, 2000, mixed January 26, 2015. This composition uses 12-tone melodies over a standard chord progression. Sheet music (PDF).
• Afloat, 02'58, fluegelhorn recorded April 24, 2011, mixed January 24, 2015. See also Afloat, earlier version recorded in 2000.
• Estrellita, 02'30, piano and bass duo, recorded September 3, 2006, edited and mixed December 30, 2014. Sheet music (PDF). This piece has an odd structure. After the 4-bar intro, it is divided into sections of 4, 5, 6, and 7 bars — 22 bars in all. The click track was tapped into Digital Performer by hand, to avoid too much of a mechanical feel, then piano and bass were recorded over that. Digital Performer was used for MIDI recording and editing, running Reason 8 software instruments via ReWire. The final mix was done in Digital Performer using Altiverb convolution reverb, then mastered with MOTU and Native Instruments plugins.
• Ecliptic, 05'01, a remix of a 1989 recording. Fluegelhorn and trumpet tracks recorded in April 2001. Mixed December 29, 2014 using Digital Performer 8, Native Instruments plugins, Native Instruments Studio Drummer, Reason bass and piano, and Altiverb convolution reverb. See also the 1989 version of Ecliptic.
• Crystalline, 01'56, a solo piano piece recorded June 1, 2012. Sheet music (PDF).