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Ethno
Techno
Ethno-Techno Dedication
I dedicate E-T to my children Jelani-Jah and Maia-Efua, Monifa,
my Family, and circle of friends and crew. E-T is also dedicated
to you, the creative user.
What Is Ethno-Techno?
E-T has lived its life inside of me for quite some time now. Thanks
to ILIO, Eric Persing, Louis Alfred III, the Musicians and all the
creative forces involved in the making of this project, E-T now
has its own life for me, and for you, the user.
I'd describe E-T as "Percussive Fusion," a melding of
organic percussive matter and technology, a collision of extremes,
a bi-polar contraction, a multi-dimensional voyage, and a mind and
time stretching experience.
Conceiving, producing and performing E-T was an enlightening exercise
in the cooperation of opposites. For E-T required man and machine,
bone and steel, circuit and synapse, culture and chaos, fluid and
solid, folklore and fashion, nylon and wood, flesh and metal, attraction
and distraction, movement and stasis, flow and friction, absolute
and finite, to all perform in concert. Out of this performance comes
a useful tool, a unique collection, and a creative expression of
sounds, loops and grooves. The application of these sounds, loops,
and grooves to film, music and media is E-T's reason for being.
The revolutionary inclusion of Groove Control with this library
enables writers, producers, remixers, programmers, film scorers
and all creative users, to process and explore their own vision
of E-T's sounds and grooves.
I encourage you all to take E-T to places unseen and unheard, to
go beyond, to get mad busy with E-T, and to jus' flow wit' it. Here's
to makin' good music, serious head-noddin', and havin' fun!
PEACE and JAH LOVE!
Bashiri Johnson
The Process
This library is a first in many ways. It's the first library of
live grooves and remixes designed from the beginning with Groove
Control(tm) in mind. It is the first to create an intermixture of
electronica, primal traditions and avante-garde "found sound"
techniques. It's also the first library to bring together such formidable
and diverse talents as Bashiri Johnson and Eric Persing in such
an intensely collaborative way.
The bulk of the material was recorded during exhaustive sessions
at River Sound, Donald Fagen's well-played haunt, five floors up
on New York's East Side. Eric produced the sessions culling his
years of experience in assembling award-winning sample libraries
to get the highest possible impact out of the source recordings.
Engineer Louis Alfred III contributed not only his superior engineering
chops, but also his musical sense to contribute ideas, both before
and after takes.
It was primarily Bashiri's intense need to realize his mental rhythmic
images that directed the course of the sessions, first referring
to his sketches on a walkman cassette player, then milling about
the vast assemblage of hand made, obscure percussion, scooping up
the noises needed to fashion the next groove. Each hour revealed
more bizarre instruments with names like Kissing Fish, Conundrum
and Double Drink, lying scattered with welded metal cones, rods
and spirals, an assortment of bells, styrofoam, plastic toys and
springs, sticks and bows, all strewn across the floor like a Wal
Mart at Christmas. Every time tape rolled, Bashiri sat with, or
kneeled over the chosen object and a whole new texture flowed from
his hands, the next layer of the mix. Sitting at the back of the
control room, one marveled at the birth and maturation of each groove,
the intricate pulse of the interweaving rhythms, each evolving into
a new living tapestry unto itself.
Once the sessions were done we brought the tapes back to LA and
Eric began the task of pouring through, selecting and cleaning up
the individual tracks. It was at this point that ILIO's fearless
Chris O'Brien began his two years worth of editing and Groove Control
processing what would eventually become nearly 10,000 individual
samples, each requiring his personal attention. After a fair chunk
of the original grooves were Groove Controlled, Eric applied his
talents once again to create the series of remixes that would fulfill
Ethno-Techno's manifest destiny.
Though the remixes are every bit as rich and complex as the original
live grooves, Eric is quick to point out that they wouldn't have
been possible without Groove Control. No additional samples were
ever used in the remixes. All of the sounds came from Bashiri's
original performances, enhanced using Eric's processing and imagination.
Since Groove Control allowed independent control over tempo, pitch
and feel of the individual tracks, parts from different grooves
could be layered instantly, each applied with unique processing.
If you're new to Groove Control, make sure you read about it later
in this book. Once you try it, it will change the way you look at
loop libraries forever!
To finish up the project, Chris Groove Controlled Eric's remixes,
assembled the vast percussion menus, and weeded through the session
DATs, which rolled continuously throughout the original River Sound
dates, to find theretofore unused gems that could be added to the
bonus sections.
As you can see, a lot of sweat and passion went into this library.
At times it seemed as if it would never be finished, but our perseverance
paid off and we believe that what you now hold in your hands is
a truly individual and masterful meeting of technology and inspiration
that will undoubtedly stoke your flames for years to come.
Bashiri Johnson
* Whitney Houston Band Percussionist/ NYC Studio
Percussionist
* Artist / Producer / Songwriter
* AN' THA BEAT GOES ON and ON and ON...
* Staying busy is a constant part of Bashiri Johnson's rhythm
and flow, as he continues to play a part behind today's top recording
artists, records, movies, and commercials. Bashiri also has on-going
production work at his fully equipped 48 track analog/dig recording
studio: The LAB / Bash-Man Prods.
* Live: Whitney Houston, Spice Girls, Saturday Night Live, Lisa
Stansfield-Jay Leno, Jonathan Butler, Lionel Richie, Madonna,
Alana Davis, Michael Bolton
* Record Albums: Celine Dion, Boyz II Men, Spice Girls, Michael
Bolton, Grover Washington Jr., Aretha Franklin, Eiko, Olu, Diana
Ross, Vanessa Williams, Diana King, Angelique Kidjo, Dionne Farris,
Maxwell, Gloria Estefan, Peter Wolf, Miles Davis Movie
* Soundtracks: In and Out, Kingdom of the Sun, Mission Impossible,
When We Were Kings, Chairman of the Board, Godzilla, Story of
a Bad Boy, 54, Shaft
* Commercials: AT&T, American Express, Folgers, MCI, Sears,
Crest, Doublemint, JC Penney, Rite-Aid, Dr Pepper, Sherwin Williams,
Certs, Good Morning America, Coca Cola, Terra
* Productions: "Move To It" track for "Do You Wanna
Dance" soundtrack, "Hip Hop Multiplication" Album-Lightyear
Ent., Bashiri Johnson's "Love Notes" Book and CD, Akim
N'Dlovu Project, Ana-Ste-Jah Project, Madison Square Garden Network
Legends Spot, Gatorade, "Supreme Beats" sample collection,
"Ethno-Techno" sample collection.
Eric Persing
* A Sonic Magician
* It is almost impossible to go a day without hearing the work
of Eric Persing. The thousands of original sounds he has created
are used constantly by top composers and musicians from all over
the world.
* Persing is the founder of Spectrasonics, a company specializing
in developing World Class sampled sound libraries on CD-ROM since
1994. He has produced over 25 of the industry's top selling titles.
Eric's ground breaking Distorted Reality series of sample libraries
are the best selling and most widely used collections in the world.
* In addition to being the Creative Director of Spectrasonics,
Eric has been a consultant and the Chief Sound Designer for Roland
Corporation Japan since 1984, creating the key sounds for many
popular Roland synthesizers, samplers, CD-ROMs, expansion boards
and devices, from the vintage Super Jupiter and Super JX, to the
D-50, D-70, JD-800/990, R8, S-series samplers, JV series synths,
the Sound Canvas, JP-8000, MC-505, V-Drums, the latest XV series
and Variphrase instruments.
* As a studio musician, producer and composer/arranger in Los
Angeles, he has also contributed to numerous Grammy award winning
albums and Academy award winning film scores, working with an
eclectic group of artists including Marcus Miller, Sergio Mendes,
Luther Vandross, Quincy Jones, Danny Elfman, Herbie Hancock, Riverdance,
James Newton-Howard, Eddie Jobson, Michel Columbier, Diana Ross,
Arif Mardin, Mezzoforte, Chaka Khan, Bette Midler, Roby Duke,
Denice Williams, The Katinas, Larry Carlton, Sandi Patti, Hans
Zimmer, Leonard Cohen, Adam Cohen, Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi,
Richard Souther, Randy Newman and Celine Dion, among many others.
* Eric's lifelong love of the creative process is the driving
force behind his pursuit of musical excellence.
Papa B. Susso
* Master Kora player, African historian, storyteller
* Papa Susso's father taught him to play the Kora when he was
five years old. The ancestral Susso family of the Mandinka tribe
of the great Manding Empire invented the Kora. It is a 21-stringed
harp-lute unique to the western most part of Africa and is meant
to be played only by the Jali (professional musicians, praise
singers and oral historians), who were traditionally attached
to royal courts. Papa is a direct descendant and guardian of this
ageless tradition.
* He has performed at New York City's Carnegie Hall twice, and
across the U.S. and the world with major symphony orchestras,
and for several heads of state. He was the premier performer in
the "American Classic African Portraits" by Hannibal
Peterson. In 1991, Papa Susso was appointed as Regents' lecturer
in ethnomusicology at the University of California, Santa Barbara,
participating in discussions with students and faculty.
* Susso applies his lifelong spiritual commitment and reverence
for history to every project he takes on.
Vinny Adams
* Drummer, Percussionist, Dancer, Singer
* Vinny is a multi-instrumentalist, dancer and singer trained
as a musician at Brooklyn Music School, The New Muse, Baruch College,
and Brooklyn Conservatory. Under the tutelage of such jazz veterans
as Walter Perkins and Andre Strobert, he built on this foundation
as a drummer and percussionist. Having been performing for 25
years (since childhood), he has shared stages with and/or been
influenced by the music of many other seasoned players and popular
performers like Steve Gadd (his favorite), Tony Lewis, Onaje Allan
Gumbs, Bob Baldwin, Johnny Kemp, Lionel Hampton, cousin Eric Adams
and countless others.
* Primarily self taught as a dancer, some early appearances on
stage lead to a principal role in the smash Off-Broadway show,
STOMP. Since then, he has appeared on national television with
the STOMP cast, has performed with the dance/percussion company,
SLAM! in Hawaii, for PEPSI Cola, and has freelanced as a choreographer
for small video and stage projects.
* Being afforded the opportunity to work with Bashiri Johnson
is a distinct and exciting privilege that is long overdue and
far beyond some of his biggest dreams.
Zeleka Jenkins
* Zeleka, who plays the M'bira on Ethno Techno, is a member of
the multi-cultural group, Spirit Ensemble.
Engineer's Notes
Combinations of vintage and new technologies
were used to record and mix the sounds you are experiencing on this
library. A vintage Neve 8078 with Flying Faders, and a Yamaha 02R
were used as recording and mixing consoles. Recording was done to
an Alesis ADAT/BRC combination. Mixes were printed to a Panasonic
3800 DAT machine through a Wadia WA4000 analog to digital converter.
A Neve 1073 mic pre-amp was used in conjunction with the O2R.
The following mics, signal processing, and effects were used in
realization of the sounds on this disc:
Microphones: Neumann U87, AKG 414, 460,
D112, Sennheiser 421, Shure SM57, SM7
Equalizers: Focusrite 215, Neve 1073, Console EQ from the Neve
8078 and Yamaha 02R
Mic-Pre's: Focusrite 215, Neve 1073, Console mic-preamp from Neve
8078
Compressor/Limiters/Gates: dbx 160, 160x, Summit TLA-100A, UREI
1176, Drawmer DS 201 Noisegate.
Effects Units: Lexicon 480L digital reverb, PCM 42 digital delay,
AMS RMX-16 digital reverb, T.C. Electronics Fireworx multi-effects
processor, Yamaha SPX-90, SPX-900, REV-7 multi-effects-processors.
The following processors were among those
used by Eric Persing to create many of the mixes and remixes:
Eventide DSP-4000, Boss SE-70, Boss GL-100
Distortion, Boss NS-50s, Roland SRV-330 reverb, Innovonics Limiters,
API 5502 Equalizers, Langevin custom Equalizers, Summit tube mic-pre's,
Roland S-760 samplers, Boss Dimension C Spacializer, Roland RSP-550,
Aphex Gates
At ILIO, for editing, Groove Control processing
and mastering, we used a number proprietary software tools on Macintosh
and PC systems. Also used were Bias Peak, TC Works Spark, IK's T-RackS
and Sonic Solutions.
A Message to Audio CD Users
You'll find that much of this booklet pertains to users of the Sampler
CD-ROM version of Ethno-Techno only. This is because only the Sampler
CD-ROM version comes with Groove Control, a revolutionary way of
working with drum loops that allows independent control over tempo,
pitch, feel and mix of the grooves using your existing sampler and
sequencer. We invite you to read about Groove Control in this booklet,
but remember that many of these capabilities aren't available on
the Audio CD, just the CD-ROM version.
If you wish to upgrade to the Groove Control CD-ROM version at any
time, simply contact ILIO or your local ILIO distributor to unleash
the full potential of this library.
Groove Control(tm)
We are very excited to include this exclusive feature on the CD-ROM
versions of Ethno-Techno. Groove Control gives you a simple and
high quality way to change the tempo, mix and feel of stereo loops
right from your own sequencer. Groove Control products are available
exclusively from ILIO Entertainments and Spectrasonics.
Groove Control Creative Tips
Because of the flexibility of Groove Control, think of these loops
as a starting point for your own creativity. Here are just a few
possibilities to get you thinking:
1. Change the tempo of the grooves without changing the pitch.
How? Just change the sequencer's
tempo.
2. Change the pitch of the grooves without changing the tempo.
How? Adjust the GC Program's
coarse and fine tuning parameters in your sampler.
3. Change the feel of the loop to match the feel of your track.
How? Quantize the GC sequence
with the same settings as the other tracks in your song.
4. Tighten up the players' performances.
How? Gradually increase the
percentage of Quantization on the Groove Control sequence.
5. Turn a straight feel into a shuffle or visa versa.
How? Use a swing quantize setting
or increase the percentage of the shuffle parameter in your sequencer.
6. Change the time signature of the loop.
How? Move the sequence loop
point to loop in the new time signature. Move the position of the
downbeats and backbeats with the event editing capabilities of your
sequencer.
7. Create an alternate version of the loop.
How? Using event editing in
your sequencer, reassign one or two MIDI note numbers to other numbers,
triggering alternate samples.
8. Change the "pushes" in
a pattern.
How? Move the position of the
downbeat percussion slice in the pattern forward by a sixteenth.
(Event Editing)
9. Build your own pattern from scratch using the sounds from the
loop.
How? Sequence the parts yourself
by playing the GC sampler programs.
10. Create Gating FX by changing MIDI gate times.
How? Change the MIDI gate values,
Gate Time parameter or Duration parameter in your sequencer.
11. Change the levels of certain beats or parts.
How? Change the MIDI velocity
levels of the related slices.
12. Replace individual instrument sounds with different samples.
How? Copy the whole sequence
to a new Track/MIDI channel. Delete the sound events you want to
change from the first sequence, then delete everything BUT those
same events from the second track. Assign second track to trigger
different samples.
13. Randomize your grooves.
How? Load up a sequence and
select various GC sampler programs whose names don't match the sequence.
Try different sequences with a single GC sampler program.
14. Make your own breakdown.
How? Reassign busier events
to shaker or ambience slice events.
15. Create syncopated or displaced groove combos by shifting the
starting point of each loop by a 16th note.
16. Create echoing grooves using MIDI delay.
How? Copy the track and sampler
program to multiple channels, offset the copies by the length of
echo you want and lower the velocities of the copy tracks.
17. Lower the pitch of the one instrument in the loop without changing
the other instruments.
How? Copy the sequence and sampler
program. Delete the Instrument from one program and everything BUT
that same instrument in the other. Lower the tuning of the second
program in the sampler.
18. Make the loop sound softer and more distant.
How? Change the Attack time
of the Sampler Program.
19. Reverse only one instrument in the pattern.
How? Find all the desired slices
in the sampler. Reverse those samples in the sampler.
20. Reverse the order of the groove.
How? Play the MIDI sequence
backwards (reverse order).
21. Add Electronica style buzz rolls to live loops.
How? Add short 64th note repetitions
on certain events, with gradually building velocity values.
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