Tag: electronic music

Ice Water Ways – Microfreak and Monologue Jam for #Jamuary2020

Ice Water Ways – Microfreak and Monologue synth jam on YouTube

Quick brush fire in Australia update, we were able to raise $250! We made the donation on Thursday Jan 9, and a copy of the receipt has been uploaded to Instagram. Thanks so much to everyone that reposted, retweeted, bought a copy of an album or donated money directly. It was a fantastic effort and I’m beyond happy with how it turned out. I truly love how supportive and positive this community is!

Today’s jam is entitled Ice Water Ways. I started with a simple rhythmic beep from the Aturia Microfreak. The Behringer Deepmind is playing the ethereal sounding pad and I created a simple loop that the Volca FM plays during the chorus of the song. On drum duty is the trusty Alesis SR18 playing a sequence of my own programming.

Lots of more jams coming this month on IG, Youtube, and Twitter as part of the Jamuary event. Make sure you follow me on those platforms if you want to see and hear more synth and experimental jams.

Clean Hands – Synth jam for #Jamuary2020 – shelfblack

Experimental synth jam featuring the Microfreak and Monologue entitled Clean Hands

Today is the first day of Jamuary! For those of you who don’t know Jamuary is a challenge that originated from Cuckoo on Instagram that pushes you to create 31 days of jams and post them on Instagram. It’s not about being perfect, it can be any attempt at music whatsoever. I absolutely love this time of year. As a musician, when I started making music, my goal was to create and post, to share what I love doing regardless of whether it was proper, complete, perfect. I enjoy creating flawed music. I love the responsiveness and flexibility that performing jams in real-time without a digital workstation provides.

For this jam, I started with a poppy blast of drums from the Alesis SR18 and kicked off the intro of the song with the Volca FM. Next, the Behringer Deepmind is utilizing it’s arpeggiator to create a dreamy synthscape. The Microfreak is playing the rhythm stabs and the Monologue is playing the glitched out lead. Funko figure is somebody from Mad Max Fury Road.

Hope you like the song, if you are digging it make sure you follow me on Instagram. I’ll be posting a new jam every single day for the month of January. Not every song will have a full version, so I only make these posts on this site when there’s a full version to be had. Thanks for the support and a happy 2020 to you all!!!

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Blank Stairs – shelfblack – experimental synth jam

Blank Stairs – shelfblack – Experimental synth jam – all hardware.

This is a full version of a track I have created entitled Blank Stairs. It’s a play on words of the saying “blank stare.” I named it that because of the slippery way that the lead gets bent in the song. In this song, I used the Alesis SR18 drum machine to make a pounding, minimal drum beat and I’m using the drumbrute as nothing more than a master clock. The Arturia Microfreak is making the strange gurgly sound and it gets manipulated a few times throughout the track. The Behringer Deepmind 6 is playing the strange ethereal sounding pad.

Just to update, I released a new EP last week entitled Just Burn It All, currently it’s only available on BandCamp for $1. It will be hitting Spotify and all other major streaming services on Christmas Eve, December 24. Keep scrolling down to see the post!

If you are a fan of this tune, make sure you subscribe on YouTube and follow me on Instagram. I will be participating in the Jamuary event on IG which is a fun exercise that challenges you to create a jam every day during the month of January. Also, be sure to check back here on shelfblack.com for more gear demos, product reviews, articles, and synth jams coming up!

We’re Not Pretending – shelfblack – Synth Jam with the Arturia Microfreak

We’re Not Pretending – dawless jam with the Korg Monologue and Arturia Microfreak

We’re Not Pretending is another full version of one of my experimental all hardware synth jams. The Arturia Microfreak kicks off the beginning of the jam with that off-kilter lead that underlines the jam. Once the Arturia Drumbute kicks in , the Korg Volca FM starts to play it’s dreamy pad sound. After the rest of the drums are unmuted, the Behringer Deepmind starts to punctuate the space between the lead with it’s own complementary synth stabs. You’ll also here some effects on the drums which are a combination of the EHX Grand Canyon and the EHX Ocean’s 11 pedals.

Suddenly, you’ll here the short stabs that the Microfreak were playing to creat the lead becomes long and drawn out. I’m changing that sound by using the Amp Mod button on the Microfreak which manipulates the envelope generator to completely change the sound. The final piece of the puzzle is yet another sequence that pops in from the Korg Monologue.

If you have any questions about the jam, just comment below. Make sure to subscribe on YouTube and keep visiting for more gear demos, synthesizer jams, and artist highlights.

False Visions – shelfblack – synthesizer jam featuring the Korg Monologue and EHX Grand Canyon

This is a jam I put together with my usual suspects of gear. I started by building a solid drum groove with the Arturia Drumbrute Impact. I wanted a warbly and disconnected type lead coming from the Monologue. So i went with a simple 16 step lead that was sequenced using the real time recording feature. In order to add that disjointed and unstable sound to the lead, I’m running it through the EHX Grand Canyon Pedal.

The Grand Canyon is one of my favorite pedals to use with any and all synth gear. It’s a reverb and delay pedal that offers up to 3 seconds of delay time, tap tempo and nine tap divide settings, stereo output, 13 presets, programmable EXP pedal settings, high quality analog bypass with soft switching and more. On False Visions, I’m using the ‘Tape’ setting on the EHX which is a simulated tape delay sound that is fully customizable and one of my favorite settings.

Stay tuned for a future gear demo of the EHX Grand Canyon and I’ll show you some pretty cool things you can do with it with synthesizers and drum machines.

One Last Breath – shelfblack – Electronic DAWless synth jam with a Korg Monologue

One Last Breath – full electronic music synthesizer jam featuring the Korg Monologue, Behringer Deepmind, and the Drumbrute Impact

This is a bit more on the experimental side for me. I wanted a very guttural and intense main line. I looked no further than my workhorse synth, the Korg Monologue. I tweaked and manipulated the Korg line to make the synth sound like it was fighting and screaming and clawing it’s way through the track. The rest of the track features the usual suspects, the Behringer Deepmind, the Arturia Drumbrute Impact. I also used the Korg Kaosspad 3 for some of the scratchy sounding effects on the Monologue.

As always, to see and hear more original music just check out my YouTube page and subscribe. I upload a few songs per week. If you’re reading this and you are putting together a compilation album and you’d like a shelfblack track exclusively, just reach out!

I’ll do a demo video of the Korg Kaosspad 3 in the coming weeks.

shelfblack – dawless synth jam Can’t We Just Disappear?

Can’t We Just Disappear? – dawless synth jam created using the Korg Monologue, Korg Volca FM, Korg volca keys, Korg monotron delay, Arturia Beatstep pro, Drumbrute Impact, Microfreak.

This is a new all hardware dawless jam. I started this by experimenting with the Zoom Microtrak drum loop that you hear . I slowed it down to 70 bpm and started layering the Deepmind and Microfreak. I also added in a non confrontational rhythm backing with the Korg Monologue. From there I just let different parts ride and subtracted other parts allowing myself to get lost in the song. I believe the woozy, dreamy Microfreak part makes me feel like disappearing into the world that this music creates.

If you enjoyed this jam, feel free to subscribe on youtube and continue to check this site for more updates as I create more songs and review more gear!


Black Zinda – Feature Length Self Titled Album Streaming Now!

Black Zinda – self-titled album streaming everywhere streams are streamed.

It’s always been my dream to be in a band. When I was in high school I would day dream about it. I tried and failed to learn a number of instruments throughout my life and never quite had the focus or ability to create music along with other people.

Sometime in late 2018, right around the time I released my second album, Happy Robot Dreams, one of the songs I pushed the hardest was called Invader X. It’s a fast paced, video game-esque ride punctuated with a crazy 16-step synth line. One of my Instagram friends who went by the name Stephen Zinda messaged me that he liked the song a lot and he wanted to use it to work on a collaboration track and add lyrics to it. I was extremely excited about the opportunity to work with a real musician and I was already a huge fan of Stephen after checking out a few of his indie/rock flavored songs he had put out.

A few weeks later, Palm Trees was delivered. I was absolutely floored with what Stephen was able to do with it. He had taken a song I loved a lot as my own creation and added his own lyrics, spin, slowed it down, and made it into something I couldn’t believe. Immediately, we decided to work on more tracks and focus on releasing an EP.

Right away, I started working on tracks to send him. I knew I wasn’t working to deliver an EP. My goal was to send him so much stuff there would be no choice but for us to turn it into a whole album. I never told him of this plan and as you can tell by the release of this album, it worked perfectly!

So here it is. Our debut self titled album. It’s available on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Deezer, iHeartRadio, and more. I hope you enjoy it. I’m happy to be a part of this band, thanks for making a childhood dream come true, Stephen. Now let’s get to work on the next one!


Black Zinda – Coming 10/31 to Spotify, iTunes and all other streaming services!

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Black Zinda hitting all streaming sites on 10/31!

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A few months ago I collaborated with an amazing musician on Instagram by the name of Stephen Zinda. Stephen is a multi-instrumentalist, genre-hopping mastermind. He is one of the first people that I connected with on Instagram. He’s released 3 excellent albums on Spotify (Brains, King Pig, and Meat Freak.) I started chatting with Stephen early on and what really captured me about his music was his guitar playing and songwriting. He’s got that booming voice that really captures you’re attention.

Eventually, we collaborated on one song called Palm Trees. Here’s the link to the original version of Spotify. This song is included on our full release but it has been re-worked and is way more badass and epic in it’s final form.

The first Black Zinda song we created.

The goal for us originally was to create an EP. I ended up sending about 30 tracks to Stephen in my signature style, all full versions of jams in the 3 – 5 minute range. I did this over the course of a few weeks. Stephen was able to take the tracks and manipulate and flip them in ways I never imagined could be done. In the end we ended up with 9 tracks and released them on CD and Cassette on October 1st. Now at the end of the month we will be releasing our album digitally on all streaming platforms on October 31! We can’t wait for more people to hear what we have created.

Big shoutout to everyone who supported us by purchasing a CD or Cassette! You’ve helped fund the Black Zinda movement and we are currently entertaining an offer of perhaps releasing on vinyl. Anybody interested?