Oddity provides a low, uncharacteristically fluid bassline: Download audio file (Ziphzer.12-11-2007.Oddity bass.mp3)
.

The Novation Supernova swishes most pleasingly here: Download audio file (Ziphzer.12-11-2007.Supernova pad 1.mp3)

and here: Download audio file (Ziphzer.12-11-2007.Supernova pad 2.mp3)

Ableton’s Electric is leader with the “Lady” patch: Download audio file (Ziphzer.12-11-2007.electric lead.mp3)

impOSCar adds flavor: Download audio file (Ziphzer.12-11-2007.impOSCar underpinning.mp3)

percussion from impulse with samples from here and there: Download audio file (Ziphzer.12-11-2007.percussion.mp3)

Ziphzer by Andrew Ford is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from me.

straight mix: Download audio file (Sweeping Hot Coals.10-13-2007.loq.mp3)

live mix: Download audio file (Sweeping Hot Coals.10-17-2007.loq.mp3)

another snippet later in track: Download audio file (Wooded_Cup__snippet2.mp3)

The Cheeze Machine is a magnificent freebie that does one thing very well.

Here it’s running through a delay plugin called Echomania. Yep, Free too.

Cheeze Machine Pad: Download audio file (Wooded_Cup__CheezeMachinePad.mp3)

Unusually, I’m not using the Airbase99 for the main drums. No sirree it’s plugin called Drumatic. I think it has a certain charm.
Drumatic Drums Download audio file (Wooded_Cup__DrumaticDrums.mp3)
The Airbase does make an appearance in the form of HiHats.

Jomox Hats: Download audio file (Wooded_Cup__JomoxHats.mp3)

The Oddity bounces a nice Hollow Square Wave bassline.

Oddity Bass Line: Download audio file (Wooded_Cup__OddityBass.mp3)
The Novation Supernova was the source of the backing chords. Running through Ableton’s Filter Delay and their Flanger.
SuperNova Chords: Download audio file (Wooded_Cup__SupernovaChords.mp3)

Synth1, the ultimate free VST is the lead line. Ths is the part I’ll improvise live, but for this song I probably won’t stray too far from the part “as written”. Or maybe I will.

Synth1 Lead: Download audio file (Wooded_Cup__Synth1Lead.mp3)

OoPs. Spent all afternoon yesterday trying to switch the bassline from the old recorded Supernova audio bass to a virtual 303 sound (using the ABL of course), but it just sounds awful in the song. I think what happened was that the 303 bass was fun to work on by itself, but then it clash with the lead when I finally tried to put it all together.

Back to where you were, please.

But then again, maybe I can just bring it in when the lead is not going. Be nice to automate the cutoff/rez.

A too-long and self-indulgent intro is filled with a nifty Wusikstation pad:

Download audio file (Pulley_Wheel__begin-snippet.mp3)

Gotta cut that intro down shorter. Actually the outro is similar and needs trimming as well.

Pulley Wheel is really fun to play. I’m doing some crazy pitch bending in the lead, which is the daHornet plugin running through a VST guitar stomp box called Buz. Very gritty & the BUZ plugin has a very cool look.
The backing chords are from a Synth called “EZ-poly“.

Download audio file (Pulley_Wheel__EZPolyBacking.mp3)

I’ve discovered it’s one of those VSTs that does this self-oscillation thing that fills up Ableton Live’s undo buffer. Very frustrating since I had to resample the EZ-poly clips from nice flexible MIDI files into audio clips, but at least I got my undo buffer back. Working on a song with no practical way to undo bad changes is just nerve-racking.

Hint: if you’re working in Ableton and you go to make an undo and it doesn’t seem to work, and you see these mysterious entries like “Change parameter #17″ in the undo menu, then you’ve probably gotten into this corner.

To verify, open up Live’s parameter panel for each of your VSTs and look for one or some of the little parameter sliders to be moving on their own. Then you’ll have found the problem VST. If you’ve discovered it early enough in the songwriting process, then you can probably just delete the VST and replace it with something else.

If, on the other hand, you’re married to the plugin, you can try to get VST vendor/developer to change the behavior. I’ve had some luck with this approach.