One of the duties we don't particularly enjoy that's involved with making the monthly samples for Future Music is having our photo taken every other month for inclusion in the samples page of the mag. Of course everyone ducks out on those days leaving MR Hoodee to take it on the chin ;)
Anyway, here's a couple of shots from this months shoot with the talented Mr Ecki behind the lens. No photoshopping just a dark GCHQ (not easy now we have so much natural light), long exposure (ohh err) and shouting at MR H to change position.
Just before we call it a day, we're just about to start on a month long commission for..urm, well we can't actually say for whom or what we're doing but it involves us going back to our musical roots....
More info as and when we can let it slip but we're quite chuffed, a touch challenged and a bit nervous about the whole thing to be honest . All of which is good ;)
Quick update on the what gwan/self promotion front. Please don't adjust your set... Just finished a set of analogue bass samples for DMS taken from the synth collection here at GCHQ.
The list of beauties we grappled with in the name of low end bliss appears, er, below.
Moog Little Phatty (Tribute) Roland SH101 Roland Juno-60 Yamaha CS01 Yamaha CS05 Jomox MBase 01 Waldorf pulse Novation bass station FAT freebass FB383 Dave Smith Mopho
Just to add some extra warmth we also ran a good chunk of them to tape (reel to reel 4 track).
We've posted a small taster selection for you to download and play with on our soundcloud page here. The full pack contains 80 bass WAV samples (16bit/44.1 sampled at C) plus Kontakt patches and Soundfont data. All for the price of a couple of pints - bargin if we do say so ourselves ;) You can take a look at the pack in more detail here.
So trying to make up for a 4 month dry spell with some quick fire posts (sad we know) we thought we'd post some links to some of the rather fine projects we've been rather chuffed to be a part of over the last few months.
First up we were please to get our filthy wobble on (ohh err) for our friends at Sample Magic to contribute some samples for their rather splendid Dubstep sample library. We've worked with Sample magic several times in the past on their sample releases and we really pulled the dirty synths out of the bag for this one as well as sorting out some beats and FX. You can check it out here.
Next up a slightly older project but I don't think we actually blogged about it so bare with us. We were as pleased as punch when we were asked by our good mates at FXpansion to put together some content for their Geist drum machine/virtual MPC/software rhythm marvel. As well as lots of drum hits we also sorted some loops and other bits and bobs and were incredibly chuffed to be included. Geist got across the board good reviews (as far as we saw and we love it so there ;) and is a very powerful beat making tool. Check it in more detail here.
Lastly we thought we'd drop a small plug in for ourselves as we do get asked every now and then if we have any samples available for purchase. We've a few packs of drum hits perfect for making those heavy beats with over at www.dancemidisamples.com as well as a pack of analogue FX, great for adding some vintage spice. Each pack is under a fiver for these recession hit times. You can check 'em here.
4 months! Bloody hell that's bad even for our rather lame selves.
OK, no excuses (although we have been very busy ;) but rather time for a speedy catch up on all things Groove Criminal.
GCHQ v2 is completely up and running now and after a few months we've settled in nicely and it's really being to feel like home. To be honest it's a home away from (well within MR Hoodee's) home as it is because we spend so much time there, but it's good to have some where permanent with such a great vibe about it. Needless to say we could do with a bit more room as we seem to have filled what seemed like a huge space with loads of audio tat but we'd have done that with a warehouse!
Work-wise we've been pretty busy as well with some interesting projects (see next post - hopefully ;p) but we also had a bit of a crash and burn moment thanks to pulling a few too many hours over a prolonged few months so had to have a couple of weeks away from the studio. Not complaining though, as it's not as if we have to dig coal for living or anything (no heavy lifting, just heavy beats, is one of our mission statements ;) just pushed a little too hard for a bit too long, as you do.
On the gear-porn side we finally got introduced to the shadowy, man of mystery (he's not like that at all really :) that fixes/cares for the vintage gear of a mate of ours. This basically allowed us to finally get some stuff fixed including getting the 4 or so keys replaced on our Yamaha CS5 mono synth.
One of the first true analogue synths we got hold of, she had a gappy smile when we got her, but it's nice to see her finally in one piece. With the LP/BP/HP switch fixed as well! No more random filter choice for us then.
Although not exactly a must have on most peoples wish lists, we've a soft spot for the CS5, it's got a character of its own and the bonus of an audio input to run stuff through the filters and we don't use it anywhere near as much as we should.
There's some free samples of the little love to download and use on our Soundcloud page
The Groove Criminals are a sample production team based an underground beat-bunker buried in wilds of deepest Suffolk (UK). Led by programmer, producer and occasional deejay MR Hoodee, The Groove Criminals provide copyright free sample material in a huge variety of styles including regular monthly sample contributions for the cover-mounted DVDs of both Future Music and Computer Music magazines, as well as sample CDs and music software.
In addition to making samples, The Groove Criminals work as freelance music tech journalists, produce and release the odd record, and can be occasionally found jostling old ladies in the charity shops of East Anglia searching for rare easy listening LPs.