By John Pellegrini
From Jeff Schmidt at KFOG comes a new package of production elements that should be considered for use at any Alternative or Active Rock station around the globe. Though you could also make a strong case in using this package for Urban, CHR, Rhythmic CHR, Hot AC, Modern AC, and Jeff says he’s even sold one to a Classic Rocker. ORGANISM III (more on that number in a bit) from Alien Imaging (Jeff’s production service company) is a collection of 240 wild elements that can add loads of just the right weirdness to anyone’s sound. They’re all on one 98 track CD, with proper indexing for ease of access.
Jeff has a full-blown Pro Tools Mix package with loads of plug-ins, which gives him the necessary studio set up to make wild music tracks for his imaging clients. ORGANISM III is a collection of the best of the elements he’s produced over the years. Each one has excellent production values and great sound quality.
Tracks 1-50 are called “Splitter/Breaker” elements. Basically, each of these tracks is compounded sounds or multiple mixes, meaning that they’re made up of an arrangement of numerous sounds, instead of the tenth of a millisecond blips that you might normally expect. Their lengths range between two seconds out to five seconds in length. These sounds are definite attention-getters and I couldn’t help but think of some of the battle scenes in Star Wars and other science fiction movies when I heard them, really futuristic sounding.
Tracks 51 through 56 are atmospheric pads of varying lengths that can set up weird scenes inside your listener’s head—different white and pink noise atmospheres, along with broadcast transmitter static of varying pitch and EQ, which will remind you of 2001: A Space Odyssey and loads of other science fiction moments. Ranging in length from four seconds out to ten seconds, these tracks could add some truly bizarre notes to your production. You’ll likely try to consciously write promos where you can use them.
Tracks 57 through 95 are called Industrial Repeaters. Think of them as rhythm tracks after drinking several dozen shots of steroid laced espresso. Each track has at least two indexes of these pads, each approximately four seconds in length, and they could all easily be looped out to any size you want--all rhythm and no music keys, which makes mixing them highly adaptable to anything from intros to breaker elements to remix beds. I could even imagine club deejays and radio hip-hop music mixers wanting these elements for making dance loops.
Track number 96 has a few scroll sounds that are highly effective. Track 97 contains pads that didn’t quite fit with anything else but are still highly fun. Rounding out the package is track 98, which Jeff calls “Alien Bitch Slaps” which you just have to hear to believe—though I will say that they’re nice and juicy, which makes me wonder what the Aliens are made out of or if they’re from a planet where the atmosphere is very moist. I can think of several morning personalities who would love to have these noises available at a moment’s notice.
To clear up any confusion, even though this package is called ORGANISM III, there is no ORGANISM I or II. Jeff just didn’t want to make sequels. And he assures me his next package will have an entirely different sound, so it will likely have a different name.
The nice thing about this package is the tracks are well laid out, very useful, and lend themselves easily to looping and customizing. I made some quick loops out of several, and just for fun I reversed them on my DAW, which provided some interesting results. You’ll be able to jump right in and start using these tracks immediately.
ORGANISM III is available on a $300.00 (U.S. funds) buyout, which is great for you independents out there, and is also affordable enough for the stingiest of corporate CFOs.
You can download an mp3 demo at Jeff’s Website www.alien-imaging.com, and you can contact Jeff to order your copy. It is sold as a market exclusive though, so you will need to beat your competitor to the door.
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