It’s Chrisssstmassss!

Starting to prepare the Christmas set :nerd_face:

(Fully expecting this post to be banned :rofl:)

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Nice… but it would be even nicer if you wrote a few words about how you made it, what plugin(s) you used, which preset or settings… etc.
After all the name of this subforum is “Sound design with GP” and not just “Play a nice tune”. :beers: :innocent:

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The Yamaha CS-80 is the main sound here (courtesy of the Arturia CS-80 V), which is responsible for the main tone, and delay effect. GP Song tempo set to 95bpm. There’s a little compression which comes from RoughRider (a nice free compressor I occasionally use). A tiny amount of Valhalla Room reverb (6% mix) and when I play it live I’ll be using it mono which seems to more closely match the original. Following this sound, there is a continuous high pedal synth string note (wide stereo field, CS-80 again) and continuous jingle bells for festive effect. If I were recording it I’d probably add some tape saturation.

I’ll have a tidy up of the gig file tomorrow and upload that along with the midi. Ultimately, the plan is to create a set of Rackspaces that will cover the majority of Christmas song duties.

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Sounds good! Looking forward to it! :+1: :star_struck:
…and thanks for the explanations! :beers:

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To be authentic, please make sure the repeated chords get messed up just like the actual recording!

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You’re absolutely right @jeffn1
According to ‘the web’ the original didn’t use delay (like the example above), but reverse-sawtooth LFO modulation on the filter instead. Might try that next.

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What is the actual recording ? I think I never heard this song… :thinking:

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Christmas is coming soon…any sign of the gig file? :grinning:

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Hi Jeff
I have six ‘seasonal’ songs ready to go now which I’ll be playing in my upcoming Christmas gigs. I have, however, held back on posting anything due to a recent change in direction from Spitfire Audio LABS. Most of the rackspaces I created used LABS Christmas instruments, but their plugin now requires an Internet connection (sigh). So I’ve had to recreate them all with (in my mind) sub-standard equivalents (I can’t bring myself to pay much for glockenspiels and jingle bells). Let me re-visit today and see what I can post.

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:innocent:


All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey.gig (174.4 KB)

Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin’ Stevens.gig (270.5 KB)

Last Christmas - Wham!.gig (106.8 KB)

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day - Wizzard.gig (1.4 MB)

Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade.gig (144.5 KB)

Here are those gig files I promised. Apologies for how long it’s taken - preparing this stuff takes a while! And the playing was played live so is rather rough - unfortunately I don’t have the version of GP (5) which easily links up to a DAW.

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Incredible :beers:

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Even If I hate the Song, I like the Jun-6 Sounds in “Last Christmas” - well done! :+1:

Bookmarked for Christmas 2025 :joy:

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A couple of notes around plugin choice…

In All I Want For Christmas Is You, the glockenspiel is the most important ‘signpost’ imo, and I’ve used the LABS plugin with Christmas pack to get that. The Christmas pack also includes a set of jingle bell samples, which I use later on in Merry Christmas Everyone. The piano and strings layer (second rackspace) also has a velocity-switched bell to give it a Christmasy feel, which sounds when you hammer out the chorus.

Merry Christmas Everyone is all about the 4/4 Juno sound, which I play in the RH - a simple analog pluck with a medium release. The left hand part took a little longer to work out, using the bells from the Prophet VS and DX-7. The second rackspace uses a EW vocal instrument (layering different female patches), and can be used if you don’t have access to backing vocals.

Last Christmas uses the Juno strings but adjusted to have a very short sustain portion to the VCA. You play the theme over and over again in the left hand, and it’s the right hand that adds the variety - mainly a bell sound from the DX-7. Single notes at first, then the main theme and finally the descending arpeggios.

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day - the original record - is a rough sounding multilayered nightmare, but I do love it. I’ve created an orchestra type rackspace to represent that, again with a velocity switched bell. There is also a baritone sax high up the keyboard to add the occasional call and response as per the record. One day I’ll find a more flexible bari to replace this.

Finally there is the Slade classic, which to me screams buzzy RMI Electrapiano harpsichord with Organ mode switched on. I use the Hollow Sun Kontakt library for that which I think is both inexpensive and highly accurate. For the chorus, I contrast the basic mono type sounds of the verse, with a wider Hammond + Strings pad. I often like to use mono/stereo width and/or bit rate to provide variety between Song Parts. I’ve used the IK B-3X for that here, although another favourite organ alternative for me is the Acousticsamples B-5 Organ V3 with the IK T-Racks Leslie.

The gig files I’ve uploaded aren’t pefect by any stretch, but I used them live over Christmas with my 5 piece band and they all went down very well indeed. Everybody up dancing, which was the main aim!

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At the request of @npudar, I’ll now re-list these as separate threads.

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Yes, thank you very much. It’s great to have all these at one place (here), but from the SEO point of view, Google will index these better when there are also separate threads with the correct titles (like you did :beers: ).

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