Home-made musical playground

 

When I have spare time I do some compositions at home where I play all the instruments myself. This has been a hobby of mine since I got my first Fostex X-28 4-track recorder around the age of 14 and even before that using mod trackers on a computer.

Arto Lehtiniemi in 90s

Me in 1998 with my Gibson Les Paul

Hundreds of song ideas have been developed during the years and some of them ended up online. I love trying out some new ideas and make them to 'songs' just to see how they work. Later they can be produced with more time and better equipment if necessary - except there is never that time. I still have the ambition to continue this hobby so stay tuned..

Don't mind the suboptimal sound quality in some of the songs, most of them are intentionally not polished.



Songs after 2020


Sininen unelma

12/2024. Energetic groove/pop in Finnish language featuring my 13 year old daughter Anni Lehtiniemi


Musk on massimies*

12/2023. Some grooving beat with a twist of humor. Best enjoyed with your choice of drink to sing along.
*Only fictional character featured in this song

Pörssisähköö

12/2022. A traditional rock/pop song inpired by the high electricity prices. First test using my electric drum kit.

Top (stereo mixdown)

2020. I did the world's first multi-zone 6DoF musical composition for work purposes where a person can experience a song by walking inside a physical space. Here is a quick stereo mixdown of the song while it is not intended to be consumed in this traditional way.



Songs between 2000-2003


Odottelen vaan

2002/2003. This is my first proper studio song when experimenting different drum micing techniques. My friend Mikko did the lyrics on the fly. A very mainstream song.. You can hear a great sound difference compared to the earlier work.

Changes

11-12/2002. First experiments in my first studio room with couple of actually meaningful microphones etc. Classic pop/rock song quite quickly made.

Insinörtti

13.6.2002. An instrumental guitar-rally made for a introduction video on TTKK. Guitar riff with Gibson/Laney -combination and recorded with a single vocal mike. This is meant to be as a background track so it's a bit monotonic.

You

20.5.2002. I wanted to do something different for a change and here is the result - A bit Air-styled song.

Feeling alone

13.4.2002. This song is made for a documentary about loneliness (as a soundtrack). Acoustic instrumental with an authentic african drum
Featuring Lassi-Petri Peltoniemi in bass.

BONUS! Sunnuntai-päivä!

(24.3.2002)

Sunnuntai-päivä..Featuring Me,Milla,Johanna,Siina and Pekka. Idea here was to create a short song so that every one could play something in it. A different way of spending your sunday-afternoon? This is recorded by just putting one mic in the room and there we go...

Syvää purppuraa

11.3.2002. A chill-out pop song with lyrics by Assi. I do also the vocals in this first version. Drums with SPD-20 pad..

Background Beat

2.3.2002. Very quicly done background beat that is made with JX-305 and added couple of guitar tracks.

Ei lopeta vihaa

21.12.2001. Finally my christmas vacation and time to do some music! This is a bit harder pop/rock song with real drums. Lyrics by: Sade.

67 Seconds

14.06.2001. A slow Air-styled tune. The idea seems to work pretty well but this could use a proper makeover.

Vastavirtaan

16.04.2001. Very CMX styled song (3:51). Everything just doesn't always go like you have wanted.. and that feeling inspired me to compose this song - for a very special person. Lyrics are mainly a collection of poems by Johanna.

Feeling Spring

This is the first song where I experimented MIDI features in Cubase controlling my synths/drumpad with its sequencer.
The point in this song is the guitar melody and solos, Satriani style

Plain Instrumental

22.10.2000. An instrumental song for a change. Rather long (6:17), suitable for background music at night.. Featuring some JX-305 sounds, acoustic guitar driven through PODPro (using distortion), couple of guitar solos player with my Ibanez & PODPro.

Keep it simple!

Very quicly made JX305 tune that sounds a bit like some old tracker-modules. I just made few different patterns and mix/transpose them to output a full song.


Songs between 1995-1999


Electric GrV

Little electric groove made with JX-305 + added some vocals.

Motion Blur

Enigma-styled song made with JX-305 + vocals and a little bit of guitar on the background. Quite nice sounds and feeling, very long track 6:12.

Acoustic 16

An acoustic tune made with two electric guitars using clean sound.

Bitch

Simple as that. I wanted to try to record my acoustic guitar and made a song around it, don't pay too much attention to the lyrics :)

Dusk (Full mix)

A song made with RM1X sequence remixer, electronic styled piece.

Melody guitar

A song where guitar plays the the main part. Also trying out my custom-build drumkit in my SPD-20.

A happy tune

I wanted to do a song with happy melody, did I succeed?

Lähdet pois

I song with Finnish vocals made for a one special person who went to Germany as an exchange student.

Like a dream

A song about something like a dream.

SuperMario

SuperMario-styled piece. The melody is played by using the SPD-20 drumpad's melodic percussion sounds which makes it special.

Nitebird

Another song made with RM1X and it is electronic style aswell.

Oblivion

A song about a person taking a freefall. This is also a core of one Kelkka's new song.

Rollercoaster

Aren't some peoples feelings like a rollercoaster? If you know what I mean.

Sandy

A song called Sandy.

Shy

The name actually describes the song pretty well.

Slow Motion

Slow motion with RM1X.

Thinking of ways

Thinking of ways - to turn yourself away. Very different to the other songs.

Join me with Casio (Finnish version of HIM: Join me in Death)

1998. A quick funny copy of HIM:s Join me in death but with Finnish lyrics and Casio sounds. Guest starring Pekka Vuorela on keyboards.

Solo16

1998. Distortion guitar based instrumental song and one the first computer recording experiment

She is like a dream

1998. Pop/rock song.

Mättö

1998. Rock-mättö instrumental backing track

You understand

1998. Pop/rock song with Tracker drums.


1996-1998 era


Arto Lehtiniemi in 1997 Heli and my equipment in 1997

This era was productive while trying to learn to use my second hand late 80s big analog mixing desk and 8-track Alesis (Blackface) ADAT recorder. I was just learning by doing..

GuitarRock

1998. Instrumental guitar rock

Techno uchi uchi

1997. New electronic techno song attempt.

New World

1997. Pop/rock song.

Cold cold Sunday

1997. Early ADAT pop song experiments with vocals.

Kuningas

1997. Early ADAT pop song experiments with vocals.

Why do you..

1997. Early ADAT pop song experiments with vocals.

MIDISke

1997. Instrumental song experimenting with MIDI synths

No fame

1997. Pop/rock song with vocals for a change

SoloGtr

1997. Distortion guitar based instrumental song testing my skills

Guitar rock 001

1997. Guitar rock 001 instrumental

Funky instrumental

1997. ADAT instrumental recordings at home.

Can't put that feeling aside

1996. Early ADAT pop song experiments with vocals.

Vingutus instrumental

1996. Instrumental guitar solo piece

Hilpeä instrumental

1996. ADAT instrumental recordings at home.

Joku instrumental

1996. ADAT instrumental recordings at home.

Keskiaika instrumental

1996. ADAT instrumental recordings at home.

Ballad instrumental

1996. ADAT instrumental recordings at home.

Kalja instrumental

1996. ADAT instrumental recordings at home.

Jingle Bells instrumental

1996. Instrumental version of Jingle Bells (again)


4-track C-casette songs and mods between 1989-1997


Arto Lehtiniemi in 1991 Arto Lehtiniemi in 1991 Arto Lehtiniemi in 1991

Unnamed experiment with drums and synth

Slightly newer, maybe 1994-1996 era first experiments with early computer sequencing using Gravis Ultrasound - exploring future opportunities in music making? - details have been lost in time, saved from C-Casette.

Drinking song imitation

Typical acoustic drinking song imitation done with 4-track recorder around 1991-1993. Rare song with vocals (barely audible)

Nameless rock song without vocals

Instrumental rock song 'skeleton'

Another instrumental rock song 'skeleton'

A punk rock song which was later complemented with duo shouting

At the time I was not comfortable at all in doing vocals and thus many ideas were left unfinished. Here are examples from those days..


More recent computer mods 1993-1996

C-casette player Arto Lehtiniemi in 1991

Songs done with a computer using Scream Tracker and Sound Blaster sound card (1989-1993). These are closer to gaming music and every single note has been entered by hand using the keyboard. There old treasures are saved from a C-casette as all the original discs have been long gone. Later, during approximately 1993-1996 there was a new wave of mods composed with better trackers and even for demo scene purposes.

General Failure

My best mod ever made and I remember it took a lot of time creating this. This song was used in Assembly demonstrator soundtrack if I remember correctly.

Electric jam

Electronic song with sweeping low bass lines.

Atmospheric soundtrack Vol-1

My attempt to create background soundtrack for different projects. This soundtrack is 8:30 mins long.

Atmospheric soundtrack Vol-2

My attempt to create background soundtrack for different projects. This one is even longer, 14:40 mins!

E-Party

Energetic electronic tune.

Instrumental piano mod

Instrumental piano song experiment

Piano song

Another slow piano song

Jingle bells remake

My take on Jingle Bells as it should be. This is a quite nice variation of the classic.

Cover fun

Another variation of a known melody.


Old computer mods between 1989-1993

Error

One of the best rock styled mods I did back in the day

1Biisi

Another mod composition.

Bach ate my banana!

Another mod composition.

Beginning of a day

Another mod composition.

Cool but cruel

Another mod composition.

Cinderellica

Another mod composition.

C00le

Another mod composition.

Happy birthday remix

Another mod composition.

Rap

Another mod composition.

Rock a doll

Boney moroney

Two mods imitating typical guitar rock