Submissions from 2019-03-04 to 2019-03-11 (10 total)

Spent about 3 hours on this one... the longest time so far. I wonder if it was worth it ;D It was fun non the less ;D ;D

Gosh, what do I say about this week...

Started a new job so mental capacity was at a low. This track has a lot of potential but it is not at all there yet. Set out for electro and chiptune feel.

First time trying to write a break like this as well. Any comments or suggestions on what to focus on would be appreciated. Also sorry for the long name, it felt fitting at 11:00 PM Sunday.

You really shouldn't listen to this, it's not quite ready, it's too long, and it makes no sense.

Oh, you're still reading? What, you're even LISTENING to this?

Context

  • I bought an Octatrack some months ago, used it for a song and a half, and stopped using it.
  • I brought it to a recent synth fest and realized that I didn't know how to use it anymore
  • I vowed that I'd make songs with the Octatrack for a month or so
  • My partner is playing a JRPG called Atelier Meruru
  • Octatrack allows you to sample things

This piece is in that weird middle state where things are just kind of weird and dull. When you're new, you create all kinds of crazy stuff and it's funny and stupid and interesting. When you've got experience, you create things that have progression and interest and emotion. I've not yet kept the age of innocence nor advanced to the state of wisdom yet.

Oh yeah, the Octatrack is a pretty cool machine. But it's super powerful, and it's pretty difficult to learn as a consequence.

Another piece that accumulated organically: I'd started by putting up a few drum racks against each other (64-pad rock kit, bongos, Hilda kit), and then put a few chords and figures of different keyboards (Live's MkI3 Mellow Piano and Puremagnetik's CP-70 pack, on the electronic-only setting). I put down Epiphone P-J bass, and then Res-O-Glas guitar through EHX LPB2ube, one pass through a mild overdrive, and another through more extreme boost.

Inline effects: M4L Humanizer on drums and MkI3, Drum Buss on percussion. EQ-8 for bass rolloff on bass, various combinations of Auto-Filter (for drive and to roll off weird direct-sounding harmonics from the Alumitones) and Cabinet on guitar. Sends: Convolution reverb (studio room impulse) and Auto-Filter with LFO into Echo on Tweezy Tape preset. Various auto-pan, and full-chain master on the stereo mix.

Title from one method of growing symmetric crystals of samarium, this week's element.

Music time has been almost non-existent again this week, so the best I can do is a tiny bit of boom bap I knocked up on my PO-33 on a lunch break. It's just a rough loop, but I love the sound of the wee machine. As a musical sketchpad it's amazing.

this one morphed as it went, but i started off with the constraint that i was going to force myself to do some vocal work and also make a beat that doesn't fit my usual format

the result is a vaguely industrial metal trip hop joint with nonsense lyrics about a MAGA hat wearing wendigo, that sounds like you could maybe find on the B side of a Ween album, which pleases me.

Just testing a different approach this week. There is a bytebeat waveform which frequency is modulated by another bytebeat pattern.

Not especially happy with this one. The drums were okay but I found the chords a bit bland. But hey the point of all this is working ideas through.

Sorry about length - i'd written it around the Neutron tweaking which is constantly changing. Typicallly it turned Detroitish again - hence the name. Its quite melancholy. Was trying to get a good sound through the master - doesn't quite have that analog console feel but i did make the effort to humanise the drums.

This must be the fastest I have ever "finished" something. Just a bunch of loops and solos, but I am off for a holiday this weekend so I know I have to finish something now.