This is a redoing of The Cats Got Into the Rocket Ship (https://weeklybeats.com/arcana/music/the-cats-got-into-the-rocket-ship) from WeeklyBeats Week 51.
There are still a lot of the same elements, but much of the arrangement is different and I'd like to think that the harmonic changes are better in the second version than in the first one and that the musical ideas are a little more developed. I am still not quite happy with the arrangement. I think I need to give myself a rest and look at it tomorrow.
As with most songs where the arrangement isn't great, I haven't concentrated too much on mixing and polish, so expect some mud/bad timbres/etc. I am trying to improve in this area too but I'm focusing so much on arrangement, composition, and harmony/melody these days that production/mixing/sound design is taking a back seat.
I'll tag anything that's an ongoing work as "WIP" (work in progress).
Instead of leaving you all with a farewell to 2021, I'm thinking ahead to 2022 because I have a project to crank out.
I have a live show to prepare for on January 29, so I started sketching out the set with Track 1. What I need? A transition to track 2 :D
Composed on a Eurorack modular synth (7u 104hp; the rack hasn't changed in a few months) and a Minibrute 2s.
Here's some more liner notes:
Key: F major
BPM: 116.7
A quick Minibrute 2s Acid Jam that I did while I was streaming without a lot of preparation or planning. I need to learn how to save and restore sequences and then actually take advantage of them! Maybe I'll use the sequences in an upcoming live show...
A relatively short song this week, I streamed and ended up doing more talking and less composing, but I was able together. It's probably more of an intro than a complete song, but it's still like a minute and a half long or so.
Doing some more hybrid orchestral/electronic music. I was feeling a little sick from getting my COVID booster today and I think some of that might have come through in the choice of non-scale tones. I also tried to add a few chromatic mediants here and there for practice purposes.
The end result is a soundtrack-style sound with a lot of tension and hopefully a bit of a mini journey.
Song with lyrics that I wrote for One Hour Compo, but due to render issues I couldn't submit it for that competition.
I wrote a track for Two Hour Track Sunday last Sunday, but apparently forgot to upload it to WeeklyMusic, so this is a super late.
Epic practice as I fool around with some new Kontakt instruments (Damage 2; Symphonic Destruction). I didn't really spend that much time writing this (maybe an hour or so), I spent a bunch of time exploring the sound design aspects of the plugin but didn't really incorporate them into the song.
Submitted for 2HTS, except I was 45 minutes late. Also, I had huge technical issues with this one so levels and quality is TOTALLY OFF and things got crunched up a HUGE amount.
I also started 45 minutes late. So it's not really a good example of quality music-making time this week :(
I may or may not be able to fix the recording issue before the deadline but we'll see.
Trouble's in your face
Permission denied
The paperwork's in place
As our work collides
Should have been hawk-eyed
The words within
Revealed to you the truth
But corporate always wins!
Didn't you take the time
To smell the roses
Don't you read the lines?
Affecting your ways
Protect ourselves,
That's what we do
But why do you not read?
It protects you too.
A drone piece that symbolizes my cat's stomach because it's deep and bottomless.
Created on the Arturia Minibrute 2s using their "drone" patch from the cookbook that comes in the manual.
A generative Eurorack song. I did touch this one while it was recording, but in general it'll just go do its thing for as long as you want.
Yes, I streamed it, you can see it at the usual place (https://twitch.tv/emeraldarcana)
Submitted a song to the Mix Challenge SWC050: The theme was "party"!
Direct Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13EfA9srDM562ddrI7CIuR9M_IR0bw_aJ/view?usp=sharing
I created a track this week in two hours for 2HTS. https://compo.thasauce.net/rounds/view/2HTS394
But the mic clipped while recording and I don't have time to rerecord this week :(
The others await
They seek the pieces of you
Take that side of you
Away
Each reflection
Each shard
Holds the secret
The power between worlds
Bit by bit
My is mind pulled apart
The sequences fade
From my shattered dream
Piece by piece
What I used to know grows dim
Crystalline memories
Tarnished and lost
One by one
Reaching within
Trying to keep unity
Hope drifts afar
Piece by piece
A neuron at a time
The last feelings in myself
My existence goes away
Fractions
Each reflection, each shard
Losing myself now
Pieces
Each part, each bit
Losing myself now
Lost in a crystalline dream
EDIT: I am getting an error when exporting audio in Bitwig and can't figure it out. For now, I'll link to the part of the Twitch VOD where I play the song until I can figure this out. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1173293038
I guess this is more like psychedelic trance now, but it's gone from being an intro and a drop into an entire song. It needs some work, but I will probably stop uploading versions of this song to Weekly Music and work on that offline.
Issues that need improvement:
As usual this was streamed, https://twitch.tv/emeraldarcana/
I think this is kind of cheating since you're supposed to make a new track every week for Weekly Music, but I am actually learning things by picking up from where I left off last week.
A few cool things in this track:
As usual I streamed this (https://twitch.tv/emeraldarcana/)
I took the track from a couple of weeks and worked on it.
A live improv techno song with Eurorack doing percussion (and growls, and some weird melodic stuff) and Future Retro 777 doing the bass. I was doing this while smoking ribs outside. Loop-based, but hopefully simple and fun.
I streamed this. You can check it out, https://twitch.tv/emeraldarcana/
A bit of an exercise that illustrates things that I should practice than my composing and producing prowess.
QUESTIONS I NEED TO ANSWER:
Note to self: How do I save Grid presets?
How do I map the device quick controls to a particular Grid parameter?
How do I reverse an audio clip?
I should improve my timing when playing chords, etc.
A noisy drone ambient set with lots of distortion and wall of sound. Performed live on the Eurorack. This was streamed, you can check it out when the VOD comes out at https://twitch.tv/emeraldarcaa/
Warning: long-ish (7 minutes)
I haven't done "traditional" music in a while, I might go back to that next week.
I performed live for Modular On The Spot at a Community Center on August 28. Great audience, had a decent crowd size, and I received a number of compliments on the set afterward.
Edit: I managed to get the file uploaded. The set is about 20 minutes long, so be aware that it's rather long for a Weekly Music submission.
Original text:
I am rather busy tomorrow so I do not know if I can extract audio by tomorrow, so I'm going to post the video below as a placeholder and hopefully get back to editing it by deadline tomorrow.
The show itself starts around 8m 30s in and it runs for about 15m. (tomorrow when I'm less tired I'll try to get audio and a timestamp)
This one is preparation for a Eurorack Set that I'm going to play live for Modular On The Spot in the city next week Saturday. The set is about 25m long so this song is also pretty long. Sorry about that.
This one is a live performance.
I also streamed this performance (actually, streamed a couple of practice runs).
weekly from
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The title is awesome. The mixing is really not bad and does not hinder focusing on the melody. I like the movement from 1:15 onwards, after the countdown, as well as the break around 2:15 onwards. I like the mix of the piano and the different layers you put at that point.
Fun melodies!