But I needed something to record. It's very... well, random. The main success point? I was able to make it sound kind of different. Also, I think I need to gate the filter with a sequencer which I'm going to do right now.
Still on holiday. I had already done some sound and pattern design on the Digitone and had planned to put something together today until the Digitone stopped working this morning. It made a clicky sound before refusing to boot again. I think what happened is the power adapter wiggled a bit in the socket as I moved the Digitone around and something went wrong.
I had Ableton and a few hours to save the streak. Needless to say this bit could use some more work. It's WavParty samples, Ableton synths and some plug-ins (Wider, Supermassive) to add some depth.
Later in the afternoon, I couldn't resist trying one more time to boot the Digitone. It works again! Apparently some sort of fuse/safety feature was triggered by the power issue. Pfewwww, what a relief.
Went for something higher-energy/more EDM-ish this week. I had a lot of fun with the drum programming and synth selection. The overall composition on this one isn't great IMO, but I have some ideas I like better for next week that I've started playing with.
On the road with a minimal setup, experimenting with this new piece of gear.
High quality on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/trent-hawkins/20210815-feat-yamaha-qy100
As the title says, lots of running around this week (for work, not for athletics, haha), so here is the simple recipe all over again: electric guitar improv, bass, drums, synth.
We have had a few typhoons and storms in a row here, and the strong rains must have had something to do with this track. It started as a straight and simple stoner rock track and then evolved into something else. It even came with a short story.
When a drought hits a place, the earth crackles, dust mixes with the air and even the dry wind does not bring relief. Droughts can last weeks or even months. The only way to solve this is to call the rainmakers.
Archibald is the spokesperson for the rainmakers. This tall aborigine, with a luxurious beard, is dressed in a sharp brown suit, which contrast with his vibram five fingers shoes. You can be sharp and comfortable, that's his philosophy. He brings his troop of flotsam and jetsam to bring back the clouds, the thunder, and the rain.
There is Maggie. She always looks like she's right out of high school, with piggy tails and jeans overall. When she's not behind the drums beating as if there is no tomorrow, she lies on a long chair reading Schopenhauer while sipping coffee. Then there are the three brothers who play bass and the two guitars. They look exactly like clones, even down to the clothes. Flip flops, hawaiian shirts open on their hairy belly, big white beard, fuzzy hair and big black sunglasses. They never speak. It's more a grunt, usually due to an everlasting nasty hangover, except when they plug the instruments and the music takes over. Piotr in the back, with the crackled clown make-up. This short Tibetan fellow was raised in a temple and is an expert at Tuvan singing. He does not speak much either, but has a large smile and bright eyes. At last, Mathilda, also wearing a sharp suit and five fingers vibram shoes. She is polishing the brass instruments and taking the rainstick out of its box. They look like a weird carnival troop, maybe assembled from the remains of a random party in Las Vegas at 4am. Nobody would think they could stagger to their instruments, let alone summon the rain.
They don't do it for free, mind you. There is a payment. A pack of sunflower seeds, 1 once of fresh milk and a lonely sock.
When Archibald starts singing with the didgeridoo, as Maggie sits behinds the drums, the brothers plug their instruments, Piotr closes his eyes and opens his mouth, Mathilda brings her saxophone, the air changes, it becomes electric, the wind settles as if the world is holding its breath. And then it starts, and the clouds come, the thunder rumbles and rain flows and flows.
Done with FL studio. Live guitars and bass. I programmed the drums this time and added a couple more samples to give it more life. And used more samples for throat singing, rain, thunder, etc etc.
Did another drum and bass track this week, mainly do these for a weekly stream compo. It's been good fun to try out some new styles.
Just something short I made as a non-functional harmony plaything.
Redid the song from last week! :)
Just so we're clear
we're already here
and you want to head back
So overwhelmed
you lie on the ground
Let the bugs crawl all over your hands now
I know these things can't control me forever
It can be hard to bear with me
I know these things can't control me forever
I know it's not fair for you or me
It's hard to take your advice
when we both know I'd never try
Tracked over the weekend, but I didn't have much of a chance to arrange it until Monday, and it required a bit of listening for editing. I'd started with some syncopated drum patterns (sounds from Ableton's 64 Pad Kit Jazz), and then I put down some sparse guitar with the PureSalem Mendiola through the Balls Effects KWB, and then bass. On listening, it made sense to move some of the guitar tracks to a different channel, so this ended up being a four-track thing.
There's a slight difference to how I'm approaching the bassline, particularly in the bridge, which makes this a bit of a departure, I think.
Inlines: Max Humanizer on drums. Guitars got high-pass Auto-Filter with some different cutoffs and different levels of drive, along with some Glue compression and different Cabinet modelers for air. (1x12 seemed to work best here.) Bass got the usual EQ-8 low-end rolloff, but also some compression as well. The stereo mix got Ableton's Wide & Warm effect rack for compression/eq.
Sends: two convolution reverbs (one large, one small) with high-pass Auto-Filter in front. Also a channel of delay on the 3.
The title comes from hepteracts having 84 penetrant 5-faces.
here, have a golden apple
¯_(ツ)_/¯
