By The Jackal
Sat Aug 19, 2023 11:54 pm
i dunno genres are made up anyway, i think the bassline was octaves & 5ths though and i like using strings a lot, so that always reminds me of disco. technically it's probably more akin to older dubstep.
kind of a long post; i like to see how people use their gear and their thought processes, so i like to share mine too; how we incorporate our mpcs into our workflow & use them still (drum machine/sequencer for me)
i had midi sequences i sat on for years...that i came up with so long ago i didn't want to flesh out more after moving on...but couldn't bring myself to delete either...
...so instead of seeing i had a "song" to finish, i reframed it as being a "project" for taking midi and converting to audio i.e. dumping it into samplers to trigger "stems". no interest in arrangement & composition...just convert to audio what i already have, learn to process & trigger it quickly, figure out best way to set up patches/programs in my e-mu sampler, see how everything sounds run through different gear
tip: if you're trying to make "music" and it's not happening, stop trying to make music. whatever it is you're doing, reframe it as an exercise in exploring the fundamentals you're involved with instead and treat it as an opportunity to practice them. i'm not in love with any of the music i've ever made: it's all a stepping stone to the next piece and as soon i start working on the next track, i already see it getting in the way of progressing to the next one. easiest way for me to not fall in love with my songs so i can move on easier? they're not "songs": they really are little "projects" i just work on until i'm actually good enough to put out music. right now i am still putting out "trial & error". right now i am putting out "experiments". i'm not making music yet, i am learning it
audio quality is kind of "wall of sound" and rough:
- tried using loudness to fill space instead of composition. also always been influenced by loud/heavy music like metal & punk
- knew my outboard gear sucked, just not *how* much until now: shit behringer compressors. you can reeeaaally hear tone & freq getting sucked out once you start plugging them in
- entire signal chain went into a korg kp3, but this project was about learning and what i learned is it's shit in the mastering chain
-i have no interest in mastering my music right now a) not trying to sell it b) i do need to upgrade some gear c) audio quality wasn't the focus d) wanted to find out at what point does the way in which i use audio start to diminish in quality i.e. when do i convert to audio, how does plugging this/that in effect quality, do i print effects, do i sample audio and then process or do i process it and then sample it, can this piece of outboard gear be used for x or y, etc.
drums/sequencer was 2000xl
- 8 outs into 8 channel mixer, then into another mixer as stereo pair, effects on send/return channels. sample like 8 bars, add onboard effects from e-mu. learned i like the onboard compression of my e-mu
- arrangement was 6, 7 sequences. everything played back in song mode. no muting pads, riding the mixer, or editing in software...i program/edit everything to where i hit play and get the entirety of a song out of my machines
- typically start with 4/8 bars, create variation to get 16, copy pattern a few times, make changes.
- program midi drums, sample them, trigger them back
bassline was korg ms-20 mini
- sampled a few variations. had never bothered with separating the sub/low/mid/highs of a bass before, so i wanted to use this as an exercise and try it out in the e-mu. however i bussed it all out under one audio channel, so i learned next time every frequency gets it's own mixer channel & compressor
korg kp3
- set up midi channel on the mpc and recorded pad movements i.e. automation.
- entire signal chain went into kp3, then kp3's headphone jack went out into digital mixer to record; actually plugged insert cable into it's 1/4 headphone jack and used the send/return ends as a stereo output going into my digital mixer, so learning i could use a set of insert cables to bounce stereo out from a single stereo 1/4 output was handy
- doesn't belong on the end of any sort of major signal chain
korg ex8000
- i used this for the strings & piano sounds
- i think all i did was play the same midi through different patches and sample it. didn't care about composition, so figured easiest way to create variation was same thing, different timbres.
arturia micobrute
- this was used for lead line at the end
- something i learned: if you're at the recording stage, stop changing shit if sounds fine. halfway through the recording process i had listened to my mixes and they were dialed in...then i go playing with knobs on this to try to carve out different frequencies & tones and went from recording back to noodling and wasted a day or two
e-mu e6400 ultra
- main goal of project was to dump as much audio into this machine as possible. basically sequenced & arranged my entire song by midi, then broke each part of the song down and tracked stems out into it i.e. 8 bars of strings/drums,/bass/etc., then retrigger stems via the mpc
- used it multitimbrally: gave any major patch/sound it's own midi channel i.e. bass, sub bass, strings, drums, noise sweeps, etc...maybe 10 midi channels, but only used 4 audio outs on e-mu (basses, drums, backing, sweeps/fills)
shitty behringer compressors
- normally i wouldn't mention these, but this was a project in audio quality exploration and there's no getting around how much these suck. bounced down to 6 channels on my mackie and used compressors on some inserts: drum channel for compression. bass for sidechaining. strings/piano for sidechaining. lead for sidechaining/compression/limiting. my mixer itself sounds pretty fine...but once you plug some shitty compressors in and send the entire signal through a shitty korg kp3, there's obviously going to be some issues
all in all, i got a little more comfortable with sequencing some stuff out on my mpc and converting it over to audio at an earlier point in the creation process; most anything in the past i've recorded was pure midi playing back all my gear while i try to set all my mixing/eq/effects right and record that right off my mixing board, but i've realized i need to sample stuff sooner and not be so afraid of committing to audio w/processing
if you made it this far,
and thanks for reading my blooooooooooooog
kind of a long post; i like to see how people use their gear and their thought processes, so i like to share mine too; how we incorporate our mpcs into our workflow & use them still (drum machine/sequencer for me)
i had midi sequences i sat on for years...that i came up with so long ago i didn't want to flesh out more after moving on...but couldn't bring myself to delete either...
...so instead of seeing i had a "song" to finish, i reframed it as being a "project" for taking midi and converting to audio i.e. dumping it into samplers to trigger "stems". no interest in arrangement & composition...just convert to audio what i already have, learn to process & trigger it quickly, figure out best way to set up patches/programs in my e-mu sampler, see how everything sounds run through different gear
tip: if you're trying to make "music" and it's not happening, stop trying to make music. whatever it is you're doing, reframe it as an exercise in exploring the fundamentals you're involved with instead and treat it as an opportunity to practice them. i'm not in love with any of the music i've ever made: it's all a stepping stone to the next piece and as soon i start working on the next track, i already see it getting in the way of progressing to the next one. easiest way for me to not fall in love with my songs so i can move on easier? they're not "songs": they really are little "projects" i just work on until i'm actually good enough to put out music. right now i am still putting out "trial & error". right now i am putting out "experiments". i'm not making music yet, i am learning it
audio quality is kind of "wall of sound" and rough:
- tried using loudness to fill space instead of composition. also always been influenced by loud/heavy music like metal & punk
- knew my outboard gear sucked, just not *how* much until now: shit behringer compressors. you can reeeaaally hear tone & freq getting sucked out once you start plugging them in
- entire signal chain went into a korg kp3, but this project was about learning and what i learned is it's shit in the mastering chain
-i have no interest in mastering my music right now a) not trying to sell it b) i do need to upgrade some gear c) audio quality wasn't the focus d) wanted to find out at what point does the way in which i use audio start to diminish in quality i.e. when do i convert to audio, how does plugging this/that in effect quality, do i print effects, do i sample audio and then process or do i process it and then sample it, can this piece of outboard gear be used for x or y, etc.
drums/sequencer was 2000xl
- 8 outs into 8 channel mixer, then into another mixer as stereo pair, effects on send/return channels. sample like 8 bars, add onboard effects from e-mu. learned i like the onboard compression of my e-mu
- arrangement was 6, 7 sequences. everything played back in song mode. no muting pads, riding the mixer, or editing in software...i program/edit everything to where i hit play and get the entirety of a song out of my machines
- typically start with 4/8 bars, create variation to get 16, copy pattern a few times, make changes.
- program midi drums, sample them, trigger them back
bassline was korg ms-20 mini
- sampled a few variations. had never bothered with separating the sub/low/mid/highs of a bass before, so i wanted to use this as an exercise and try it out in the e-mu. however i bussed it all out under one audio channel, so i learned next time every frequency gets it's own mixer channel & compressor
korg kp3
- set up midi channel on the mpc and recorded pad movements i.e. automation.
- entire signal chain went into kp3, then kp3's headphone jack went out into digital mixer to record; actually plugged insert cable into it's 1/4 headphone jack and used the send/return ends as a stereo output going into my digital mixer, so learning i could use a set of insert cables to bounce stereo out from a single stereo 1/4 output was handy
- doesn't belong on the end of any sort of major signal chain
korg ex8000
- i used this for the strings & piano sounds
- i think all i did was play the same midi through different patches and sample it. didn't care about composition, so figured easiest way to create variation was same thing, different timbres.
arturia micobrute
- this was used for lead line at the end
- something i learned: if you're at the recording stage, stop changing shit if sounds fine. halfway through the recording process i had listened to my mixes and they were dialed in...then i go playing with knobs on this to try to carve out different frequencies & tones and went from recording back to noodling and wasted a day or two
e-mu e6400 ultra
- main goal of project was to dump as much audio into this machine as possible. basically sequenced & arranged my entire song by midi, then broke each part of the song down and tracked stems out into it i.e. 8 bars of strings/drums,/bass/etc., then retrigger stems via the mpc
- used it multitimbrally: gave any major patch/sound it's own midi channel i.e. bass, sub bass, strings, drums, noise sweeps, etc...maybe 10 midi channels, but only used 4 audio outs on e-mu (basses, drums, backing, sweeps/fills)
shitty behringer compressors
- normally i wouldn't mention these, but this was a project in audio quality exploration and there's no getting around how much these suck. bounced down to 6 channels on my mackie and used compressors on some inserts: drum channel for compression. bass for sidechaining. strings/piano for sidechaining. lead for sidechaining/compression/limiting. my mixer itself sounds pretty fine...but once you plug some shitty compressors in and send the entire signal through a shitty korg kp3, there's obviously going to be some issues
all in all, i got a little more comfortable with sequencing some stuff out on my mpc and converting it over to audio at an earlier point in the creation process; most anything in the past i've recorded was pure midi playing back all my gear while i try to set all my mixing/eq/effects right and record that right off my mixing board, but i've realized i need to sample stuff sooner and not be so afraid of committing to audio w/processing
if you made it this far,
and thanks for reading my blooooooooooooogMPC 1000 w/jjOS, Elektron Octratrack, Korg EX-8000 & MS-20 Mini, Behringer Neutron, E-mu E6400 Ultra, circuit bent Roland TR 505, Mackie 1604 VLZ3, Electrix Filter Factory, delays & compressors
