I had today off of work and have filled it with making some new music. I’ve been experimenting a lot with different simple chord progressions and pad ideas to do more free soloing. Both of these clips are in that style, “snow day” is more structured while “drunken boxing” sounds exactly like the title. There’s a lot of free space in both, but that’s what I was going for. Each clip is 100% custom, there’s no outside loops used in either and I’ve customized almost all of the sounds from the presets in some fashion. I’m definitely starting to grasp more on and more of Ableton’s capabilities. I have not made much use of the MIDI control mappings outside of note control, but that may be something I will mess with in the near future.
I think the title says it all… this track had a lot of moving parts, I finally upgraded the guts of my PC as well as my version of Ableton and was really putting things to the test with effects racks and combining audio and MIDI tracks. This is probably one of my most complex compositions so far with all the different settings I tweaked to customize the individual sounds.
Apparently I’ve had a lot of ideas in my head that I didn’t know about. I churned out two clips this weekend and have discovered a lot of new cool stuff in Ableton. I’m a total convert to instrument racks now that I understand how to use them more effectively. This clip is using some string loop samples with my own instrumentation and drums on top of it. This strikes me as something that needs lyrics over it, but that is way out of my realm.
I just put this together in a single sitting, it’s really different from a lot of my other work but I like it. I was using my bass to record the different lines and then an array of audio effects to produce the results.
I’ve been working a lot on the upright bass lately and been taking a break from the computer. I really need to figure out how I’m going to tie the two together. This clip is called “swing” because I think the percussion swooshing in the background sounds like swinging. The instrumentation is very basic, I was trying to keep things toned down in terms of total instruments used, but still have a lot of complexity in the note selection. The higher pitched audio that comes in during the slow chord progression is something I could easily emulate on my upright with the bow and then expand from there. One of these days I’ll actually manage it. The image shows part of the overall set, I have gotten much better at integrating audio clips with my own MIDI work, but I am still working on that integration with live instruments.
After my issues with recording my bass mixed with other MIDI effects I started small – this is a single take live recording of me playing with the melody to “Equinox” over standard blues changes. There’s no after editing, and the drums are also an audio file from LoopMasters not MIDI. The comping is set to the right output, while the soloing is set to the left with the drums mixing equally over both.
I’m hoping I can figure out how to get a mono-input to give stereo-output in the near future, but the bigger fish to fry is finding the appropriate levels for live recording together with MIDI composition. I’m unsure if it’s the quality of my pre-amp or just some settings on the PC that I don’t know about yet. The pre-amp is really basic, it’s a Tube MP Project Series and was basically the cheapest thing I could buy at the time a few years ago. I may try hooking my Ampeg SVT-3 Pro up instead to see if that makes any noticeable difference.
I’m a big SquarePusher fan – the guy does techno and bass really well. This clip is my incredibly short remix of the melody in “hello meow”. My original intent was to play along with my bass in the recording, I can play along just fine but when it comes to the recording all the levels are way off and I can’t get the stereo to balance… therefore this is a SquarePusher tribute clip sans bass for now :’(
This song is my first attempt at integrating other people’s loops into my own work – thanks to LoopMasters for providing some great free tracks through an Ableton Live Pack. This track uses some drum sets and a piano track from loopmasters, I’ve tweaked a few things but overall left their loops intact. The strings, bass, and some other drum parts are my own creation using my MIDI keyboard and the arrangement is my own.
I found a competition on TalentHouse looking for DJ/Producers to help with the collaboration of an upcoming album, I’m thinking of making a submission just to see how I’ve progressed so far. There is still so much to learn, but it’s very exciting to finally be making music that is starting to sound like something. The clips keep improving and I’m learning more about the software so my “quality from quantity” approach seems to be working. This song represents my 11th piece, I can’t wait to see what I make by the time I get to 100.
This image is the audio view of one of the drums tracks I’ve used from LoopMasters – it’s very different from my normal MIDI drums but just as flexible. Once I start integrating my own upright and electric bass I’ll be dealing with more and more output of this type.
Just warning you now, this clip has parts that will put you on edge. I was experimenting with different rhythmic ideas – this starts out with drums in 3/4 cycling 3 bar phrases and a melody in 6/8. Later things transition to 4/4 using 5 bar phrases but the 3/4 drums are maintained for different sections. There are multiple 2/4 phrases that are put in over the 3/4 drums but under the 5 bar 4/4 parts – the overall effect is really interesting. The mallets build up in complexity and dissonance (hence “The Madness”) until the break point and things come back down.
This clip definitely pushed my PC to it’s hardware limits, nothing the speakers and audio card couldn’t handle but the CPU really fell apart when I was editing with playback at the same time. Guess it’s time to add more power Enjoy the madness!
This turned out to be more of a jam-sessions with loops, but I like it All of the sequences are original, I programmed the different instruments with a MIDI keyboard and then straightened out the timing with the mouse where necessary. The jam-session aspect to me is that there’s no real definition in the song, I activated and deactivated clips as I felt like it so the song goes on for a bit, but I think it could be fitting in a chase scene in a movie – it does a good job of developing tension (in my opinion, Abby apparently pictures “bees dancing” and doesn’t feel any suspense – oh well). My classical music training definitely came out in this piece, the sequencing is straight out of ideas I remember from performing Mozart’s “Requiem” though only loosely in spirit, nothing is transcribed and it certainly doesn’t resemble “Requiem” in any way.
The image is a shot of some of the fast string sequencing I put together.
This is for the school-yard wimps, this is for the childhood bullies who tormented them.
This is for the former prom queen, this is for the milk-crate ball players.
This is for the nighttime cereal eaters and for the retired, elderly Wal-Mart store front door greeters. Shake the dust.
This is for the benches and the people sitting upon them,
for the bus drivers driving a million broken hymns,
for the men who have to hold down three jobs simply to hold up their children,
for the nighttime schoolers and the midnight bike riders who are trying to fly. Shake the dust.
This is for the two-year-olds who cannot be understood because they speak half-English and half-god. Shake the dust.
For the girls with the brothers who are going crazy,
for those gym class wall flowers and the twelve-year-olds afraid of taking public showers,
for the kid who's always late to class because he forgets the combination to his lockers,
for the girl who loves somebody else. Shake the dust.
This is for the hard men, the hard men who want to love but know that it won't come.
For the ones who are forgotten, the ones the amendments do not stand up for.
For the ones who are told to speak only when you are spoken to and then are never spoken to. Speak every time you stand so you do not forget yourself.
Do not let a moment go by that doesn't remind you that your heart beats 900 times a day and that there are enough gallons of blood to make you an ocean.
Do not settle for letting these waves settle and the dust to collect in your veins.
This is for the celibate pedophile who keeps on struggling,
for the poetry teachers and for the people who go on vacations alone.
For the sweat that drips off of Mick Jaggers' singing lips and for the shaking skirt on Tina Turner's shaking hips, for the heavens and for the hells through which Tina has lived.
This is for the tired and for the dreamers and for those families who'll never be like the Cleavers with perfectly made dinners and sons like Wally and the Beaver.
This is for the biggots,
this is for the sexists,
this is for the killers.
This is for the big house, pen-sentenced cats becoming redeemers and for the springtime that always shows up after the winters.
This? This is for you.
Make sure that by the time fisherman returns you are gone.
Because just like the days, I burn both ends and every time I write, every time I open my eyes I am cutting out a part of myself to give to you.
So shake the dust and take me with you when you do for none of this has never been for me.
All that pushes and pulls, pushes and pulls for you.
So grab this world by its clothespins and shake it out again and again and jump on top and take it for a spin and when you hop off shake it again for this is yours.
Make my words worth it, make this not just another poem that I write, not just another poem like just another night that sits heavy above us all.
Walk into it, breathe it in, let is crash through the halls of your arms at the millions of years of millions of poets coursing like blood pumping and pushing making you live, shaking the dust.
So when the world knocks at your front door, clutch the knob and open on up, running forward into its widespread greeting arms with your hands before you, fingertips trembling though they may be.
Enjoy the madness!
All of the sequences are original, I programmed the different instruments with a MIDI keyboard and then straightened out the timing with the mouse where necessary. The jam-session aspect to me is that there’s no real definition in the song, I activated and deactivated clips as I felt like it so the song goes on for a bit, but I think it could be fitting in a chase scene in a movie – it does a good job of developing tension (in my opinion, Abby apparently pictures “bees dancing” and doesn’t feel any suspense – oh well). My classical music training definitely came out in this piece, the sequencing is straight out of ideas I remember from performing Mozart’s “Requiem” though only loosely in spirit, nothing is transcribed and it certainly doesn’t resemble “Requiem” in any way.
