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.
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.
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.
I was winding down and came up with this short clip – it’s very simple instrumentation but it creates a calm effect (at least for me). I think this came to mind because Abby and I were listening to Martina Topley-Bird over dinner and I was in a trip-hop mood (listen to “sandpaper kisses” if you get the chance).
I spent the morning messing around with more clip ideas – all I need is a small army of choreographed robots and I think this song would be complete. This started off with me messing around with the drums and then just evolved from there, again there was no real planning, just clicking on sample-sounds and running with my keyboard. I’m getting more comfortable with how Ableton uses clips in the session view, I’m barely scratching the surface for what the program can do but even just stumbling through the interface is valuable. There are a few resources at my disposal for learning more about the program, so I may start making more purposeful music in the near future. In the meantime, enjoy!
The saga continues! This was my first debut of edits using the new BX5a’s and it’s a good thing too – I had to adjust the levels for the different MIDI sequences to keep it clean and I never would have heard it without the BX5a’s. I like the way the song is evolving, and this is truly organic. I have no plan for this thing, I just sit down and go to work with whatever comes to mind. Overall I like the direction though, especially with the up tempo drum/bass combo.
I picked up a pair of M-Audio BX5a reference monitors yesterday and they are AWESOME. I’m using balanced XLR outputs from my M-Audio Delta 44 audio card and all the lag issues I had have vanished. The monitors are magnetically shielded so I’m able to have them on my desk as well, eventually I’ll work out the triangulation/placement but until I have a better room eye-balling the distances seems to be fine. The difference proper reference monitors makes is incredible, I’m definitely hearing things in my mixes that I would have missed before.
The only computer issue I’ve noticed now is I’m getting occasional breaks in playback due to CPU overload. When I worked with Ardour and few other Linux applications I remember having to tweak the kernel to remove the XRUNS latency issues, it seems that with Windows that tweaking is not necessary, but even with adjusting my sampling rates I’m getting a skip once in a while. Watching the performance monitor and my poor CPU is pegged at 100% the entire time I’m working with something using more than 4 MIDI tracks. My CPU is nothing special, so I may upgrade that next if this continues – it doesn’t effect the final rendering so I can live with it for now.
One thing I did not realize was how loud everything can be. Seriously – these monitors push out everything and even at 25% volume settings the master track at 0 volume is LOUD. Some day I’ll push the system and blow the windows out of the apartment
The latest from my mad music scientist lab – it sounds like a funky twilight zone soundtrack but I may use it in something
The thing I like about this track is that it uses a lot of weird chromatic sounds and some far spanned instrument combos. It makes me think of something that would have been on Claypool’s “Whales and Woe” album with the instrument selection. I’ve been trying to work more and more on these clips in hopes that eventually I’ll be able to pull something together – trying to really use the “quality from quantity” idea and really treating these as practice in the digital music realm (where I’m a total n00b).
Next step is to pick up some serious studio monitors for my home system, there’s too much lag running the audio card through the motherboard speakers, I’ve been doing it as a temporary measure because I didn’t want sounds this high pumping through my amplifiers. Hoping to resolve this over the weekend!
I’ve been messing around with my little sound idea some more, here are the latest changes! No cowbell yet, but I’ve brought in a bass as well as a shaker and cleaned up the arpeggios a bit. I think it is starting to sound like a video game soundtrack.
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.
