Studio Blog, 2019-09-12
As I work toward getting back to doing releases and streamed performances, I am going to be blogging a lot more. I tend to be somewhat of an exernal thinker, and doing so helps keep me on task with my projects. I got a way from it for a long time, but now I've got the drive to get back into it. I hope you enjoy reading it.
Last nights studio time was spent focused in three specfic areas: First sampling a toy piano, then creating a rhythmic patch on the modular followed by loading that data into the Akai Force and having a play with it.The Toy piano sampling was fairly boring: Set up a mic, press record, play the piano, repeat, edit, save. Done. I think about how much a pain in the ass that sort of thing was in the days of samplers with 2x20 line LCD displays with nothing but a data fader and a numeric keypad (if you were lucky) for editing. So much easier, it's almost boring now..The second thing I worked on was much more interesting. I created a modular patch based around my Intellijel Rubicon oscillator. This is the original rubicon, not the mkII, which I think is still a very wonderful oscillator. It makes an exceptional percussion oscillator, which is how it started, basically as a Kick Drum that I kept processing through more and more stuff. You can hear the (almost) final result in this clip from my Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/p/B2VazlOh_Gm/Lastly, I loaded this into the Force. I have to say, the more I use the Force the more I get the Force and what it can do over the MPC Live. It's looking increasingly like I'm going to put the MPC Live away for a while and focus on the Force for a while (have you noticed how much I like saying 'The Force'? Star Wars nerd, I am). I think I'm going to rework the programs currently in track I'm working on make more use of it.The track I'm working on is tentatively titled 'Ugly Machines', and it's coming a long well. Started on the MPC Live and moved the Force, the sounds I created need a little tweeking to get back to the same spirit of sound I had on the Live. Being the two are so similar, that won't be hard. The track needs more structure, and some sort of synthy bits to go along with the (plentiful) noise I have going. Im not sure where to go with that, though. The 'song' doesnt even really havea key yet....