This is the album I had been working on over winter break, and even though it has been several months since I arranged it, I’ve occasionally tinkered with it. I think my recent production is better, certainly more technically competent, but these works are heartfelt, and important considering the transitions that were taking place. And so I have decided to upload it and finally, finally share it. You can download the complete album here. Enjoy.

Pretty great way to start spring break ~~arranging schmaltzy acid-type house~~ Been a while since I’ve used the APC40. Thanks Jackson for leaving the keyboard with me. ~

The nanoKontrol is mapped to Yehezkel’s amazing melodic step sequencer. Check that out right here.

Rindigo - Sheetspace

I have completed a new track! Slightly slower, more textural techno. Oh, and a free download.

After an interesting weekend, and really appreciating some tracks I had not given the close listens they deserved, I sort of undertook a personal challenge to create something sounding like Burial. The vocal samples are taken from Kerosene, by Crystal Castles - another great tune I was enamored with this weekend. This took about a day to assemble, so it’s not the most polished it could be, but I suppose it started out as an experiment and quickly gained too much momentum to be a silly Ableton project that gets abandoned or cannibalized later. 

Oh, and January is almost over. Remember how I promised to reveal tracks form the new album? Take a free download of this track instead for now. I currently have 9 tracks arranged, but they need to be mastered, and some feedback has convinced me that fine tuning will be necessary. 

laurencefishburn asked: Hey there, I was looking through your blog and noticed that you have a maschine mikro. I'm looking into getting one, and I just wanted to see if you think it accomplishes everything you really need it to. I'm just not sure I want/need to spend the amount of a maschine/mpc or the mikro, where I might experience some drawbacks. Anyway, peace.

a whoooole lot of factors should be considered before I could recommend the Mikro with great confidence. First - What kind of music do you produce, and do you perform, or do you intend to perform? I do not use the pads to play in phrases the way I imagine many hip-hop oriented producers would. Since I’m geared more towards techno, I find that playing in parts is only useful for live. One of the reasons I really wanted the Maschine Mikro initially was the step sequencer function, which is absolutely phenomenal for putting together techno loops on the fly - which is why I ask if you intend to perform. I think it is great for live improvisation using the step sequencer.

Anyway, with that said, I do not want to discourage you from getting the Mikro if you do not produce, but I think that if you intend to only produce with it, you are better off with the full sized Maschine rather than the Mikro, which lacks knobs that make production easier. BUT, you get the same software, samples, and Komplete Elements with either. SO - if you are looking to START producing, from point zero, Maschine is a great place to start. Also, I dont even use the hardware if I am not performing, but I use the Maschine software in every single one of the tracks I am currently working on. It’s a phenomenal piece of software. 

However, I don’t think Maschine software can stand alone fully. it needs a DAW to complete the tracks. I use Ableton. this raises two issues: Live 9 and Push are coming out probably within 4 months. Push is going to have a step sequencer and is likely going to integrate a very large portion of Maschine’s functionality. it might be better to save and invest in Ableton Push. Also, Maschine’s pads experience very irritating latency in Ableton 8 because of the way Ableton deals with MIDI input. It tries to compensate for latency, but there is some weird interaction with Maschine that creates latency. I guess this is usually the case with the computer’s integrated sound card. When I am using my Komplete Audio 6 and have Ableton’s audio set to its ASIO drivers, the latency is removed. I am not sure if this is the case with all soundcards using ASIO, of if it is specifically because it is a Native instruments soudncard. 

Can’t wait until the semester is over and I am back at home in my own cozy, quiet room so that I can just focus on completing this album. I just have so many pieces right now, so many devices, instrument racks, textures and sounds and samples across so many ableton sets, like a toolkit. I have developed my “go-to” devices and constructions, developed ways to put the textures and progression in my head into the DAW. I just can’t wait until I can focus on synthing, arranging, and mastering deep into cold, christmas-light illuminated nights. 

but for now, I need to stop shirking on completing these papers, and deal with finals. Then the music will flow. but before I go off to do that, consider this as being a declaration of a tentative deadline: if this album isn’t completed by the end of January, you will most certainly hear at least a few completed tracks. consider it a promise. 

Spread the word and start speculating. Allegedly Ableton put up a video briefly and then took it down, and here is what has been gleaned from it. I can’t say I am entirely blown away, but something seems more smooth about it. click the link to go to the DJ Tech Tools analysis of the video.

Rindigo - Soulstain

Here is a track I have been tinkering with this week. Some things have brought me down significantly this week, and they tend to linger, and I suppose this track captures such wistful bleakness, the kind where something suddenly seizes a bright mood and infects thought and heart. However, these things are for the listener to experience and discover, and it is not for the creator to tell the listener what to feel.

It’s not my usual sound though, as the percussion in this dubstep track is really crunchy and heavy. I’ve experimented with some new techniques and effects processing, like using Maschine as an effect plugin to treat the drums. Draft34 also helped me out with some mastering racks, but I think some things are just weird here. The voices distort despite my best attempts to control them and I am leaving it the way it is because it adds something frighteningly natural in the track. some weird grittiness that seems to come from some living things in the track, some rust that is eating away at the structure of the track as the sounds pass through the speakers. 

enjoy. 

All of my latest posts have been more silly or gear-related than actually related to my creative process… Despite this, I have been working on music, believe it or not! I have been collaborating on a couple tracks with Draft34, and we have two completed tracks, though the push to the next one has not quite come. I have also been tinkering a lot with Ableton live sets to design the ultimate performance template and as of friday night/saturday morning, I believe I have created it! Perhaps one day I will share it, but it is the ultimate weapon for APC40 DJing. Lastly, I have begun some music in a rather different vein than my usual techno/house atmospheric stuff. So stay tuned, I’m sure I will have a breakthrough and an update eventually.

APC 80, yes please, do want. 

and goddamn! The wood looks so nice on the side of the APCs. One thing that I really do dislike about the APCs is the ridiculous design of the sides, with the unwieldy, pointy, space-consuming… wings? what else can you call them. another complaint I guess I have are the buttons. I would absolutely love them if they clicked, the way the kontrol X1 buttons click, despite being of a similar soft rubber. I mean, the clip launch buttons don’t have to be velocity sensitive anyway, and it’s really nice getting extra tactile feedback. It makes it more comfortable experience.

/my silly thoughts on controllers

(Source: tecnosaurusrex)