I need to break out of this similar structure. This one is not too bad but too repetitive. Needs a revisit soon.
Category: Demo (Page 2 of 2)
A recent bout with insomnia that dragged on for weeks made me think about an anti-lullaby that would keep you awake instead of helping you get to sleep. Took a nice bell chime sound and distorted it to make it slightly discordant. Bit waivers back and forth between maybe relaxing and more aggro. Definitely like the way it’s going!
Decided to take a break from all the experimental stuff and do something more straightforward. A bit of composing and playing this kinda simple thing. I don’t typically use a lot of drums but this kinda worked out nicely. Will likely go back to it tomorrow or the next day and play with adding some kind of lead to it.
Sidetracked again! Against all my own rules, I recently subscribed to Reason+ because I just couldn’t resist trying out the Objekt synth (used in a couple of my previous posts). One of the things that really hooked me into the idea of using it was the ability to route in my microphone or premade sample as an external source to “excite” the physical model and influence the sound in real-time creating truly one-of-a-kind sounds. So I decided to play around with that this morning.
Took a while for me to get used to using Reason in Logic but after a little reading it’s actually pretty simple to route cables around the back of the rack to connect up whatever modules you’re using. This is a really simplistic setup for this bit using a Combinator rack element to house Objekt, the Grain Sample Manipulator running into Objekt’s external input, and the Dual Arpeggiator set up with a fast moving high arp and a slower moving low register arp. The Grain Sample Manipulator is playing a sample of me saying random words and looping it in a forward->backward sequence. This is the result!
Was talking to an old friend of mine yesterday about our approaches to music and he was telling me about how he was trying out these time-limited challenges so I thought I’d try it out. Gave myself 90 minutes tonight to come up with something and I’m kinda surprised this seems sorta workable into something. Pay no mind to my first-take guitar solo its very mid and I didn’t have time to try a few more stabs at it and the end is a bit abrupt as I was running up against the time limit.
I’m thinking I’ll take another 90 minute block to polish this up (needs mixing) and give it a proper ending so I can slot it into a longer piece down the road.
I’ve really found myself in love with pads and soundscapes lately. This bit is overlong and probably won’t be used in its entirety but I really love the last about 90 seconds of it. Using the Linnstrument to control the position of the sound in the stereo space is super compelling to me. I’m constantly amazed at what’s possible now… technology is truly amazing.
Its something I’d never considered. Many years ago when I created my demo album it was an attempt at a culmination of a dream of making my own music. It wasn’t good. Queue the mantra: I wish I knew then what I know now. And I don’t know much, but I’m learning. Stumbling into some incredible composition tools has shifted my perspective on how I can make music. The track I’m including here is a combination of composed piano and parts I played with my Linnstrument. I’ve really surprised myself with how far I’ve come in less than six months. It’s not something that can stand up to the artists I’ve been learning from, but for me it’s important.
I had full intentions to continue working on a piece I’d started a couple of days ago, but in true “me” fashion another new plugin has diverted me. Earlier today I saw a tweet about AudioModern’s new FREE plugin, PanFlow. Owning all of their paid plugins I was extremely interested… so I downloaded immediately. And as I thought I would be, I was totally blown away by the simplistic complexity and power of this plugin. I’d been reading and learning alot about the use of the stereo space but had sort of struggled with actually implementing a serious solution. The closest I’d gotten was mapping the Y axis of my Linnstrument to panning and controlling the stereo position of the patch I was using manually. It worked well and still will, but this plugin… wow. This is the real deal – a plugin that will get used a LOT on my tracks. Part of me wishes it wasn’t free so I could at least give them some money for a tool I know I will be using often. Here’s something I’d been working on not long ago with PanFlow on the backing piano and violin tracks – it’s totally changed the overall sound in a fantastic way.
So I’ve been playing with Spitfire Audio’s Intimate Grand Piano and Baby Audio’s Super VHS plugin and this is what I’ve come up with tonight. I think this will be worked into my upcoming album after I add a bit more accompaniment to the solo piano track.