100 x šŸ’Æ live RYTM album

Yo fellow Elektronauts!

Iā€™m am excited to announce that I have put out some music and it is up for sale!

Please take a listen hereā€¦

It is all mixed out of the box and here is the live performance video of the album.

Hereā€™s the video link;

This album has been a year in the making and features the RYTM as the only sound outputting source. I realised that the RYTM is the key piece of gear for me and I managed to grab a Mk1 one year ago.

Now for the GEEKY stuff.

Hereā€™s some history;
I moved out to Japan after teaching for a year and a half in Thailand. Iā€™ve been making music on the computer with Logic since studying at college for a year back in 2006. I moved to Japan and came across loads of used goods stores and I started to buy hardware. For 7 years I experimented. I bought and sold equipment constantly in search of that mythical ā€˜perfect set upā€™.
Most memorable gear includes an OP-1 +cash for an OB6. A purchase of the Moog Sub 37 much to the distress of my wife and Granny bike that helped me carry it home. Picking up a DX7 with a flight case for Ā£10, buying soldering gear and a new battery to restore it to full power and glory.

Before settling on the RYTM I had 2 Octatraks!!! Yes, it was confusing. It was good but ultimately I wanted one box to jam with. Plus, the RYTM had separate outs, analog overdrive circuits to bring some flavours that are crucial to the mixing pot (namely an overdriven bass drum), and analog voices for my grimey, analog head.

I created a load of samples from my hardware before getting the RYTM. All the sounds in this album are either my own samples, analog voices from the RYTM, or a mix of both.

I loaded my samples in and went to town.

Here are some pictures of the final piece.

I donā€™t think Iā€™ll say much else here. I just hope this comes across as a solid piece of work, the way intended it to come across.

I have no idea what genre this would fall under but Iā€™d like to hear suggestions. Any feedback is always interesting.

I had a lot of fun making it.

Presale cassette tapes will be available soon.

19 Likes

Interesting, intricate stuff. Kind of breakcore without the breaks. Breaklesscore? Nice workā€¦ Seems like you wouldā€™ve had a lot of fun with it

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Congrats. Must be a really satisfied feeling- one box, one finished product. Gonna have a listen nowā€¦:sunglasses:

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Hey @kairos!

Cheers for listening and commenting.

Breaklesscoreā€¦ Interesting. Although, I never listened to Breakcore, I am positive I have been influenced by the same things Breakcore dudes are influenced by.

Could you please link me some of your favourites to listen too?

It was heaps of fun. Youā€™re right. Thereā€™s nothing Iā€™d change about it. Some friends asked me to make the tracks into proper tracks but I want it to be like the mixtapes I loved from my youth. Plus, I hate conforming. I get bored listening to Wileyā€™s Eskimo mixtapes called Tunnel Vision. I donā€™t see why a track needs to be repeated for 4 - 6 minutes. I donā€™t want to make a track and then click, copy, and paste the idea to ā€˜fill out the timeā€™. I do understand it from a DJā€™s point of view but oh well.

Dope sound. Love it :slight_smile: Itā€™s incredible this is all RYTM. beautiful machine.

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Awesome! What an accomplishment! So over a year did you do composition linearly? Iā€™ve found that, for myself, 3 tracks is my only good balance. I get stuck on one, I can move to another already in progress, and between the two something always comes out that wants to be its own thing.

Iā€™ve never finished a proper album though. Some of my recent stuff could be considered an ep I guess but all in all I just have fun with it. This is what you managed to do. Great set and you can definitely tell that you had fun making it.

As for the unicorn setup, seems like youā€™ve actually found yours. If it alllws you to pull off something that there is nothing you would change about it, well that say it all right? :blush:

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Cheers @blaize
The RYTM is such a capable piece of hardware. The mixtape/album would sound different if I didnā€™t run the separate outs though dedicated effects but it wouldnā€™t be all that different. I was thinking about using just the RYTM next time around but itā€™s just soooooooo nice to add in the MX-1ā€¦ the BOSS 500 seriesā€¦ and the AIRA EFX. They are small and portable too and allow my sounds to become even more alive. So Iā€™m kinda tied because without those I wouldnā€™t have as broad of a stroke.

I was thinking of making a sample pack. Is that something youā€™d be interested in? Even if it was only available on cassette?

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Cheers bruddaā€¦ bless ya!
Going through this process has made me love cassette even more.

Iā€™ve had such trouble with iTunes and syncing my music collection. Itā€™s like every update wiped my collection from my defunct iPhone turned music/video player. Such a laborious process. If I stick my music on cassette. Itā€™s there. Forever. On a piece of hardware. And I donā€™t have to switch on a ā€˜puter. Just stick in the tape, hit play, and enjoy.

And yes, you are so right. I finished making this cassette at like 4 AM and when I held it in my hand it felt so real. I was ecstatic. Although digital is important I still want my baby to be real.

I hope you enjoyed my wild creation.

Yeah the FXs are very nice. Note sure about sample pack, itā€™s not the kind of music I make. I like to listen but I canā€™t make this type of music.
I wish to buy a cassette player/recorder but I donā€™t have the money right now.

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Cheers mate! I feel completely different after the process. My art teacher always told me that I get stuck in the details and Iā€™m in danger of not finishing anything. ā€œIt couldā€™ve great,ā€ she said ā€œbut if you donā€™t finish it, it wonā€™t be anything.ā€
I seriously do get stuck on details, itā€™s so true. However, this hasnā€™t really been a linear process. I would just jam and jam. Build something up to be kinda alright and then go in again. It could be track 10, 5 or 8 whateverā€¦ If itā€™s something Iā€™m vibing with then thatā€™s it. I chucked around the playlist a couple of times. Not too many though, the RYTM isnā€™t as easy as working on a digital lappyā€¦ but thatā€™s also why I love it; no option paralyses. I had to really think about where I wanted what I wanted.

Fun! All about it! If itā€™s fun I want in, if it is something else then no way. Itā€™s got to be fun. Iā€™m thinking about doing a live Twitch this Friday/weekend. Itā€™s a serious workout behind the machines. Knowing that I can change the course here, there, and everywhere makes it fun.

Hahahahaha @Synj00 re: the unicorn setup. Thatā€™s different for everybody as you very well know. Some folks can sit there and blow me out the water with just one box making the music they like. Iā€™m sure of it! I think this is a tidy little set up. Iā€™ve heard people wanting to have things like a filter before the final outputā€¦ well the MX-1 gives you 6 different master outputs. Each of those 6 things has different algorithms within them and can be changed instantly. I still feel like Iā€™m scratching the surface tbh. Where itā€™s at right now is deep enough and that makes me happy.

Can I ask about your recording process a bit? Thereā€™s a lot of variation and movement in this - did you create that on the AR + fx directly and record long phrases, or a lot of shorter phrases which were then stitched together? Did you record in a DAW?

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Hello mate,

Cheers for your questions. Of course, I donā€™t mind answering any of your questions.
I just hope I can help.

Iā€™m not sure if I know exactly what you mean so please ask again if I donā€™t quite hit the spot.

Every sound is either an analog RYTM sound or a sample or a mix of both. Every single sampled sound is a one shot. Some from my OB6 and some from my Sub37. These were ran though hardware and then loaded into the RYTM.

For the composition and movement: every sound is a one shot and I almost always did microtiming in every one until the track sounded just right. I only added the ā€˜in builtā€™ swing to a few of the tracks when it was almost complete. Didnā€™t need to. It sounded different so I did it. Few reasons for these 2 things tbhā€¦

  • Setting quantized beats means the swing was determined by an exterior equation.
  • Using another persons samples kinda makes me feel like whereā€™s the fun.

The tracks mostly gel due to one reverb on the send/return. Some channels already have their own dedicated reverb but all of them need at least 10% or the same reverb to make the sounds cohesive and like they are all in the same room.

As for the DAW, all of the tracks get fed into the Analog Heat. From there, the go though an audio interface and I record the stereo file into the ā€˜puter. Added 4 plugins on the stereo file.

I have ran away from a DAW for so many reasons and avoid it at all costs. I couldā€™ve recorded each separate track that is fed into the MX-1 but ā€¦ Too focking rock n roll, lad. Canā€™t be fluffed. I donā€™t want to sit down and mix tracks for hours on end. Thereā€™s something about hardware that remains in the memory much more than digital clicks.

Peace!

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4 cassettes sold!!!

6 left!!!

Iā€™m ecstatic!!!

EDIT: 5 left!!!

EDIT: 3 left!!!