it took me some time, but finally put together right and propperly mixed and all that jazz.
I miss-treated it with all kinds of tape-plugins to make it extra lofi.
Its a steady diet of slow driven elektronika.
Mixed into a hiphop-stew with an ambient seasoning. For those who like the taste of low fidelity. Enjoy your meal, because this is
FOOD FOR THE LOFI PEOPLE
http://thedreammer.bandcamp.com/album/food-for-the-lofi-people
Cool. Congrats on finishing the album. Some really nice dark sounding beats you have going there. I dig it! Which - if any - elektrons did you use on this album?
Sorry buddy, Most of these songs started out as a live-jam in my old studio… which was more roland-based… I did use the octatrack for some studio-work… but not to make a sound… more to help me find bpm and all that …
the used gear list be something like:
MC909 as sequencer
elektribe-a for fx on drums / basslines
kaospad3
big behringer mixer
multiple guitar-fx (no guitar though)
3 outboard behringer fxthings (multi-fx times 2 and compressor)
a vcr!
a computer running reaper and renoise
and an octatrack to do some tempo-tapping
could be a bit more, could be a bit less…
Basicly being busy cleaning my discografy… using the skills i learned throughout the years to
finish some old unfinished business… Funny enough. I did mimic some stuff i learned on my machinedrum and my monomachine… so i didnt touch or use m for this… some of the elektron-based thinking is in it…
Hey Dreammer, I haven’t listened to a lot of your music, given that we have only met here on Elektronauts but I think that that style is a good direction for you. It’s very sophisticated textural wise, simplistic in structure but nicely arranged. Personally I wouldn’t call it lo-fi, lo-fi to me is more of a production technique and the sound quality was clean or hi-fi production. But what I would call the sound would be dirty. Dirty bass, dirty lead and dirty percussion. And I liked it. It’s fresh, edgy, alternative, perhaps a little sexy in a darkness club style if you know what I mean. I wouldn’t call it dark neither but it’s definitely heading down that path. And do you know what, I liked the list of equipment you used, especially the guitar stomp boxes and outboard fx processors. And speaking of audio effects, that delay, it was a little unruly. Question what did you use the vcr for? You didn’t record the audio to tape first?
Hello,
Yeah, i kinda like the style to, sometimes i feel a bit “in a difrent point in life” then the time i spend dancing on the fields of green with a spliff in my hand, surrounded by giant stacks of speakers…
Then again… i still have a few dance-able tunes in my old chest, those are next to be polished and bundled but the looks of things…
Movement in sounds are important to me… i tend to repeat things due to the nature of the machines i use to create it… so lfo’s are my biggest friend… that and envelops 
the reason i came up with lowfi, came from production techniques… I dont have the money for expensive £500 fx… which is ok… i do have money for £20pound fx… for some time i even had them on my masterchannel on my behringer mixer (biggest cheapest mixingboard my budget could buy at the time… money wasnt biggest issue then…
it was more “not knowing what is a mixingdesk” atleast not more then “it mixes sources together” so i figured if i bought a really big complicated one… all my stuff would fit in… and i would have decades of fun learning how to use it… (took me 10 years before i used every connection on it…)
Thats also where the vcr came in… I did have a semi-fancy soundcard with multiple inputs (actually had a few of them throughout the years) but i couldnt exactly figure out a nice way to intergrate it… i had better luck with 1take jams on my gear… so i filmed it… with a vcr attached to the tape-outs of the mixingdesk… and a filmcamera… technically it wasnt even a vcr… but a pvr (they come with a harddisk)
the crispy edgey sounds like it was made yesterday vibe… comes from my filtering and eq skills…
(thats where the elektron-way of filtering comes from… i “recreated” some aproaches in my daw
and used all the free stereowidening and tapesaturation plugins i could find all in a big chain.
the reason for the tape-plugins is also explainable… me and the misses where shopping.
and she saw this giant tape-recorder in the window of the musicstore… Dont you want one?
eh yes… i answered, but no… Its to handson… to much hassle rewinding and syncing and blabla.
I think if i ever want to do tapefun … i will use a computer… so i did
it wasnt exactly what i wanted as a sound… but close… then I remembered this topic on elektron-users… some dude wanted to know… if the machinedrum was good for aphex twin like stuff… he wanted to use it, to recreate “windowlicker” … he even found a youtube thing where some other dude played back windowlicker at the wrong (slower) speed…
So i used the rate-button in reaper, to slow down the mix i had by 0.865 … and put an awesome amount of tapeplugins on the masterchannel… and some eq’ing… and a compressor that just sounds really bad, in a very dry with only slighty wet settings…
and tadaa
so in short:
make a bundle of songs during a jam on expensive machines u know how to play like your own “mr johnson”… on a cheap mixingdesk with a handfull of the cheapest fx money can buy, with the cheapest cables into a cheap pvr while smiling like a hippie …
Wait a few years until you know better skills, ideas and philosophies
put in in a new daw your testing for the 3rd day (reaper)
add vst’s you downloaded 20minutes ago…
play with ideas that popped in your head while doing totally random things
make a nice cover with the picture of the giant burger you got from the pizzaria a week before.
(it was so big, i almost put it on facebook… hence i had the picture)
put it on the internet…
and share it with your friends… and thats hmm about “it” how i came with this little bundle of musical delight…
hope you enjoyed the read…
Perhaps instead of the DAW you use an ADAT or some other tape-based recorder to get that ‘lo-fi production’. It’s a technique in the black metal scene known as necro-production, namely Burzum - Filosofem and Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger. Filosofem recorded into a home stereo and played back and recorded into another home stereo. Transilvanian used a four track portastudio. Both using the most cheapest equipment they could get their hands on. These are classic lo-fi production techniques. It gives the mix a nice atmospheric feel. It’s a production style I’m creating at the moment. The use of your so-called pvr is a great method. Digital to Analog. Methods 99% you people are moving away from but 1% of use that are trying to get back too. This is what I was talking about last conversation where I’m applying this technique not only to audio but video also. I love it. Speaking of video, I need to learn Blender for better 3D animation. Something Adobe CC is lacking at the moment.
Funny about the ADAT… there where some cheap ones on ebay… but decided to go for a vs2400.
which is fun as a soundsculptingtool… and well if i buy more recording stuff… it be a cheap pvr kinda deal again… i liked this aproach the most… and i think will drive me to learn my gear better…
kinda same idea what i did with the mc909 all that time… it should bring back a bit more “organic” (as in my little mistakes that just add some charm)
interesting story about that “necro-production” and yes i agree… most people choose the beaten-path… which is ok… tools these days are just to powerfull and efficient not to make use of it. then again… Personally, i loose out… if i am not “experimenting” … i stop learning… which will just lead to crappy music in the end… My style might be “shitty on purpose” but i would stop recording if it was just crap.
I like blender allot… its worth your time… though some say interface is a bit “so so” but it does come with somemany little things i can tinker/play with… it should keep me amused for years.
get a fast computer though… sometimes when i am tinkering around… render times are about 2 hours for a clippie, untill i add all those things that makes it look “i made it” rendertimes fly up to 48hours … so keep it very simple… or get a big fast cpu. blender does have a gpu-render-engine… but that one works difrent then the cpu-render-engine… so you have to make your model in a difrent way. (a way, i do not lke that much)
Sometimes new equipment can inspire new ideas. The same can be applied to new concepts about equipment we already own. I’m constantly reviewing work methods in the studio. This includes audio and video. Sometimes I have a sound in my minds ear that I try and recreate. This is harder than it sounds. Other times and more often than not I stumble upon a sound that later I try and fit in with what ever is happening. This is easier but not always what I want and most times gets a start in a new project. Visions for projects that incorporate video are approached in the same way too. New technologies inspire new approaches like 3D textures within a video project. Ditto talking to like minded people. Toing and throwing ideas. It all gives energy to push to improve. I heart creativity.
Yeah. new toys can definatly spruce things up… thats basicly the difrence between a musical trick and a musical technique… I have the same with reviewing workmethods.
some stuff just works “once” and its a trick/gimmick… however some of those tricks actually trickle in my workflow… and it becomes a technique i try to master… Thats probably where those freaky sounds come from… an amalgam of styletricks flowing into a new form/technique.
and your right… you can apply that filosofy to everything… once your curious enough you keep on discovering and traveling within a world of creativity. its nice
usually, when i am trying new stuff, i create big bundles of new sounds… on the mc909 and on the octatrack… its not to difficult to capture and mix, grab from previous experiments… more difficult on the monomachine though… its a good thing i can sample it.
and yes, a good discussion is an inspiring thing… here in the neighboorhood there are not allot of musicians that really are into “music in general” most just stick to what they learned…
I hear : “But you make techno” !! allot here… which makes me a weird sort of sad…
To make it even more weird… I think i live in the area, aphex-twin originally came from
I wonder what his neighboors said, when they first heard his music…
So yeah, sometimes i long for a musical buddy in the neighboorhood… lucky the internet puts the world in my kitchen…
That’s the thing, keeping it fresh and interesting with the style of work you do. It should evolve with you. In most cases we don’t listen to the same music that we did when we were a child or young teenager. We’ve managed to refine what we listen too. Make acute judgments to what exactly we do like and dislike. Even within the same genre we differentiate whats appeasing and what’s not. I think I’ve said this before but how we interpret what we’re hearing to changes how we listen. Not necessary the type of music but more so how we feel about it. Something listened to twenty years ago doesn’t have the same meaning as it does today. And it’s this that we need to keep up with. You’ve got to move with what’s meaningful today. Creativity the act of sharing expression funneled through a chosen medium needs to keep current. Too push those boundaries. And the quintessence is sharing and the internet has breached those gaps. Creativity travels at a driving pace.
Here a funny thought… when i was a kid… most musicians described their album making as a journey through something… but yeah… if you take a listen to what i made in the past… and what i am doing to it now to create my “final” vision… bwehehe… there are years between m… and its interesting… at the time. i made allot of things because i was in a dark time of my life. remembering and acking the time where it all went wrong.
I am in a better place now… so i am cleaning all the unnecesary dirt of, and just keep the “necesarry” emotions… So once you hear the final version. it be a trip through about 9 years of my feelings… (well sorta, i thought i was a robot for some time… they dont feel allot)
so yeah… I need to share and create and all that blabla… else i have difficulties looking at live, as i have troubles using words to describe it all. I like a bit of drive here and there.
I’ve flip flopped on you. Blender to Maxon Cinema 4D. Blender was doing my head in. I achieved my goals within less than half an hour. Adobe CC runs Cineware a pipeline to C4D and Adobe CC bundles C4D Lite. So much easier to work.
Do not flipflop to much… it will make things really difficult to follow for me.
My autistic side is easily amused/confused… which is a blessing and a curse at the same time…
I had a look at the maxon cinema 4d thing… but licensing exceeds my budget more then 10folds I do not mind investing money in my fun / creative voyage… but
No paying / gratefull fans… means my ideas will cost me plenty. which is a very good reason for me to go opensource… it keeps budget down, so i can actually produce something… and yes I can pirate my softies… but i consider this bad karma… I cant rob some poor programmer out of his lunch, just so i can sell some dvd to feed myself… thats just poor behaviour…
Like the video’s… acording to budget… it cost me about 5pound on average to make a clippie… (material/props/random things) So i need about 10.000 fans to view it. to actually get “almost my 5 pound back” PER CLIP (so if anybody ever wonders, why i got adverts in my videos… its to keep budget down, and keep music “free of charge” the ads should pay a long way, when i “break through” somewhere…)
if i would buy this cinema4d thing… I would have to add it it my budgetting… it will go way beyond “just a hobby” it will turn into a major obsession… this is not compatible with my autistic side… i be to worried nobody would watch it.
So producing my things is a multiple part thing:
Very interesting topic today. Is it, that we create for creations sake or do we create for financial reasons. Thee old saying, a means in itself or a means to an end. Personally, it’s a means in itself for me, that is my day job dictates what I can spend, not my creativity. My creativity is my expression undiluted by the means to an end to pay bills. Thus you need to ask, how do I pay those bills? That is, is my product selling? Do I need to change my product? Am I true to thyself? Is this a means in itself or a means to an end?
Personally, cost is almost secondary, sure I need to plan for items but rather than say can I afford this, I ask what can this do for me and is it what I need. That is in it’s simplest term, Blender is free, C4D costs, Blender is a pain in the ass to work with, C4D is a breeze, Blender isn’t producing the results I require, C4D can. The choice is easy. I need the product that does the job. Then I ask, how can I get this item.
The same can be said with Elektron machines for me. I already have a Pro Tools HD Native rig why would I want an Octatrack. Too make music! Can’t Pro Tools make music? Not the why Elektron does. Thus I scale back my Pro Tools HD rig and adopt Elektron and Adobe. Live has been so much easier. It’s a means in itself. I don’t care if you don’t buy my product because I create for creations sake. Just do it!