First two-hour session.
This thing is awesome. Immediately understand that once the muscle memory kicks in, it’s going to be insane.
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I did this a long time ago and forgot, but I have the ambient silent chocs coming with some new keycaps. I have a little keycap remover tool, but is there any other tool I need to make the swaps? I will see if anyone did a tutorial on YT. I remember it being pretty easy, but it’s been 3 years.
After you pull the caps off, you need to remove the key switches, you could maybe try by hand or your key puller may already have a switch puller on the opposite end.
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Cool, yeah it should be pretty easy. I have not tried the silent key switches before, but apparently they do a pretty nice job.
I had some kailh pinks lying around so I replaced the browns on the M8. They use 20g actuation vs the brown’s 60g, I personally much prefer a lighter touch and found it nicer to use.
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Has anyone come up with a workflow better than keeping different tracks in different ranges of tens (10, 20, 30, etc)?
I often have a hard time coming back to a track after a few weeks, even if I kept it tidy within ranges.
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Is there a list for which Launchpads you can use with the M8?
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It’s a very short list
- Launchpad Pro Mk3
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Also interested in the best practice here!
Not really better, just rigid. I almost always have my lead on track 1, bass on 2, second lead/chords/drones on 3 & 4, vocals/samples on 5, hats/perc on 6, snare/perc on 7, and kick on 8. All with matching chain & phrase numbers.
I usually run out of phrases, so I’ll push the 10s to 90, the 20s to A0, etc., keeping 00 for blank and 01-0F for effects and other commands - note offs on 03, volume/cutoff ramps on 04 & up, that sort of thing. FE is always a note off on step 8 and KIL00 in all FX columns on the last step.
Obviously things can still get messy - deep cloning phrases is handy but doesn’t respect The System, and sometimes I have to move parts to different columns as needed, etc. But I try to keep the chain numbers consistent for all projects so they’re easier to come back to. There are usually a few mystery sounds that require investigation, but mostly things make sense.
My stuff is pretty darn simple, though.
If I do end up in the zone and just clone/iterate all higgledy piggledy, the clean up unused phrases/chains command is lovely - it clears phrases/chains that are not placed anywhere in the project and consolidates any duplicates, freeing them up for more mayhem. Usually the thrill of getting lost in the sauce is worth the potential headaches of figuring out the project later.
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You don’t need to keep it tidy with the chain and phrase numbers.
Just use any number anywhere.
I keep 00 reserved for empty and F0-FE reserved for special command stuff.
You can figure out what things are by their location in the song. Use bookmarks (triple tap opt) for important reference points. I use bookmarks on different tracks to represent different sections. Eg bookmark on track 1 = A section. Bookmark on track 2 = B section.
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People should do what works for them but this is my advice also. At least try it and you can always organize later if it bothers you.
One advantage of 00 for empty is that cleaning up unused phrases doesn’t mess with it.
Neither does F0-FE if you are on a later version of the firmware.
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I start tidy, with 10, 11 on track 1, 20 on 2 etc, but then let things go as soon as it gets hectic.
My tracks are rigid though, and not just on the M8. Everywhere, including in Ableton, track one is drums, 2 is extra drums, 3 is bass, 5 is melody, 8 is vocals or other sample chops, and the others vary based on needs.
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Thanks! I wasn’t aware of that, will record it.
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I’m not sure what I got myself into, I have an M8 arriving in a couple days and I feel just lost watching these YT videos… Feels like learning music all over again.
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Daddy Long Les videos are the simplest and clearest to get started.
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Yeah, I tried following a numbering system at first but it didn’t really benefit me the way I’d hoped. One thing that helps with my brain is to develop different parts of the song in different “islands” disconnected from each other until I merge them up from the end. It wasn’t what the numbers were that was messing with me as much as it was the huge chonk of them that I always had to squint at to figure out what was what.
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I just downloaded a couple of your free packs for OP-XY and then jumped on here and saw your question, synchronistic. The M8 was the first thing to ever make sense for me. I learned more on that device than I ever had before. Still one of my favorite pieces of gear and it goes everywhere with me. The meet-ups are hard to sit through because so much has changed over the years, but there are videos on YouTube that can take you through different elements quick enough. Don’t get overwhelmed with tables or the fx, it is actually pretty simple. Once you get the button combinations figured out, it starts to flow really nicely. There are lots of cool tricks for generative ambient stuff also. Don’t be intimidated! It’s not that scary and if you spend time with it, you will be rewarded.
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Nice I heard about his videos, I’ll check them out later today. Cheers.
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