Reflection: last year to now

The Lounge General Discussion
21

Well,
A year ago my computer with 10 years of productions, samples, templates and a whole live I started doing gigs with was declared dead and there was no way to recover anything. My main back up didn’t work neither because why not.
I spent the first semester trying to rebuild but I lost motivation and was a bit perplexed on what to do to start making music again with no frustration.

Bought a syntakt as an impulsive buy when I had three weeks of limited social interactions ahead of me, and instantly fell in love. Decided to build a set up that could produce everything I used to do on a computer with only machines. Bought a machine per month on 6 monthes, learning each one as it went. Made a few buying mistakes along the way, but not so much. Solved every wiring & control issues to make this thing as spontaneous as possible.

Last night I sent the final mix of my first track built entirely on this setup for it to be released on a label I like. What a year !

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22

at the start of the year I had a default template with ARmkII, A4mkII and OT through AHmkI all via Overbridge into Ableton. CueOut from OT, Push 3SA via MOTU UltraliteMK5 into Live as well.
This was fine and all and was in sync with Ableton as the master and also Patternchange from Live to OT and from OT to the other Elektrons and Push 3SA.

But somehow it did not feel right. So I unplugged it all, and plugged A4 Master into OT AB, A4 Master into OT CD and OT Master into AH and from there to the Soundcard. Push 3 SA and OT CueOut to Line 6 DL4mk. where inputs 3/4, 5/6 on my Soundcard.
This was already a much better system than before, as I didn’t even need to open the computer to start making music, with the Ultralite being the Mixer.

Then I dedicated a midi channel on OT to change the scenes on Push 3SA which made it even more into one instrument than it already was.
Just last week I plugged AH out into Push 3SA input. Typhon is going into A4 ext in and the DL4 into AR ext in. OT is the master again as it should be!
Now I am left with one stereo Input to record all Elektrons, Typhon and Push3 SA which feels like a huge relief. ITB can be ITB and Hardware is Hardware…
So my setup stayed the same while going thru some substantial changes.

I have finished quite a few tracks this year in hardware and software. and I am happy that I did not succumb to the GAS that is still clawing at me every week! (ok…I got a few plugins…DYAD, TELA, SUMU ,BATTALION are outstanding instruments!!! and I upgraded my 20 year old Line 6 DL4 to MK2)
I sure wanted to make much more music than I did, but still I´m fine with what I made.
Wanted to stream way more but couldn´t be bothered all too often.
I made presets for MELD, ROAR and GRANULATOR 3 that landed in the release version of Live 12 which is cool.
Started working for a new band, which is challenging.
Lost my Dad, which is sad.
Been skateboarding again quite hard and injured myself quite bad, which is stupid(fun!)
Played way to many video games and stayed up all night way too often.
stopped smoking weed (again) stopped drinking coffee (first time) and stopped eating sugar (also first time) NOTHING changed…(LOL)…exept my stomach feels much better so I keep away from all the sweets, coffee n weed for good!
NEXT…

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23

At the start of the year I was eating Harold’s Chicken, now I’m eating an Italian Beef.

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24

I did try to go hybrid, but with abelton link, it didnt sync up properly, i also do a duo techno production, where we meet once a week, this went ok, as we showed up this day with a few holiday weeks in between. I found that i prefer the synth with complex modulation matrix are not very live friendly untill they recieve macro setup first. So i tried to setup macros for all of my sounds i do.

I deleted all presets on Iridium and Digitione MK1, to get more mileage out of them, invested several evenings into midi controllers, to get them to behave. So far that is improving slowly but steady. Got a bit better on Hapax, learning all its features.

I work in parallel on ITB tracks, so i have fodder for my octatrack, which is at the center of my live rig. I did a few month break on DAW tracks during the summer, to not burn out - but continued the weekly duo session. Having someone to show up too, is surly helping to keep motivated.

Maybe it would be more effective to focus only on one thing, but i still learn also through the hardware, i can put this knowlege also back to the DAW, and also the other way around, things i learn in the DAW i can put back on the live rig. So its a fruitful cycle i think.

Sometimes i wish i could be more efficient, so i spend time for project planning - just to have a direction where to go. Havent gotten down to setting timelines, but maybe in 2025 i will. I surly dont want burnout on music, but gaining confidence on the sounds /sequences i do, is my next goal, so i dont need to reiterate so much going forward.

Having a main job to support this endavour is also key, so distributing time is important.

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25

I think I produced fewer projects in 2024 compared to 2023. My projects are videos of scrolling/stepping music notation with audio made on the Digitone.

I can think of a few reasons for my modest decline in output. I spent a lot of time in 2024 further automating and speeding up the process of making the video element of my projects. Going slow to go fast, so to speak. I spent some time messing around with new gear, notably the Woovebox and the M8, both of which produced unsatisfactory results, to my ears, compared to my beloved Digitone. Many of the projects I did in 2024 were “redos” of older projects, where I wanted to improve the quality of the audio and/or video. Many of my recent projects, also, have been larger in scale. Also, I spent a lot of time helping my colleague with similar projects, after I taught him to make similar videos.

I gave up caffeine 1.5 years ago. That definitely affected my output. I do projects in the late afternoon / evening. Previously, I came home from work, had a short nap, then drank coffee and got to work on new projects. Now, sans caffeine, some afternoons I sit on the couch, watching TV, feeling low energy and low motivation. Counterintuitively, I think I need to spend less time on projects and more time exercising during afternoon hours.

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