School of scening (& tracks and patterns)

danlukas · 2014-03-26T13:00:46.000Z

as i’m beginning to construct tracks and progressing i’m realizing that are 3 areas of considerable fluidity that need taming and mastering. the far extreme is an always rule…

_extreme1
scene 1 always accomplishes this feel, pattern (A)1 is always the intro, track 1 is always the pad

_extreme2
everything is nothing is anywhere is everything. embrace the chaos and learn each song.

or more specifically, in considering scene organization something like these scene ‘rules’

1 no tweak
2 mostly dry shortened decay (feeling of punctuation)
…
8 always accomplishes a considerably wet (verb/delay) low pass
9 the fill scene, retriggers and verbs and delays

this has obvious implications beyond simply the octatrack, but this is the octatrack forum.

in part, i’m also curious because as i watch dateline performances, especially the ones with numerous devices i recognize immediately the level of mastery that exists in what he’s doing, and i’m quite curious at what level his organization occurs, song or overall production technique.

appreciate your insight.

sabo · 2014-03-27T16:19:00.000Z

i’ve started organizing my scenes as such:

track 7 is a recording the cue for stuttering + resampling
track 8 is master
scenes 1-8 are variations on tracks 1-6, with track 7’s volume all the way down
scenes 9-12 are variations on track 7, with tr1-6’s volume all the way down (ie master resampling)
scenes 13-16 are variations on the master track for larger builds, sweeps, transitions, etc (ie, soaking reverb, high pass cut, generally intense fuckery)

maintaining this structure gives me a sense for each pattern and ways to play with the patterns. scenes are absolutely brilliant and one of my favorite parts of the OT.

Allerian · 2014-03-27T16:57:24.000Z

The only de-facto scene I always have is a Master track 8 Filter with a bit of Q which is used to rhythmically play along. My other scenes are all made to suit the nature of the track - often to create a break down or fill. Of course, there is usually one or two scenes with very extreme settings. These are used with the “playing the scenes” technique.

RoyShade · 2014-03-27T20:21:07.000Z

I keep trying to come up with a one-size solution which continues to be frustrated by indecision as to which outboard gear will be included.
Current strategy is:
1, kick samples, 2. hat samples, 3. clap/snare samples, 4. pad, 5. bass. 6. lead, 7. going to steal the idea from post two above, 8. master with DJ EQ + verb OR compressor + delay. (Still working that one out.)

The other strategy is 1. Drums 2. Drums 3. bass/lead 4. bass/pad 5. A/B in, usually drum, 6. C in, usually bass, 7. D in, usually lead/fx.

I want to keep things live and interactive but at the same time I worry about either not being able to channel the mojo during a gig or losing a great idea from practice that didn’t get baked into a pattern.

As for scenes, they’re custom to the song for me but i make them so they transition from one to the other or one to none musically. I do four scenes per part and one part for four patterns. If I don’t have enough ideas to have four scenes, I’ll either leave it dark or copy a known-good so that it’s a duplicate and change something small.

I find that if i have more patterns per song, I can have fewer scenes.

danlukas · 2014-03-27T20:34:04.000Z

can you link me to over give me an explanation of the master track idea?

allerian - i live in minneapolis and i’m super bummed i couldn’t make it to the octatrack get together.

RoyShade · 2014-03-27T21:10:24.000Z

“master track idea?” Me? This? - "track 7 is a recording the cue for stuttering + resampling" from the post above.

LordAlister · 2014-03-27T21:32:04.000Z

My approach for live situations:

Tracks 1-4 are pad, synth, thru and sfx.
Tracks 5-8 : snare/clap, hat, kick, master.

Drum parts are improvised and created on the time of playing.

50% is blueprinted for what goes with what
50% is the chance to explore and make mistakes.

In a live situation, if a " mistake" is made, it provides the opportunity to wing it. The pressure of having the possibility of the inevitable is what keeps your decisions precise but also prepared to control a situation if it goes beyond your means.

martin_price · 2014-03-28T03:54:39.000Z

We are just starting the octatrack from scratch…can anyone help us to as to building patterns from loops etc…

wintermute · 2014-03-28T11:33:40.000Z

[quote=““martin price””]
We are just starting the octatrack from scratch…can anyone help us to as to building patterns from loops etc…
[/quote]

I’m assuming you have loops you want to use;
Let’s say you have a drum break, what I do is load it into a flex machine (double tap the track button) and load it into a slot.
Press function and bank to go into the audio editor. Now you can do several things, firstly change the time stretching to beats, and the length of the bars until it’s in time. Next, you can slice the audio, this acts the same way as Abelton, and will allow you to rearrange it
Lastly go into playback and set it to slice. Then sequence away! You can specify what slice it plays by parameter lock, and is great for jungle style chopped drum breaks, or indeed anything!