Schoolbaby's Parks Department

Elektronauts Our Music
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EDIT AUGUST 21ST:

i have completed the project for the season! overall we capped out at 71 different tracks in 71 different parks around the Seattle area. the sun is going away and the clouds have rolled in, so its time for the parks to go dormant. im gonna figure out a different project to get myself out of the apartment over the wet/cold months. thinking i may hit different libraries but that also sounds like i would be annoying people. maybe i could rent the room spaces or something.

i picked 23 of my favorites from the second half and i recorded over another self-help tape. i used another tape from this series to record my jamuary tracks i think? i kinda love this tape series, its from the 60s and certainly sounds like it, but the core information being shared is still very relevant! theres some problematic points and its very Man centric, but hey thats why im recording over it.

EDIT JULY 23RD:

i have my first collection of park tunes finished and recorded to tape! 24 tunes from 24 different parks!

i chose to record over this book on tape about golf because golf is boring and its silly that they get to take up so much space just to get lit with the squad on the links. you can get lit with the squad for free at public parks, but something tells me the golfers appreciate exclusivity. one of the parks i visited was actually a reclaimed golf course. i used this project to explore a ton of green spaces i havent been to before, as well as to have a reason to return to tried and true parks from my childhood. im not done yet, this is the first batch. gonna keep it going as long as the sun stays out!

all of these tunes were based on samples from my reface cs and my op-1f. some also include harmonica recorded via the op-1f internal mic. i arranged the tunes on the ep133 and then i recorded them into the sp404mk2 for extra transitions, vocal samples and other FX. A majority of the tracks were only 7-8 scenes long on the ep133, ordered linearly to make the live recording process simpler.

i have found when i lean into the strengths of the ep133, my productivity skyrockets. i think it also was very helpful to have the set plan of “go to a park, keep making something until it sounds good enough.” my speed on the ep133 has progressed a ton as well, i think i have developed some helpful muscle memory for playing melodies on the pads, and now they flow out with little resistance. the ep133 is great!

-----original post-------

had a successful music may, had a week of letting myself totally veg out, and now im feeling motivated for a new project.

my new undertaking is to make a tune in every park here in Seattle and the general Washington area. we have over 400 just in town! now that i have my op-1f alongside my ep133, i am totally mobile and self sufficient. so im taking this show on the road. [and then taking the tunes back home to finish up on the sp404]

i started on friday after work by heading to Carkeek Park. been coming here more often the past few years, tons of open spaces and great trails. a nice rocky beach space, a river where you can watch the salmon run. awesome space, kind of like the Discovery Park of North Seattle. this one is all done on the ep133, sampled the op-1f.

next day i went up north on a daytrip and stopped at Dogfish Point in Bellingham, Washington. got there early in the morning and had a great session under the sun. got a lil sunburned too. my legs are aching because you basically have to belay down a 75 degree hillside on some rope lines somebody set up. its super well done and sturdy but its a climb for sure. made most of this on the ep133, tracked it into the op-1f, then laid some synths on top.

next was at Whatcom Falls Park in Bellingham, Washington. used to come here during the sunny months in college, lots of beautiful natural spaces to hang out in. saw some good jumps off the falls, a couple flops, lots of laughs. this one was all done on the ep133, just sampled the synths off the op-1f

came back to Seattle and hit Discovery Park this morning. been going there my whole life, truly a wonderful slice of nature inside the city. sat next to an old church on a hillside in the late morning sun. got sunburned again, shame on me. this was another one where most of the bones happened on the ep133, tracked into the op-1f for more synths.

last one of the first bunch was at Sandel Park. its a pretty nice park, wide open grassy spaces, a decent lookin play structure, a wading pool too. and the bathroom even had a cool paint job. nice park, i would be down to wade in the water one day. could be asking for a wart tho. this one was all op-1f.

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took a day off from work because my back was all busted and i went to Magnuson Park to make a tune. its a giant park, in high school we had plenty of kegs and spodies out here. theres lots of cool hidden weaving trails and nice large hills overlooking water views. i also broke a piece of my leg here once.

this tunes all op-1f. one of the main things that drew me to getting the field over the original was the powerful speaker and i gotta say it was the right choice. no longer needing to bring my slightly too chunky portable speaker to park sessions is a godsend. i actually have space in my bag for a water bottle and a book along with the op-1f and the ep-133. feels nice being so portable.

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went out to Upper Woodland Park today. sat near the horseshoe course in a nice field of daisies. a few flies and a big old bumblebee kept messing around on me and i feel like that buzzy pesty vibe made its way into the tune. also, soundcloud recommended Ska as the genre. i was listening to 100 gecs today so maybe they’re on to something.

sampled some synths off the op-1f on to the ep133 and did everything there, tracked it out on the 404 as usual!

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made this one at Fremont Canal Park. great place to hang your feet over the water and take in the sunset. i got kicked out of my first spot by a goose, i was there for five minutes and i looked up and bigass goose was like a foot away from me staring me down so i got spooked and moved to a different spot. by the time i finished making this tune a squad of six or so geese started rolling up on me and i had to make an exit yet again. this tune is more aggressive than usual, the aggression is aimed towards geese. made it on the op-1f, threw it through the sp404. for some reason soundcloud rotated the photo but hey its kinda trippy

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Geese ain’t nothing to fuck with!!! Angry fellas!!

Great beat btw!!!

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thanks dude! and if theres one thing that scares me its unpredictable animals. i couldnt trust a goose as far as i could throw it!

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two more from today. we have work off for Juneteenth and im celebrating freedom by making tunes in parks.

first one was from Greenlake. i drive around this park multiple times a week, sometimes just for fun. easily one of the top spots for the sunny seasons. i think its probably the most densely active park in the city, lots of people doing lots of things!

i sampled some chords and synths off the op-1f and did the rest of this one on the ep133.

next one was at Matthew’s Beach Park, clear across the city on a different lake’s coastline. i think its been over ten years since i was here last, i dont recognize it at all. i think i visited a few times in high school for parties. very family focused, not that great for people watching. lots of great space to sit in the grass beneath the trees tho.

made this one all on the op-1f. the bass was stupid loud when i brought it back to the 404 and i think i overcorrected. tried to correct the overcorrection with the 404 EQ but i dunno. whatever its a complete one anyhow, i enjoy the shifts in vibes.

i think i have one more in me, so im gonna hit the road for one last tune

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last one for the day! surprised i got one i liked so much out of round three. i went to Ravenna Park, i used to live near by a few years ago. its truly a green ravine in the city, super wide open and rarely too many people there. saw a guy sleeping by the burning bbq but it seemed like it was on purpose. im starting to run out of the big big parks, gonna have to get more of the tiny ones.

sampled some synths off the op-1f and did the rest on the ep133

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got a couple from the past few days!

made this one at the park by my apartment, Alice Ball Park. it was developed semi recently after a vote from the neighborhood. its mostly just a grassy patch and this wild brutalist sandbox thats just concrete walls and gravel. gets good sun in the afternoon tho. made this on the op-1f, saw one of my neighbors while i was out there and turns out hes got an op-1 too! small world! i kinda subconsciously jacked a piece of a Shawn Wasabi melody in this one too, i had just listened to the song the day before, i think its MANGOLOVE or something like that. i wish i liked Shawn Wasabi more, i really really like a couple of his songs but the rest just dont pierce me

this one i made at Shore View Park. i hadn’t been here before, its kind of a different set up than most parks ive been to around here. theres pretty steep grassy hills which look cool but arent the best for lounging. i did it anyways, and enjoyed the background noises of a young baseball teams practice. their coach sounded like an asshole. this tunes kinda bumpy and drunk, and then i tie it all up in a bow with some red-lined harmonica riffin. i started doing some very minor touching up with the sp404s EQ, not sure if i will continue. gonna have to determine after i do a car test on these two tracks. all op-1f and harmonica

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had a while of some not so sunny days so i didnt get out to any parks, but thankfully we got a new wave of heat coming in and this afternoon was real pleasant. i went to Innis Arden Reserve Park and i found a super cool hidden area off the main path. some DIY forest hang out construction along with a full on zipline. i did not have the courage to give the zipline a shot but i’m sure others have.

made this one on the ep133 after sampling some chords and synth sounds off the op-1f. had a bunch of fun making this one. been feeling a little stuck in a loop but this felt like a slightly new direction.

then when i finished up with that i thought it would be fun to just dink on the harmonica and record some of the sounds of the area on the op-1f. then a train zoomed by shortly after i started and it felt appropriate to keep tootin along. didnt play anything special on the harmonica but the overall vibe is enjoyable. ran it through the op-1f mother reverb and then the sp404 cassette/303

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couple of tracks from a couple of parks.

yesterday i went to Foster’s Island after work. Its got a bit of a trail you gotta follow to get to the nice open grassy part by the water. its very calm and serene here, water views are so nice this time of year. made this tune on the ep133 after sampling some synths off the op-1f.

made this one this morning neat the Ballard Lochs. this has become one of my favorite hangout spots as i get older. you can climb up onto the foundation of the bridge for the railroad up above. and the trains are real loud when they go over. made this tune on the ep133 after sampling some synths off the reface cs. im testing out its portability and it feels pretty doable!

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wasnt sure if i had enough juice in me for a park today but i gave it a go anyways. i went to Fremont Peak Park, its super tiny and i had never heard of it, but you get a real nice view of Ballard and Queen Anne. theres lots of bunnies and pineapple weed there too.

this is all op-1f, it kinda took a sharp turn halfway through when a family arrived and my groove got thrown off. i whipped out the harmonica at the end too, im still learning how to get good levels across the op-1f, practice practice practice. im sure ive used this chord rhythm and progression before too but giving myself space to reiterate

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it was a big day for park tunes today. made a switch to headphones for all these to try to fix my levels a bit, if anything i think it just changed the problems, made all of them on the ep133 after sampling some synths off the op-1f. then i recorded the tunes back into the op-1f and also recorded some of the environment sounds for background ambience, which only kinda worked on a few of them. i think if im gonna do that again i need a different method of doing it because this was a pain in the ass.

started off bright and early at the nude beach at Howell Park. super chill location, one of the two nude beaches in Seattle. there were only a few people there since it was so early, normally its impossible to find parking or a space.

next i went to Lake Ballinger which is just north of Seattle. i’ve never actually been here before, the lake area was much smaller than i expected. the whole deal used to be a golf course i think. there was a new playground with some cool chimes you could play with some mallets, i had a nice zone out sesh with those after making this tune.

last tune of the day was at Gas Works Park. i was really losing steam and starting to feel reeeeeal roasted at this point, its a hot ass day today. but i think its one of my favorites from this bundle.

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got a couple fun ones here.

i went to Luther Burbank Park on Mercer Island yesterday. i never go to mercer island so it was a pretty new experience. there aint a whole lot going on there but this park was nice. i forgot how much i liked this tune until i heard it again today, its a top one for me so far.

made this one today at North Beach Nature Park. i almost didnt go into this park because the street parking situation was kinda weird but i made it happen. almost turned around again when i saw the sign saying it was just a 1400 foot dead end trail. but im super glad i went in! the trail ended at a nice little creek/waterfall and i set up my chair there. this ones a little shorter because i was practicing doing new things on the op-1f so i spent a bunch of time on the first like 40 seconds. once i had some nice pieces i started jamming on my harmonica. it felt so good, i was having so much fun. got a nice ramshackle recording of it at the end

and i stumbled across an altercation between a murder of crows and a couple of barred owls, you can hear them growling. ive been thinking about how i want to start semiseriously field recording and this experience really cemented that desire.

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more tunes from the past couple days!

this one was in a really cool spot. it was at Deer Creek Park up north of Seattle in Woodway. Its a short little hike up a standard issue PNW trail and then it plops you out in this really beautiful meadow with a few apple trees. its a cool juxtaposition between environments, feels like a secret garden. this one was all ep133

today i hit up two spots. first i went way east out past North Bend and went to Rattlesnake Lake. its a real big spot that feels like a real legit Eastern Washington lake. super clean water, lots of open public shore space. this one was mostly ep133 then i recorded it onto the op-1f and recorded a layer of harmonica, didnt really nail the levels on that one tho

then on my way back to Seattle from Rattlesnake Lake i realized that the two major bridges i need to take were both super backed up because of construction so i dipped off the highway at the last moment and found a nearby park in Bellevue. funny enough it ended up being a park that i went to in highschool on a really bad date. she was really mean in hindsight, we took mushrooms and made out in the car, i was not having a good time. it was funny to see the space again like 13 years later. this one was all op-1f with some harmonica sprinkled around.

i think once i hit 30 tracks/parks im gonna make a tape of the favorites. i cant remember if i said this yet but i have an old book on tape about becoming a better golfer and i figure that would be perfect. kinda have a concept beat tape, retaking the land used by golf courses and turning them into parks, by recording over the golfing tips with my tunes i made in local parks.

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one more for this weekend. i did go to two different parks but the second track sucked hard, it was really fun to make but came home and it was straight trash i think i was just pretty stoned and couldnt tell how bad it was through the op-1 speaker.

this one however bangs. i made it at Madison Park Beach. ive never been here before despite my grandma living very close by. its alright, Madison Park is pretty snooty and i could take it or leave it most of the time. i had a fun interaction with a dad who stopped and asked what i was using, he related it to Pete Townshend bringing a synth out to the beach or something like that. it was a fun interaction. sampled the synths off the op-1f and did everything else on the ep133, finished it up at home on the 404. i think this has one of the more successful uses of background ambience too, a group of teens was right next to me and they were talking loud so we get some good chatter

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tonights is another funky one! took the reface cs to Greenwood Park. its a pretty big and popular park, i like that they have stone ping pong tables and other stone game materials. i sampled some synthy stuff off the reface onto the ep133 and this came together real quick. at one point a kid probably like 10 years old or something came over and said he liked the tunes, couldnt tell if he was trying to roast me or not but it seemed genuine enough so ill take it. ive gotten good feedback from kids in the past so it wouldnt be the first time!

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Nice project. Lots of vibes from the battles on op-forums.com, makes me real nostalgic ^^

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ayy thank you! i appreciate the kind words, glad it could spark some nice memories for you. wish i could have been there to experience it myself!

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I can only invite you to participate to the op-1 battles, I enjoyed it when I was there :slight_smile:

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