I’ve been continuing on my project of building tracks with predefined arrangements using only Operator and FX, while tweaking my Live template for performance - and had the face-palm realization that I could use the Octatrack as a MIDI sequencer/controller for Live rather than just an audio processor.
I’m embarrassed it took me this long to figure that out, but I am very excited because in the most recent iteration of the template I have 8 channels of drum instruments I’ve been building for use with a UC4 that I can now sequence, plock, and LFO from the Octatrack.
Put together a track that I’m quite happy with in the DAW. But then I had this crazy idea that if I can program it, I would like to be able to play it.
So now I’m in the process of adapting it for piano, which I then plan to transcribe to sheet music. Quite interesting to look at a section and see “my hands don’t actually work like that”. And then after fixing it, it sounds a whole lot better.
Maybe if I get good enough, the drummer that lives inside my computer will let me play with him. I should prolly find an appropriate hat though.
Edit: Dorico SE (free verion) seems to be working quite well for notation
At the moment i am/should make a mix tape on a suggestion by one of elektronauts members. So it’s gonna be a push towards quality and concept from what I already made so far.
I’ve been making good progress on my 404 sample based drone project, and I’ve pretty much nailed down 9 or so pieces that are now split into two banks and roughly volume matched and limited. Need to do more tweaks still, some of it might need a bit more development, but I’m reaching the stage now where I need to step away from it and just revisit to listen closely every few days to keep my ears fresh.
As a result of that, I’ve moved back to another project I’ve had on the back burner since getting the Analog Keys, which is to do the serious work of turning it into a high quality drone synth through experimentation and practice. I’ve come to the conclusion that what a lot of people mean when they say drone synth is large clusters of oscillators stacked on top of one another and detuned through an infinite reverb. I’m going for something very different to that, much more spare and sparse, few voices playing off one another, gaps in the spectrum, very small changes in sound producing delicate alterations in beating. The Analog Keys is one hell of a deep instrument with a million modulation possibilities, and I’m finding if I don’t use extreme restraint I end up with a wall of sound, which I do not want at all.
I also need to spend a few days just working on the performance macros for a few different kits to test what sorts of number ranges are relevant for what parameters to enable me to move the sound on without transforming it into something else, unless of course that’s what I want in the moment.
phewww! What a ride. Progress, finally (lol) reinvented the Pianoroll again.
This time for Max4Live to allow editting 6 Voice 64Step Sequencing similar to what someone would expect from a pianoroll… na na don’t eat CPU, make it work in browsers too (who knows where this is going, Sequencers are in high demand, still) and controlling the thing with mouse or keyboard and hey feed it with live data from sysex. I know - i am crazy.
What goes in, must come out somewhere… means next: working on sending changes back to the OB-6. But quite happy with the responsiveness of my coding - so far. Notice it picks up the presets from the machine in realtime and displays them not after receiving but while receiving with a double buffered (kinda like GPU coding) receiver buff. Ah i forgot to mention, this pianoroll shows notes that are longer then the sequence end at the beginning with its tail, in other words shows true 64steps loop sequences.
Recording some ambient techno tracks as next project using Virus and Hexdrums. I sent output to mixer to audio interface. I MIDI clock Virus from Hexdrums. Create some tests.
lately I’ve been employing the method of dreaming of sounds as I start to fall asleep at night and then the next day slapping my ipad around trying to form them into something real . also I believe in fighting with Steinberg’s library and download manager apps for weeks at a time as a means of atonement with the computerbox
Very cool thread, lots of interesting processes and projects in here!
I’ve been doing the whole everything-in-one-box thing lately, and it has been eye opening. Currently loosely working on three different projects depending on my mood. I’ve also been contemplating an artist name change and/or alternate alias for these projects, the music I’m making doesn’t feel so much like an evolution of my previous sounds as it feels like a radical departure due to the very different sound palette I have access to currently.
An EP (maybe album, we’ll see) of lofi hiphop and/or jungle video game covers. Video game covers are something I’ve always had a fondness for, and I do a few every year. I know this isn’t exactly the most novel idea, but it’s fun. Doing this entirely on the OP-XY. I’ve got 3 of these going.
An EP or album of jungle tracks entirely composed on the OP-XY. That sample slicing update is incredible. I’ve currently got 3 tracks in the works and a couple skeletons.
a collection of songs written entirely on the MPC Live 3. This will be a much longer term project probably simply due to how new the Live3 is.
As if 2025 wasn’t challenging enough because of a product development project in my j.o.b. thats consuming almost all of my energy, I decided to make 128 Serum 2 Dub Techno presets + a bunch of bonuses. All to be released around xmas.
Why? Well, for my latest sample pack I added 20 presets for Serum 2 which were the whole reason for some to download the pack.
Stuff like that always gets me thinking.
Here is the link btw, also with 20% off
So, yeah I dared myself to make a full Serum2 pack and also I always back things up with some planning to see if this is even possible in the set time frame and life circumstances.
Seemed doable, so here I am now
The goal are 128 presets, 2-3 midis per preset, all presets as samples, some of the presets will have custom waveforms and be using samples from my gear.
The process is simple: Make 8 presets 4× per week for 4 weeks, then do the bonuses, record a bunch of ‘behind the scenes’ material for youtube.
If you have any wishes what else could go into the pack send me a dm to keep the threat on topic.
I am currently building up a patch and sample library of drum loops, bass loops, synth patches for various genres of electronic music. Once complete, the goal is to offer these to others. Hence why I have so many types of synthesizer and drum machines. It has been a really fun albeit expensive journey this far.
Just finished working up an OT project that let me select, beatmatch, loop and crossfade tunes on the fly without being forced into a static predefined running order. Worked a treat for a couple of DJ sets at a friend’s birthday party on the weekend. I posted the setup here for anyone interested in the process:
