This. I wonder how you lay down melodies in the sequencer. Do you just hit record and play the notes in live? Or is there a fancier/better method you use?
nope. thatās it! or it was with the Monomachine and Octatrack mainly. with the Cirklon thereās more options to do interesting things. but thatās typically not how Iāll write a lead/bass part though. itās more for background textures and such.
Yep! Thats how I work. Want an 8 bar/16 bar phrase? Chain patterns, hit record, play. Either have quantise on, or tidy them up after (Iām a crap keyboard player) Then go back and add the chords, or counter melodies, call and response etc
No magic trick really.
Sometimes I think Id like an MPC for more flexible sequencing, but I enjoy working with the elektron sequencers.
My music isnāt prolific by any stretch, but I made this one video with a Volca Drum that got a butt load of views in comparison with anything else Iāve done.
I think it was just timing. It was very new at the time, and I was just playing around with it.
I donāt even have one anymore, but if anyone here doesnāt already have a dedicated drum machine itās VERY good for such a small thing.
Definitely awakened my love for sequencing rhythm though. Even now I have a Model:Cycles, XFM and MC-707, but I spend most of my time just zoning out making beats.
Nice. I definitely watched this video right after I bought one and it led me in some happy directions. Cheers!
I also donāt have one anymoreā¦hahaā¦but it is definitely a cool toy.
I bought a Korg Oasys in 2005 and It enhanced my skills and productivity immensely.
And during those time I received more offers to release my music than Iād ever receive previously or since.
Really amazing times but unfortunately I never did release anything.
How come?
Too precious about things.
Thinking tracks werenāt ready when labels were saying otherwise. There was 1 occasion though, when I couldnāt provide stems for a track, that I was happy to release, but the label wanted to optimise the individual elements. I didnāt/donāt work that way, so that was disappointing.
Thatās why I bought that Blast Radio box. Just going to knock things out and broadcast, ready or not.
In fact I no longer care about releasing music in the traditional sense.
Iād be interested in this one! Couldnāt find it in the āyour modularsā thread, care to share?
Fair enough. I wouldnt provide stems either. A) I dont have any to give as I record a stereo mix from the mixer B) even if I did have stemsā¦ er rude! They either like my music or they dont. Optimiseā¦ get stuffed.
Labels suck. Do it yourself
Yep. I agree 100%
It caused a little bit of tension at the time with myself, the label and others that had heard the track.
People saying that it should be released as it was.
But I understood the labels concerns.
Thing is, the label later went on to start a subsidiary label that released old, forgotten demos that were on dats. Simple stereo mastered tracks without stems available.
Oh well.
Iāve always thought this too.
None
ā¦
this instrument has also been prolific for me.
Analog Rytm mkI here. Iād estimate Iāve made around 350 fully jammable patterns with it.
Rytm mki, Model:Cycles, Digitone Keys.
Sure Iāve got Ableton and a PC, but limitations seem to help me not retreat into overcomplicating a production.
I need to give the Blackbox another try, I had a hardware issue with mine and didnāt get very far.
Got a link? I can always find a local one, but that looks sturdy enough
Cant find the link, maybe they dont have them at the moment. Iām in Australiaā¦ I got it from a shop called fantastic furniture in the nearby town about 30km away. It was about 70 AUD if I recall correctly.
Canon M6 and Mitakon 35mm 0.95.
The M6 is a workhorse mirrorless APS-C. Itās actually the size of an old prosumer film SLR - current dSLRs are huge. The magic is in the Mitakon lens. I donāt know enough about optics to say learned things about the history of optical formulas. It is a very fast lens that softens wide open and handles point light sources very well. Finally, the Canon has an 1/8" stereo audio in jack.
My video production process is:
2TR out from my mixer into the M6, video set to VGA, Mitakon somewhere between 0.95 and f/2.0, press play, press play on the sequencer, press stop, done.
I suspect that both the ritual aspect of publishing a track in the form of a short video and the likes and views from whichever sharing or social media service is popular encourage me to finish things.
Edit: Two things have happened since I bought the Mitakon lens - prices have gone up, and several other 35mm 0.95s have entered the market. Five years ago, if you wanted a lens that fast you had to spend $11k on a Leica Noctilux plus an additional $5k+ on a Leica body.
Itās the OP-Z for me. Itās so direct and easy to a) come up with ideas and b) screw with them until you have something really interesting.
I like how itās all-in-one, including separate keys for the sequencer, and for playing the notes.
The step components let you add a generative element to any track, and the key combos for things like pattern length or switching sounds/samples make it really fast. The Elektron sequencers could pick up a few tips here.
I just wish it was easier to track into Ableton. TE Overbridge would be cool, but given how weird the OP-Z app is, maybe not. Recently Iāve started recording it into the Octatrack. Maybe thatās the answer.
(Pro tip: For me, the very tightest, easiest, and fastest way to get stems from the OP-Z has been Beatmaker 3 on iPad. Solid).