I usually start simple. Most of the tracks I've done recently have
started in 3 ways. Either with a drum pattern or specific melody or a crazy
amount of sound design that inspires me in some form or another (This one
usually happens after sitting in front of generator for a day or 2). All of
the different seed ideas usually end up getting worked into songs the same
way though:
I'll start by setting it up as a 4 bar loop with a variation on the
final bar(so I can keep my place without looking at the rm1x). I use the
internal drum sounds to make it quick. From here ill start play over it to
see if I can get anything interesting to pop out. If so I usually end up
recording a 32 bar phrase in overdub. from here I can usually split out 2
eight bar loops that work pretty well with each other. I repeat this process
for a while until I beef up the track sufficiently. All of the melodies are
done on external gear (usually the sy99 which I spend a lot of free time
just making wacky ass FM instruments with). I save my A3k for rhythm and
sometimes some weird pads (this weekends track consisted of a looped and
tuned choral pad sampled off of a Tallis scholars CD). Once I have a couple
of sections ill go in and start copy entire sections and phrase to a
different section. form here ill edit the new phrase to create some subtle
(usually to subtle) difference in the section). Ill also at this point start
to swap out the internal sounds I used to sketch out the song for A3000
samples. Ill build an intro section out of the phrases I have (I usually end
up with around 40 phrases per track).
Then comes the fun part. I basically start to do mixes with the
song. recording each them straight into the computer as a stereo file (this
limits the 'now I need to mess with it per track' in Soundforge' urges I
sometimes get). I usually do at least 3 or 4 per day and edit and tweak the
midi info and sound design between each take. Alot of messing with the
peavey to get sweeps and real-time sample loop craziness. Ill mp3 these and
listen to them all week at work to figure out what I want to change, making
those subtle changes not so subtle, mixing one instrument a bit softer. I
repeat this process 2 or 3 times (I've been doing about a track a month
since I got the rm1x, which for me is insane). gradually building up a good
understanding of how I've set things up on the rm1x and what real-time stuff
sounds best in the song. getting different ideas from each take and
incorporating them into the next take. I never mix down in the computer
environment. Its all a live take. after about 3 weeks worth of sound and
song design I not only have a comprehensive 'sketchbook' of takes that I can
grab samples from for latter use, and use to map the process to make it
better, but I also have a semi final (no 2 takes are the same even if all
the sound design is set in concrete) track that i send out to friends and
label mates. This seems to work very well for me. 2 caveats though:
1. I wish i still had my mac with logic on it. There are things i desperatly
want to do to the midi stream (not the least of which would be recording
each take as a straight midi file and saving that with its audio
counterpart). Im coming closer and closer to breaking down and buying Logic
for the PC so i can have access to this stuff.
2. Composing like this (and live gigging) have definetly shown me not only
some of the advatages to owning this machine, but some of the insane design
flaws. Dont get me wrong i Love the rm1x dearly but i truly cant understand
some of the decisions made. like the beat change knob not synching to
anything except for a retrigger of the phrase . Whats up with that? If i
ever use beat change live i have to not only time the knob twist almost
perfectly but i also have to hover over the << button on the transport
control and nail this on the first part of the first bar in my phrase to get
beat change to line up. Just save us some trouble and let us drop it in in
the edit list. In fact not being able to drop alot of the realtime control
into the edit list has defeintly limted some tof the usefullness of the box.
I wish i had 8 arms but i dont so I'll just have to deal.
