great, great post. thanks a lot.
where can we find some of your music (you mentioned 'label mates.')
do you know anything about the esi-32? i can't afford the a3k.
scott
----------------------------------
Scott Kellogg [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Kiva Networking Technical Support
337-5070 or 1-800-819-8143
----------------------------------
On Mon, 6 Dec 1999, Matthew Allen wrote:
> 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.
>
