A Colorful Gemstone
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Shiny and bright
Cheers up your day
A stone lost in shadows
Has made it your way.

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My (second) attempt at a live set.

So, for a long time, I’ve always asked, “Can I do anything live?” I tried a few times when I had less hardware and more software - some softsynths hooked up to a keyboard or something, but I could never get it all working together or there wouldn’t be controls for me to do what I wanted to do or something. I tried this as recently as May or so after I bought a Linnstrument and a Nord Rack, but it never ever clicked.

Then, I got a Roland TR-8. And now it’s starting to come together.

Here’s a live song. It took me many takes (consider it practice) but I eventually recorded the song live in a single take from front to back.

For those who really like music technology and setup details, here’s some notes for you:

Four tracks prewritten MIDI:

Nord Lead 2x (offbeat bass and pads)
Alesis Andromeda A6 (pads)
Dave Smith Mono Evolver keyboard (rhythmic bass)

and some patterns programmed into the drum machine.

The lead (Nord Lead 2x) I played live.

Roland TR-8 had a pattern but I also played it live.

I routed it all through Logic Studio where there are various software effects (compressors, mixing, delays, reverbs) set up in advance.

Press record and go. Remember to push the faders, turn the knobs, wiggle the Linnstrument, and rub the ribbon at the right times.

This was actually more work than I would have thought but now that it’s set up I’m actually quite thrilled.

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I did One-Hour Compo this week, but the song I made was all messed up. I was aiming to do a live recording based on a few loops set up, but it didin’t really work out well and I had mixing and technology issues. I’d like to take this and try again for WeeklyBeats, push that envelope a bit and try to get something out of a 3-4 minute live recording.

A few things to fix:

1. levels on the playback tracks
2. MIDI sync, I had problems
3. Need to add more diverse drums
4. better beat drops

Thu. Oct 13, 22:55 - 23:15. Changing the chords around and rewiring some of the instruments.

Sat. Oct 15, 11:00 - 11:15. I’m facing technology issues more than composition issues to try to learn how I can best record a live jam on my setup. Mostly dealing with stuff like MIDI timing and recording interfaces. A lot of stuff isn’t syncing well with each other.

Sun, Oct 16, 16:00 - 18:20. Starting to tweak some patches and program some patterns. This is pretty experimental for me so I’m not sure what the end result will be like. I’m hoping to get a semblance of a catchy and coherent jam that has a good crescendo, maintains listener interest, and allows me to twiddle knobs and otherwise do improvisational things.

Total time: 2h 55m

Tags: edm, live, synthesizers, trance, week 41 2016, View by:Arcana