Weeklybeats is a 52 week long music project in which artists compose and publicly release 1 song a week for the entire year.
Starting January 1st 2024 GMT each participant will have one week to upload one finished composition. Any style of music or selection of instruments are welcomed and encouraged. Sign up or Login to get started or check our FAQ for any help or questions you may have.

WeeklyBeats.com / Music / laguna's music / Databank lounge

Databank lounge

By laguna on January 16, 2022 11:38 pm

Hey, WB Family? Is it Week 2 deadline again ?!?

Thanks a lot for the positive comments on my previous track. It's been a busy yet satisfying week for me.

I recieved my "refresh" COVID vaccine shot early in the Monday morning, and returned home from duty, then started to feel funny late in the afternoon, and was completely out of order by Tuesday sad

Fortunately, I was back on my feet on Wednesday, digging deep into old and forgotten plugins. I did not manage my time very well so weekend arrived with a lot of setup/software/studio work done but not a single bar of music.

In my quest to rescue and revalue old hardware instead of lusting for new gear, I spent most of 2021 fitting a comfortable place in the studio for old computers like a 2004 Mac Mini (PowerPC based). The skeleton of this track was made with my original and never ever used copy of Presonus' Studio One Artist. My machine is pretty underpowered for it... or the software is a big resource hog because the same computer runs Reason flawlessly. Anyway, I enjoyed browsing around the old DAW and render some basic stems for future use.

So, this Sunday morning I imported the audio tracks on Reaper running on Linux and tried to do something very dry, without using any of my familiar tools. I know it does not even have a decent bassline, but I'm somewhat satisfied because I managed to make a complete (yet truly basic) track on Linux from start to finish. I'm using stock plugins and Dexed for the bell-like lead.

Just 70 minutes before the deadline I was learning "how to make FX Sends on Reaper"... Not my best timing, but I think I'm enjoying it as my second DAW of choice (well, Renoise is there, also)

Do you use more than one DAW, or prefer to focus on just one workflow?

Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Share Alike (BY-SA)

The beat is really cool - I love the snare sound. It has this laid back feel, I could picture a Charly Watts figure relaxed and shuffling this. The electric piano lines work very well with that.

Take care with the vaccine! Still better than covid itself though - i think you had caught it back in 2020 though, correct? Stay safe.

DAW wise, I use only FL Studio but my workflow is all over the place. ADHD at the x power.

Those booster vaccines completely take you out. Gonna have to get mine soon! The beat is satisfying to the ears and the echoey synth is enough to create a vibe! I would love to use more than one DAW and have done in the past, but it becomes a big mental block somehow, just the simple exporting of stems and moving to another DAW  really wrecks my creative process. I do intend to revisit LMMS this year and move some of my beloved sounds on there into Logic.

Kedbreak136 wrote:

The beat is really cool - I love the snare sound. It has this laid back feel, I could picture a Charly Watts figure relaxed and shuffling this. The electric piano lines work very well with that.

Take care with the vaccine! Still better than covid itself though - i think you had caught it back in 2020 though, correct? Stay safe.

DAW wise, I use only FL Studio but my workflow is all over the place. ADHD at the x power.

Thank you for diggin' the beat and the Charly Watts mental image... The original sketch was made on a stuttering machine and those basic chords were the most basic tonal skeletal I managed to get out of it,

Yeah, good memory! I was sick back in September 2020, and fortunately, COVID hangover was strong but went as fast as it came. You too, stay healthy and creative smile

I've just doodled with FL Studio back in the "Fruity Loop" days, so like 20 years ago. The software seems quite powerful and some folds here extract pure gold out of it. Those "Pizzicatto Five" vibes on your first track... I somehow imagined you with some Akais and a copy of Cubase on the Atari, 90s style.

Abludo wrote:

Those booster vaccines completely take you out. Gonna have to get mine soon! The beat is satisfying to the ears and the echoey synth is enough to create a vibe! I would love to use more than one DAW and have done in the past, but it becomes a big mental block somehow, just the simple exporting of stems and moving to another DAW  really wrecks my creative process. I do intend to revisit LMMS this year and move some of my beloved sounds on there into Logic.

Good luck with your shot! Maybe you pass it without a sneeze ...

I'd love to add some bass, but I really started everything last day, so no time to mess around with such an important element in a DAW I hardly control. However, Reaper seems to be heavily configurable so I'll try to mimic most of my Ableton shortcuts and color schemes. It seems doable, at least.

I'm starting to mess around with an old copy of Logic 7 running on said Mac Mini. It is sometimes refreshing to "doodle" something in a different DAW, just browsing around while discovering the interface.

I remember your LMMS years and the quality you managed to extract from such software. How was your migration process to Logic?

laguna wrote:


Good luck with your shot! Maybe you pass it without a sneeze ...

I'd love to add some bass, but I really started everything last day, so no time to mess around with such an important element in a DAW I hardly control. However, Reaper seems to be heavily configurable so I'll try to mimic most of my Ableton shortcuts and color schemes. It seems doable, at least.

I'm starting to mess around with an old copy of Logic 7 running on said Mac Mini. It is sometimes refreshing to "doodle" something in a different DAW, just browsing around while discovering the interface.

I remember your LMMS years and the quality you managed to extract from such software. How was your migration process to Logic?

It’s great to see where your creative flow goes with different DAWs. I have to say it took about 3 years to fully get comfortable in Logic, and I do miss LMMS. If the Mac OS version was stable enough I think I’d use it more, but being a Mac user I have to use boot camp and restart my whole system to use LMMS, and that’s enough to discourage me. The main reason I’ve stuck with Logic is the ability to record, my songs are about 70% recorded nowadays. Planning to make some dnb for LMMS’ yearly competition tho! I also bought Ableton Live Suite and I hope to give that a go too! I got quite into Max for Live during my degree. Good luck with your Reaper endeavours! 

Abludo wrote:

It’s great to see where your creative flow goes with different DAWs. I have to say it took about 3 years to fully get comfortable in Logic, and I do miss LMMS. If the Mac OS version was stable enough I think I’d use it more, but being a Mac user I have to use boot camp and restart my whole system to use LMMS, and that’s enough to discourage me. The main reason I’ve stuck with Logic is the ability to record, my songs are about 70% recorded nowadays. Planning to make some dnb for LMMS’ yearly competition tho! I also bought Ableton Live Suite and I hope to give that a go too! I got quite into Max for Live during my degree. Good luck with your Reaper endeavours!

Pretty impressive journey there. Yes, I've followed your "pop" phase and obviously (to my knowledge at least) Logic s more suited to it. I'm also a Mac (and Linux) user and have been into Ableton for about 12 years now... though I've never got into M4L (but I've dabbled into its open source cousin, PureData).

I tried LMMS on Mac but felt a little bit incomplete and the Linux version is quite more stable. I hope to make my way into Reaper and wish you discover the fantastic things Ableton has to offer!

Kicking back in the databank lounge and having a refreshing cocktail while retrieving my data. Nice track laguna!!

Viiiiibes.

Sort of reminds me of Persona 3 actually. Killer!

What a cool beat. Hope you get well soon 100% and fly up in the air again.

Nice, chill beat smile Relaxing

Straight forward beat, but very well executed, always love the sound of your drums and the flow of the beat.  Interesting how everyone responds different to the shot, I have been lucky and no reaction to any of the three I have received, hope you feel better for this week.  I mostly use Ableton these days, however certain sounds or things I’m trying to achieve I will still use an old version of reason, for week 3 I did use both DAWs

ScanianWolf wrote:

Kicking back in the databank lounge and having a refreshing cocktail while retrieving my data. Nice track laguna!!

Sounds like a nice plan, Herr Varg smile Maybe it could be the soundtrack of some fancy jazzy/cyberpunk datacenter. Really glad you enjoyed this little beat

roboctopus wrote:

Viiiiibes.

Sort of reminds me of Persona 3 actually. Killer!

Thanks a lot, Roboctopus!!! I'm just discovering the Shin Megami Tensei world with Persona 4 on my PSVita, though the soundtrack and the ambience is really enjoyable. Quite a compliment!!!

Q-Rosh wrote:

What a cool beat. Hope you get well soon 100% and fly up in the air again.

Danke, mein Freund! I was completely recovered by Wednesday afternoon, though it's curious how this new shot hits.

Thanks again for the good wishes... and you also take care, working in the front line (Ambulance or Hospital ?)

Mission Crossing wrote:

Nice, chill beat smile Relaxing

Cheers Mission Crossing!!! Thanks for the compliment and the good vibes. Please enjoy

Jason Nijjer wrote:

Straight forward beat, but very well executed, always love the sound of your drums and the flow of the beat.  Interesting how everyone responds different to the shot, I have been lucky and no reaction to any of the three I have received, hope you feel better for this week.  I mostly use Ableton these days, however certain sounds or things I’m trying to achieve I will still use an old version of reason, for week 3 I did use both DAWs

Thank you for the kind words and the DAW tips, Jason!

I put a lot of effort in the drums and have been accumulating some "home-made" loops a while now, so I usually could use them as a starting point.

I keep coming back to my old copy of Reason, where I did most of my stuff in the early 2000s. I still run version 2.5 and 4.0, mainly for rescuing old projects, but recently I tried to improve my stuff within Reason since I can see now lots of mistakes I made in the early days.

[img]https://media.giphy.com/media/xT3i0MtotpgBWyzc3e/giphy.gif[img]

Jason Nijjer wrote:

Straight forward beat, but very well executed

I meant...


Emergency room hospital.

Emergency room hospital.

Super laid back groove on this one. Nice work

kick drum bass is terrific.  again you totally kill me with the pitch down at 1:17.

gimme dat BLIP HOP

okay i think i've caught up with your work!  keep it up buddy!!!

You need to login to leave a comment.
Login Sign-up