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Won't Quit It

By miraclemiles on November 29, 2020 11:58 pm

Some instruments or tools are just easier to get into that flow state with. Ideas easily translate from the ether to the digits or the limbs, and you don't have to stop and think too much. You just ... flow. For me, that instrument is the Push. I haven't flowed with it for a few weeks. So I sat down for an hour or two and had some fun. Maybe a vague idea in the heads of mambo this or garage that, or make me dance now ... but open-minded, just waiting to see what's up there in the place songs come from. Then there's editing. It's so easy in Ableton live to turn all your raw flow material into something else entirely and to get into a flow state while editing too. So the final edit uses a lot of the material I recorded but came out different than what I originally thought. When editing I'm trying to have little moments where a few things come through, and not just having everything in at once. Shout out to Ty Dolla Sign on his episode of Song Exploder on Netflix talking about his classic "LA": he said how he wants just "little explosions" of ideas in the song, and it's fine if things only appear in one little explosion. Made up these words, haven't discovered what they mean yet. Vocals through Kaoss pad, and the talkbox synth pedal with Circuit as carrier. I recorded video of the Push and vocals sessions, going to chop that down a bit and will link here and put on the Creatures Once YouTube channel as well.

Also, most importantly: I caught up on a lot of WB music this week ... and got totally inspired by all of you. As hard has it can be to do WB, I'm going to miss it next year!


AND ... UPDATE ... here's the video I made from the Push jam I created this from. Pretty different. This is a 9-minute edit of the 1 hour session ....

I tried Ableton for the first time this week... I might even buy it, then maybe trying to find a used push... then more and more. (Or I'll just do like I did this week and use my little midi controller, it works too, but Push looks like a lot of fun.)

Workflow for looping so far looks like good fun. I am kind of pissed of that you cannot set the audio clip recordings to x bars like with the midi clips, and there is that option with the push... Anyways, fun stuff.

That inspiration goes both ways, man. Love hearing what you get up, and this track is another one full of cool ideas.

Cool percussions and bass lines. I dig the vocal samples. I like the small keyboard touch around 1:56, it's short and just delicious like this. that was quite a good track from another dimension!

Getting into the flow state really is the best.  And this thing definitely flows.  It's unclear where it's going, but it's a fun ride to be on.  I do like the concept of little explosions.  It's tempting sometimes to put everything in all at once, but sometimes cool stuff gets lost in the shuffle that way.  I hear you about the nearing end of WB.  I'm always a little relieved it's finished, but then it feels like there's a bit of a vacuum as well.  Surprisingly I feel like I've been in a good recording rhythm as the year winds down here, so I think I'm going to try to keep it going for a bit in 2021, even though it isn't the same without all the awesome tracks from everyone else to help inspire you.

This was a fun jam to listen to.  The beat def makes ya want to get up and dance about.  The extra percussion was a nice touch especially with that solo piano in the middle. 

I love the Push but haven't used mine in a bit!  Thanks for the reminder.  It is great to just add instrument after instrument.  Love that about it.

djippy wrote:

I tried Ableton for the first time this week... I might even buy it, then maybe trying to find a used push... then more and more. (Or I'll just do like I did this week and use my little midi controller, it works too, but Push looks like a lot of fun.)

Workflow for looping so far looks like good fun. I am kind of pissed of that you cannot set the audio clip recordings to x bars like with the midi clips, and there is that option with the push... Anyways, fun stuff.

Fun indeed. A wise person may have once said the best gear is the gear ya got right now, but Live and Push are pretty great. I thought you could do that with audio clips, but I guess I usually just record then loop after recording, not set fixed length. The Looper device may do that. Now I want to go play with that. Push has a fixed length button to set the length of recording, but not sure I ever use that with audio. I just added video of my Push jam up above.

hent03 wrote:

That inspiration goes both ways, man. Love hearing what you get up, and this track is another one full of cool ideas.

Thanks a lot, appreciate that. Yeah, it's some ideas in here I feel like I could pull into other tracks. I just posted the Push jam I made this from up above, and it has totally different feel, maybe another track to be made. Looking forward to checking out your song this week.

Kedbreak136 wrote:

Cool percussions and bass lines. I dig the vocal samples. I like the small keyboard touch around 1:56, it's short and just delicious like this. that was quite a good track from another dimension!

Hey thanks, glad you liked1 This is a crazier one, another dimension for sure. I did those vocals with the TC Helicon talkbox synth pedal, pretty fun so far. There's a bit of that vox biz in the jam video I just posted above. Gotta get a little crazy sometimes.


CosmicCairns wrote:

Getting into the flow state really is the best.  And this thing definitely flows.  It's unclear where it's going, but it's a fun ride to be on.  I do like the concept of little explosions.  It's tempting sometimes to put everything in all at once, but sometimes cool stuff gets lost in the shuffle that way.  I hear you about the nearing end of WB.  I'm always a little relieved it's finished, but then it feels like there's a bit of a vacuum as well.  Surprisingly I feel like I've been in a good recording rhythm as the year winds down here, so I think I'm going to try to keep it going for a bit in 2021, even though it isn't the same without all the awesome tracks from everyone else to help inspire you.

Flow is the best. Just an hour here or there is just what the doctor ordered. Just posted a vid above where was tapping and flowing along. I think my edit, is rather different, doesn't capture the flow as much, but maybe. Yeah, it sure is tempting to put everything in, the art of editing and choosing just the right stuff is something to practice for years. I think your latest tracks have been awesome, hope you carry into 2021, hope I can hear your stuff somewhere too!

Tone Matrix wrote:

This was a fun jam to listen to.  The beat def makes ya want to get up and dance about.  The extra percussion was a nice touch especially with that solo piano in the middle.

Hey thanks much, glad it was fun, and felt a bit danceable beat too Just posted vid above of the original jam I made this from, it's almost more danceable. I can't resist more percs all the time!

orangedrink wrote:

I love the Push but haven't used mine in a bit!  Thanks for the reminder.  It is great to just add instrument after instrument.  Love that about it.

Yes! That's it, adding more and more layers quickly with some many different sound options. Almost too many options?! Just posted the jam I made this from up above, lots of switching from sound to sound for sure. When they make a standalone Push, I'm gonna explode.

Nice, I like that idea of little explosions, always fun vocals, reminds me a bit of a local group here in Edmonton, called “shout out out out”, one of the guys opened a brewery/pub by my house with great beer, added bonus one of the brews features a great graphic of a modular synth on the can.  Will be weird not to have WB soon, until then let’s keep it going!

Jason Nijjer wrote:

Nice, I like that idea of little explosions, always fun vocals, reminds me a bit of a local group here in Edmonton, called “shout out out out”, one of the guys opened a brewery/pub by my house with great beer, added bonus one of the brews features a great graphic of a modular synth on the can.  Will be weird not to have WB soon, until then let’s keep it going!

That's awesome, good local beer and music can't be beat! Raise a glass to keep on going!

hundreds of cool inspiring ideas and fragments, mingled together to big collage. That`s what I hear. oldschool and futuristic at the same time.

Really cool percussion in here.

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