Archive for the Beatscape category
Grant
May 27, 2016
Day 273: Friday 27 May 2016
One Hundred:
Another pure Beatscape like yesterday’s, nothing but drum apps.
Also like yesterday’s this one uses three beats from three apps. Today it’s Attack, DM1, and DM2. Assembled as usual in Auria, with a little assistance from Dedalus, ApeDelay, and FLUX:FX.
Grant
May 27, 2016
Day 272: Thursday 26 May 2016
100:
A Beatscsape, nothing but drum apps.
DrumJam, Diode-108, and iSpark.
I did a little experiment: I made a beat in each of my drum apps at 100 bpm without otherwise trying to match them, then brought them together to see what would match and how. The beats from the above three seemed to go together and I was able to construct this track from them but the ones from DM1, DM2, Attack, ElasticDrums, and Patterning didn’t fit. I may yet be able to use those in related projects.
I didn’t use my more groove box sort of apps like iMaschine, BeatMaker, iMPC Pro, iElectribe, and Alchemy all of which I tend to use as drum machines with extentions, and three of which (BeatMaker, iElectribe and iMPC) I haven’t used enough to be fluent with.
I also tried to use Different Drummer, DrumPerfect, and Gumdrops but realized that I had no idea how to use them. Manual and YouTube trips required there I’m afraid.
As you can see I am a fan of drum apps (there are several that I don’t own yet) but I was surprised at how many I don’t use much or at all. Each one has slightly, or massively, different approaches and can give different results and I really want to be able to use them all to see what they can bring to my tracks.
On a related note doing this blog has made me realise that I don’t really use synths all that much. Drum apps and Grain Synthesis apps have become my main go to instruments for constructing the sort of sounds that I like. Subtractive synths in particular aren’t getting much of a look in. That wasn’t a conscious choice but it’s an interesting thing to discover.
Grant
May 25, 2016
Day 271: Weds 25 May 2016
Grace:
Today we have a Beatscape with Spoken Word.
I enjoy the tracks where I include some voice; whether it be Trudi or myself, whether it be spoken or sung, or maybe even without understandable words but merely denoting a recognisable human presence.
Three things hold me back from doing this more often: Firstly I find writing words difficult, they don’t always come when needed. Secondly I don’t have a great voice and am reluctant to use it (hence Trudi). Thirdly I’m lazy and can’t always find the energy to set up a mike etc, go into another room on another floor so that my poor family doesn’t have to suffer, and struggle with my own fears of inadequacy and foolishness.
Tracks often seem whole without a vocal of course but today I really felt this needed something and fortunately something came to me; just a little text (or possibly poem) of four lines it’s true, but it took as long as the rest of the track to get it sounding this right. I think it could do with a bit more fine tuning but hey I told you I was lazy. Also it’s called ‘Track A Day’ not ‘Track Whenever The Damn Words Are Good Enough Which Might Be Never’.
Anyway I constructed this in the car while waiting for my son’s exam to finish, so the vocal is just recorded through the headphones inbuilt mike. The rest of the beatscape was made using LaunchPad, iSpark, and Patterning. Assembled in Auria and flavoured with Dedalus and ApeFilter.
I hope you enjoy.
Grant
May 24, 2016
Day 270: Tuesday 24 May 2016
Lost (The Longer):
Another Beatscape today, I’m really digging these at the moment.
A dark and forbidding, post apocalyptic track using Gadget which I simply jammed into AudioShare with Dedalus.
Grant
May 23, 2016
Day 269: Monday 23 May 2016
From Whence Does Pleasure Derive:
A Beatscape made from iMaschine 2 and Alchemy.
Both apps have four tracks which can either be drums or keyboards with samples; in iMaschine I used 4 drum tracks and in Alchemy 3 drum tracks and one bass synth. I made them one after the other at the same bpm, recorded them both to AudioShare with Dedalus and ApeFilter, then arranged them together in Auria.
Grant
May 21, 2016
Day 267: Saturday 21 May 2016
Deceptively Simple:
Beatscape.
iMaschine is my main instrument here (drum kits in all 4 parts as is often my way), with a little appearance from iElectribe and DM2. So it’s all drum machines today.
Effects used were Dedalus and AUFX:Dub. Auria helped put it all together.
Grant
May 20, 2016
Day 266: Friday 20 May 2016
Giving Birth In A Car Park (To The Melodious Sound Of Jackhammers And Cranes):
A slightly strange, quirky little Beatscape.
I had no idea how this would turn out but I guess that’s true of everything that I do.
I began by trying to figure out DM2 a little more (which I did), recorded the ‘song’ from there into AudioShare with FLUX:FX and Emo Chorus, put that into Auria, combined it with a few Poseidon arps and a recording of me saying ‘huh’, and that was about it 🙂
It took all day (between doing family and life stuff) and gives an unexpected result. But I’m quite happy with that.
Grant
May 19, 2016
Day 265: Thursday 19 May 2016
Cheesy Drummer Travels Far And Wide, Finds Himself (Fancy That):
A gentle piece of Electronica today.
Made with a combination of Keezy Drummer (a little beat that I made on my iPhone while walking the dog), DM2 (yes it came out today and I had to give it a run), Addictive Synth (re-using an arpeggio from last year with a different sound and speed, but don’t tell anyone), and Auria. With a little help from AudioShare, Dedalus, ApeFilter, AltiSpace, and Caramel.
Grant
May 18, 2016
Day 264: Weds 18 May 2016
Moments Like These:
Ambient Beatscape.
I began today with an ambient jam in Shoom. There are three sound engines with 2 oscillators each plus noise. It’s great fun to start from scratch, designing the first sound and moving on to the others, designing them to fit, then jamming a track into AudioShare (in this case with Dedalus and ApeFilter).
I then moved on to Diode-108 which I enjoy very much but haven’t used in a while, altering slightly the beat that loaded, recording it through the same AudioShare effect chain plus Caramel, then repeating three times with different sounds.
Next I loaded everything into Auria for arranging.
Finally I turned to Poseidon for a little arpeggio action that I could throw into the mix.
I hope that you enjoy the result.
Peace Out Tracklings.
Grant
May 17, 2016
Day 263: Tuesday 17 May 2016
Holographic Deities Unite In Distain For Wetware Mortals; Trouble Ensues:
Pure Beatscape, nothing but drum machine.
Yes I seem to be in the mood for simplicity at the moment.
Gadget provided the sounds, I used just one instance of each of the drum or drum-like modules: London, Amsterdam, and Tokyo. Exported the result to AudioShare where I effected it with Dedalus, ApeDelay (my new favourite combination), and Caramel. Imported both to Auria for layering and arranging. Cut out a couple of hits for a breakdown in the middle. Bingo.