Archive for the EDM category
Grant
December 2, 2015
Day 98: Weds 2 Dec 2015
The Triumph Of Enthusiasm Over The Grey Bunny Rabbit Of Despair:
I think I may have made some sort of Electro Pop track…please forgive me (wrings hands and weeps).
My fellow perpetrators in this crime against musically were: ElasticDrums, TwistedWave, AUFX:Dub, AUFX:Space, Figure, FLUX:FX, Addictive Synth, AudioShare, Auria.
May The Gods have mercy on our souls…
Grant
November 30, 2015
Day 96: Monday 30 Nov 2015
How Come It’s So Smokey In Here Ma?:
Genre unknown. From now on if it’s got drums and bass and notes and vocals and stuff…I’m just gonna call it a Song.
I started with Arpeggist driving iMini, MitoSynth, iFretless Bass, Animoog, and Animoog For iPhone, through MiMix in AudioBus into AudioShare. That’s a lot of apps to make one little bassline, but there you go. It actually ended up as only a small part of the track.
I made a matching beat in ElasticDrums and recorded it into AudioShare before adding Dedalus and AUFX:Dub. Then I combined all three in Auria and made an arrangement.
Next I turned to Addictive Synth and added: an occasional synth stab, another occasional synth stab (with a different patch of course), two long synth crashes (slightly different and panned hard left and right) which became the intro, an arpeggiated line, and another arrpeggiated line at twice the speed.
Now it’s already a much more complicated track than I usually do; 14 apps and 9 audio tracks. My stuff is usually far simpler, not necessarily in app numbers but certainly in tracks, but some people regularly get much more complicated.
I’m confused about this. Am I too simple? Should I aim to be more complicated? Is my modus operandi of ‘making shit up as I go along’ and ‘do it, move on’ enough? Does it produce decent music?
I don’t know.
It does suit this blog I suppose 🙂
Anyway It was beginning to sound a little song like, so I decided to try some vocals. Gulp.
I wrote some words and sang them into two tracks which I panned and effected etc. I’m not sure I did a good job but what the hell…
Oh and I decided that one of the arpeggiated tracks didn’t fit so I muted that.
Thanks for listening.
Grant
November 27, 2015
Day 93: Friday 27 Nov 2015
Profit of the Bored (featuring Trudi McBoody):
Genre Unknown 🙂
Another play with my Patterning drum kit into AudioShare effected with Dedalus was the start of this track. I loaded it into Auria and added a Poseidon arp bass patch that I made the other day. Then I loaded PhaseRings into a track and jammed along.
Finally a wrote a little lyric and typed it into iSpeech TTS, imported the result to AudioShare, effected it with AltiSpace, slowed it by 80% and lowered it by 1 semitone in TwistedWave, and imported the result to Auria for arranging.
Ta Da!
Grant
November 17, 2015
Day 83: Tuesday 17 Nov 2015
Mr Black’s Rude Awakening:
I began todays track in the same way as yesterday by working with Nick Lau’s Drum TX project in AnalogKit. I programmed a variation on yesterdays beat and recorded it twice to AudioShare with AUFX:Space; each time with different settings.
Both went into Auria and were panned. The next step also echoed yesterday; I added a kick drum from Patterning for emphasis. The third step too; I added the clashy klangy preset sound that I made in Addictive Synth yesterday.
I finally moved in a new direction by programming an arpeggio in Addictive Synth and recording it twice with different presets that I had made earlier.
And last but not least I recorded myself reciting a line from the 1963 film A Comedy Of Terrors.
I had fun 🙂
Grant
November 14, 2015
Day 80: Saturday 14 Nov 2015
Plantagnet:
A beat, a bass line… something melodic.
Yo!
So I’m talkin’ iMaschine 2, Dedalus, AUFX:Space, AUFX:Dub, iSem, Poseidon.
That’s all you get!
Peace.
Out.
Grant
November 11, 2015
Day 77: Weds 11 Nov 2015
Medusa:
Oh oh more singing!
I don’i know what genre to use to describe this one. It’s got a synth arp and vocals, so in my book that makes it pop 🙂 Or Electronic Pop…or something. Give me your opinions please.
I began by playing in Addictive Synth until I came up with this arpeggio which I recorded into AudioShare with my ‘special secret sauce’ i.e. Dedalus, AUFX:Space, and AUFX:Dub, then I moved it to Auria.
Next I made a simple drum beat in DM1 at half the bpm of the arp and recorded it into AudioShare with the Secret Sauce. It seemed a little straight so I added another DM1 beat at the full bpm with just high hats that I blended in at low volume.
I still wasn’t happy with the drums so I loaded up DrumJam and recorded an African beat while hitting some snare here and there. Then I did it again with a different beat.
Okay, so far so good.
I’ve had this little lyric lying around for getting on to two decades, intending to turn it into a song; but somehow it never happened. It’s been living in my head for the last week or two, and I’ve been hoping to find a place for it. Today was the day!
I spoke and sang it straight into Auria using my headphone mike. To my ear it sounds like I’ve sung it with a slight english accent, I’m not sure why that is.
Anyhoo…enjoy 🙂
Grant
October 20, 2015
Day 55: Tuesday 20 Oct 2015
Give Me All Your Money:
I don’t know how to categorise this. Is it genre able?
I did a jam in Alchemy, just using some presets, I don’t really know how to use Alchemy, but it has some great sounds (yet another app that I need to learn). Then I added AUFX:Space and AUFX:Dub, looped it, and jammed while turning Dub on and off, and playing with the frequency slider.
Next I loaded both into Auria and used the unaffected version as an intro and outro. Then I added one of yesterdays Granular Borderlands files and cut it up and distributed it around the track.
Now I felt it needed some words or vocals so I called upon the British Female voice in iSpeech TTS. I composed a little lyric/poem/rap for her, slowed it down by 80% in TwistedWave, and added some AUFX:Space and Dub. I used both the effected and the straight versions, and again cut up and distributed them about the track to make the composition.
Grant
October 1, 2015
Day 36: Thursday 1 Oct 2015
Discombobulation:
Another Arpeggist attempt.
Arpeggist driving Addictive Synth and Cube Synth, with some Soundscaper, Diode-108, and iSpeech TTS thrown in for good measure.
The Video:
Some texture photos taken with my iPhone, plus some text from Phonto, compiled in Pinnacle Studio, run through CinemaFXV for texture.
Grant
September 30, 2015
Day 35: Weds 30 Sept 2015
A Little Piece Of Me:
Whoa. I think I accidentally made an EDM track! Well that’s what messing with with arpeggiators will do for you 😉
Yes this was day two of playing around with Arpeggist by Virsyn. As I said yesterday I’ve avoided arpeggiators and sequencers; partly because I’ve struggled to make them work in the past, and partly because I want to avoid the electronic music cliques associated with them.
Oh well.
Today I used Arpeggist to drive Addictive Synth and Cube Synth; I had no problems getting them to work together (perhaps because they are all Virsyn apps). I did run into trouble when I tried to expand things, but lets worry about that another day.
I did several jams playing with different arps and sounds in each synth. Then I took two segments that I loved and opened them in Launchpad, I added two inbuilt drum loops and jammed up a storm 🙂
Then it was into Auria so I could layer the vocals. I wrote a quick lyric and added it.
(perhaps this is the moment to say that though I’m happy with this piece, it very much feels like a rough sketch: the lyrics will get better, I can record the vocals better, and things feel a little muddy so I’m sure some time spent with EQ’s etc will benefit this track. Never mind, rough sketches are valuable too.)
Then I noticed that it was a little fast, it felt rushed,. So I went to TwistedWave and slowed it about 10%.
The Video:
Artwork from iColorama and PicFrame was modified by Pinnacle Studio and CinemaFXV, then Glitched with Glitch Wizard. That was run through CinemaFXV a few times for different looks, compiled with Pinnacle Studio along with some more artwork, and given the CinemaFXV treatment one last time.
Grant
September 29, 2015
Day 34: Tuesday 29 Sept 2015
Daleks Can Dance:
Not sure how to classify this one. Any ideas?
One of the areas missing in my musical explorations is the world of sequencers and arpeggiators. I just don’t seem to get on with them; or anything involving midi, or controlling one app with another. So today I thought I’d give it a go.
I fired up Arpeggist which I bought a few weeks ago but haven’t tried yet. I managed to set it up with Argon in AudioBus without a hitch as follows
I also added Caramel to the Argon channel, and run it all thru Dedalus.
Several jams and recordings and playing arounds ensued, bits of which I cut out and reassembled in Auria.
It didn’t turn out as I was expecting, but I went with the flow and followed where the music seemed to want to go.
The Video:
The same Modus Operandi as the last few videos. PicFrame, to Pinnacle Studio, to CinemaFXV, to PicFrame, to Pinnacle, to CinemaFXV. Oh, and Phonto for the Text.