Grant
November 15, 2015
Supplementary Post: Studio View
A little look at the current www.trackaday.net studio.
The laptop is solely for admin duties at the moment; uploading to SoundCloud and YouTube, posting to the blog through WordPress (none of these is working consistently on the iPad at the moment), helping clear space on the iPad my transferring and cataloguing to the external drive (this bit is more intended than actual) etc.
All music making and recording so far has been done on the iPad and/or the iPhones.
All videos too.
The notebook is indispensable, it is my working diary; I log my progress each day and record what has happened. I often return to files recoded earlier and this reminds what I’ve done when. I also jot down thoughts, notes, musings, and lyric ideas as they arise. And yes I use the highlighters daily too 🙂
I don’t have studio monitors or even proper headphones, they are on my list. As is a multichannel audio interface; I do have the iRig Pro for single channel recording but it’s been causing me grief so it’s in the doghouse.
Things I do have that haven’t seen much use lately but which I may incorporate: an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, a MicroBrute, a PolyEvolver, a 49 key midi controller, a mike, guitar pedals and modeller, Logic 8, Ableton Live, and a Maschine.
Also soon to arrive from Australia; my favourite bass and my mandolin.
Plenty to be going on with 🙂
Grant
November 15, 2015
Day 81: Sunday 15 Nov 2015
Yet Another Miss Understanding:
Beatscape.
This track began in Patterning, a simple and slow beat at 60 bpm which I recorded into AudioShare with AUFX:Space and Dedalus. I then recorded three variations using different drum kits. All four were imported to Auria and mixed and arranged.
I then took a portion of this mix into TwistedWave to edit, and then looped in with AUFX:Dub occasionally adding a little of it’s dubby magic.
Next I went to Poseidon for a drone with a (very) little harmonic movement; and for that high sound; and that almost overheard but unintelligible vocalish thing.
The Video:
Filmed the iPad screen with the iPhone using ProCamera, filmed the two of them with another iPhone, mixed the clips in Pinnacle Pro, and ran them through CinemaFXV a couple of times.
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 13, 2015
Day 79: Friday 13 Nov 2015
The Purpose:
A Beatscape with vocals.
I’m not singing today so you can relax. Just speaking some lines over a beatscape 🙂
iMaschine 2 was released today so I began by making a simple beat; to feel my way into the app. I then effected that with Dedalus and Reverb FDN, added it to Auria and added two tracks of Poseidon for weird droney madness. Finally I wrote some words and added them straight into a track in Auria with a little inbuilt reverb. Oh and I forgot iSem for the simple baseline.
The Video:
I made a quick film of the timeline in Auria, just by holding my iPhone up to the screen for a minute or so, using ProCamera. Then effected that a few times in CinemaFXV, combined all of those in Pinnacle Pro as Pinnacle Studio is now called, ran it through Generate twice with different effects, blended those in Vjay, blended the result with an earlier version, again in Vjay, and ran it once more through CinemaFXV.
Grant
November 12, 2015
Day 78: Thursday 12 Nov 2015
On Your Way:
There’s drums…there’s droney soundscapey stuff…oh and I’m ‘singing’ again…
I began this track in Auria by recording a Patterning beat, a drone from Addictive Synth, and then singing this old lyric. It needed more so I added another Patterning drumbeat. Still not happy I added 4 tracks of Poseidon drones that I had made last night and this morning.
I then added Sector and Reverb FDN to AudioShare‘s recorder and imported the file of my singing into Sector. I recorded a few takes but only liked a few bits, so I cut them out and added them to Auria. I also cut out one line of the vocal, slowed it and pitched it down a fifth in TwistedWave, and added it.
Now for a very important part of my workflow, I gave it to my Wonderful Wife for a trial listening…and after her comments I removed the Addictive Synth drone entirely and thinned out the others; thus opening up some breathing space. Big improvement!
I hope you like it.
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
November 10, 2015
Day 76: Tuesday 10 Nov 2015
My Love (For Lene):
I’m singing acappella on this one. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
A love declaration for my wife.
I began by singing straight into the iPad, recording in AudioShare. Then I processed it through Turnado for a little glitching. Both files were then added to Auria and I recorded an arpeggio patch that I made yesterday in Addictive Synth. Next I turned to DM1 where I made a very simple beat at the same bpm as the arpeggio, looped it in AudioShare with Reverb FDN and AUFX:Dub and added it in the mix. Lots of arranging followed till you get what you get 🙂
Grant
November 9, 2015
Day 75: Monday 9 Nov 2015
Three Friends Arguing While Dancing The Tarantella:
A Beatscape. Lighthearted fun and quirky. Not something you get from me everyday 🙂
Like Day 66, this is the result of throwing some different beats and timings together and seeing what happens.
I began with DFX an interesting effects app that hasn’t seen much action lately as I haven’t been able to get it to work in AudioShare for a while.
Still no go…even after deleting and reinstalling, butI found that I could import from iTunes so I loaded in a drum file from an old playlist I have there (unfortunately it’s from last year before I began keeping a work diary so I have no idea what app I used to make it), and processed it. Next I loaded another beat, this time from a pack I downloaded (again it’s so long ago I’ve lost the details), and processed that differently.
Without paying attention to beats per minute, or feel, I threw them at each other in Auria. It kind of worked but it felt like an argument; one was quirky and fun, the other aggressive and bossy.
For some reason I was reminded of a file I made a while ago using Dedalus, AnalogKit, and Turnado; which I had cut up into pieces.
I found it and loaded one piece into Auria and tried to arrange the three so it made some sense. This file seemed to be the friend who was trying to reconcile the other two and then got caught up in the argument 🙂
I wish I could do animations (it’s on my list ok!) because I can just visualise how it would be.
Peace Out
Grant
November 8, 2015
Day 74: Sunday 8 Nov 2015
Introducing Dr Reverb E.R. & The Nation:
A Soundscape.
I was lucky enough (thank you Stuart) to pick up a promo code for Reverb – Feedback Delay Network from Amazing Noises today, and given that one of my favourite apps Dedalus is from the same company I was keen to jump straight in and give it a go. I was not disappointed.
I immediately loaded a drumbeat that I made last year (I can’t remember what app I used this was before I started keeping a work diary) and played with it, within a half an hour I had four jams that I loved. I took the third of these and used AudioShare to add a little AUFX:Dub here and there.
Then I took the recording I made yesterday in TC11 and loaded that into Reverb FDN for a little reverb loving and a little slowing down. Finally I loaded them both into Auria for arranging and mixing.
The Video:
I downloaded VidBlend last night and used it here, along with Pinnacle Studio, Generate, CinemaFXV and Vjay.
Grant
November 7, 2015
Day 73: Saturday 6 Nov 2015
Programmed To..
An Ambient Soundscape. (I think)
Sunrizer, Dedalus, Emo Chorus, FLUX:FX, Konpressor, Auria, TC11, Xenon, AudioShare, Xynthsesizr, Argon, AUFX:Space, AUFX:Dub, ApeDelay.
You know it’s been a hard day when you just get a list of apps.
I’m tired…Goodnight World.