music - tm

"Massive Spring Forward" [mp3 removed -- a newer version is available on Bandcamp]

All done in Octatrack sequencer. The main beats are an Electribe Rmk II riff sampled, sliced, and reorganized. The basses and synths are .wav files I've been recycling in recent tracks, with speed and length settings altered (or not) and some added effects.

Loosely inspired by the mod tracker techno I've been listening to. The Octatrack is hardware but certain aspects of its design are very tracker-like, particularly the "arranger," which has a list view of patterns that is paged down at whatever tempo you set (in this case 172 bpm). Also these samples, massaged as much as they are, are not exactly artifact-free. The piquant hint of cement mixer rumble can be heard at high volume but most of the tunes I'm doing I listen to fairly quietly.

The hyperactive synth solo at the end wasn't working for me until I added a sample with three notes -- these triplets are played at superhuman speed and are sort of arpeggio-like. The synth snippet was taken from Reaktor's Oki Computer 2 and reminds me of an 8-Bit sax.

"Grow a Brain 2 (2013 Remix)" [mp3 removed -- this track is now on Bandcamp]

A short drum and bassy track from '07 got an overhaul: tweaks to the bassline and some piano chords over the top. There is a story arc, too: the chords get prettier as the bass becomes more manic.

Update, Mar. '13: Reposted - forgot to add the metadata.

"Double Carbon (Hardware)" [mp3 removed]

This track "slices" and re-orders drum hits in a previously recorded Richard Devine Reaktor Sinebeats patch. Other beats were then added.

Pedagogical techno? -- none of those mystifying effects chains, everything as up front as possible.

Tradeoffs working with a hardware sequencer vs computer sequencer (or at least my computer sequencer):

Hardware:

1. No mouse (it's all buttons, knobs and key commands)
2. Gives you the ability to quickly and intuitively:
--add effects to single notes or drum hits,
--build a groove (with up to 8 channels)
--timestretch and beatslice

Computer:

1. Effects tracks for each track; more or less unlimited tracks
2. Easier to:
--move tracks around and visualize how they are layered
--record and trim samples (as opposed to slicing)
--mix track levels
--integrate other sampled material

Addendum to the above comparison: Writing tunes in the MIDI piano roll is about as equally painful as writing them with step keys. But the piano roll is graphically superior to the list views and key-by-key pitch adjustment you are stuck with if you use step keys. Hence, in conclusion, hardware is better for beats and grooves and software trumps the beatbox for any kind of sophisticated tunesmithing.

"Nanowaving" [mp3 removed]

Subtracted the Mazemod beats from "Maze Moderne," leaving tracks of unaccompanied percussion. Then added melody lines with synth, piano, and bass (organ) that sort of worked around those existing drum hits. This led to some shuffling and restructuring. New things I learned: how to change microtiming of sequencer steps and how to change samples for individual steps using "sample locks."

"Maze Moderne" [mp3 moved to Bandcamp]

One minute drum solo made using a couple of beats borrowed from the Mazemod site and several of those Richard Devine Reaktor patches I recorded a few weeks back, plus miscellaneous percussion.
You can do a fair amount of sample trimming in the Octatrack groovebox but it's easier for me to process the samples elsewhere and then let the Octatrack do Ableton-like timestretching (which my version of Cubase does poorly). Thus I could insert a Devine beat here at every fourth measure and have it add bleeps and ambient melodies in sync with the 137 bpm Mazemod beats. The fun is hearing it come together.