music - tm

"Aye-aye-aye (2012 Mix)" [mp3 removed -- a further revised version is on Bandcamp]

Another redo of a 2005 track, with a techno house flavor. Was recording MIDI drum patterns from an Electribe groovebox and using them to trigger unrelated ROMpler sample kits -- pretty sure that's how this one was done. (The pattern might also have been a Battery demo.) Using MIDI note transposition in Cubase I could test how the pattern sounded with different configurations of drums or even playing virtual keys in softsynths.
In this one the pattern is triggering a Battery kit and three FM7 softsynth patches. One of the latter is making the weird vocal "I" or "aye" (or "ice") sound.
The original mix beat one or two ideas to death for three minutes. I shortened the song and included dropouts and one or two more ideas!
This is still going to be really harsh at high volume - the samples don't take this MIDI shotgunning well - but it purrs along adequately as a quiet piece.

"Cryptkicker 2" [mp3 removed -- a revised version is on Bandcamp]

Another tune using those modular-synth-modified kick drum samples I've been working with (7 clips in all, mostly just single drumbeats), this time loaded into the Reaktor Krypt granular sample player. It's interesting how many different timbres and weirdly-stretched notes can be wrung out of such limited material when you can grab "grains" from any combination of wav files, mash them, and add real-time effects.
Krypt has an in-built sequencer and I wrote six tracks with sixteen steps each - most of those tracks only have one or two note-triggers per each set of sixteen, so this is extremely simple - I am just unmuting and muting the tracks. Again, some extra drum hits were added.

"Kick Variations (Deadly Hiphop Kick Squad)" [mp3 remixed and posted on bandcamp]

Another piece using the samples of modular-synth-processed electronic kick drum sounds I recorded in "Kick Variations." (Some drums were added but otherwise it's all repurposed kicks.)
This is minimal electro bedroom chamber music, with the word "hiphop" inserted in the title for added relevance.

"Mighty Saw" [mp3 removed]

Some of the modular synth-generated percussive sounds from "Kick Variations" were trimmed down to individual hits for playing at different pitches in a software sampler. Those are the mallet-like tones that come in about halfway through. The heavier synth leads (sort of like wonky regressed to the '80s) are Linplug Alpha softsynth patches -- the second one I concocted using 3 LFOs to make that trilling sound. Rock and roll.

"Mouse Party (2012 Mix)" [mp3 removed]

Here is some hiphop... Not really, it's more minimal electro funk that I made 7 years ago when I was just getting started in the bedroom producer biz. I removed the original a few weeks ago because it was getting pestered by mp3 bots. This mix is barely altered - just some extra cymbals at the end. Dark, gritty - as Neflix would say.