what is going on in your musical life

i work on songs so slowly now that i'm generally working on one song (at the most) at a time. what that means is that from inception until completion, i have that one song in my head most of the time. like a persistent earworm that lasts for a week or two (or longer). not a humblebrag "man my songs are SO catchy!" just the process of thinking about this one song and playing it/recording it/listening to it over and over, while rewarding, can also be very annoying.

I've been feeling increasingly frustrated with Ableton and my current setup. My main gripe is that I spend too much time pointing and clicking and trying to scroll through endless menus of sounds, while I'd rather feel like I'm playing an instrument. I do like some of Ableton's instruments, especially Operator, Wavetable, and Collision, but even with those, it seems like you have to jump through endless hoops to get an acceptable sound. By the time I get there, my enthusiasm is just not enough to get anything completed.

So I'm trying to figure out how to revamp my setup to be more user friendly, get me away from the mouse, and feel like I'm actually jamming. My current setup includes one of the original Akai APC40s and a generic 49 key midi keyboard. I think I could probably replace both of those with something like the Novation Launchkey 25 and free up tons of real estate on my desk without losing much functionality, but I don't know if that would add much either. Would this be a worthwhile change? Does anyone on here have experience with the Novation keyboards?

Once I do that, what then? I've pondered looking into analog synth rigs and drum machines, and just bailing on Ableton instruments for the most part, but I'm not convinced that's necessary or worth the cost and time to learn. Are there other steps I could take to build a more intuitive and interactive experience?

I'm not an Ableton user but what's really helped me in REAPER is having track templates for basic synth/piano/organ/DI guitar/drum machine. That way I can insert a template, play what I want immediately with the minimum of configuration, and then go back and change the sound later.
Even though I'm not much of a keyboard player, I wouldn't swap a 49 key controller for a 25 key one. My current keyboard is also 49 keys, and I've got it under my desk with two A4 file boxes under each end. So not ergonomic at all but I can bring it forward enough to play it and push the keyboard back out of the way the rest of the time. Depending on your desk you might be able to retrofit a sliding keyboard shelf. I've considered doing this but a combination of laziness and being fairly tall (I'd probably be hitting my knees on it) has put me off.

The thing about the keyboard is that I'm not really much of a piano player. I use it only to either dink out little melodies or bang out drum patterns.

Anyway, after all this bellyaching, I started digging into lots of Push 2 videos on YouTube, and realized it does most of the things I'm looking for: it's fairly compact, can be used as drum machine and keyboard, can lookup patches and effects, edit samples, tweak parameters clearly, etc. So I snapped one up on ebay that is supposedly in mint condition. Guess we'll find out soon enough!

re: Ableton workflow

I've been really enjoying the All You Need is Live YouTube channel, his focus is mainly on Techno, but he does many tutorials about how to use racks to streamline your workflow that I think would apply to any type of music. Here's a couple that I'm planning to try out, the comments have links to download the racks.

This shows how to build a master drum rack that holds all your favorite samples for each common drum voice (kick, snare, hats, etc), which you can than very quickly swap in and out with the turn of a knob.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuPHTaG_4LE

This shows you how to build a rack for Operator that randomly generates new cool sounding patches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElMcWEy2xLY

Thanks, those look super useful!

If you've got the money I'd strongly recommend getting a Push for Ableton. Making music using that is so much easier and more fun than using the mouse and keyboard.

https://www.ableton.com/en/push/

Can confirm, even after a couple days, it feels like a massive improvement.

glad to hear :) besides the audio interface, Push is the only hardware i fw anymore

I've started doing a kind of bluegrass guitar crash course. Not sure why this particular bug bit me right now, but (1) it's kind of well suited to learning with a jazz background (some similarities to bebop phrasings), (2) at least theoretically, I like the idea that it will give me a repertoire of tunes that I can expect others to know if I go to a jam, so there's a communal aspect, and (3) relatedly, since it's acoustic, it's not a huge pain in the ass to jam. All that said, of course, the bluegrass jam opportunities in Westchester Cty NY are a bit limited compared to, like, West Virginia or Ashville NC or whatever. But I'm taking some lessons online with a bluegrass guy, learning a bunch of fiddle tunes, and it's a lot of fun.

I woke up this morning to find out that a choir in Australia did an arrangement of Rain In Soho at a Fringe Festival this year:

Love this! You might meet someone who's lost like you https://t.co/OjuAiSxJLS @mountain_goats

— kath norx (@kafnorx) August 9, 2021

last few practices i thought “wow, i can play decently on my electronic kit at home but i suck ass on a real kit, i’m so tired after like two songs.” eventually realized, after kinda hurting myself that second practice, that i was playing too hard. spent the last two weeks recalibrating and played the best practice ever this afternoon. felt good

which parts were hurting after the second practice?

mostly my forearms to my wrists were kinda tired + achey for a while

I played my first show since Jan 2020 this week! Venue required temp checks, vax cards, and masks and people actually came out. Felt great & our ~ 20 hrs of rehearsing paid off. I kept my head on straight even when my ride cymbal took a leap and knocked over bass player’s beer. Woops!

Playing music is the light of my life tbh 💕

That's great, I've been on a real journey with my technique this year (right hand, which is my weak hand even though it's my lead hand usually). The good thing is your body will always tell you when something is forced or unsustainable.

What's been really good lately is that I took a small practice pad to the office since wfm is over, a little Evans RealFeel one with much less bounce than my home pad. Because I don't want to annoy anyone too much or be obnoxious, I'm playing verrrrry quietly. And I know if I can get everything feeling relaxed and fast AND very quiet, well, that's that shit.

xp <3

I went to my first ever bluegrass jam yesterday on the UWS in manhattan - it was very sweet, disproportionately over 60 crowd, all levels. Nice bunch of people, much more enjoyable than playing blues rock with neighborhood dads. I'm totally ready at this point in my life for the kind of jams where you just show up with an acoustic instrument and play, no amps, no pedals, no dialing in settings, no feedback or noise issues, no ear pain, no awkwardness over what to play because there's a common repertoire of tunes.

Felt surprisingly comfortable playing breaks - I've been shedding the stuff, and coming from a jazz background helps me pick it up more quickly.

So, I had always wanted to host a house show and I finally said fuck it and did. My backyard has a kind of natural amphitheater overlooking the patio (terraces with retaining walls) and somehow in two weeks I managed to get an incredible bluegrass band to play, got a PA and lighting together and got a ton of people to show up. It was really fun and I want to do it again.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CTvkPc_sJWS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Oh man that's great. Outdoor shows are so energizing--have only been to a few this summer, but I played one a few weeks ago and it was astoundingly gratifying and lovely

Holy shazbot...I got a single recorded wit a new group in the Ville. Ole' Earl just needs to finish getting his mix together and get it Mr. Saff to finish it before sending it off into the world, but depending on schedule, probably will be out in October or so.

tryna make a prog house classic. please enjoy my cringe-y spoken-word ramblings, idk if anybody will hear this elsewhere, probably not: https://soundcloud.com/808mixtapes/reiko/s-wfo0zuTcgZU

I enjoyed it! Seemed to be right in the groove.

davey I idk how things work in the proper house world, but that's very well done and def sounds like something that should be getting played out, you should send it around.

I've been sending tracks to one of my fave DJs for awhile now, and finally got one signed! He had really good explicit feedback too, which is so hard to find.

feedback can be super scarce... anyway, thanks, you two! and congrats to you, Jordan, all y'all in the thread who have been finishing work and getting stuff signed ٩( ᐛ )و

I now have about 25 bluegrass fiddle tunes that I can play on guitar, and I'm getting pretty decent at pickin'
https://www.instagram.com/thefriendsofcoal/

Meanwhile, I had an interesting family music discovery, i.e. that the Chicago Museum of History has a whole trove of photographs of my grandmother and her folk duo as well as (!) studio recordings of them. Until a couple weeks ago I had no idea such recordings had been made and had only seen one photo of her duo. More in these posts (the photo in the first link is the only one I had seen before):
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUB2gMzs4ca/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUG7W5AsOv7/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUH9HTvl33f/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

That is some cool.

I'm in touch with people at the museum and it sounds like they will give me a digital copy of the recordings at some point - they are still trying to determine the best way to do it I guess. Will def post when I get them.

I recently found out my great-grandfather was co-composer of the song “Love Sends a Little Gift of Roses,” which I *googles* see had versions by John McCormack, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey & the Andrews Sisters *phew* and many lesser luminaries. It doesn’t appear to have done much for the family coffers, tho, and it certainly isn’t opening any doors for me in the Biz.

I guess I’ll be on the lookout for copies in the 78 bins for curiosity’s sake.

Stoked to hear your grandmother’s recordings! That’s a pretty exciting thing. And with an Ink Spot — man, that’s rubbing elbows with royalty!

I was honored to be asked to contibute vocals to a couple tracks on my good friend's new djent prog/metal album coming out next year. Not my usual style, but we've worked together before (I was in my last band with him).

I'm finding I am hitting more of a wall than ususal. Ive done about 3 completely different takes/melody ideas so far and none of them feel right. I'm not usually this perfectionist but its also been a long time since I last did any vox with real practice.

Is it common to do a load of diff versions before one comes up with one they like? Should I just send all of em to him and let him pick? haha why is this so hard.

Oh also I am learning I have NO IDEA how to mix/produce vocals. Ive just been applying a light EQ with dropped middle freq (read somewhere thats how R Guthrie does Fraser), very light big room reverb and delay, and it is ok but.... a bit too sibilant/trebly esp when listening on worse speakers. Ugh I have no idea what im doing.

Hi Trayce,

Yes, IME it's pretty normal for a lead vocal part to go thru at least a few iterations before a final version is chosen. And that's just part of the writing process, before you're even concerned with particulars of the recording and mixing.

If sibilance is a problem, then you probably need a de-esser in the vocal channel, and perhaps another before the reverb (assuming the reverb is on its own aux channel).

I could go on and on about vocal production, but will instead refer you to the professionals. This is a lot of info but it has served me well:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/how-make-your-vocals-twice-good-part-1
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/how-make-your-vocals-twice-good-part-2
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/how-engineers-get-vocals-sit-right-mix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iUxRE-mdfk

Stoked to hear your grandmother’s recordings! That’s a pretty exciting thing. And with an Ink Spot — man, that’s rubbing elbows with royalty!

― "The Pus/Worm" by The Smiths (hardcore dilettante), Wednesday, 29 September 2021 04:16 (eight hours ago) link

Me too! Although tbc, it would probably be an exaggeration to call George "an Ink Spot." I was told he played guitar with them, not sure if he recorded with them or just performed with them. I haven't found much associating his name with the group. He does have a credit on a Sam Cooke recording though, and on a couple of gospel records.

Thanks for those tips/vids Davey!

We are going into Studio A at Hyde St Studios in a couple weeks for a full week to record a new LP. Taking the week off. Can’t WAIT!

whoa, that sounds exciting! a full week!

of course, days 1-5 of that week will be the excess of the recording musician, the coke binge, sleeping with everyone, the fight over the phone with the suits. but days 6-7, you gotta lock it down

lol yeah more like they are going to spend like 2 days feverishly dialing in a drum sound before I even get to play a note.

my first ever release came out today on Wave Machine's launch compilation.

https://www.beatport.com/release/launch-compilation/3514421

(issa bootleg so get it while it's hot, heh.)

Sounds fucking great! Bought.

thank you!! that's much appreciated :) :)

Congrats! Is this where I admit I've never bought anything off Beatport?

Beatport is my backup when something isn't on Bandcamp

Bandcamp is more my jam, too. i think this release is exclusive on that platform for another week or so, then goes out to a wider distribution

(hurrr, by that platform I mean Beatport)

It was kind of doing my head in to follow up the track I mentioned above, since it fell together really naturally and trying to make similar tracks felt forced. Turns out the label wants to just put it out as a single, which is probably for the best since I'm hitting a wall, but a single feels weird to me, I'd love a b-side at least.

Also they encouraged me to flesh out some of the parts with some harmonies, which I ended up really loving, but they want to go back to the original stripped-down version for the release, lol. This is based on club testing so I trust them, but I'll miss those harmonies.

this is a problem I've run into as well, I made stuff that I really liked, but didn't really know how it all came together. When I've tried to follow a more structured process, it doesn't grab or excite me the same way.

Right? It's mysterious how some ideas/sounds/techniques will provide enough juice for an album, or two tracks, and others are just one-offs. Or none-offs.

But recently I've been talking with writer friends who start to lose it during the editing process because they hate having their words changed or cut down. And I usually say that's the bargain, work with somebody else for their platform, or put it out yourself exactly as you want it for (probably) a much smaller audience. And secretly I almost always thinking the edited version is an improvement, as painful as it is. So, I guess I should listen to my own advice!

I hosted my first bluegrass jam today (open to anyone, all levels) -- got a bunch of people through meetup and through local bluegrass circles. My favorite thing about it was that the people who showed up easily ranged from in their 30s to 70s, and there are very few intergenerational activities in modern america.

Very cool, man alive.