Fine Sapient Pearwood Carvings
The last track! I’m normally happy to post anything at this point in the journey and have certainly thrown some “contractual obligation” pieces up. This one, however, is one of those happy times where I not only had a decent idea, but the time and energy to actually produce it. There were a couple of days relatively early in … Continue reading
The most notable thing about this track may be that it was my third attempt for the night. I’ve done that several nights this month, but sometimes nothing’s hitting. Or it hits but fizzles almost immediately because there’s nowhere to go. But on this project, that initial sound you hear grabbed me by the neck and shook me around until I agreed that this would be the track. I mean that sound. It’s just… nasty. Ok. So we’re currently at “nasty.” What’s next. Drums, of course. Now this might have gone in an industrial direction, but I heard more of … Continue reading
I bought a new tool. Yes, I buy a lot of tools, and most of them end up gathering digital dust when the newness wears off. In this case, though, I think I may have stumbled upon something that not only isn’t available in any of my other tools, but goes so far beyond what I expect that it could fundamentally change how I write certain tracks. The tool is called Stepic, and it’s a step sequencer. Here’s where it gets fun. Step sequencers aren’t new. They go back to the very beginnings of electronic music and are, in general, … Continue reading
After a bit of faffing about, I wasn’t getting any traction and decided to pull out the “inspiration bag of tricks” box. Modern software like Scaler and other “AI” type tools has provided a lot of ways to avoid needing any sort of formal music training or theory. I have basic to intermediate theory, but most of what I do is instinctual. It’s actually very similar to my command of the English language. I learned the formal rules a long time ago, but wouldn’t be able to diagram a sentence these days. I know when grammar is correct, though, because … Continue reading
This piece started off largely as an attempt to come up with a dance, techno, or drum-and-bass type of track, which it still sort of is, but clearly pivoted mid-journey to become another visually-inpired bit of underscore. Instead of the juxtaposition of a slow, forboding piece of music against images of destruction I had in yesterday’s track, Infiltration is pretty on-the-nose, at least when you take the title as a literal description. I started this one with drums. I used a factory preset in XO, but started playing around with replacing the default sounds. In particular, I replaced a jazzy … Continue reading