Posts Tagged ‘Ableton’
Lets Write a Song Together
Lets Write a Song Together
*(Video progress reports below)*
I’m really excited about this new idea that came to me & I think some of you will find this to be fun as well. This is going to be the most interactive song I’ve attempted to date. I’m really interested to see how many of you participate. Your job will be to upload loops to me within the loose boundaries I specify. Then I will take those loops & build the ones I like into a song.
I plan to ustream my sessions live to take suggestions & comments. For those who can’t make it live, I will be posting the progress of our song until it’s completed. I’ll also share the uploaded loops with everyone so you all can have a go!
So this is going to be how it works:
We will make the song in the key of C Minor
If you aren’t sure about what notes make up a C Minor,
Ableton has a C Minor preset under the midi Scale effect
which will put anything you play in the correct key. Or you
can go here:
http://www.pianoworld.com/fun/vpc/piano_chords.htm
The tempo will be 125 BPM
The time signature will be 4/4 (feel free to use triplets though)
You will create a loop no smaller than 1 bar & no bigger than 32 bars
You can send as many loops as you’d like, but make sure each loop is only 1 instrument
You can create drums, bass, pads, effects, guitar, melodies, Vocals or anything you like
You can also send home recorded samples or field recordings
Files must be rendered as audio & sent in 320 mp3, wav or aif formats
Give each loop file a name followed by your name so you can be credited.
(Realize you are sharing your loops with me & the rest of the community license free)
Use Dropsend.com or SendSpace to send me the loops to MusicSoftwareTraining@gmail.com
I’d like to start this process on December 1st, so try to get me your loops & samples by that time. Once I start receiving loops I’ll begin constructing a song live at my Ustream channel and posting my progress at my Soundcloud page. I can’t guarantee I’ll use your loop, but if it works in my tune, it’s in. You’ll be welcome to leave comments during the process and make suggestions.
Lastly, I’ll share all the loops with my readers including any I make myself so you can go and create your own mix & share it with us. I’d be very interested to listen to everyone’s different results from the same source files.
Here are some of the important links you might want to bookmark:
http://www.pianoworld.com/fun/vpc/piano_chords.htm
Progress Report Videos
Let’s do some Music Making!
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above). All your feedback & support is appreciated.
Interested in Learning Logic or Reason?
I recommend the sites below:
Logic Courses
Reason Courses
The most important habit for finishing songs
The most important habit for finishing songs
I’ve written a number of blogs with my tips for finishing songs in the past & if you haven’t read any of them I suggest you go through my blog archives.
Today I want to make it so straight forward & so simple that there is really no way to misunderstand this tip. We have all used this habit to some extent but we don’t realize what we are missing when songs aren’t getting done any more.
Maybe you feel you’ve got pretty good studio habits & you are regularly taking time out of your schedule to make writing songs a priority. That is great. If you are there, you are better than most of us, however, how many songs have you finished?
If you are like me, you have a huge pile of unfinished work. They all started off good but you ran into a glitch. Something wasn’t working or you didn’t know where to go next. Now there it sits, a never ending 16 bar loop. Don’t worry, I’ve got a huge stack too.
I’ve found 1 magic bullet that works every time (unless you spontaneously combust in the process). It might not be pretty, but the road to success rarely is.
Pick 1
Ok, so here is where you get to make a choice. You have a bunch of unfinished work on your hard drive & you have an idea brewing in your head. Figure out which idea should take priority & get to work. Creative multitasking rarely works & in most cases will keep you from getting anything completed. Think about it. What have you accomplished that didn’t require you to prioritize, focus & work at until it’s done?
I know your argument. “What if this song just isn’t working?”
Tough shit. You chose it. You finish it. Maybe it will be great & maybe it will suck. Your job is to do the best you can and then let it go. This is a new habit you’re building & I’m sure you are quite aware that when you try something new, you are going to suck at it. Although doing your best is a concern, the actual outcome shouldn’t be. Here’s why…
What you are doing now is not “cranking out hits”… yet. You are building a habit of going up against one frustration after another and getting yourself over the hurdle each time. As you do this process over and over your brain will better be able to problem solve because you will have more experience at dealing with it. Do this 10 or 20 times & you’ll probably find that what previously was a problem is no longer an issue. Of course as you get better, you will likely give yourself new challenges to face. That’s fine, because you will never return to that place you started.
Am I suggesting creative torture?
Not at all when you think about it.
What is more painful?
The frustration of getting over a hurdle or the regret of letting that hurdle beat you like it beat every other 2nd rate artist?
Chip away at the mountain
I’m not suggesting that you lock yourself in a room & don’t eat until you are done with your masterpiece. What I am suggesting is that you choose your song wisely & take your focus away from every other unfinished idea you have. They can wait. Work on this song consistantly. Set aside just 5 minutes everyday. Most of the time if you can get yourself started, you’ll have the momentum you need to keep going for a while. Perhaps if you can get your 5 minutes done you can commit to another 15 minutes without distraction. No Facebook or Twitter, just working on your music. Remind yourself that you can take a break or stop after the 15 minutes is up, or you can recommit to another 15 minutes.
Try to do this everyday. Start with 5 minutes & go from there. If you feel the need to look up techniques, tell yourself you can do it after you’ve put in the time you’ve committed to.
The first song might take you a week, or a month. It doesn’t matter. The time would have passed anyway, only now, you’ll have a finished piece of work to show for it. It might not be perfect, but nothing ever is. Learn from it and you’ll find the next song goes a little faster, & the one after that, even faster.
Doing it publicly
I’ll be putting this to work myself & sharing the results. It would be a good idea to publicly share that you’ll be finishing a new song. This way you’re friends will hold you accountable and give extra motivation to getting it done. If your finished results aren’t to your full satisfaction, you can always label your finished song as a “demo”. If you would like, you can sign up for the forums to share your progress, ask questions or get help with certain obstacles you face.
As always, I hope this helps you accomplish more & improve on skills you need work on. There is no easy way to get good at completing songs, so you might as well choose that first song and get started right away.
Happy music making,
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above).All your feedback & support is appreciated!
Interview with William Rauscher (Night Plane, CCC)
Interview with William Rauscher (Night Plane, CCC)
I’ve decided recently to start doing some interviews with artists & musicians who I personally like & respect. My goal is to get into the brains of these people & find their creative approach. In my opinion, understanding how a person thinks creatively is much more important than learning a production technique alone. There will always be new techniques to explore (and I will certainly share plenty more) but approaching things from a “mindset” point of view seems that it would give more long term benefits and also deter the “copycat”approach forcing people to find their own creative way.
My first interview is with William Rauscher, who I originally came across through his fantastic remix of a band called Warpaint, which as of this writing is about to be released on Warpaints label Rough Trade (probably best known for signing The Smiths). As I dove deeper into his body of work, I really connected with his psychedelic vibe. He has a solo project he works on under the name Night Plane as well as a group effort under the name CCC. Both have a strong sense of who they are and what they are attempting to invoke in the listener. Links are both below and throughout the interview. I highly recommend giving the linked songs a listen to get a better idea of what we are discussing. His songs are made on a PC in Ableton.
Originally this interview was recorded as video screen sharing but was unfortunately lost due to a rendering error. Thankfully he was kind enough to answer some of the main topics in text format. Below is that interview. Enjoy!
1. You have great warm sub bass in your songs. I’d love you to walk me through how you’re getting these results.
A lot of credit for that goes to Hector, the CCC Roland Juno 106. All the hardware in our studio is named – there’s also Jojo the Jomox 888 and the two 707s, Selena and Esteban. For subby warmth Hector’s hard to beat, especially if you only use his sub and turn everything else down.
2.You have a certain way of cutting up vocals & layering vocals that creates a very dreamy vibe. How do you like to approach vocals when working on a new song?
I like approaching the human voice as an instrument. I’ll usually try to find a brief loop first that can function almost like a chant in the background, that can fade in and out in a sort of ghostly manner, and then build on that. On my remix of Warpaint, I first made a very filtered-out vocal loop that is off-time, it’s like two and a third bars or something, so that when it plays over the percussion it sounds extra trippy, like you’re spiraling down a rabbit hole. It’s also good to pair off different phrases that can form a kind of call-and-response effect when they’re placed next to one another. On “Parallel Lines” I composed the vocal line so that it repeats certain words or phrases to make the whole sentence more rhythmic, so I had Eric and Heather sing the vocals as if they had already been cut-up. Lyrics are important to me: they should appear to be indicating something universal but in an oblique way, so that anyone can project their own interpretation on them – I wish there were more songs about geometric shapes – I composed “Parallel Lines” in part because I liked “ target=”_blank”>Parallelograms” by Linda Perhacs so much.
3. What elements do you feel are necessary for a great club track?
The great thing about club music is that once you pay a certain price by obeying certain strict rules, you can do whatever you want. That functionality is very liberating. As long as your track is of a certain length, a certain speed, and has certain frequencies in it, you can do whatever you want, it can be composed of any sound in the universe. In CCC we adhere to the Law of 32: intros and outros must be 32 bars, because that’s about the amount of time that a DJ needs to mix from one track to the next. A great club track only needs what’s absolutely necessary. In general, the more elements I can remove from my tracks, the better they get. Pacing is everything: remember that a club audience will hear your track in a certain state of distraction. It’s not a concert where everyone is listening in rapt attention – they’re zoned out, dancing, talking with friends, so the music should be way more repetitive than something designed for home listening. I know that might sound like a bit of a no-brainer but it bears repeating.
4. Talk bit about the CCC collective and how that came about.
CCC is three of us, three Austin Texas boys to be exact – JM, Harry and me. It’s a multimedia project, so in addition to releasing records we’re in the process of printing a 100-page art journal about psychedelic drugs called On Acid: A Field Guide to Altered States. The performance division of CCC is myself and DJ Harry Bennett. Harry is the in-house decks captain and house music vet. JM is the designer and creative consultant. We’ve all known each other forever. JM and I met in physics class in the tenth grade, when he threatened to kick my ass if I didn’t stop playing this piece of shit acoustic guitar. I was fifteen and I was really into Beck. Later we became friends and nerded out over The Orb. We met Harry because he was living with Todd Ledford (owner of Olde English Spelling Bee label) at the time and we were using Ledford’s basement to record hours and hours and hours of drone music. CCC considers itself as continuing the work of groups like the KLF and Psychic TV: issuing mysterious transmissions, operating on the level of conceptual pop art, projecting an esoteric aura, treating the artistic process as an occult process. Every artwork is a religion of one person. “Vibrations” is probably the clearest case of sonic propaganda from CCC, as it’s composed as an aural equivalent to the brainwashing scenes from movies like A Clockwork Orange and The Parallax View.
5. What type of habits & mindset have you found important in building yourself from a complete nobody with no songs or DJ gigs under your belt to where you find yourself now?
You have to maintain a balance between listening to everybody’s feedback and believing in yourself. Everyone’s feedback is valid but in each case you should remember who you’re talking to – a fan, a promoter, a friend or a fellow DJ – everybody’s going to hear something different, which is fascinating. Everyone’s opinion is valid but nobody’s is the gospel truth. I was fortunate enough that after I interviewed Wolf and Lamb for Resident Advisor I became friends with them and Soul Clap who were extremely supportive of my work and instrumental in getting it to a larger audience. When “Str8 2 Ur Heart” got attention it taught me the importance of finding an overlap between what I liked doing
and what other people wanted to hear, and that in order to communicate with others through sound I was going to have to seriously streamline my compositions. I could keep doing dense, baroque explorations of sound if I wanted but that wasn’t going to flip many people’s wigs. When making deals I believe it’s important to be gracious but firm: courtesy and politesse are invaluable, but one should refrain from being obsequious. Standing your ground is a key to earning respect. Lastly, don’t look down on others for being opportunistic: the only way to get ahead is to ask for what you want. Also, if people don’t get what you’re about, fuck ‘em. Fuck ‘em but in a nice way. Keep your head down and keep refining your work until it is impossible for people to ignore you – everyone respects good work and eventually the people who are supposed to hear your music will find you.
6. What are some of the things that put you in an inspired & creative mood? How do you motivate yourself when you just aren’t feeling it?
If you’re a creative person you have to decide whether your projects are going to be inspiration-driven or labor-driven. Don’t succumb to the myth that inspiration only arrives like a gossamer angel that possesses you. I motivate myself because I treat my work like work, not like a fun-time hobby just to blow off steam. Turn on your gear and go to work – inspiration will come. It’s a variation on Pascal, who says “kneel down, move your lips in prayer, and you will believe.” Also useful are any kind of pre-work rituals that can get you in the mood and help to symbolize the transition into the special headspace you need, that headspace that’s somehow disconnected from the rest of the world. Weed can be good for this – not that you need weed or other drugs to be creative, but their effects can produce that feeling of transition into an altered zone where you are mentally free.
7. Since unfinished ideas get you nowhere, what are some of your shortcuts to getting your songs across the finishing line. Have you built “go to” kits or templates to get you moving?
I have a personal library of loops because I’ve taken every track I’ve done and broken it down into little parts, this is an immense time-saver, even if the loops are used only for scratch placement. I don’t really know shit about soft synths, I wish I did. I try to know where I am in the creative process: am I in jamming-out mode? Am I in editing mode? Am I working on the middle of the track, the “peak,” or is this just the intro? On several occasions I’ve found myself releasing that the outro should in fact be the main part of the song – I wish I could compose an album that was just an hourlong outro.
8. What is your musical background? What bands have inspired you most?
I started playing piano when I was six and for a few years my mom was my piano teacher, she was a gifted singer and pianist and definitely responsible for putting that inspiration in my life. When I was a teenager and in college I listened to a lot of experimental music, high brow like Stockhausen but also low-brow like The Dead C and Sun City Girls. I was greatly inspired by drone-y sixties minimalism like Lamonte Young and Terry Riley and musique concrete like Pierre Henry. I think listening to all that stuff taught me to focus on the materiality of sound, and to cultivate an experimental attitude.
If you are a nerdy boy who plays piano and likes science fiction, like I was, then you will eventually discover electronic music. I’m always impressed with how inhuman electronic music can sound, and yet everyone wants to party to it. It comes from the future, it goes on forever, and it encourages revelry and ecstatic trances: what else do you want? I still am basically a rock person and the rock I like is all fairly trance-y – that strain of Velvet Underground, Spacemen 3, The Stooges, and so on.
9. You seem to juggle a number of projects. How are you able to keep everything in order without dropping the ball on quality work?
I love collaborating because it’s a way to get out of yourself and your own petty ego. At the same time I’m grateful I have Night Plane where I’m totally in charge of it. If you’re doing multiple projects, division of labor is important – make sure you’re not doing the same job all the time or you’ll get burnt out, and have a clear sense of what each project is offering to you and what you can offer back to it. After working solo on Night Plane for a while it was really weird to actually have to express my ideas in language when
working with CCC! Totally different experience.
10. What are some of your favorite tools when creating music?
Hmmm I use Albino softsynth all the time basically, and Izotope Ozone, which is
indispensable for mastering. I have a library of analog drum machine samples that I
put through Reason which is extremely helpful. I love finding weird ways of vocoding
things.
______________________
Shared links:
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/12129-parallel-lines/
http://soundcloud.com/williamrauscher/night-plane-live-from-the
- we recently compiled all the CCC indie rock edits – we’re currently working on a future
release called the Liberty Lunch EP which will feature house covers of indie tracks like
Gold Soundz by Pavement and Gigantic by the Pixies. It’s named after the rock club in
Austin where Harry used to spin between acts.
_________________________________
I’d like to thank William for his thoughtful and detailed answers. I hope you got as much out of this as I did. Until next time… Happy music making!
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above).All your feedback & support is appreciated!
Put your Brain to work
Put your Brain to work
Your brain is a powerful thing. You hear this all the time but you forget just how amazing it is. Everything that has ever been accomplished has started as an idea or a problem to solve in the brain. Before I go off on a complete tangent I wanted to share some new ideas to boost your creativity.
I was talking to a friend who is awaiting confirmation on a release of one of his tracks on Richie Hawtin’s Minus label (fingers crossed). We’ve talked a few times about our approaches to music & productivity in general & we tend to both shy away from getting overly technical in our conversation. Instead we discussed training your brain for creativity & finishing what we’ve started as 2 of the most important skills to develop.
This friend of mine (who I may introduce to you in a later blog), has zero equipment besides his Mac. No outboard gear, no controllers. Just Ableton Live, Operator, 1 or 2 other synths…… and his brain. Imagine that, a guy with minimal equipment making minimal tracks 
This proves that you could make and release quality music without having to buy all kinds of equipment, but that’s another blog….
So instead of talking about how he makes his songs specifically, I want to share with you his creative approach. He is already a successful guy in a non-music industry, so he uses his idea generating & problem solving skills from one industry to the next. Ever notice that some people are successful in most everything they touch? I think there is something to the way these people think.
This is the simple approach:
1. Have a notepad & recorder with you at ALL times. For many of us, we have this all in our iPhone. When you make an intention to record your ideas, your brain tends to give you more ideas. The more you take notes, write down lyric ideas, mixing & structuring ideas or melodies, the more your brain will feed you. I tend to use iPhone’s notepad & email the note to myself. I use an ap called Record for all my melodic & rythmatic ideas as well as field recordings. I also keep a notepad available to write things down. Usually when I’m making lists. It doesn’t really matter what you use. It’s more important to just try it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
2. Treat your brain like a well respected & trusted employee. Your brain is really only limited to what you feel it’s capable of. Put it to the test. My approach is to throw a creative or technical problem at it to solve before you go to sleep. You’ll be surprised how often you come up with solutions by morning or within a couple days. I’d suggest starting small, just so you build a bit of confidence but once you get the hang of it, you can give it bigger & bigger tasks. Before you go to sleep, create a picture in your mind of the problem you’re facing solved & then let it go. When you sleep, you tap into some serious resources that simply aren’t available in your waking life.
3. Dream Log: Although this is completely not neccesary, I do my best to remember & write down my dreams, even if they seem irrelevant. The reason I do this, is that it trains your brain to tap into your dream state resources while you’re awake. I think that is the point where fresh new ideas flow the best.
I could probably go on and on with more tips related to these 3 but I’d prefer to stop right there and let you put these to use asap. I’d love to hear your results as well as ways you use to put your brain to work!
Happy music making,
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above).All your feedback & support is appreciated!
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